Wo ist di... das... di toiletten bitte?

Hey Guys!

Today on the Bus to school I heard a guy practicing his english! it was so funny he was speaking in rapid German to his friends, he pulled out a book and some paper like he was going to do his homework and then all of a sudden he said "I ... have got... to go to MEIN house" apparently he forgot the word "my", it was so unexpected that it startled me! I thought when I was getting ready to come here that everyone would speak english and that It woudn't really be any different they would just have accents... maybe that's true in the big city but not so much where I have been going! They do really well downtown in cafes an stuff like that but out where I live and down the less bustling streets it's amazing how many conversations i have to mime, apologize for and just walk away from! I feel like such an ignorant American just coming to a country and expecting people to know english...

SO that being said, I decided at the concert I attended tonight to finally attempt to get over my fear of my pretty bad accent and just give it a go... and I REALLY had to use the restrooma very convenient time to use my German because that was the first thing I learned how to say! This would be cake. I cleared my voice put on my best innocent-please-forgive-me look and went up to the guy collecting tickets and said
"WO IST DI.." Changed my mind from saying toiletten to saying Baden Zimmer so said "DAS"... changed my mind again because he would probably think me weird if I said Baden Zimmer and just yelled "WO IST DI TOILETTEN BITTE?"... phew... properly executed that statement felt great. My first German conversation! I'm on top of the world... oh no... sir... sir please don't just say the directions... I don't speak German I was just kidding!... use gestures... anything! Oh you're still talking... okay... "Danke!" ... Crap. Found the bathroom didn't know the difference between Girl and Boy ( just a WC sign on the door not a convenient girl with a skirt and boy with a box for s shirt), waited outside them until a girl walked out of the one on the right and entered. A complete failure. Perhaps tomorrow I will attempt again... I probably shouldn't.

I am still liking my classes. European Union is a little bit more stressful than I thought it would be. I have to take really good notes because it is such a foreign topic to me. I find myself looking out at the Salzburg landscape and then realize that this isn't a class that I can fake my way through (not that I EVER would fake my way through class...). Seriously though, imagine seeing a fortress on a steep mountain and a river below you with an anceint cobble stone street winding through old buildings that were built thousands of years before.... and then have to rip your eyes off of it to do school work... see what I mean?

It's late... I love you guys!


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