Let me start off by saying that I haven't ridden a bike in God knows how long...last time I remember was in China. Five years ago. That being said, today I had to go to Wal-Mart. It is about a 30 minute walk there and another 30 minutes back. I had 1 hour 15 minutes before dinner, and HAD to go today (the stores are closed Friday, Sunday and Monday for Easter and I'll be away Saturday). So I'm at the light in front of the school and Jessica comes up with a bike and asks what I'm doing.
"I'm going to Wal-Mart"
"Do you want a bike?"
"Um...yeah, I guess so. How do you work the lock?"
She showed me and I was off. A little wobbly to begin with, but then again not bad for being out of practice. At the first intersection I realized that the brakes don't work. Ok, I'll just have to give myself plenty of time to stop then.
A little further down I see this car pull out in front of me (10 meters ahead of me) about to pull out into the street. I try to stop, to no avail, and then at the last minute try to go around the car. Because I am going slower than I should be going, I fall right over into the guy's car and...yeah.
He got out, looking very angry. "Es tut mir Leid" I said, hoping that my almost-but-not-quite-German would hold up. He looked VERY upset and proceeded to start looking at his car. Mustering up the best "pathetic-oh-so-sorry" look that I could, I just watched in horror as he found what he was looking for--a scratch on his headlight. "Was soll ich tun?" I said as his eyebrows fell to his chin. He said that normally, in this situation, he would get my address and a phone number and we would work something out. I kept looking pathetic and he went back to picking at the scratch in his light. About three minutes later, he looked at me and told me that it was ok, and that I could go. I left before he could change his mind.
phew! I almost had to pull out the I'm-a-student-and-don't-know-the-area card. But I don't know how to say all that in German.
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