Wie geht es dir?

Here I am! Sorry I am late, I was caught in traffic on route 80. There was an accident. 

So, what's happened since my last blog? Well, let's see:

Two weeks ago, Nick and I started German lessons. Every Friday afternoon between individual workouts and team practice, a team manager comes over with a workbook and we try and gain a new "tool" to use in typical German life. The first week was pretty much about initial interactions with strangers. We went over how to ask what someone's name is, where they are from, their age, what they do for a living, how they are doing (that's the title of this post), etcetera. Our second lesson took us beyond saying "I would like to have..." at a restaurant. I am a picky eater, so asking if I can have something different than what is on the karte will come in handy. 

Lessons have been the only things recently to remind me of the cozy safety bubble of college life. Within the last eight days, I installed my own shower head holder, had to break my bike lock (twice), had a flat tire fixed, and deal with a vice president of a certain basketball club that wasn't forthcoming with important monetary information.

At the beginning of last week, I had to saw through my bike because some stranger broke their key off in my lock. I chose to think that someone got confused and tried to unlock the wrong bike. It helps me sleep at night. I obviously had to go to the store and buy a saw myself because that's what you have to do if you want to get things done. At the end of that week, I got a flat riding to practice and broke my own key off in the lock after practice.   I didn't even break it from side to side , I twisted it broken. Keys shouldn't be that malleable- especially not with finicky locks. 

The crown jewel of dealing with things myself happened yesterday when I received an email saying that I half of the recent phone bill would be deducted from my pay next month. I wrote a harsh email saying that I didn't use the phone equally, and that when I did use it, it was at no cost. So, that a pay deduction was unacceptable. Feeling pretty good about standing up for myself, I continued to keep it funky via email and said that it's unfair to make up some magic number that we have to start paying for when our contract said the club would be responsible for the phone.

She responded with a dagger of a response. Evidently the club is responsible for providing the phone- not the service. Real cool. I wasn't happy, but ultimately it was my fault. Live and learn.

Wellps, we play our second game this weekend in Berlin. I am excited to play another game that counts.