A terrible, very bad, no good thing.

Today the scariest, most terrifying, thing happened to me. I am still sick to my stomach writing this and it happened a few hours ago already….

The day started like any other, Manuel is home from work today because yesterday was a holiday and why work one day before the weekend? I ran to the mall right when it opened because I was out of makeup. After using my German skills to let the sales lady know what type of makeup I needed, I paid and then went to pick up pictures I had ordered online from another store. After I got back home, I opened the pictures and I kid you not, they were all different sizes (no, this isn’t the really bad thing yet). Some were small squares, large squares, rectangles, it was crazy! Manuel had helped me select all the sizes online and we only chose (the equivalent to) 5×6 and 8×10. I guess here, if the original photo isn’t a rectangle (I still can’t figure out how that works) then the pictures won’t be either. Unlike in the US they won’t fix the picture so it’s the right size. Then I went to open the makeup and it was wrong too- the lady must have grabbed the wrong kind and I didn’t notice. That was fun.

Manuel and I then went in search of a dirndl for me. This is the traditional German dress for women. I need one because we are going to a beer tent in his home town next weekend and everyone wears one. After the sales woman helped me determine what size I needed (there sizes are not the same on anything here). I headed into the dressing room to try it on. There were so many buttons, zippers, and ties- it took me forever to get the thing on. After going through the process of trying 3 on, I decided on a blue and grey one. I will post pictures of it when I wear it next week (it’s not worth trying to get it back on just for a picture).

After that, we went and grabbed some lunch and Manuel wanted to visit the book store. So we decided we would meet back in front of the book store in 15 minutes. I decided to go look around in Zara. Once I found a few things to try on, I headed to the dressing room. I realized at this point I wasn’t going to make it back in 15 minutes so I sent Manuel a text. Mid-way through trying everything on, I checked my phone for a response and realized that I had zero signal and the message didn’t send. It was already ten minutes past the 15 minutes we had agreed on so I quickly stopped trying clothes on and rushed out of the dressing room. I saw Manuel waiting for me from a little ways off, I was carrying my purse and my coat over my arm. I thought I felt my coat slip off my arm so I stopped and looked down and realize that it was a pair of pants from Zara that I somehow forgot were on my arm and walked out of the store with. I grabbed them off the floor and rushed to Manuel. I was so terrified that I felt like I was hyperventilating and embarrassingly enough I started to cry. Manuel (being the calm person he is) just told me we would walk them back to the store and give them back. When we got back to the store (of course the alarms had to go off this time) a sales lady stopped us and Manuel tried to explain why I had a pair of pants. It was horrible. She seemed skeptical (why would I intentionally take pants and then bring them back?) which made me feel even worse. Luckily Manuel was with me- I don’t know what I would have done if he wasn’t. I truly don’t know how people steal things. It was such a horrible feeling and I felt like I did something terrible (even though I know it was an honest mistake).

Tonight, Manuel and I are going to meet up with a group of English speakers we met through InterNations (an online social network of sorts for expats). Hopefully, it will be fun and since we haven’t been out to any bars since arriving in Augsburg- I am excited for that.

In case you need some cuteness to brighten up your Friday, I have attached some pictures of Charlie below.