I have a love-hate relationship with Germany. It has many great qualities but also some cultural challenges. I am happy to experience getting to know how normal Germans live most of the time. I thought, in true Jana form, I would compose a like and dislike list regarding their lifestyle:
The Likes:
1. The geography. Most parts of Germany I have been to have been beautiful, not unlike Humboldt. There are lots of trees and greenery. Germans also pride themselves in their gardening and most houses and businesses have beautiful flowers everywhere.
2. The Autobahn. The positive side of driving here is that Germans love to drive fast. The Autobahn is the ultimate freeway where the normal speed limit is 130 kpm which equals 78 mph. My little station wagon feels like the wheels will fall off when I drive that fast and often I will be passed by Mercedes, BMW, or Audis going over 100mph. I cant lie, driving on the Autobahn is really fun, even in a station wagon.
3. General quality of life. Germany has a riduclous amount of holidays, wonderful health benefits, and people seem to take the time to enjoy their lives. My POC told me the other day that even in a business setting a German always takes care of themself first whereas in the states we are more concerned about pleasing our customers or clients. I have yet to see a poor or rich neighborhood. Most of the houses are fairly similar in structure and condition. It appears that everyone is middle class.
4. Architecture. I love old buildings and cobblestone streets so Im in architectural heaven! Sometimes I feel like Im walking around in a Disney movie with the beautiful peaks of the roofs, stone walls, and flower pots. Every town has a church and usually has a town square where no cars are allowed. In general, its a truely beautiful day to day exisitance.
The Dislikes:
1. Lack of personal space and general manners. To be blunt, Germans are pushy. They are impatient and do not have manners like Americans. For example, when I landed at the Frankfurt airport, my foot was run over by a man with his luggage cart and I was sideswiped by a woman and her backpack. In both cases, the people were aware of what they had done, and didnt care or apologize. This is my biggest annoyance. Germans do not have awareness of personal space and will stand exceptionally close to you or cut in front of you. So in turn, I have learned to adapt and have begun to do the same while at the grocery store or about town. Plus it feels good to even the score a bit...
2. Meat. Germans are serious about their meat. In the grocery stores, I would estimate that 30% of the space is for meat and meat products alone. Just today I went shopping and sometimes the sight and smell of so much meat product makes me want to throw up. Especially since most of the time its hard to distinguish what exactly you are looking at. Enough said...Im starting to feel sick just writing about it.
Some interesting things about the grocery stores: you have to pay a euro to "rent" a shopping cart. They have a little slot to put in the Euro which releases the lock and then as you return the cart, the lock pops out your Euro. No plastic bags ever! You always bring your own bags and also must bag your own groceries which can be extremely stressfull as Germans are not patient people! You also must pay cash everywhere. Most restaurants and grocery stores only accept Euros or special German debit cards.
3. Water. When you go into a restaurant in the states you are usually presented, without asking, with a nice glass of ice water. Not here. Not only do they not do this as a curtosey, you have to pay for still water which doesnt even come with ice!
4. Weather. The weather here is extremely unpredictable. You must layer because during the day it will be sunny and hot, humid, and it will rain! I never leave the house or car without my umbrella or rain jacket, even when Im wearing shorts and a tank top.
Just wanted to give you a general sense of the German culture...its very different than home.And since my eyes are still fresh to most of these differences I thought I should document them before I lose perspective.
