I SPEAK ENGLISH! NO GERMAN
As I said before, I do not speak German or Suisse-German. I thought I could get through the whole week without any troubles with the language. WRONG.
Going to a sit-down restaurant here in Zurich and I think in most places in Switzerland will be very expensive. Do not eat out a lot at restaurants in Zurich, unless you want to burn more money than in Las Vegas (RULE 54). I was trying to live by this rule by getting some groceries. I was at the grocery store getting some fruit trying to offset my pastry in-take. Now in America, you weigh the fruit at the checkout… not in Zurich. The old lady was checking me out and when she got to my bananas, she started talking in Suisse-German. I was just babbling, "ahhh I ugghhh I speak English." That fact did not really matter to her and she continued to point at the bananas and talking loudly. Luckily, there was a guy behind who was a college student that could speak english and he helped me go weigh the bananas. When grocery shopping in Europe, make sure everything is weighed and has a price tag (RULE 55).
That was definitely an awkward situation but my luck with the language barrier did not stop there. I was at a grocery store picking up a memory card for my camera, Swiss chocolate, and a drink. This lady is scanning all my items and she finally gets to my drink. She picks it up and begins to ask me questions, but all I could do was "ahhh I ugghhh I speak English." She turns to the lady behind me and starts asking her questions. I think she was asking if this was my drink or the drink of the lady behind me. I just felt extremely awkward and weird, so the second I finished checking out, I booked it out of the store.
The last two days have not only consisted of awkward language barrier situations. I know, shocking. I was able to hang out with people from my church out here in Zurich which was really cool to see the culture of the people that live here. I also took a drop-in class for ballet. Yes, I still have to dance, this is not just a vacation. Wednesday, I will spend going around the city and relax my body before my audition on Thursday. As the day approaches, I am getting more and more excited for the audition. I will keep you posted on how the audition goes. In terms, of adventuring, I have been taking lots of photos which I hope to post soon.
Have you had any awkward language situation when you traveled? Let me know below in the comments! I would love to hear your stories.