Woolworths

It's just great.

I strongly disagree with the woman who was standing in it, complaining "Hier gibt's nichts". Because there were wonderful things there.

I finally got some coathangers, though not great ones. I'm still hoping that one day I'll find them cheaply in Lidl's. There appears always to be a large section in the centre of Lidl's which forms their "Monument to Three Dimensional Things" - for there is no other clear relationship between the objects other than that they can all be touched and held, and possibly dropped or broken. As the Three Dimensional Things included in the monument can vary quite widely, I don't see what coathangers shouldn't make it there one day.

I also got a saucepan. And almost a frying pan, though you still can't quite cook with "almost a frying pan". But still: I'm getting closer.

Apart from that, I was outside Woolworths and reading a menu when a waitress said "Enschuldigung!" to try to get me to move of her way. Which wasn't really noteworthy, except that I moved with such elegance and grace, ending in something of a twirl, that she started laughing and didn't even complete the word. And so I thought that perhaps I should work on communicating more with my whole body. Although it hadn't been my primary intention at that time either, I don't think I have made anyone else laugh once since getting here. Perhaps that could be "my thing".

Another person asked me for directions today. This one spoke English, and may even have been from an English speaking country. I was slightly more helpful, but only slightly. Then someone else chipped in with the full set of directions so that she could actually get to where she wanted to go.
Still, if I'm going to be asked so often then I must look harmless and helpful. And in control.
Which is good. After wrecklessly handsome, it'd be my second choice way to be perceived.

If only I could keep up the facade when speaking. I think that while I'm here, I might try to become the sort of person who says few words and who always looks serious and as if their mind is on weighty matters. Then my highly limited conversational abilities becomes less apparently related to being foreign and slow witted, and instead might be attributed (by those who encounter me) to my unique grasp of the gravity of the human condition and my reluctance to enter into superficial conversations about trifling matters. I think Germans might dig that sort of thing.
I may buy myself a beret.

I have a new German mobile phone number, and I might tell you it one day if you ask. Although I'm not yet sure how useful it will be and if there is much point. The man in the shop spoke English to me, because he saw the baffled look on my face when he asked for my "Ausweis". I even would have known what an "Ausweis" was (an identity card, or my passport) - but I didn't get it initially because I didn't expect to be asked for it when buying a phone card. However, I did understand clearly and almost instantaneously when the group of boys I was with (in body, but not spirit) in McDonalds complimented a girl on her "schönen Po". So it seems I do indeed have some useful vocabulary in the front of my brain.
I think the choice of this vocabulary comes from watching a few German-language movies instead of going to German classes in the past year or two.

(To clarify, I "understood" what the words meant. I didn't necessarily understand or agree or disagree with the sentiment, because I didn't feel at liberty to look, and besides, there were two girls anyway and I wouldn't have been sure which Po was being discussed)

That said, it's now 12 hours later than when I wrote that and I'm now in an office and to be working on the programming project. Which I shall do.

Bye for now.