"You're American" becomes "Are you French?"

Yesterday I didn't blog, mostly because I was frustrated when I got home from class. During the day our group went on a sightseeing bus around the city. Which was lame. The earphones didn't work on the bus, so we had no way of knowing what the significance of what we passed was. Some I knew, some were obvious, but there were certain buildings and things we just looked at and thought, "huh?" After the bus tour though we had the afternoon to just meander around and visit things. I opted to go to the museum at checkpoint charlie which wasn't nearly as cool as the museum in Leipzig or the Stasi museum. It was sort of a dog and pony show honestly. But I went with people from our group, including Sam from Fargo who is quickly becoming my favorite person. I think it's a midwest thing. Also with us were Eliza from New York, named after Eliza Dolittle, Steve from Long Island, and Kyle from Boston maybe? Definitely East Coast. After the checkpoint Charlie museum Eliza and I went to Rossman, which is like a CVS, because I needed some toiletries and she needed a hairstraightner. Ugh. I didn't know what was for faces and what was soap and what was lotion and it took about 30 minutes of scanning bottles to come out with lotion, facewash, and sooap. As if the absurd amount of time wasn't frustrating enough. When Eliza tried to pay the lady said, "No master card!" and I thought "shit" beause I had no cash. So both Eliza and I had to leave, go to the ATM and then come back. It was a rush hour. Five people behind us in line rolled their eyes. I felt like an infant.

Then, not picking up on the obviously bad omen from my first shopping trip, I decided I would try going to the grocery store when I got off the S-bahn, the grocery store only being like five minutes from my house. I did ok, although German meat frustrates me because it's like, raw looking, but I think they're supposed to be cold cuts. So I don't know if I am going to be munching on raw meat or deli meat and I don't want to die of salmonella because I put raw pork on a sandwhich. What an embarassing way to die.

Soooo on the walk home I'm feeling pretty good about my abilities and I'm re-energized until I realize I am lost. Lost and carrying groceries. Lost in the cold, carrying groceries...and I have to pee more than I ever have before in my life. Great. Fucking fan-tastic. So I walk along getting loster and loster, mentally berating myself "fuck, fuck, fuck" to the rthym of my footsteps crunch in the snow. My pride would have allowed me to wander for a while before asking for directions... but my bladder was about to explode so I decided to ask a guy nearby. I asked in my best German and he said, "You're american aren't you" in English. Crushing. But ultimately he gave me directions and I found my way home. But by that time my arms were on fire and sore from the groceries. Bad day.

But then, I took a shower, relaxed a little and at 9:30 met people from the program to go out to a club. It was a lot of fun to drink with everyone and let loose a little. Also, the bartender, Christian, didn't speak any English, so I praticed my German. He loved me because I was the only one who could speak German in the group. Also, this guy was sitting alone in the bar and I kept catching his eye and he smiled so I went over and asked, "Bist du Allein?" which means, are you alone. And he said, "Nein, but you can speak English to me I'm from California. And I know the bartender" So we got to chatting and he just got here and is backpacking though Europe and he doesn't know very many people so we exchanged numbers and we're meeting tonight for drinks. Also, Christian and I continued to chat when the bar died down and he said, "Deine accent. Bist du Franzoische?" and I was like, yes! A european country. I'm getting better. Also, he wants me to come hang out with his friends sometime and I got his number too. I am epic!

Tonight I'm meeting Kaegan, the Californian from the bar and then some people frm IES at 10. It should be a great day!