I think I just got same hair cut as the mom from the brady bunch...

I've been putting off getting my hair cut. I put it off to the point that my hair was so damaged that it would just knot itself together. Like really horrible knots. it looked like I had just spent the whole day in a convertible car without pulling my hair back. Like imagine ten thin gold necklaces tangled together in your grandmas jewelry box. That was happening like three times a day. I go into the hair salon without an appointment. They usually don't make appointments at that place. I just show up. So I get there, stumble over German words that's I've known for 2 plus years, and then ask for my usual hair stylist Denise. The young stylist looks at me sadly and says, "Oh, Denise is sick." This surprised me for several reasons. One, the girl could understand my German and didn't make me repeat myself. Two, she expressed great emotion over this problem. For a moment I thought I found an employee in German that was going to try and help a customer. So I wanted to know how long she was expected to be gone. So I asked, should I come back Monday? She didn't really seem to know or seem to care that I wanted to know. I lost that little bit of friendliness. So I smiled and left.

I went back on Wednesday, I gave Denise plenty of time to get better. This time the lady I talked to told me Denise wasn't there but would be there tomorrow at 10. She said a lot of stuff and she sort of lost me, but all I knew was that I could finally have a haircut with Denise tomorrow at 10. (also thanksgiving day, not a holiday here) Even though that was Thanksgiving day and I had a lot of work to do, plus I had to travel for an hour and half on trains carrying my 30 twice baked potatoes, I was determined to get my hair cut.

The next morning I put my potatoes in the oven and left my husband in charge of watching potatoes bake, while I road downtown to get 6 inches of damaged hair chopped off. I get to the salon and there is my stylist! There is Denise! The girl I've been waiting for! The stylist that can make my hair look amazing!!! I get there and she asks me if I had made an appointment. I think back to that conversation that I had yesterday, where the girl had said something about tomorrow at 10. Oh no I was late, had I missed my appointment? So I tell that story to her. She asks if I had just called to make an appointment at 10:30. Oh no I guess not. I didn't miss my appointment. Denise asks me if I can come back at 11. Yes definitely. Potatoes can wait, Thanksgiving can wait, I don't care, I finally have an appointment with Denise.

So I walk around downtown, come back for my appointment and wait. A few minutes after 11 a girl comes over and calls out my name, well something like my name, because she has no idea how to say this English name. So I think oh she must want to wash my hair so Denise can cut my hair. She sits me down in a chair in front of a mirror, just like Denise used to do and asks, "How much do you want off?" Reluctantly I told her what I wanted. I tried to stay optimist thinking Denise is the only German that's cut your hair, maybe this one will be amazing too. I watched her, and she did the same stuff as Denise, but it didn't turn out the same. Apparently somewhere in my conversation with Denise I failed say, "I want YOU to cut my hair." So this Thanksgiving I'm thankful for my lousy haircut.

P.S. despite the hair cut, I had an amazing Thanksgiving with other Americans living here in Germany. I'm thankful for so much!

Ich Heike...ich heiße...What?!?!?

Shortly after we landed in Germany, we learned a new simple phrase. "Ich heisse ..." So "My name is..." Wow, what progress. That Sunday we went to church thinking we were ready for anything. We knew how to say What's up in German and my name is... What more could we need? We get to the door. The greeter knew we were the Americans so she greeted us with "Ich Heike..." And we looked at her waiting for her to finish the sentence with her name. So she kept saying it. Ich Heike..." And we kept waiting for her to finish the sentence. This went on for a short eternity before we all gave up and went into the sanctuary. We were confused, she was frustrated. After church we asked someone what that ladies name was. Apparently her name was Heike, not heisse. She was trying to make it simpler for us by just saying "I Heike"

For the six months that we lived in that went to that church all of our conversations with her went about that way.

No I don't want your socks

Way back in October of 2005 I came to Germany on an internship. My German pretty much consisted of:
"I don't speak German."
"Can you speak English"
and whatever else the German CDs taught me. So one day when Z and I were exploring our town we wondered into what we thought was a small shop. It turned out to be a huge 3 or 4 story department store. German shops can do that to you. You think you're walking into a small store but then find out it goes on and on. So we finally came to the top floor of this massive place. We had done a pretty good job of sneaking by everyone else and not being talked to, but this last floor was much less crowded.

So in the sock department our worst fears came true, a lady approached us and spoke to us in German! We stood there for a second not sure what to do. I looked at Z to do something. He's the much braver of us two. So he used one of the few phrases that we knew. "Ich spreche kein Deutsch." (I don't speak German.) This ensued all kinds of panic. The lady alerted all of her coworkers around that we didn't speak German. Was there anyone that could speak English. At this point we were dying to run out of that building. We had no interest in actually buying socks. We just wanted to see if German socks looked the same as american socks. We were relived to find out that yes their socks are pretty much the same.

So finally they found someone who spoke English. She came over to us and asked. "Can I help you?" To which we replied,"No we're just looking." That was it. We left. After that we were much more cautious about what stores we entered.

Yes "Socks for You" is an actual name of a store.