Expat Moment #4798

Ich hätte gern Briefmarken, bitte...ich hätte gern Briefmarken, bitte...ich hätte gern...This is me walking down the street, preparing to enter the post office to buy stamps. "I would like some stamps, please." Anytime I enter an Austrian shop, I practice the conversation I intend to initiate upon entering. Of course, this always goes the wrong way. The cashier asks questions I am not prepared for, I am thrown for a loop and get flustered, often too flustered to recover. In the case of the post office, though, I can usually hold my own. The other day, I entered the post office, repeating this over and over in my head and with lips moving. I approached the counter and automatically spit it out, only to be told that I had just asked for stamps in a bank. Yes, Najuma, I did it again. And, yes, that means I did it once before. I would post examples of the bank and post logos but then you would see exactly how ridiculous this mistake was, expat or not.