Mustafa's, Die Hunde, Kirsche, Der Fisch

Ten Random Things in my life

1.       Last week I was riding on the train and there was a drunken man standing near me. The train was fairly full and all of a sudden this guy is just shouting/talking loudly about nothing. There was a girl reading across from him with headphones in and he just started shouting at her and saying, “Are you reading? What are you reading?” and going on and on. Then he turned to another woman and started shouting to her about school because she was studying. He literally went on for about 5 minutes. Everyone was staring at him with a straight face and I couldn’t help but laugh. It’s in moments like that where I want to stand up and say, “People this is funny!” I had to laugh into my scarf because otherwise who knows maybe he would start shouting at me.  

2.       My friend, Jessie, was in town for a few days and it was super refreshing. We just did random things and did life together. She volunteered with me on the streets, which was really cool because she got a better idea of what it is like. She lives in Switzerland and speaks German so we spoke German at times, but I think I realize I talk too fast in English often and it bugs me that my German can’t keep up. 

Well trained dog advertising.

         3.   We traveled for soccer and first of all, two dogs came with us on our 6 hour bus ride. I am not a big dog lover to say the least. I mean sometimes if they are super cute, but I am not one of those people that think even a dog that looks like a rat is cute. Regardless, I didn’t know dogs were allowed to travel with us. I wonder if they would let me bring a pet ferret or guinea pig? I should ask. Even though I don’t have either. Speaking of dogs. Yesterday, a man on the train was walking down the aisle trying to sell newspapers and he had his dog walking in front of him carrying the newspaper and advertising. The dog literally was trained to stop at each exit door.

         4.  So many times funny things with language happen. For instance, the word for church is Kirche und for cherry is Kirsche. I can’t do the sound that Germans make when they say “ch” so many times when I say I am going to church it sounds like I say I am going to cherry. The person always just looks at me like I have lost my mind. Tonight at dinner my teammate told me we were having “Carrots and pies” as part of the meal (in English) she told me.  I kept asking like pies as in Chicken pot pies or something. Turns out she was trying to say “Peas” the whole time and thought it was pies. I guess I know how she feels. My language teacher called me out in class and told me I say “r’s” too American in German. He made me practice ten words in front of the whole class, I was so embarrassed. I can’t roll my “r’s” and I think I may have to go back to the YouTube videos.

Team getting ready to walk on the field.
Most likely I was dog sitting somewhere

5.       I had two friends over for dinner last night and I get really nervous cooking for Germans because I want them to like it. I never want to make anything too weird, so I decided to make Chicken Parmesan. Partly because it is easy. I started cooking before and I had brought some of that premade bread that you stick in the oven and we only have one shelf so I decided I could just lay it across the pan of chicken. Bad idea. The bread fell in and got soggy in the sauce. Thankfully I saved it and then put it in after on some bake paper (not sure what we call it in the States) and when I was taking it out the paper started on fire and at the same time the noodles were boiling everywhere. I was trying to blow it out without burning myself. All in all, I could have burned the house down. I am gaining a new appreciation for cooks. You have to be so detail oriented. My logic is how ½ tsp. of something can make that big of difference so then I just don’t put it in. But I guess it does matter. 

6.       My twin friends had a little disaster trying to find my place. Both their phones had died and I don’t have my name on the bell outside or on the outside of my door because I just moved in a little white ago and it takes a bit. Regardless, they didn’t get my message of which bell to ring so they came to my place and started ringing random peoples. Eventually they got inside and started walking up every floor looking for my name, which didn’t exist. We have seven floors so it is a lot of stairs to walk. They couldn’t find it so they decided to start knocking on random doors and ask if they knew a Liz that lived there. Of course, nobody did because it is not like I know anybody’s’ name either. Finally they happened to stop on the fifth floor (mine) and knock on the girl that lives diagonal from us. They asked if she knew where a tall, American girl named Liz lives. Sure enough, this is the one girl I had rode in an elevator with and she has a crazy scary looking dog. So she said, “Oh yeah the big, American that wears sweatpants?” and told them where I live. Crazy that they happened to knock on her door. Funny thing is; I never really leave the house in sweatpants unless I am going to the grocery store quick or in our soccer gear, but I guess some things never change. All in all they showed up 45 minutes late and had a good workout in the process.

7.       I found the best döner place in Berlin with Jess. It is so good and now every time I have a visitor I am going to bring them here. Not to mention it is next to the best curry wurst stand in Berlin as well. Nothing like Berlin’s best. It is called Mustafa’s, which is another reason I like it. 

8.       I think there needs to be a tutorial on what are leggings and what are tights. I see WAY too many girls wearing what they may call “leggings” with a shirt that doesn’t cover enough. Sometimes I just want to ask if they are aware that they are exposing themselves. People! Leggings and tights are NOT the same thing. Legging vs. Tights 101 needs to take place in Germany!

9.       Most people don’t like Monday mornings. Honestly my least favorite day is Tuesday. You ask why? It is because every Tuesday morning on my way to German class walking to the train station there is a market. In the market is this big, fish stand with TONS of bulging eyed fish. It smells SO bad. I literally think they see that I walk by plugging my nose every time. Who wants to be greeted at 8 in the morning with fish smell? As you can tell, I don’t eat fish or anything that has gills for that matter. I go fishing, but I throw them back. All in all, it is miserable and Fridays is a close second because the fish stand is up then too, but at least it is Friday.

My tape that makes me looks like spider man.
It is on both sides of my leg. 

10.   My knee is still injured. This week I got the third possible diagnosis. Somewhat frustrating. The physio put this weird tape all up my leg and it looks like spider man. It is supposed to help with drainage. It is interesting seeing the cultural differences in doctors and how they treat things. I am not sure this is doing anything but I just follow the orders. Doctor appointments are always really stressful and I just want to cry because I don’t know doctor terms in German and you so badly want to communicate. Ok this blog is long. More a different day.