Fehler and Progress

I am happy to report that my German is definitely improving!  I went to Schloßstraße yesterday to look for Birkenstocks (finally found some, goodness gracious) and, over the course of the afternoon, managed to interact with several salespeople and communicate my needs and desires, mostly in German!  I went to Saturn, which is a big electronics store in Germany (think Best Buy), to look for smaller headphones with a microphone that I could use for Skyping, and when I was there I ran across prepaid cell phones.  It took a fair amount of time to figure out what I wanted, but a helpful salesperson who spoke some English offered her advice, but unfortunately I needed to have proof of residency to register my phone before I could buy it, and I didn't have that with me.  But Rick said if he's not working tomorrow we can go then and register the phone under his name.  I ended up just buying a headset, which I discovered does not fit into my headphone jack--I guess it's just for cell phones.  I'm not sure I'm really up for trying to take it back, but maybe in a week I'll feel more confident.  But it was oh so exciting to be able to interact with real live German people!  And have them respond in German!  One shoe store I went in to had the kind I wanted, but not in the size I needed, but the saleslady and I had a nice little conversation (about shoes, but whatever) completely in German.  It was thrilling!  Class yesterday and today was really good, too; the more comfortable I feel, the more willing I am to make mistakes (Fehler, pronounced like "failer", which is a nice bit of cognate-hood!), which means I can then be corrected and learn more.  So all good on that front!


I can't believe I've been here almost 3 weeks.  I'm glad I've still got 5 1/2 weeks left, because there's so much more I want to do!  Now that I feel a little more confident with my German, I'll be able to get more out of the museums, which I'm looking forward to.  Still not sure when I'm going to go where, but I have a very detailed Google map that I can work off of.


Ric has a job!  As a bartender in Friedrichshain, which is in East Berlin and 35 minutes or so away by subway.  He started yesterday and said it was super fun and that everyone was very nice.  Everyone went to visit him last night, but I was too sleepy.  However, I took a nap today to make sure I'm awake for it!  We're heading over at 10 or so.  He said they have wireless, though he couldn't get it to work on his iPod so I'm wary, but if it works, I will officially have a new living room!  Wifi and free drinks (eventually; for now we should probably pay--but they have a coffee machine so I can drink decaf cappuccinos and help Ric practice his coffee-making skills) and a flatscreen TV would definitely trump the tiny table in the kitchen that's my current "living room".  He said the drinks are pretty cheap but the food is more expensive; we'll see how much out of my price range it is!  

I'm going to go to the grocery store and get some baking supplies; we have no cake pan, but we do have a cookie sheet, so until I can find a cheap pan, I will stick to cookies and scones.  But yaaaaay!  Baked goods!  Yummmmm.


I'm using the internet in Ric's room to post this; if you sit in the right spot on his bed, you can get one bar of free wifi.  It's unbelievably slow, but will hopefully suffice for my immediate needs!