Codename Buckethead

Pictures from my adventures.

So, today was fairly uneventful. I slept in until 2, then I fooled around a bit at home and decided to do some shopping. I needed a watch, an alarm clock, some flowers (for Clemens and his wife tomorrow), and something for dinner. So, I took a look at my map and set off for the Altmarkt.

I really like it here, but the shopping is going to take some getting used to. You have to get essentially everything at a different store. In the US, if you need, say, a watch, and a clock, and some flowers, and some food, you just go to Walmart and you're done. Today I had to go to a jewelry counter to get the watch, and an electronics store to get an alarm clock, and the flower store to get some flowers, and a glasswares store to get a vase for the flowers, and an Aldi to get some spaghetti and sauce (I'm lazy, what can I say?). It's kind of fun popping into all these stores, especially when you get to go to the produce market or a bakery or butcher or cheese shop or something, but it's very time consuming, which is frustrating when it's rainy and getting dark and all the shops close at 8. Crazy Germans.

I also discovered that a college education does not prepare one adequately to ask the florist what kind of flowers she thinks are appropriate for a hostess gift. Fortunately, I have mostly lost my fear of looking ridiculous, so I was asking directions and for help and stuff all day. I'm glad I did - I would've taken a couple hours extra if I hadn't.

Germans are weird about their flowers, by the way. They insist on putting vegetables into most flower arrangements. The ones I got at school yesterday (the principal gave me some in addition to the ones Clemens brought) had a cabbage mixed into the roses, and the woman today tried to sell me an arrangement with a squash in it. Weird.

So, there, nice short message. Tomorrow, I'll check out the Altstadt if I have time, and go to dinner at Clemens's house, and ride my new bike home. Yay! At any rate, with biking to work and walking everywhere for shopping (I'll have to do that a lot - I have no freezer), I should be getting plenty of exercise...