Holla die Waldfee...

I spent all of my cash today. I seriously have less than 3 Euros left. There was a market thing by Muenster, and I bought some gifts there. I also bought a printer at Karstadt for 50 Euros. Not cheap. There was apple juice (Apfelsaft) for 50 cents per cup and I bought some. The guy who was selling it said (in German) that one glass had no alcohol and one glass a little alcohol. I chose the one with alcohol… kind of on accident, but kind of not… (he said ‘kein Alkohol’ and ‘klein Alkohol’ and it took me a few moments to distinguish). It was good… kind of like apple cider. Ooooo! And I bought a bratwurst too. It was my first German food and it was good.

Seriously, I must just ooze American or something. I think there were only 4 people today who replied to me in German after I started talking: Apfelsaft boy, Honig man, and 2 Karstadt employees. Most people, though, either immediately spoke English to me when they saw me or immediately after I said something to them.

After spending some time on the internet at the StuSie bar and posting pictures on Facebook and updating my blog, I went back into town. When I got off the train, someone started talking to me. I looked and after some confusion, I caught on that it was the guy from the S-Bahn who had helped me on Sunday. I have to wonder if he recognized me by my shirt. I’m wearing the same one that I wore Sunday because I didn’t think I’d see anyone that I saw on Sunday. We talked for a while as we walked (all in German because, like I said in an earlier post, he speaks only French and German). I mentioned that I was looking for an ATM (Geldautomat) and he said there was one at Citibank. So we went there, but my ATM card didn’t work. He even helped me because I had told him that I had never used an ATM before. Then he said that maybe Folksbank would work, and so we went there. He even took me there. It worked there, we talked a little more, and then we parted. He was really nice and he lives in my building on the EG floor. As I continued walking, I saw an O2 store, and I went in to see about a cell phone (Handy). I talked to him in German and he responded in German. But then I was having trouble figuring out how to say what I wanted to say and so I said, “Ich spreche Englisch,” and he responded with (in German), “Yes, but we’re in Germany and so we are going to speak in German,” to which I replied, “Ja, aber ich muss denken.” He was really nice and fun. So then I bought a book to pass the time (Emma by Jane Austin) and went back to StuSie.

Dinner tonight was pasta with sauce. Yes, I cooked it myself. I had gone to Aldi a couple nights ago and bought 2 bags of pasta, one jar of sauce, and a box of rice for less than 2 Euros. So I ate that while reading Ben’s blog and random things off Mugglenet.com. After I did the dishes, I was looking at my MSN messenger and wondering what in the world Ross would be doing at noon on a Saturday and why he wasn’t online talking to me. …And then it hit me. Duh, Ross is in Ann Arbor playing his trumpet while CMU gets beat by UM. So then I went to Foxsports.com and started watching the play-by-play. Apparently there was lightning…? The last I saw it was UM 14, CMU 0.

Later this evening after my internet quit working, my phone rang. I was completely stunned that it rang. After some confused mumbling, I realized that it was Stephane from this afternoon. He asked if I wanted to go for a walk. I said ok and so we went for a walk around the lake. Then we went back to his room and watched a soccer game. It was fun. Maybe I have a friend! He was born in Cameroon. Isn’t that fun! But I think he speaks German with an accent, and so it can be especially difficult to understand him. I also saw Manuel today.