Polizei!

This morning on Gleimstrasse I was so graciously hailed by the police officer to pull my car over.  "Who me??"  Surely there must be some mistake.  Okay, so I know that I was speeding, I was trying to get to the office quickly, how else can I do that?  I thought, this is perfect, I really don't speak German so maybe they will get frustrated with me and just tell me to leave.  Well, I am not so lucky - at least not this morning.  The police officer, even though he did not speak one word of English, managed to make if very clear to me that I needed to pay him 35 euros because I was driving 49 in a 30 zone.  He was able to make this clear simply by writing the numbers with an "X" through the 30, circling the 49 and putting a Euro sign next to the 35 and pointing an arrow to him.  I will have to remember his simple communication techniques.

I paid him his 35 euros and continued on my way to the office...driving the required 30 KMH - which is about 18 MPH...not very fast at all.  At least in the States they let you drive 25-30 MPH on side streets.  

I have not had a speeding ticket in the US for over 5 years (that's my truth as I remember).  Since I have arrived in Berlin, or really just this week I have had TWO speeding tickets.  Today and on Monday when I was driving to Tegel Airport to pick up Beth.  The traffic was terrible and her flight landed 40 minutes early (when does that EVER happen???).  There was a small segment of road where there was miraculously NO TRAFFIC  on Staatwinklerdamm, so of course I took advantage of this and was driving 80 KMH...all of a sudden there was a paparazzi flash!  At first I thought that someone realized who I am  (: ), then I quickly realized that no, my "paparazzi" are the police and they always seem to take such clear pictures - I hope I was smiling!  I am sure that this ticket from Monday will be coming in the mail any day now with a nice price tag and possibly some points from my license.  

I am becoming worried that before I have the chance to even get my German driver's license I will have used up all my points!  Last Thursday my car was towed...it was very strange, I came out of work at 8:00 PM to go to a business dinner.  I was running late (imagine!) and when I got to the street realized my car wasn't there.  Did I really park on Sellerstrasse?  After running through the details of the morning, I confirmed that Yes, I had parked on Sellerstrasse, right in front of the bus stop.  OOOOPPS!  Maybe I was too close to the bus stop?  I was a little frustrated as I knew that I had to call the police to find out what had happened to my car.  The police here don't have a very good record in my experience of speaking English.  How was I going to communicate all of this coherently?  I admitted that my terrible German would clearly miscommunicate my predicament and only serve to further alarm the police.  So, I very astutely asked our security guard in our building to call for me to find out where I could indeed find my car.  

The security guard called and found that my car had been towed to the corner of Gartenstrasse and Gartenplatz.  I asked the guard how much I would have to pay to get my car, he said nothing.  I was pleased that there would no fine for my poor parking judgement and exclaimed as much.   With a smirk, he quickly set me straight declaring that although my car was just towed to this particular street corner and all I needed were my car keys to pick it up that very soon there would a large bill for my "illegal" parking in the mail.  He estimated the cost to be about 200 Euros.  My sense of relief vanished. 

Oh well, I called a cab, found my car and am still waiting for the ticket in the mail.  

Lessons in Living in Berlin:  SERIOUSLY follow the posted signs for speed limits, parking, etc.  If you don't know what they mean (?!) find out fast or else the bills will really add up quickly!

PBN: It's strange, I almost forgot that it was 9/11 until I got an email from a colleague.  I guess when you are not in the States you aren't reminded as much of these things.  I was glad to be reminded and to remember those we lost that day and to appreciate more the people we have in our lives.