and now life really begins...: around the city

So I have a confession to make. I broke down and bought a metro pass. I’ve been biking significantly less (although still sometimes). I just finally realized that for me biking a minimum of 14 mi every day, in a foreign city who’s roads rival DC’s in terms of their difficult navigation was too much. It wore me out to the extreme and made it harder to get other places. So I bought a metro pass and suddenly the whole city feels open to me. Last week I spent one entire day after class just roaming around and the city running different errands trying different things (such as Marzipan which is actually not bad!) and just generally enjoying the city I’m living in. I wouldn’t have been able to do it all on the bike. So I’m very glad I decided to spring for the ticket. I’ll still try to sell the bike when I leave and hopefully get the money back, so if all goes well there shouldn’t be a net loss there. :)

Since I’ve bought the pass I’ve most certainly been riding the metro more often. It usually involves me putting on my head phones and blasting show tunes for the duration of the trip, but sometimes there’s a cute baby or dog to smile and wave at. Today there were two sweet little girls sitting across from me. They were clearly on some sort of class trip (I’ve seen a few of these) and their whole group piled on the metro grabbing any available seats. I actually took out my head phones to listen to them. Young children tend to speak slower and use fewer words which means, I have a shot at understanding what they’re saying. I didn’t actually catch much, other than many “in der Schule,” “in der Schule” remarks. But finally I decided to ask one of the girls their name. They both told me and then proceeded happily to chatter on about one of the girls’ rash(??) on her arm and how tired they were. “Wir schlafen, wir schlafen,” they said with their eyes wide open but heads placed together on one of the girls back packs. It was very cute. And the whole experience confirmed what I already knew about children. You don’t actually have to know what they’re saying for them to continue talking. Lots of head nodding and smiling is more than enough encouragement. :)

It was a fun bit of practice. Speaking to children is considerably less scary since they’re 10 times less likely to be frustrated or insulted when I use improper grammar. :) I should start babysitting…!

So here are some pictures from my recent adventures:

KaDeWe American section. I was looking for pre-made pie crusts for my dirt pudding. They did not have any, and now many KaDeWe employers may think I'm crazy.