Into the Wild, Blue, Austrian Yonder

Ok, guys, this is going to be a short post because I got distracted and didn’t realize how late it was. I’ll do my best to catch up in a week or so.

Which is my first announcement: in all likelihood, this blog will be dead for the next 7-10 days. Anna and I are taking the kids to her parents’ near Austria, and I probably won’t have Internet access. However, I am taking my journal and my camera, so I will have plenty to blog about when I get back. I’ll  probably do something similar to what I did when I first started this thing and just backlog everything so it looks like I actually posted it on the day that it happened. For my sake, more than yours. :D But don’t panic if a) I disappear for a long time or b) you suddenly log on and I’ve got, like, 12 new posts up. Just a warning.

Me, Tiyana (left) and Marina (right)

Ok, so really fast, what’s happened in the two days since I blogged last? Well, on Wednesday, I came home early again to help with the bitties (Daniel’s almost better, but Elsa got something in her eye that messed her up and made it all swollen. Poor kiddo. L) and we pretty much just played with them all afternoon. 

Wednesdays (along with Saturdays) may become a day that I don’t often blog on, unless I can get it done early in the afternoon, because that’s now officially my Skype-with-the-folks evening. Unfortunately for you, my loyal readers, due to my schedule and the 7-hour time difference between Frankfurt and Missouri, I don’t usually talk to them until about 9 PM here (that’s around two in the afternoon for those of you who were reaching for the calculator). Since I’m almost always in bed by ten (except tonight, but I had a nap…) that means that by the time I get off with them, I’m ready to hit the hay and not really in the mood to blog. So… yeah. Wednesdays and Saturdays are often going to be skip-days.

Today was the second-to-last day with the Deutsch 1 course, so everyone was a bit antsy. The teacher (Marie) had a headache and I could tell that it was really hard for her to work with us today – there was no concentration at all. But it was fun, in a hectic way, and tomorrow we’re taking a half-day to go to the Kleinmarkthall for lunch together. We took a bunch of pictures with each other, and Paula (one of my classmates, who is from Italy and is an arts teacher) did a portrait of me in chalk. I love it – it’s very flattering!

Oh yeah – and the flower story. I’ll end with that tonight, I think.

Wednesday was rainy all day, but since the kids were sick and I had worked overtime, Anna let me free for an hour or so to run to the store. By the time I got there it was pouring, but I enjoyed the walk. I got my orange juice (to fend off the sickies) and some bananas, and went to pay.

I’m generally able to do quite well in shops with just a “hallo” and a “danke,” but today the clerk girl had something else to ask me. It was super noisy in the shop (just off a busy road and full of businessmen and such on their way home from work) and not only could I not understand her, I could barely hear her. The only word I caught was “blume” which is “flowers.”

With the rapier wit and intelligence I’m known for, I looked at her and said, “Huh?”

She looked at me, and kind of smiled, and said (in German) “You don’t understand me, do you.”

My brilliant reply: “What?”

She laughed, and reached down to grab a bouquet of half-wilted florist’s flowers. “Here,” she said (this time in English). “These are for you.”

“Oh.” I took the flowers. “Um. Thank you. I mean – danke shön. Um.”

The police officer behind me in line was laughing so hard he nearly dropped his pretzel.

But I got these very nice flowers, and they perked up right away when I put them in water. Now I really want to get something growing in here. I think when we get back from Austria-ish I’ll buy a few little plants and see if I can’t keep them alive.

Alright, that’s it for tonight. Later!

~Mags