Thursday, July 29th, 2004
Whew! I went during lunch to wake up Matt, but knocking didn't work. So I left him an apple and a note. I realized that my classes have been so EASY. I probably could have handled a higher class if I had just reviewed first. Because everything we have done so far has been review. We had speaking exams, and I totally blanked on what I was going to talk about, so I just improvised and did fine. (I found out yesterday I got an A). I'm so sick of these bic pens! They leak all over and smear on the page and my fingers and my clothes . . . which by the way are very dirty, but I'm too hesitant to ask my hostfamily if I can do a load. After school I went to Matt's and told him the funny stories we'd read. I kept laughing during my favorite one about the schnitzel. We went to the bank and they finally told me to exchange the traveler's checks I needed my passport - I'd already signed them all! So she gave me her name and told me to come back. We got Matt a döner finally and a towel and a razor. I can't believe he got the basics in that little pack of his.
We took the bus back to my host family's house and got my stuff and we got a ride back to the bus stop. When we got to the train station to go to Amsterdam, we discovered my pass could not be validated until 6 a.m. in the morning because of the short office hours! Bah! I asked the conductor in English about my ticket, and I swear he sounded like the mean soldier who gives instructions on "Life is Beautiful" when he said, "Wir sind in Deutschland. Wir sprechen Deutsch!" So I tried to ask him in German, but I found out later from Matt's roommate that I used the wrong verb - arbeiten (to work) instead of funktionieren (to function). His answer was more like an unintelligible growl anyway. We got off the train and decided to leave on the 7:14 train the next morning. We asked the lady at the desk so many questions, because she seemed to know what was going on more than the other. (The other said the most direct line was through a country not on my pass, so Matt asked the one who is now our friend and she told us there was one with one transfer in Germany). What the?
While Matt was calling his mom, I saw one of the Utah people. She talked to me and I told her about our predicament. She was going to a movie. I really wanted something sweet to eat, so we went down to a Brazilian restaurant. Matt spoke with two waiters in Portugese and Spanish. He asked if they had guarana, and one of them gave us his own bottle of it! Then we ordered desserts and ate up, and I found it funny that Matt uses his language skills more than I do, here in Germany!