Eine Sparbüchse!?!? (a piggybank)

Well, my German's definitely getting better. And if it wasn't I'd be paying up. That's right. My professor walk into class this morning with a piggy bank (it was actually a bear but bear bank would confuse us all) and every time you said ANYTHING in English you had to put 10 cents in the piggy bank!!! And to top it all off, she chose to teach the hardest part of German grammar to us. today. in German. with no English. So, as a result I have a throbbing headache. And just so you can understand how difficult the subjunctive is, I've spent the last 5 years of German class trying to understand it and I still have NO idea what's going on. And to make the headache even better, my professor informed us today that its not used at ALL in spoken German and is dying out in written German. ugh!

(This is my German teacher yelling at a student for speaking in English. And the little bear on the table.)

In other news, I went to the Mensa (Cafeteria) today for the first time. It's really intimidating because much like the Pit you can only pay with a card. The only problem is its IMPOSSIBLE to find the place to buy the card which is conveniently located in a dark corner of the Mensa. wunderbar. But we found it, got in line, and then comes the best part of my day. The two girls in front of me didn't speak any German and the women behind the counter only spoke German. So...wait for it... I translated!! I'm no longer that stupid person who has to be translated for!!! It was the best feeling ever. EVER. The cashier would look at me, ramble on in German, and then pause. And I'd turn to the pour confused girls and explain it!

Oh and a similar story: I had to go buy my first book for one of my classes at Dussman (a book department store, if you will) today. And after finally finding the section where my book was supposed to be, it wasn't. So I ordered it. in German. gave the woman the ISBN number. in German. and figured out when to pick it up. in German.