It all started when around 10 PM last night I realized I needed food. I had cooked up a bag of pasta from Evan's stash and as I was sitting there eating plain pasta I was reminded that pasta by itself isn't that great. So today, I went grocery shopping...sort of.
I went to the Stadt Markt where all the vendors are with fresh fruit/veggies, meat hall, bakeries, etc. With my "Estrella Mountain Ranch. Green: It's a way of life" bag I went out to shop. Yeah, nothing really struck me at the produce. It was pricier than even the day before so I thought I'd wait and see next week. I was super excited to go to the Wolf Bakery which was highly recommended, but they had flies and bees in their case buzzing around the goods! Ugh! So I ducked into the international hall and found the Greek counter. Yum!
The girl behind the counter was a few years younger than me and gave me a sample. Nuts. Now I felt obligated to buy something. In the US, if you sample and don't buy, it's just fine. I don't know if that's true in Germany so I wanted to be safe rather than sorry. I looked for 5 minutes and of course bought what I wanted in the first place: tzatziki! It's a Greek yogurt with cucumbers and other goodness. Thankfully, she knew a little English and I knew enough Germany to make the purchase.
I finally found a bakery that didn't have insects in the bread so I managed (barely) to buy ein stück Breze (a pretzel!). Unfortunately, as I was walking away, I realized I had forgotten to say "bitte" (please) so I sounded rude. Nuts.
Anyway, I made my way back to Mozartplatz where I knew there would be seating and I was also toying with the idea of getting the amazing dunkle Schokolade Eis (dark chocolate ice cream), but decided against. And just for Mom: the pretzel was wonderful! It was crunchy on the outside and soft and warm on the inside. Tzatziki and pretzel: doesn't get much better than that.
I made my way back to my local grocery store, Tengelmann, where I picked up some butter and mozzarella for the rest of my pasta. When I got home, I was super excited because I had mail! My mailbox is in a wall with the other tenants of my building and there is a clear strip at the bottom so you can see if you have mail without opening it. I opened the box and yes, there was the slip letting me know I had missed my boxes being delivered from the US and needed to pick them up and...oh dear. My bank account letter...which was opened.
I wasn't quite sure what I was supposed to be receiving in this letter other than my TAN numbers (not quite sure what they are, but I think they're sort of like checks) so I was super nervous. I dropped off my groceries and headed to the bank which is only 2 minutes away by foot.
The lady who first met me a few days ago recognized me (and that I couldn't speak any German) so our conversation went something like this:
Me: Hallo. Ich habe ein Problem. Sprechen Sie Englisch?
Bank teller: Nein.
Me: Ich got this Karte in der Post und it was opened. Was something gestohlen?
Bank teller: Opened? TAN numbers only.
Me: Okay, just TAN numbers.
Bank teller: Ja. Aber opened in Post?
Me: Ja.
Bank teller: Oh....
She preceded to change my PIN because it was in the letter as well as send a request to cancel the TAN numbers and send new ones.
Bank teller: Mit Post, new TAN numbers
Me: Mit Post, neue TAN Zahlen?
Bank teller: Genau!
Me: Okay, vielen danke!
Bank teller: Tschüss!
Me: Tschüss!
So hopefully, it was just a mistake considering there is also another Ernst in my building and it was problably delivered incorrectly and accidentally opened.
In any case I'm very glad I could communicate somehow to solve my problem instead of having to call someone to help me.
Now I really feel motivated to learn German!
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