Saturday, February 20, 2010

Po I Know

I don't have a lot of time to do an in depth post that I would like to do, but I thought I would share an interesting story that I remembered today. When I was living in Germany I loved to go to the stores in downtown Berlin. No car was needed; I would take the U-Bahn to get there. I would spend hours looking in stores like Werken Spielen Schenken and Saturn. I hated asking people where stuff was, though. If I had to ask someone where something was, I would practice it over and over in my head or I would write it down.  I hated sounding like an idiot.  Sometimes I would just ask them if they spoke English and if they said no, I would just walk away. I think I felt so traumitized because one Christmas I was buying presents for my siblings and I thought I would get my sister Alison a teletubby because I knew she thought they were creepy.  When I was at the checkout counter the cashier thought he was funny and wouldn't let me buy it unless I could tell him the name of the teletunbby. I knew his name was Po, but was too embarrassed to say it. So instead I said, "Umm, Ich spreche kein Deutsch" and then walked away.
I know... how shameful.

4 comments:

ali said...

if i had that right now, it would make me really happy.
i'm actually quite sad i didn't get a po doll.
oh well, but i know how you feel. sometimes i just hate talking to people.

Greg Lewis said...

This is Mom...I know what you mean about practicing in your mind what you should say. I even did that for a little when we visited the States. And then I would think, "Oh wait, they all speak English!"

Greg Lewis said...

In addition to Po, there is La-La, Tinky-Winky and Dipsy......just in case anyone was wondering.....Sad that I even know that.

Spencer said...

My sister Michelle and I have had a teletubby war going on for years now. We've mailed the same teletubby birthday card back and forth to each other and any time one of us visits the other one, we try to leave some sort of teletubby something behind. I even sent stuff back to her while I was on my mission. Whoever currently has the stupid car antenna-hugger doll is losing.

Tinky Winky is the gay one, right?