The past few days here have been pretty interesting. For those of you that don't already know, Brian and I have to move to the apartment downstairs next week. The apartment we're currently staying in is considered a "holiday flat" so it's been rented out (prior to us even signing the lease) for a couple of weeks during the summer. Originally we were going to just take vacations during that time so that we wouldn't be in the apartment, but we still would have had to move everything out and then back in. Well, the lady who lived in the apartment downstairs decided to move, so our landlords told us that they would let us stay down there so that we didn't have to keep moving... And, as kind of an incentive, they're pretty much renovating the entire apartment for us... Meaning new furniture, new floors, new light fixtures, etc... Very nice! However, the lady just moved last week, and apparently our landlords rented out this apartment starting in two weeks, which means that the apartment downstairs has to be renovated within this week... yikes! Needless to say, it's been quite chaotic around here the past few days! Furniture is coming and going, people are coming in and out to do painting and wiring, etc... Craziness!
In the meantime, I've just had one of those weeks, where things are just not going as well as one would want them to. And, when you live in a different country, and things go wrong, it's not as easy to "fix" them as it would be if I were back home... For instance, yesterday I managed to get stopped at a stop light while on a hill (which, being that I'm terrified of driving a stick shift and getting stuck in this position, I was quite nervous upon being stopped!)... Well, the light turned green, and as I took my foot off of the brake and pressed on the gas, I discovered that instead of going forward, I was going backward... uh, oh!! As I frantically searched for the brake so that I could stop, the car ended up stalling on me, and then that's when I felt a slight bump... You guessed it! I rolled back into a car... Great! At that point I was quite a basket case, being that I wasn't sure how I was going to even talk to the woman to tell her I was sorry! Fortunately for me, the woman appeared to not be bothered by this and as I'm frantically gesturing and apologizing to her in the rear view mirror, she simply smiled and waved me on... And, I didn't stop to see if she'd change her mind. I started the car right back up and gunned it all the way up the hill and out of there!! :)
In Kickboxing class at the gym, I was the only one who had no clue what the instructor was saying... Which made it quite interesting when it came to the point where he told the class to go get a mat so that we could do ab work. I stood there completely confused wondering why a mob of people was running towards me, until I turned and noticed the mats that were sitting in the corner... Ahhh! :) And then, during the ab workout, while everyone else is following along with the instructor, I'm stopping every five seconds to sit up and see what he was doing. But, the best part for me, was at the end of class where the instructor rambled on about something and then turned out the lights and everyone just laid on their mats on the floor... for what seemed like forever!! I was constantly sitting up and looking around to see what everyone else was doing, and then when I noticed two other people leaving, I thought it was ok to join in and leave with them.... Wrong!! The minute I put my mat back, he flipped on the lights and started doing more exercises... With me standing in the middle of the room... Lovely! So, to avoid further embarassment, I joined in with everyone else and finished the exercises with the rest of the class... Fun, fun!
And, today's mishap takes the cake... I went into our bank and tried to transfer money from our U.S. account into our German account. I had Brian's ATM card for the German account... I took the money out of the U.S. account and then went over to another ATM-looking machine so that I could put the money into the German account. Well, I put Brian's ATM card in, and then take out my iphone (which has a German-English translator on it) and started trying to translate all of the words that were listed on the main screen. After standing there for a few minutes, the woman who was standing next to me noticed what I was doing... She asked (in English) if I needed help. When I told her that I was trying to deposit money, she informed me that it was the wrong machine, and that I had to use the other machine... Great! After she walked away, I searched the main screen looking for the end transaction button. I finally found it and pushed it... The machine started beeping at me, and then the ATM card came out... But, as I went to grab it, the machine sucked it back in... Not good!! So, I stood there frantically pushing buttons for a few more minutes! I then tried calling Brian to see if he could help (being that the employees there don't speak English...). I tried calling, but each time I hit dial, the phone told me that the "Call Failed"... So, I kept hitting redial again and again, until ultimately my phone completely froze up... Great! So, I was stuck there with no ATM card, no phone, and no ability to communicate my problem to the employees... Things were just getting better and better! :) Fortunately for me, the same woman who had helped before, came walking back out of the bank. And, after seeing my frazzled expression, she immediately came over to help... She ended up getting the bank manager and translated for me while I explained to him my situation. Luckily he was able to get the ATM card out of the machine and he ended up just taking care of the deposit in the bank... Whew! :)
Needless to say, I'm so looking forward to the weekend!! This week has been quite interesting and I'm hoping the weekend will be a little more "easy-going"! :) Well, I'm off to fix some dinner. I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!! Miss you much!! Go Green!! :)
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You can watch it on CBSSports.com!
Go Green! Go White!
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