This is my first time traveling somewhere that I hadn't spent at least a couple months studying the language. I don't much like the feeling of being a deaf-mute. I understand a little better Dad throwing himself into learning Mandarin for his consulting trips.
Props to Deutsche Bahn for putting everything I need, as a German illiterate, to navigate the 3 train changes from Dusseldorf to Sankt Augustin on my boarding pass printout. The only hiccup was the last leg which moved me to a local train from the main tracks -- the DB lady told me I needed to go "that way" and take a "tram." I went in the direction she pointed and came to a bus stop with a large prominent sign saying that the 513 line went to Sankt Augustin. Maybe a tram was a bus. So I waited for over half an hour, but no 513 buses came. I asked the lady in the bus ticket office, and she pointed me back the way I came, and this time I found the local trains and made it to StA without further incident.
My hotel is near the einkaufpark which I assumed would be some kind of... park... that I could use as a landmark to navigate. No. It means something like "bargain mall."
Ordering food is an ordeal. My first try for dinner (German time) / lunch (body clock) was a Thai restaurant, but the workers weren't actually thai. I tried asking for "gang panang" and got a confused look. "Sprechen sie Deutsche," the man told me apologetically. I don't even know the word for sorry (looked it up: entschludigung), so I held up my hand in apology and left.
I had more luck at the Chinese buffet. It was a sad little buffet, and cost me almost $20, but at least I didn't have to read German. I did have trouble with the beverage order: I managed to communicate the "water" part, but he brought me soda water, which I loathe.
The hotel wifi (called "vlan" here, for some reason) signal does not reach my room, so I'm spending a lot of time in the lobby. I couldn't find my old GSM phone for the trip, so I'm relying on Skype to call Rachel. I found a corner in an employees-only hallway to call this morning. After a few minutes the manager, attracted perhaps by the one-sided conversation he could hear in English, poked his head in, turned on the light without comment, and left. Probably thinking "Crazy Americans" to himself.
2 comments:
Vasa ona ga[z] is almost the only German I remember (Water without gas). But I'm sure you've figured that out. I hate carbonated water as well!
lol. That is about the only German I remember too.
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