Is it that Obvious?

Well it is Friday, the end of another week. I consider it to be a success if everyone has survived and the house is still standing. Teh weather has warmed and the snow is mostly gone. Tonight we will have our now traditional Friday night pancake supper, and tomorrow we plan to take a drive to Austria to see Fall color. Hope to have lots of good pictures to post on Monday.
Yesterday, Lore Mae and I went into Immenstadt to run a few errands. We stopped by the photo place to get some prints to send home. We also ran into the Euro Store. This is the European equivalent to the $ Tree. But the Euro store makes the $ Tree look like Saks 5th Ave. Regardless, I found a couple of things in there that I simply could not live without. Back to the point. I always try very hard to communicate in German. This is Germany and eventhough many people can speak English, I feel it is important to speak in their native language. Of course, as soon as I open my mouth, most people can tell that I am not German and they take pity on me and speak very slowly or speak in English. In the Euro Store yesterday, Lore Mae and I were just browsing around, minding our own business. We said "Hallo" to a couple of folks and one old lady kneeled down to Lore Mae in the stroller and carried on a lengthy conversation that I only understood parts of, but I smiled and nodded and wished her a good day when she was done. When I decided to check out I waited at the cashier in line for a few minutes, never opening my mouth. When it was my turn I placed my items on the counter with my shopping bag (your bag your own items in you own bag). The cashier looked at me and with no accent in perfect English said, "Hi, how are you?" Well I must have AMERICAN tatooed on my forehead, because there is no way she could have known otherwise. I never said a word to her and my feeble attempt at conversation with the older lady was on the other side of the store. For some reason we do seem to stand out. This is somewhat disconcerting to me. Those that know me well, know that I like to blend into the crowd. This feeling that we stand out has kept me from doing some stuff. For example, I would like to take the kids to McDonald's one day as a treat (they have a playground), but I know that we would stand out like a sore thumb because we don't eat mayonaise on our french fries and we like ice in our Cokes! So much for blending in! I guess I will have to get used to less annonymity here in the Allgäu.

Ich bin Auslander, mein Deutsch ist nicht so gut! (I am foreign, my German is not so good!)
Bis später, Tschüss...