It's Not Always Murphy

So I've been here for just short of three months now, and my language skills are nowhere near what I'd like them to be.  I'm not even half way through the first level of my Rosy Rock program (and not even using it every night like I should), nor have I signed up for a sprachschule ([shpraH*shoe*la] language school) yet, even though it would cost me nothing.  That being said, yesterday I had a very expensive lesson, all for just one word - schlüsseldienst [shlew*sel*deenst].  The meaning of this word?  Literally it translates to "key service", but it is understood as simply "locksmith".

Yep.  Locked myself out of the apartment.  So if stupid is as stupid does, well we know what that makes me, don't we?  Now in my defense (no I don't believe there is any, but what the hell - gotta keep true to my Devil's Advocate self), it's not as hard as you would think, as the door to my stairwell requires a key to enter.  It's not a knob that locks and unlocks, it's just a door with a lock, and if it shuts behind you and you don't have the key, well you'd be as screwed as I found myself.

Now, being the eternal optimist (don't laugh), I figure that the silver lining to this is that by the time I get back to the States, I'm going to be really good at the game of charades, 'cause that's what you're left with when the answer to your question "Sprechen Sie Englisch?" is "Nein".  I've actually kind of had fun a few times playing this game, but it pretty much sucks when you know that it's the only way you're getting in to your house short of demolishing a door.  And I didn't even want to try that, since it's a pretty solid door and my foot is just now getting better from the earlier incident of me pretending to still be young.

So that was my very expensive language lesson for the day, although it could have been more.  Seems that the price on some services over here goes down when you don't need a receipt or some other form of document that might prove that a transaction occurred.  Ah, good times.