BUGA! BUGA!

This isn't the cry of a rabid neanderthal...no, it's the National German Garden Festival. It's ENORMOUS, easily several miles, and you can believe I didn't drag my poor footsore self over all of it. Luckily there was a cable car to get from one end to the other, but consequently I missed a lot of the stuff in the middle. I managed to see (and walk) plenty, though.

Highlights included the Garden of Native Timber ("Wood is life," said a sign--I'm not sure I feel THAT strongly about it), sculptures of giant white heads that were powered to turn around via solar cells, and an enormous nest with 5-foot high eggs, so you could get a "bird's-eye view" of life in a nest.

Shortly after I got there, it started to rain...then to thunder...then to POUR. I waited out the worst of th storm in the children's educational tent (oddly empty of children or adults--mostly people were trying to squeeze into the overcrowded cafe tent). I bought a "Jodelbär" for Aaron in the garden shop--it's wearing a little pair of lederhosen, and if you squeeze its foot, it yodels. I couldn't resist.

My class went well today; we are starting work on the conditional verb forms, and everyone had to ask questions like, "what would you do if you had a lot of money?" I was all set to answer, "I'd quit my job and work at the puppet theater," but unfortunately I got stuck with "what would you do if you were a politician?" I suppose I could have used the same answer, but it would have sounded a bit weird.

Despite my growing fluency, I blew it yesterday at the post office. The lady selling me stamps noted I'd dropped some coins, and I didn't know the word "coins." As far as she was concerned, that was the end of speaking German to me! I continued in German, but she spoke English for the rest of the transaction. How embarrassing.

On the other hand, on Monday when I bought stamps, the guy behind the counter clearly wanted to PRACTICE his English with me, and I took some pride in feeling that my German was better. :) (In retrospect, I wonder if my continuing to speak German to him was like the other lady insisting on speaking English to me...) Anyway, he directed me to another lady to ring up, and I don't think she spoke any English, because he jokingly referred to her as his "post girlfriend," and she didn't bat an eye. So I asked her in German, "Do you know what he said about you? He said you were his..." and then realized I didn't know the word for "girlfiend," so had to finish with "very good friend!"