After a long absence on my blog, I return with two funny stories:
First of all, yesterday I was riding a bus home with some of my teammates. We were sitting on the upper level, and some German/Turkish guys came and sat in the few rows in front of us. One heard us speaking English, so he looked at me and said, "Excuse me, can I have your number?" I had no idea who this kid was, he looked about 17, and I don't give my number to random people on buses (or ever), so I said no. He turned away, then a few seconds later, turned back around and said, "Can I please have your number." Again, of course, I say, "No, I don't know you. Why would I give you my number?" No answer.
He turned back to his friends for a while, and said something in German about how "those girls" (us) just don't get their humor and mentions something about some video. Then something clicks in my brain. There's a MadTV skit that my teammates and I quote to each other and laugh about all the time called "Can I have your number" (I recommend you look it up on YouTube). Turns out he was quoting that. So I look at him and ask, in German, if he's talking about this MadTV skit that I watch all the time. He gets flustered and stutters something about how he thought we were British or something. Oops, turns out I speak German, too. I tell him that we're American, not British, and he just looks more confused. Apparently, he was having trouble connecting how American people can also speak decent German. Anyway, we had a good laugh that someone asked me for my number on the bus by quoting a sketch that cracks me up anyway. If only I had caught on earlier and could have played along.
Funny story number two:
This morning after staff meeting, I went to the visa office to finally get my visa (after waiting months for their office to get straightened out from a strike that they were having. I had an appointment this time, which saved me from waiting in the cold for 3 hours, but I still had to take a number and sit in their waiting room for a good long while, DMV style. There was a girl sitting across from me talking to someone in clearly American English, so I asked her how long she had been sitting there so I would have some idea how long of a stakeout I was going to have myself. Our conversation went something like this:
Me: Have you been waiting long?
Girl: Yeah, I had an appointment at 12:30... [it is now after 1]. I have no idea when they're going to call me.
Me: Oh. I just wanted to know if I should be expecting to sit here for a long time.
(random guy behind her looks and me and nods solemnly to indicate that Yes, I should expect to wait a very long time)
Girl: Where are you from?
Me: Michigan
Girl: Where in Michigan?
Me: I grew up in Rochester.
Girl: No WAY! I'm from Rochester!! Where did you go to school??
Me: Rochester High.
Girl: No WAY! I went to Rochester High!! What year did you graduate??
Me: 2004. When did you graduate?
Girl: 2002.
Neither of us recognized each other's names, but she knows my cousin Kristin, who also graduated in 2002. Turns out she is an artist and moved to Berlin for a while because the art scene here is cool. Small world.