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Only in Germany...
Nov. 2nd, 2005 09:18 pmI’m not sure I wanna be here, but alas, it’s probably just been one of those days...
I woke up just after 5am, and despite barely 6 hours sleep, I couldn’t go back to sleep. I guess I got up with the left foot, too, considering how the morning went...
We left to take the bus into Aachen fairly early (it’s half an hour’s walk downhill to get to the bus stop) to meet up with an agent who has furnished flats for rent. It was raining slightly and much colder than yesterday, but thankfully I had the sense to take the cloaks along, so we were cosy enough. The flats we looked at were quite nice, but the agent takes 2 months’ rent as fee, and I am by no means sure I want to pay such an outrageous amount to someone who spends literally 10 minutes on showing me around, and his secretary whom he pays peanuts another 15 minutes on typing my details into a computer. I have to say, in all fairness, that two months’ rent is the norm here if you go through an agent, and also, the only way to find a furnished place at this time of year is through an agent. But never mind that.
Once we were done viewing places, Little One and I decided to walk into the town centre and pick up some bakery stuff and groceries. I got the day’s first dose of “real German” *argh*. Just about everyone commented that “Halloween is over” upon seeing two people in cloaks *sigh*. I swear if I hear anyone else making that comment I’ll hex them into next century. Or to the moon. I’ve been wearing it over a year, yet the Halloween comments only started in Germany, right from the start. I don’t care if someone tipsy comments on a “Halloween costume” when I’m leaving a pub, I don’t have a problem with that. But were all Germans pissed at 11 this morning? I think not.
On we went to the grocery store, to get the next dose. Little One asked for some cheese, but wasn’t sure which one, so we went to the cheese counter for him to choose. Some elderly female specimen (no, she is NOT a lady! And I won’t insult women by calling her that, either) felt affronted by his presence, so she pinched his cheek! The audacity! I had an eye on him and I know that his only “crime” was to look closely at the glass screen so he could read out the spelling of the different cheeses, probably to next ask me how to pronounce them, since he doesn’t speak German. So I said to her, in German, ‘we are not aware he’s done anything wrong’. And, get this, she replied that he should then apologise! So I asked, admittedly in a sarcastic tone, ‘What? He should apologise for something he is not aware of having done wrong? And besides, he does not speak German.’ Her reply was ‘that’s even worse’. So I muttered that nowadays one cannot visit this country without speaking the language, in German, and then said, in English, WHAT A *censored* RACIST. Just about everyone in front of and behind the cheese counter started complaining that her behaviour was unacceptable, and she walked off, with her tail drawn in. *Wah*. It was a clear reminder of why I left that country in the first place. So I decided it was time to return to our little retrieve here in Belgium. Thankfully, the afternoon was uneventful, the apartment is clean and tidy again, and now that I’ve had a very large dose of Phantom of the Opera music and done the cooking, I feel somewhat calmer.
The future? I don’t know where at the moment... Will have to sleep over it, then think some. Then have a holiday. ;-)
I woke up just after 5am, and despite barely 6 hours sleep, I couldn’t go back to sleep. I guess I got up with the left foot, too, considering how the morning went...
We left to take the bus into Aachen fairly early (it’s half an hour’s walk downhill to get to the bus stop) to meet up with an agent who has furnished flats for rent. It was raining slightly and much colder than yesterday, but thankfully I had the sense to take the cloaks along, so we were cosy enough. The flats we looked at were quite nice, but the agent takes 2 months’ rent as fee, and I am by no means sure I want to pay such an outrageous amount to someone who spends literally 10 minutes on showing me around, and his secretary whom he pays peanuts another 15 minutes on typing my details into a computer. I have to say, in all fairness, that two months’ rent is the norm here if you go through an agent, and also, the only way to find a furnished place at this time of year is through an agent. But never mind that.
Once we were done viewing places, Little One and I decided to walk into the town centre and pick up some bakery stuff and groceries. I got the day’s first dose of “real German” *argh*. Just about everyone commented that “Halloween is over” upon seeing two people in cloaks *sigh*. I swear if I hear anyone else making that comment I’ll hex them into next century. Or to the moon. I’ve been wearing it over a year, yet the Halloween comments only started in Germany, right from the start. I don’t care if someone tipsy comments on a “Halloween costume” when I’m leaving a pub, I don’t have a problem with that. But were all Germans pissed at 11 this morning? I think not.
On we went to the grocery store, to get the next dose. Little One asked for some cheese, but wasn’t sure which one, so we went to the cheese counter for him to choose. Some elderly female specimen (no, she is NOT a lady! And I won’t insult women by calling her that, either) felt affronted by his presence, so she pinched his cheek! The audacity! I had an eye on him and I know that his only “crime” was to look closely at the glass screen so he could read out the spelling of the different cheeses, probably to next ask me how to pronounce them, since he doesn’t speak German. So I said to her, in German, ‘we are not aware he’s done anything wrong’. And, get this, she replied that he should then apologise! So I asked, admittedly in a sarcastic tone, ‘What? He should apologise for something he is not aware of having done wrong? And besides, he does not speak German.’ Her reply was ‘that’s even worse’. So I muttered that nowadays one cannot visit this country without speaking the language, in German, and then said, in English, WHAT A *censored* RACIST. Just about everyone in front of and behind the cheese counter started complaining that her behaviour was unacceptable, and she walked off, with her tail drawn in. *Wah*. It was a clear reminder of why I left that country in the first place. So I decided it was time to return to our little retrieve here in Belgium. Thankfully, the afternoon was uneventful, the apartment is clean and tidy again, and now that I’ve had a very large dose of Phantom of the Opera music and done the cooking, I feel somewhat calmer.
The future? I don’t know where at the moment... Will have to sleep over it, then think some. Then have a holiday. ;-)
