Success in Mannheim

Today I drove into Mannheim in the van unaided by my GPS and managed to park in a parking garage without hitting anyone or anything and I didn't have a panic attack. This is a huge feat for me. Parking garages are my nemesis. They are made for the average European car, not my over-sized, gas guzzling, road hog of a mini-van. Usually I switch cars with Matt when I need to go into town, but I completely forgot until he already left for the day. I was tempted to go to his work and switch vehicles but that would have added about 40 minutes to the trip, so I braved it - I took on Mannheim in the mini-van and won!

Once safely tucked away in my my parking spot downtown, I set out on foot to find two shops. Mannheim is set up on a quadrant system. This makes finding addresses easy once you know how to use the system. Rather than memorizing streets and directions, you just follow the quadrants. For example, the address of one of my destinations today was P-7, 6. All you have to do is work your way toward P, then find the 7 quadrant and find your shop at number 6. Fabulous system for directionally challenged people such as myself. I found the first shop without any problems, I had the address so it was easy. The second shop was a bit of a challenge. I couldn't remember the address so I ended up walking around entire quads before I made it to my destination.

I finally arrived at the last stop and had such a great experience there, it left a smile on my face for the rest of the day. The two ladies that work in the shop only speak German. They understand English, but they only speak German. I understand a little German, but only speak English. One would think that this would be a disastrous combination, but it was quite the opposite. The ladies spoke to me the entire time I was in there. Sometimes when you know there is a language barrier neither person speaks to the other unless it is required, but not here. The ladies spoke to me about the color of the dress, the fit, they talked about Gabe, and asked me questions about filling out our tax-free paperwork... you name it all German.

It was such a beautiful exchange between two parties who spoke a different language but had a common goal. A metaphor for life. It would be very easy for them to put up a barrier when they discovered I didn't speak German, but they didn't. They didn't have to be friendly or complimentary but they were. It was so refreshing and encouraging to work out the situation and walk away satisfied...not just with my purchase but with the opportunity to build some type of bridge and work things out.

This is one of the reasons why I love it here. I love the feeling of accomplishment when I complete a task, interact with the locals and live to tell about it.