Hi, meet the pink elephant

I rapidly discovered that my new camera phone only has instructions in German.....so I need to find an online manual in English so I can learn how to do the transfer of images from phone to computer...I have the cable, just not the know-how yet.

So a cool story: I've got some nice classmates and the only way most of us can communicate is to use our newly aquired German skills. This is good practice and also is a forgiving way to have a conversation since we all know we're struggling with it. Despite the struggles I have managed to have a nice conversation with the Iraqi student, Ra'id. I think we avoided each other at first because of the whole Americans-in-Iraq issue. Yesterday we finally acknowledged the pink elephant in the room and actually had a really nice discussion during our 30 minute class break. I would venture to say we are friends now! He is from Baghdad and was sent to Germany (along with his sister) by their uncle to study. Nobody can study in Iraq really with all the mess going on. His sister already has a university degree from Baghdad, but will just do another one here. It's sad, yet good that he has the opportunity. Interesting fact: all university classes in Iraq are taught in English, not Arabic. Since his English is poor this was a better fit for him, however, his sister did her first degree in English grammar. She's in the next level of German classes. It was interesting to hear first-hand from an Iraqi who had only recently left his home country.

Just because politics say things between us should be awkward doesn't mean they are. I never really thought that it should/would be, but this time seemed different somehow.