Sprechen Sie Englisch?

It is amazing the trouble one must go to in a foreign country to accomplish the simplest of tasks when one doesn't speak the native language. Scott and I have really struggled with learning German due to a combination of working & schooling full-time prior to the move and then devoting any extra time to the task of moving itself. Add to this that we are both conversational (I wouldn't go so far as to say fluent, though) in Spanish and, thus, everytime I attempt to formulate a German sentence, three or four spanish words inevitably get thrown into the mix. What a jumbled up bunch of gibberish we can produce!! I don't want to give the impression, though, that I'm pompous enough to think that everyone in the world should be expected to speak my native tongue. However, every once in awhile, it would be so nice to not have to think so hard about everything that comes out of my mouth.

Regardless, here we are in Deutschland with the proper vocabulary to order a bier, ask for directions, and ask "Sprechen Sie englisch?" Other phrases and vocab have been easy to pick up just by listening to the way locals greet each other, by translating word by word various newspaper articles, and by listening to German TV whenever possible. We are indeed catching on but we have a long way to go!

I spent an hour and a half on the Amazon website (all in German) trying to decipher which type of dogfood we should buy for the lamb and then another fifteen minutes figuring out the proper way to enter our German address and billing info so that it actually got to us (By the way, it's incredibly difficult to find decent dog food here. I've yet to find an actual pet store even with Google's help.) It's taken me four days to get my hands on oil-free facial moisturizer, too. Things that require zero thought in your native country become monumental when you're out of your element (and, in my case, too stuborn to ask for help because I know fighting through it myself will be the quickest way to learn).

I've come to depend on several websites devoted to native English-speakers now living in Germany and I came across the following little story, which hit way too close to home:

"My integration course teacher told us about one of her former students. The guy's wife gave him a shopping list to pick up on the way home. After wandering around the store for awhile, he couldn't figure out where to find chicken. He picked up an egg, went to an employee and said 'wo ist mama?' She laughed and took him to the chicken and said 'I dont know if it is mama oder papa but here you go.'"

So with that, I'm off to look for apartments and meet with landlords who I'm sure speak very little English. Ahhh, here we go again!