I spent today running errands... I took a trip up to the Bodensee Center to pick up some groceries, as well as some items from XXX Lutz (their version of Bed, Bath, and Beyond), Media Markt (their version of Best Buy), and OBI (their version of Home Depot). It was around lunch time when I was doing all of this running around, so I was getting slightly hungry. So, I opted to stop at the little bakery located inside OBI to buy myself a brezel (yes, that's how they spell pretzel here). I went up to the counter and stated as clearly as possible "Ich mochte einen brezel, bitte." (I would like a pretzel, please.). The lady simply looked at me with a very puzzled expression on her face, so I simply repeated myself. She continued to look at me very puzzled. I repeated myself one more time, this time holding up one finger and pointing, with my other finger, to the pretzels... She was somehow still confused. So, I decided enough is enough, and I looked at her and said in my clearest English, "One pretzel please", while still holding up one finger and pointing at the pretzels. To which she replied, "Einen brezel" as she held up one finger. Seriously?! I said it three times in German, but the minute I said it in English, she understood?! What's that all about?? :)
She then rang me up and told me, in German, how much I owed. I didn't quite catch what she told me and I couldn't see the cash register to read what the price might be, so I was somewhat unsure of the price. Now, the sign advertises three brezels for one euro. But, since I only ordered one, I wasn't sure how much it would come to. So, I reached into my pocket and pulled out a handful of euros and handed her one. She looked at the euro, and then back at me, and started babbling something in German. I was under the assumption that I owed more than one euro, so I handed her another euro to cover the cost. She took that euro, shook her head at me, and motioned for my hand. I held my hand, with all of the coins, up to her and she started picking up all of the coins and looking at them. She ended up giving me back one euro and taking a 50 cent coin. She then proceeded to give me back 1 euro and 50 cents as change... Hmmm. In all honesty, I still don't know what I paid for my brezel exactly... I have to say, I'm still a little confused by the whole process, but I wasn't arguing with the woman.
I then went to pick up my brezel, and found that it was gone... Great! Now, you have to understand that I always try very hard to avoid alot of commotion when I go places, considering that I don't know how to communicate with people all that well. Well, once the cashier realized that I didn't have my brezel, she started questioning all of the other cashiers and customers, who in turn, became very concerned about my missing brezel... They then began asking me questions in German, to which I was unable to respond. At this point, all I wanted to do was crawl out of the bakery, and leave my brezel behind... I was so embarassed!! Needless to say, the cashier finally found my brezel and handed it to me... At which point, I turned around and hightailed it out of there! :)
Nevertheless, I got my brezel and went on my merry little way... But, the one question that has remained, is whether or not I'm going to ever feel as if I fit in around here?! :) Oh well, I guess time will tell... Well, I'm off to fix dinner before we head to the gym... Have a great day! Miss you much!
1 comment:
OMG - I would have felt exactly the same way! Doesn't it give you new sympathy for non-english speaking people in our country?
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