Germany: Part III
Sanssouci, Potsdam, Germany.
So I know I said I would write “tomorrow” over a week ago, but I had a problem with the webhost and it wasn’t resolved until Friday. So now, I’m back, ready to write more.
Week 2:
We’ve already settled in pretty well. Brandon’s constantly on the phone with Summer, at least 3 times a day, sometimes for hours at a time. My particular favorite was the hour conversation that lasted the majority of the drive from Schwerin to Potsdam, outside of Berlin. By the time we got there, I was more than ready to get out of the car and walk around. We found a Starbucks, and sat down and used their Wi-Fi for a while, seeing as none of us had checked email or anything in multiple days. It’s been especially difficult for me and Brandon not to have persistent access to internet anytime we want, as when we’re bored at home, we usually can find something mildly entertaining to do on the internet. Without that option, we resorted to books, which is not a bad thing, I’ve done alot of good reading on the trip thus far, the only problem is once I start reading a book, I can’t put it down until I’m done if it’s good. But anyways, back to the story. So we sit down, and I realize I still have about $200USD in my wallet, that I can’t use at all. I figure I might as well use that as opposed to the credit card, and it just so happens that there’s a bank about two buildings down from where we’re sitting. I go in and exchange my stack of cash. Now, from my rough calculation, based on the exchange rate of dollar to euro, i should get something around 125-145 Euros for my cash. I hand the teller my money, and she gives me the Euros. I stand there and count them, while she goes in the back room to take care of something. I’m a bit alarmed when i count out about 105 euros and some coins. When the teller returns, I ask her what the total amount in Euros should have been. She tells me something like 133.50, and I show her that I only have about 107 and some change, including the coins. She then tells me that since she didn’t watch me count them, she has no way of knowing whether or not I was just hiding the other 25 euros. I told her that I can assure her I wasn’t, and that I’d like her to count her till. So she begins to count. And then she counts again. Then the other teller counts it. Then counts again. And at the end, she still comes up with an even till. At this point, I’m pissed, that I’m being treated like some kind of sketchy kid right off the bat, and also that I’m out €25, which is a good 40 dollars US. I give her my phone number, my name, my email. Oh, and the name of Brandon’s dad, the microbiologist, and his grandfather, the lawyer. When she hears that he is a lawyer, she immediately gets alarmed. She asks me to wait. After 10 minutes, she comes out, with an envelope in her hand. She slides it through the window to me, and I open it. Inside is €25. She apologizes for the confusion, and I leave. What a great start to the day.
Then, we decide to go see the Sanssouci, which was the Summer palace of Frederick the Great. The thing is huge, it has the gardens that surround it, and then you see this huge palace, and it’s completely breathtaking, as you can tell from the picture above. We take some pictures, and it starts to get overcast. Really overcast. We decide it’s probably a good idea to leave. We sprint off to the car, and decide to call it a (rather short) day in Potsdam. On the drive home, Sum calls again, and we have to endure some argument about something that I didn’t care enough to listen to. I’m too busy thinking about all of the stuff that I miss from home, seeing all my friends, talking to people I know, but mostly, just being familiar with my surroundings. Being in a setting where it’s foreign and new is cool for maybe 10 days, but after that point, you kind of long for something familiar to come along. Although, the weird thing is, as the days go on, the more familiar Germany becomes. Especially Schwerin. We’ve spent so much time walking around this little city, we know where everything good is, we’ve found some good local restaurants, even made good friends with Julia, the waitress at Cafe Manet, who is obsessed with the fact that we’re American. She says that Schwerin isn’t really an American tourist destination, and that they only get about 1 or 2 Americans every few months. She speaks amazing English, mostly because she lived in Canada for about 2 years, for school, and really liked it there. Me and Bran end up coming back here alot. It’s kind of nice to go somewhere and talk to someone else, all while enjoying a beer. Which is another pro of being in Germany. But anyways, Germany has become a home away from home, it’s changed alot of the way I think about some things, and really made me start to realize what it would be like when I move out. But anyways, thats all for Part III, my fingers hurt, and I have homework to do before tomorrow morning. Check back soon.
