Message 10/17
Date: 29-Nov-09 @ 04:47 AM -
RE: Unwanted stiffy
k, a little story. when i first moved to munich i had no job. i saw street musicians playing in the
fussgangerzone, a big shopping area where there are no cars, only pedestrians. i played there about
a dozen times before the polizei told me i would have to register to play there again in order to pay
taxes. i found out that you're only allowed to play the streets there 3 times before registering so i got
a way with quite a few. anyway i was playing one afternoon with a crowd of people gathered when a
few roughians walked into the circle and one of them kicked the box of tip money. the money went
flying all over the place. i stood up to go after them but a couple of people stopped me and a whole
bunch of people collected the money and returned it to me. i was steamed though. i would have gone
ballistic on those guys, not because of the money but because of the stupid attitude. my wife and i
had tons of money. i was playing there until i could land a job which i did just because i didn't like
sitting on money and not bringing at least something in. so yeah there are unfriendly people there for
sure but many good people. i had a couple of things going for me. one is that even when my German
totally sucked i still gave it my best shot. people appreciated that. there was a cheese/butter shop i
went to every week in my neighborhood there. the ladies behind the counter were all in their 50s or
60s. I always spoke German with them even from day one and they helped me along. one saturday
morning i left there and went to the bread shop and realized i'd forgotten something from the cheese
shop so i went back and got on line which was by that time quite long. one of those ladies saw me
and took me ahead of the others standing on line. she announced to the people on line that i'd been
there earlier. that was so sweet. when i'm in a foreign country it's those moments that tell me how
wonderful people are. i'll never forget those ladies. the funny thing is that when I go to Germany i
don't feel like i'm in a foreign country.
just for the record Brits have been incredibly nice to me, even though you speak some weird English.
you know....like someone insists he's got a flat in kensington and i wonder why he doesn't have a
spare tire.