3 Months!

Hello everyone!  I hope you're enjoying your Friday.  I thought I'd throw up a quick entry celebrating our third month of imposing ourselves upon the Germans.  When we first arrived we began seeing the transition from Summer to Fall.  We are now witnessing the transition into Winter.  Today we had beautiful sunny skies that five minutes later became cloudy and pouring down rain.  I went to get some Thai food for lunch and as I turned the corner at the end of our block the sky went instantly from beautiful blue to cloudy and gross.  Later we walked to the train stop and there was lightning and it was sleeting.  Brenda and I determined that was the first time we'd seen lightning since we've arrived.

When we lived in New York City I quickly figured out that an iPod was the perfect way to disappear into a different world.  Step onto a crowded subway where you are literally squished between a mob of complete strangers and your iPod will take you to some far off concert hall.  On top of that, no one wants to talk to strangers in New York so I was allowed, like most New Yorkers, to remain invisible.  An iPod doesn't have the same effect here.  It just means that strangers have to shout louder to get your attention.  And, of course, they are shouting in German.  

Since we've moved here I can recall four times that strangers have tried to get my attention while I've been attempting to remain invisible.  One such occasion was today.  As I walked home from the Thai restaurant with our tofu and fried rice, I was flagged down by a family of four.  Seeing as I had headphones in my ears they all decided to work together to get my attention.  I'd already walked past them before I realized a crowd of people was shouting at me.

I explained to them that I didn't speak much German but that was okay, they needed some brute strength.  The story as I understood it, which was relayed in somewhat broken English, was that we had to rotate this parked motorcycle 90 degrees so that it wouldn't be tipped over in the extreme wind that was going on at the time.  Apparently the owner of the motorcycle, who was a friend of theirs, was in India and they were doing him a "favor".  We had no keys and there was a protective tarp over the motorcycle that was locked into place so we had no way of knowing what to grab on to.

Our first attempt didn't prove very fruitful seeing as we broke the helmet case off the back of the bike.  We then rotated it a little and they finally decided that laying it on its side would be the best course of action.  The whole time we're doing this I'm starting to think "Our Thai food is getting cold" and "What if a cop stops by to see what we're doing messing with some locked up motorcycle".  I didn't have my passport and I certainly didn't want to ask for a continuation on my residence permit with a criminal record.  After the motorcycle was on its side I promptly said my goodbyes.

This evening I went back to our new gym while my wife went to work.  She has another performance on Sunday so tomorrow we will take it easy.  I think we may go see the new Bond flick.  I hope you have a wonderful weekend!