Dragging all of our luggage, we entered the elevator at the HBF tram stop. A woman with a baby carriage entered behind us. I realized that I had no idea which button to press – we were technically on Floor -1, which was above Floor -2, but the only button options were 0, 1 and 2. They were even aligned with 2 on the top, implying that it was positive 2, not negative 2. After a moment of discussion, the woman chose the right button. Normally, this is the part where the Bielefelder would imply that we were clearly idiots, but she was just as confused as us. We all agreed that it didn’t make any sense – why were the actual floors “minus” when the buttons weren’t? Shaking her head, she exited the elevator with her baby, stating, “Es ist komisch. Es ist nur Bielefeld. Alles in Bielefeld ist komisch.” Trans: It’s funny (read: effed-up). It’s just Bielefeld. Everything in Bielefeld is funny.
It was nice to leave town following a rare positive interaction with a stranger.
As Matt even put it as we pulled out of the train station on our way to Münster, “Bye, Bielefeld. We really liked complaining about you.”
Bye, spaceship university!
I hope you will continue to blog even though you’ve left Bielefeld!
…and I enjoyed reading about your complaining…keep it up…well, perhaps there will be happy things to relate about Munster..hope so!
Insane that it’s all over! Being an expat isn’t always sunshine and happy things, thanks for sharing all of the stupid stuff and the dumb stuff and the complaining!!
Not totally over! I will be blogging from Muenster for a few months as well
Have a great time in Muenster Sam and Mat!
Whew! Relieved that you’re not giving up the blog. That would be sad.
Hope that you don’t miss Bielefeld too much
Looking forward to hearing your lowdown on muenster
Thanks Catherine. Hope to invite you all here on some warm weekend soon!