Clueless

Hello again,

Well, I am officially in trouble with the German officials! Today, while riding the U-bahn (underground subway) I was interrupted from my reading (Harry Potter, I am obsessed and am trying to finish all of the books by the end of the summer) by three (yes, THREE) transit officials checking transit passes. I was not aware of who they were because when they got on the train they said something but it was in German and I don't understand more than 10 words and that may even be exagerating my capabilities. Then, they stood in front of me dressed in plain clothes (they go undercover here) and looked at me in a way that seemed to say, "I can smell that you have done something wrong in purchasing your transit pass and we like to be cruel to tourists". Well, yes, I had apparently done something wrong in purchasing my transit pass and they were certainly mean to me. They escorted me off the U-bahn by the arm at the next stop. I cried. It was really embarrassing. I had bought a student transit pass but, apparently I did not qualify for a student pass because I am not a student in Berlin. Who would have known?!! My ISIC card has been sufficient everywhere else...oh well, I am clueless I guess. Nonetheless, I cried and they took pity on me. Obviously I wasn't trying to scam the system as I had bought a rather expensive monthly student pass and carried with it my ISIC card and well, I was crying so they let go of my arm and were kind enough to tell me where to go to get out of trouble. I now have to go to the BVG (transit headquarters) within the week and present to them my case where they will judge whether I should have to pay the 40 euro fine. If I am found not guilty they will allow me to get my money back to buy the proper pass. The transit police assured me that they believed I wouldn't have to pay the fine and everything would be okay but to make sure to go within the week otherwise, the Polizie would come to my door. Yikes. I was on my way to a bike tour that was to begin in less than 1/2 hour so I wasn't able to go today but, I will definitely be going within the week to plead my case. Crazy things happen to me....

Oh, also, while I am on the clueless note, I might as well tell you all about how I made a fool of myself yesterday as well. I decided I wanted to see a film at the Sony Center in Potsdamer Platz since tickets are half price on Tuesdays so, I got on the subway (this is actually when I bought that dreaded student pass!) to take me there. Upon arrival at the cinema I went up to the ticket counter and asked which movies were playing in English. She showed me a list of movies and I said "alright, give me a second and I'll choose one and come right back". As I had not heard of any of the movies (they were all current blockbusters but, I haven't seen a movie in ages) I looked at the pictures and selected the one with the prettiest leading lady and went on my merry way back to the ticket counter in about 30 seconds. I then proceeded to tell her which movie I wanted to see and then comes the clueless part. She said "where would you like to sit"? Being clueless as I am, I thought she was referring to something I had read about where you can pay an extra euro and sit in a box seat (no idea what that is at the cinema...didn't see any at least) so I just said, "Oh, just a regular seat please". She then looked at me as though I were stupid and said, "yes, but where?". I must have looked at her dumbly for a whole minute before she realized I still had no idea what she was talking about and said "you know, back, front, middle?" to which I then realized meant they have assigned seating at the cinema here and I very quickly said "ok, the middle then please". Well, she did indeed give me the exact middle seat, F18. It was delightful. The seats are so very very comfortable, there was enough room for me to stretch my legs straight out and just barely touch the seat in front of me and you can buy beer at the cinema! Oh, and they have employees who come in at the beginning of the film and sell Ben and Jerry's! It was quite the experience. I saw a film called "Happy-go-lucky" and it was pretty hilarious. No plot, but hilarious.

Anywhoo, I feel that if I continue on in this post and write about the bike tour then this might become too long and I will lose my audience so, I will save the bike tour for the next post, along with the post I have been promising about the end of our Krakow trip.

Miss you all and hope you all get a jolly laugh out of my cluelessness as I am certainly laughing at myself right about now.

Much love,
Jenn(ifer)