I don't want to brag, but...

You know how some people with blogs spend all their time gushing over their kids and how awesome they are? (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) Well, I don't have kids, so I'm just going to have tell you how awesome I am. And let me tell you, I rock.

I came to this conclusion yesterday afternoon. Today is a holiday and tomorrow Brian and I are heading off on overnight trip, so I had a ton of things I needed to get done between 2:15 when we got out of class and 6 or 7 when everything closes down until Friday.

First, Brian and I stopped by a train station on our way home from class to purchase our tickets for weekend trip. That's where the awesomeness began. I had a complete conversation with the ticket guy IN GERMAN. I told him I wanted 2 tickets for adults and 1 ticket for our dog, when we wanted to leave (date and time, thankyouverymuch), and when we wanted to return. He asked me questions and not only did I understand him, I was actually able to respond. In German. And I know this guy speaks English because we've bought tickets from him in the past and we only spoke English then. It was truly a triumph and I'm sure I had a silly grin on my face the whole time. Brian was also quite surprised, but he was able to suppress his silly grin until we left the ticket office.

The next stop was the post office where I continued to rock the German. The postman had tried to deliver a package yesterday morning and the slip he left said the package could be picked up the next business day at the post office. But I wanted to try to get the package before the holiday. When I got to the counter, I said something like, "I would like to know whether I am able to pick up the package today." (My German teacher always says that longer sentences sound more elegant and polite.) Fortunately, the package was available and I went on my merry way without having to say much else.

I had one more stop before home -- the pharmacy. Last year we bought some drops for Sharkdog that are supposed to help calm his nerves. We're almost out and we wanted to get some more before our trip on Friday. I showed the pharmacist the bottle and she asked me a few questions and I was able to answer -- all in German. Although, once she had to rephrase a question because I didn't understand it. But then my awesomeness started to wane and I didn't know how to say someone was already helping me when another pharmacist asked whether I needed assistance. However, it was just a short lapse because a few minutes later I was able to ask the pharmacist about the proper way to dispose of needles. (I have tons of sharps from my insulin pump from the past 10 months that I didn't know where to throw away.)

Shortly after getting home, Brian and I took Sharkdog to the vet to get a rabies shot. I tried some more German on the assistant, but it was getting a little late in the day and I was running out of German. So we quickly switched to English. Nevertheless, I'd still say it was a pretty successful afternoon.