My navigational triumph of the day was making it all the way home from Siemens, alone, without making a single wrong turn. Basically this was possible only because I recognize enough landmarks along the way. I have become what I've always detested--a landmark driver.
This morning we had enough problems getting to work, as Halger's bike, a blue one with "Colorado" on the body, lost its chain a total of ten times. Each time he would have to stop and rethread the thing, kicking it and calling it names. ("Dieses Fahrrad ist Scheisse!") He just got back from a rough weekend at home where his girlfriend of six years let him know they were just friends. And on top of this his bike breaks down every 50 meters on his first day back to work.
Eventually he gave up and let Matt pull him the rest of the way to Siemens. With his hand on the back of Matt's bike, hunkered down and leaning heavily to the left, he looked like an injured athlete, a wounded soldier, being toted off the field.
Things started picking up again at work today. Perhaps I'm over the hump.
And now it is time for me to hunker down and lean heavily on some German grammar, in the hopes that maybe by the end of this summer I will actually be able to talk to the other human beings here.
Posted by Alan at May 4, 2002 08:53 PM