I studied Googlemaps, made my own map (which I later realized lacked many essential street names), committed names to memory. I was ready. But I wasn’t. After walking for twenty minutes in an area in which the only stores I passed were an occasional grocery store and one church, I decided that it was time to take a gander at a bus stop map. It was then that I realized I was not in fact heading towards that place where those two streets crossed and became that other street. Nope, I was walking towards that parky area instead. After comforting myself with the fact that I was at least capable of finding the right street (for the direction was easy to correct!) I headed back the way I came, shamefully passed the Merlitzer Platz U-bahn station I recently exited from, and continued walking down Oranienstrasse. Earlier I had asked my German teacher if she knew of any art supply stores I could go to to procure a paintbrush for my amateur artistic masterpieces (not really) and she knew of two in Kreuzberg, an area I previously believed I was somewhat familiar with (“previously” implying this morning. I have since shed that belief). I walked this new direction, feeling pretty good about it. There were people and stores and restaurants, which are all good signs for potential art supplying locations, I think. After walking for a while, I realized that I had probably passed the art store I had located on a map earlier that day. So I asked for directions, found out there were two stores in the area, went to both of them, they were closed. At least that’s what I inferred from the locked doors and a German sign I could not come close to comprehending. But the trip was not a failure! I went to a nearby bookstore and got two German children’s books, though it was a hard decision since the artwork in many of them was so beautiful, and I had little else to base my decision off of. One of the books I bought was “Die kleine Raupe Nimmerstatt” or “The Very Hungry Caterpiller”. It is tiny and adorable and German. I also found a nut bar (I ordered in German!), some cool clothing shops, and a lot of cafes with wonderful seeming atmospheres. After my series of failures (garnished with a few successes) it was time to meet my new Freie Universitat German buddy. It was a great meeting and she seems like a very interesting girl, even though she laughed whenever I said a single word in German (she claimed that she liked how it sounded and it had nothing to do with my complete mispronunciations).
Some day some how I will find a paintbrush, but as for now I have some delicious wasabi peanuts and Eric Carle’s greatest hit, so I can’t complain.
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