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Nov. 23rd, 2012 08:50 pm
Schwarzer Freitag
Turns out when you blow more than $100 of your boyfriend's money at the Sweets Castle in the Chicago Christkindlmarket, they throw in free toasted almonds for him. Who knew? (As I was leaving I rationalised the expenditure by telling myself most of the items would be gifted to others, but that still doesn't come close to justifying spending more on chocolate and marzipan than some people will spend on everyone on their list.)
It was a reward to me for making good on a promise I made years ago and FINALLY buying him a phone. I put it off so long that the phone had to be smart, though even I wouldn't've predicted that the Old Man would pop for an iPhone. He joked beforehand that the salesmen would think I was such a nice man for helping my grandfather bring himself into the 21st century--but then one of them asked to see my phone and I was caught out.
Unfortunately, it wasn't the seamless experience promised in all the ads. He forgot the password to his (relatively new) personal account and couldn't set it up, which means he couldn't create and Apple ID, which means he couldn't access most of the cooler features. We did, however, have a successful field test of the camera function. FaceTime was a more qualified experience: we could see Nuphy well enough, but we couldn't really hear him.
The phone stores, btw, were relatively sane, even as late as 3:30. The Christkindlmarket, on the other hand, was a madhouse. Plus it was harder to use my German than in previous years: even at the German-owned concessions, the ratio of locals to imports seems to have dropped to about 50-50. The servers at the schnitzel half of the Schnitzel-House were American; on the potato side, they were all Germans, but only the fry cook understood "Bambes". And at the Sweets Castle, it seems we got the one German clerk. (Also the cutest, so there was some benefit to everyone.)
It was a reward to me for making good on a promise I made years ago and FINALLY buying him a phone. I put it off so long that the phone had to be smart, though even I wouldn't've predicted that the Old Man would pop for an iPhone. He joked beforehand that the salesmen would think I was such a nice man for helping my grandfather bring himself into the 21st century--but then one of them asked to see my phone and I was caught out.
Unfortunately, it wasn't the seamless experience promised in all the ads. He forgot the password to his (relatively new) personal account and couldn't set it up, which means he couldn't create and Apple ID, which means he couldn't access most of the cooler features. We did, however, have a successful field test of the camera function. FaceTime was a more qualified experience: we could see Nuphy well enough, but we couldn't really hear him.
The phone stores, btw, were relatively sane, even as late as 3:30. The Christkindlmarket, on the other hand, was a madhouse. Plus it was harder to use my German than in previous years: even at the German-owned concessions, the ratio of locals to imports seems to have dropped to about 50-50. The servers at the schnitzel half of the Schnitzel-House were American; on the potato side, they were all Germans, but only the fry cook understood "Bambes". And at the Sweets Castle, it seems we got the one German clerk. (Also the cutest, so there was some benefit to everyone.)