I've been in German-speaking countries for about 10 days now and I finally broke out my German phrase book.

I don't know what took me so long, I guess it just seemed like too much work to flip through the pages mid-conversation so I had gotten used to hand gestures.

But hand gestures were definitely not cutting it. There is a reason Man invented language.

Since looking through my phrase book, one saying in particular has made my life a million times better - "Entschuldigung." It's pronounced "ehnt shool dig oon" and it means "sorry," "excuse me" and "can I get your attention."

This has been SO helpful in so many situations. Like when I wanted to inturrupt this couple to ask them for directions. Or when I drunkenly bumped into that baby stroller. Or when I wanted to pass the people hogging the elevator making me miss my U-Bahn.

This has been such a great addition to my vocabulary - if you can apologize for yourself in a language, I'm convinced you're invincible.