So, I was in Real (the German Wal-Mart equivalent) yesterday and people were staring at me. BTW, Germans are not discreet about staring. If you're doing something stare-worthy, they don't try to sneak glances, they just stare. It's really much more honest.
Anyway, I was by myself, so I wasn't speaking English to anyone--which often draws stares. And I was dressed like a typical German in December: boots, all-weather coat and scarf. I couldn't figure out what was causing folks to stare. I looked in my cart to see if I had made an unusual selection. No. Even glanced in a mirror to make sure I didn't have anything on my face. It wasn't until I got all the way around the store to the beverage items that I realized that Real was piping in Christmas carols sung in English, and I had been singing along. I wondered why I was in such a good mood!
Speaking of beverages, here's something you won't see in Arkansas. We went to the Christ's Church Advent Market. There were English books and British foods and kids toys and white elephants. But the way the British Businessmen's Club was raising money for the church was to sell chances on beer and alcohol. Skip bought two tickets at a euro each and left with six pints of British ale.
We also went to the Advent Market at Schloss Dyche on Sunday after church. It was a beautiful setting, but almost too crowded to really enjoy. Still, they had a lot of handmade and specialty items that one goes to these markets to see.
Today, I went to Europe's largest shopping mall to try to wrap up some Christmas shopping. On a weekday, the mall was busy, but not overly crowded. You couldn't pay me enough to show up there next Saturday.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment