Who even needs cell data?

Week 12- Bisschen Deutsch

               We were back in Bonn and back to reality. The following weekend was Big Event and Bonn Marathon, and the next week had two tests in store for us engineers. It was quite uneventful from Tuesday-Thursday; enough to make me forget to do my one second video almost the whole week.

               Friday, Lindsay and Kevin proposed that we go to Zebulon and pre-game at Lindsay’s house. I wasn’t sure. I really, really, REALLY needed to clean my room. I had been so swamped the last few weeks that clothes were strewn everywhere. So I went home and tidied up. There was no dinner made at home, so I decided I was just going to go into town to eat and then go to Lindsay’s.

               

Well, it didn’t happen so smoothly.

               I left my house with 6% phone battery. Yes, I know- I didn’t have time to charge it or I would miss my bus. I got to Hauptbanhoff with no service, 4%, and only Lindsay’s instructions from GroupMe on how to get to the bus stop closest to her (no home address!) I got off 603 and hopped onto 608, asking someone if it goes to the stop I needed- Heidebergen. The girl said she hadn’t heard of it and checked the app on her phone- nope, no Heidebergen. I tried to quickly hop off, but the bus started moving. I ran to the front and asked the bus driver to let me off at the red light, but he spoke no English and said “nichst haltestelle”. So I waited. I got off at the dark stop and checked the time- another 608 wasn’t coming for 25 minutes. I ran back to Hauptbanhoff to get on 608, and I watched it leave 2 minutes early. I ran up to it at the red light and yelled “bitte!!!” with my hands in prayer. The driver shooed me away. I asked around. “How do I get to Beethovenstrase?” Some girls pointed at station B2 and I walked over and looked at the list of stops: no Heidebergen in sight.

               As I was at B2, I watched 608 leave from a different station. I was getting desperate and hungry, until I looked at the bus board and saw “608: B3” I went to B3 and checked the stops. There was Heidebergen! But I still needed to tell Lindsay I was on my way so she could pick me up from the stop, and I had no service. I asked the only other man there “entschuldigung, sprichst du Englische?” He told me no and I tried my best. “Ok ist gut. Mein Deutsche ist schlecht, aber mein Handy hat kein battery. I need to call mein freundin.” I showed him my phone. “Kann ich benutzen dein Handy?” He said yes and pulled out a circe 2005 Nokia. I tried to call Kevin and Sebastian- the only people whose phone numbers I had in my phone, but without data, I couldn’t call US phone numbers. I tried again with someone else. Their phone was almost dead. I tried again with someone else. He ignored me. I got onto bus 608 and found a nice girl in the back. She spoke perfect English and let me use WhatsApp- I wrote down Sebastian and Kevin’s numbers on my hand since I was at 2% now.

               They wouldn’t answer WhatsApp, and since she had Android, I couldn’t iMessage them. She was so sweet and offered to stay on the bus with me, but I told her she should get off at her stop. Her name was Nathalie and she studied biology at Bonn University.

               I went around the bus again. I asked a boy who I saw with his iPhone 10 in his hand, and used it to call and message, but his data was 3G and too slow to get the messages through. I asked another person, but they had an android. I asked a guy in the front, but he only spoke French. I went back to the guy with an iPhone 10 and tried anything else I could think of. WhatsApp didn’t work, so I asked if he had Twitter. He didn’t but I logged into my account on his phone and direct messaged Kevin and Sebastian. Then I thought of Instagram and messaged Masha, but I realized that since she doesn’t follow the guy, the message might not show. So I thought- okay, I guess I need to comment on a photo to make sure the notification is shown. I went to Sebastian’s profile and commented on the most recent photo “SEBASTIAN LMAOOO ITS VIVIAN HELP IM ABOUT TO BE AT THE BUS STOP.” You can still see it if you scroll to it.

               No one had answered anything, and my phone was now officially dead. The boy, Dilschad, offered to get off at my stop and continue helping me. He was from Syria and hadn’t spoken English in 3 years, but it was perfect. He was 22 and studying Medical Engineering, just like me!

               As we walked to the only store in sight in hopes of wifi, (thinking I could connect to it with my laptop and send a message over groupme) the store said it was closed. I said, “would it be absolutely crazy if I went to your house to charge my phone and get wifi?”

               Just as we were about to start walking, Kevin finally called back and said they were on their way. I told Dilschad I needed to meet them in Heidebergen, and Dilschad realized he thought I had said “Heidelberg” before, which is the stop we got off at, ten minutes away from Heidebergen. He offered to walk me all the way there, and we talked about Spanish and he taught me some words in Kurdish. He was super smart and I honestly took a liking to him.

               When I finally saw Kevin and Adriana in the distance, Dilschad said goodbye and both Kevin and Adriana said “He’s hot!!” I'm working on it.

               I got to Lindsay’s and told the story. We played a story game, my favorite, and drank rum and wine until 3 AM. Masha and I stayed the night while Kevin and Sebastian attempted to bike home. I was in an extremely feel-good mood and started texting my best friends and commenting on everyone’s pictures and tweeting great things about humanity.

               At 8 AM, Adriana woke me up for a day full of volunteering.