Reise Nach Berlin: .13.01.2010 I'm golden...

Stream of consciousness in my host mother: "So you broke all the electricity in your room and lied to me but I'm sick and thought it really was just the light that was broken so I dragged my 56 year old body up and down a ladder today to figure all that out? Aw, and you only have four more months here?"

When I first arrived here in Berlin my host mother told me this horror story of her very first exchange student breaking bother her freezer and dishwasher. Host students are just known for an inverse Midas touch where everything they put their American, lil hands on dies on the spot. The Raleigh is apparently not exempt from this superpower.

Yesterday I happend to try a different power converter than I had been using. I plugged it in and heard a loud pop as the lights and TV went. Now, I could have owned up to it, I could have been the bigger person than I was, and just...told her. No. Nah. Nope. I'll tell her that the lights aren't working in broken German and everything'll be peachy. Flawless plan. I'm Golden....

But now it's eight at night and I'm thinking, "I have homework...and no lights."

After paying in guilt and appologies, my host mother wrote (oh, I shall address this in a moment) to "just tell me next time dear." Only more broken English than that. It's great. Better than my German is the sad part.

I'd just like to backtrack and point out that she expects me to destroy a whole other room of electricity. Damn, she's caught onto my ploy. I wasn't going to do anything more, but now that she's given me the okay to Host-student-ize at least three more times, I believe I may have to!

I was impressed I took out an entire room.

Now I address the written note portion of this: my host mother has been sick for a week and a half. I walk in the door the other day and give a friendly, "Halo," because I saw through the window on my way in that she was here. No response, so I say it twice more (slower and louder, right? Because I'm obviously trying to be the ugly American upon whose shoulders rests the weight of the future). She hurries up to me and hands me a note. The note says, "My Doktor says I can't talk until Friday." I'm thinking, "That's because she knows I'm a lost cause and probably doesn't want you to waste your breath speaking German, Ja?" So, the past two days have been a whirlwind of...silence. She's still sweet and hurries around to get me food but we're...not speaking until Friday so-to-speak.

In all seriousness, the silence isn't bad and I've been getting home late from school this week anyways. Oh! Tonight I had hash browns with apples on them (she tried to call them something else, but I knew better), and the other night I had Cauliflower with cheese on it! Interesting as whole meals, but good, nonetheless. SEGWEY!