I was in a supermarket in my little farming village, and this store is smaller than the library at BHS. I needed shower gel, milk, and joghurt. I spent twenty minutes searching, bumbling in German, and finally found the showergel. After discerning which type was for which gender, I selected one and returned to hunt for the milk and joghurt (flavorless joghurt of course, fruit in it is just too exciting). I found it after trying to respond to a clerks question which I interpreted as her saying something like 'Yellow nebula dishwashing pancreas'. She stared at me oddly, then returned to her work. I found the joghurt and milk, then went to check out. No one was there. I waited, then went to one of the clerks in the store and pointed at the checkout. She smiled, and resumed her work. I tried saying I need help, and they smiled some more and nodded their heads-'That poor dumb American, he really does need help, but there isn't an asylum in Fladnitz...'. Well, eventually after a line built up behind me (one old lady), someone came and started checking me out. When she told me how much it was, my money all fell out of my wallet, and I gave her 50 schillings too little, she repeated the amount, then told me in English. I felt smart. They don't use bags, so I attempted to stuff as much of the joghurt along with the gel in my jacket. I was quite a sight then. I carefully made my way to the door that read 'Eingang', and quickly managed to run into a large Austrian man and his child, dropping my joghurt in the process. The clerks and lady laughed, I didn't. After gathering my joghurt (third time) and getting my jacket uncaught from the metallic bar that steers shoppers towards the exit (Ausgang)instead of the entrance (Eingang), growling in English, I quickly left the supermarket. The joghurt only fell out of my jacket once on the walk home.
Submitted by Pinoccio
