Oops, We Live on the First Floor

 Guten Morgen aus Regensburg!

It's been a quiet week, and we really didn't do anything picture-worthy, but I want to post so as to be consistent. 

The crisp blue-sky days and dazzling orange and yellow trees have given way to gray skies and bare branches as latitude 48 N slides into fall. I have noticed the weather is very changeable around here, as it can be sunny one minute, and raining the next. However, the weather pattern the past few days has settled into a steady rainy spell. One advantage of no leaves is that the birds are more visible. We were treated several times last week to cheery, cheeky great tits, with their yellow breasts with a prominent black streak down the middle, flitting and hopping from bare branch to bare branch in the tree outside our kitchen window. Their slightly smaller cousins, the coal tits, resemble chickadees. 

So I made a comical language/cultural mistake the other day. In Germany, each apartment building has a number, and if it's large enough, there may be more than one number, so that the southern half might have one number and the northern half a different one. So it is in our building. Our address is Puricellistrasse 24. However, that's not our personal number.  At each building entrance, all the residents are listed, with the last names being on a rectangular button that if pressed, will buzz the phone on the wall by the door in each occupant's flat. When the post office or package delivery services deliver to the particular building or part of building, they buzz the phone and let you know you have a package. Most often they leave the package down by the mailboxes just inside the front door of the building. Sometimes they deliver to your door. 

Well, this is where the comedy comes in. The delivery man buzzed, I answered, and he asked (of course, in German) which floor I was on. I automatically said, "Zweite Stock". Second floor. Only after I had hung up, did I realize that second floor in Germany is third floor in the US. In Germany, the 'first floor' is called the ground floor, and the 'second floor' is the first floor. We live on the first floor. So, I ran down the hall into the stairwell, where we both were both calling, "Hallo? Hallo?" I called out that I was sorry, but I meant first floor (of course, in German). He came down and handed me my package, saying in English (for only Americans could make this kind of boo boo), but in a friendly way, "We call this the first floor here." 

We had the privilege on Sunday evening to be invited to dinner at our priestmonks' flat. We had a lovely evening and a delicious meal. 

I am planning an excursion into the Altstadt today in search of Christmas tree ornament hooks, and to visit the Middle Eastern grocery store that's near the Fathers' flat, in preparation for the Advent Fast which starts tomorrow. 

In a week or so the Weinachtsmarkts open. Town squares all over Germany hold these for 5 or so weeks running up to Christmas. There are booths that sell food and beverages, and some that sell Christmas decorations. There's probably more, but I haven't experienced it yet. The parish traditionally goes together on St. Nicholas Day, and a friend from church said he'd accompany us to a world-famous one in Nuremburg which is an hour away by train. And we can go to the ones in Regensburg any time, so you will see more on that when the time comes. And I promise pictures!

Caio!