Oops!

After I worked out at the gym today, I decided to go to the grocery store to get some more bread to go with the soup I had for dinner. I made my rounds in the store, picking up a few items, and then I found my way to the register. I was out of cash, so I decided to use my new German debit card. I used this very same card yesterday at the same exact store without a hitch. I gave it to the cashier, she swiped it, and I signed the receipt...leaving the store with my purchases.

Today, was a different story. I gave the cashier the card and she swiped it through the machine on my side of the checkout counter. The little screen then prompted me to type in my pin code (I couldn't actually read the screen, but that was the obvious thing to do). I pictured the little slip of paper that we had received in the mail that I scratched off to reveal the pin code. You don't get to choose your own, so you have to remember 4 random digits. I did not bring this important paper with me, however I am definitely a visual person, and I know for sure I was picturing the code correctly, so I typed it in.

It got rejected. Or so I assumed when the cashier started talking to me and pointed for me to try again.

I tried again. She continued speaking to me in German. At this point, I had to fess up and tell her that I don't speak German and I said this to her in German because obviously it's a very important phrase for us to know. Well, she continued talking to me in German, even though (I thought) I made it clear that I didn't understand anything she was saying. I was so lucky to enter into the line of the only cashier who speaks as little English as I speak German when most people have a pretty good mastery of English despite the frequent declaration that they "just speak a little."

She motioned for me to take the items that I carefully packed in my backpack out of my backpack because she realized I could not pay for them when I showed her there was no cash in my wallet. At this point there were two other customers in line behind me getting annoyed that my transaction was taking so long probably wondering what this dumb American woman was doing and why she was taking her groceries out of her bag one by one and putting them back on the counter. The cashier asked her neighbor cashier to ask me in English if I would come back for the items at which point a manager came over and cancelled the transaction since the items had been rung up but not paid for.

At this point, I slinked out of the store leaving my items behind and promptly went home to email John that he should not bring home a big appetite tonight because no, I did not want to return to that store for my items. In fact, I may not return to that store for a few days until my face turns from red back its normal color.

Upon returning home, I also dug out that very important piece of paper which revealed the pin code--the exact same code that I typed in multiple times while trying to make my purchase. Puzzled, I turn the paper over to reveal the recipient name: John Toppel.

Crap. I was vividly remembering John's pin code, not mine.

I will never forget my pin code ever again.