Hello...

**This is not a German store

Cover your Achilles

I went for a wee jog this morning. Ok. Actually I think it was around noon, but I was still lollygagging about in my pajamas. Anyway, I hadn't even gotten 2 blocks before I heard a yapping. There are many yippy dogs in my neighborhood so I just ignored it. I had my headphones in and was rocking out to a song that had been stuck in my head (serving as motivation for my exercise for the week). I remember learning once that if a dog is chasing you then you shouldn't run. But normally these dogs only come so far and his human was standing by so I figured he'd turn around soon enough. Plus the thing was so shrimpy that the only real danger was in regards to my running shoes (I only have one pair, and they aren't cheap) and I wondered whether he could reach my Achilles tendon. You just don't mess with those. This is a somewhat embarrassing reflection upon my own pace since I couldn't outrun the little runt, he was so close that my running feet may or may not have gotten him in the face. But that's neither here nor there. I finally determined that he was not to be deterred. Plus he was distracting me from my song. I stopped and shooed him a little and told him to go away. Then I realized that I'm still in Germany and this dog probably knows German. Or if nothing else, the old man coming for him speaks German and I didn't want him to hear me and my American English, so I settled for pantomime and a darn scary death-stare (I'm serious--this is not something you want to be exposed to). The man most certainly spoke German. And to great effect. I'm not sure if I was relieved or disappointed that my vocabulary lists thus far have not quite covered the words he was using, but I'm definitely not sad that they weren't in reference to me. I had paused my song (not sure if the man was going to say something to me and kind of curious as to what he was saying), but he didn't say anything and I started walking further down the sidewalk. The dog still obstinately wouldn't go to him but also continued down the sidewalk on the other side of the street and stopped to defiantly mark a pole on his way. As I turned at the end of the block the man was still going off on the dog and I started my song over, got back in my groove and vaguely tried to imagine the effect had he been speaking another language. French maybe...

I'm not sayin'; I'm just sayin.

Swag

Oh the swag. Here I sit watching the Olympics. I haven't taken much to German TV and so my evenings have been smattered with world sports. It's kinda weird, though watching it through a German lens. I guess it didn't occur to me that it would be any different (excuse the ethnocentrism), but, luckily, US has enough athletes to get considerable airtime. Anyway, It always seems to be swimming, so that's what I've gotten an eyefull of. I know nothing about swimming. My roommate tried to teach me how to swim once. I won't drown or anything, but let's just leave it at that. I've kinda taken to the sport though. It might be because of the cool flags and world record line that magically appears over the lanes. It might be the excitement of friendly country rivalry (I love Germany, but, sorry, I'm still an American first). OR it might be the swimmers' swagger as the come out the cool door with their name and country projected on the little wall and their fancy headphones or statement lack thereof. It doesn't seem like other sports get quite the entrance as this, at least it's not shown on TV. And I guess I just think that swag in general is kinda funny. Although I don't think I've ever done anything that would justify or drive me to do it, so maybe if I had then I would understand.

I'm not sayin'; I'm just sayin'.