das Kino - the movie theater

Brian and I went to see Sherlock Holmes on Tuesday night. It was a big deal for us because, even though there are 2 movie theaters in the middle of Hannover, almost all the movies they show are dubbed into German. Every couple of weeks they show an "original version" movie (i.e. in English) on a Tuesday night. I guess Germans are used to seeing dubbed movies but I think they are silly. It's like you have two actors on screen, you can't see one and you can't hear the other, and what they are supposed to be saying doesn't match up with how their mouths move.

This was only the second movie we'd seen and the first time we'd been t to the big multiplex theater. When I went to buy the tickets, the cashier asked me "pakett or loge". I must have stared at her blankly because she asked again. My thought process at that point was 'I need to choose one. I don't know what they are. It has something to do with seating. Pakett sounds like a package so I won't choose that one.'  "Loge," I told her with great confidence. It turns out that we had assigned seats, and I had guessed well. Loge are all of the seats in the rear half of the theater. Pakett are the seats in the rows closest to the screen. Pakett might be cheaper, I am not sure.

Assigned seats at a movie theater are a good idea. Then you don't need ushers to help people find a place, no one leaves one empty seat in the middle of a row, and couples don't stand on the stairs arguing about where to sit. The Germans are very organized that way.

The other challenge: popcorn. It smelled like a movie theater in there. You could hear it popping. We hadn't eaten good salty popcorn for months (thank you to the family members who sent us kernels for Christmas. We will be doing a lot of popping at home). Germans have popcorn, but it's sweet. It's like kettle corn but not as good, and paired with a Coke it will make your teeth hurt. So Brian and I had the following conversation:
"We should get soda and popcorn"
"But what if it's sweet? They eat the sweet kind here"
"It smells salty"
"Ok maybe it is salty. But what if it's sweet, do you still want some?"
"No, I don't want any sweet popcorn"
"Then do you want anything else?"
"No. I eat popcorn and drink soda at the movies. I don't want anything else."
This went on for a while. I will let you guess who said what.

Finally we decided that I would ask. So I waited in line and formulated the question in my head to ask the boy at the concession stand whether the popcorn was sweet or salty. I did ok asking the question, but could not understand his answer, which he repeated about 3 times. So, feeling defeated, I just ordered a Coke. Then I noticed that there were two bins of popcorn and realized he was telling me that I could choose which kind I wanted. So I ordered a salty popcorn also. He did not make fun of me, for which I am grateful.

We enjoyed the movie. It wasn't as good as the first one but it was still a lot of fun to watch. Since our Coke  had no ice in it, it was warm by the time we'd eaten half the popcorn, but our salt cravings were satisfied. And Sherlock Holmes was speaking, with his own mouth, in English. It was a successful outing.