November 21st: A Cultural Observation

Hallo!

In this post, I will be discussing some interesting (or not interesting, depending on what you're in to) cultural aspects I have observed during my time in Germany. I will not be posting any pictures, however. Just text this time, folks. Gonna see if you're paying attention.

I will put these observations into categories and will discuss what I have noticed and my thoughts on them. Some things I love, some things I am indifferent towards, some things I don't care for...

Here we go!

Shopping
- In general, grocery stores are much smaller in Germany than in the States. Which is to be expected. Their food selection shows variety in different areas. For example, their selection of sodas and snacks are less varied. But they have seemingly hundreds of different kinds of cheeses. Also hundred of teas and coffees. And many stores have their own bakeries because Germans value fresh bread. I am indifferent.

- Many, many grocery stores (and other kinds of stores) have a small, automatic gate at the entrance that opens up when you walk up to it. Once you're "in the store," the gate closes behind you and will not open for you to leave. This is to prevent shoplifting. Instead, you HAVE to exit through a check-out lane. Which I think would be really awkward if you didn't buy anything. Basically, I don't care for this. It makes me feel trapped.

- Speaking of check-out lanes, the registers are a perfect example of ruthless, German efficiency. The cashier MIGHT say hello to you, but will begin throwing your things over the scanner and towards your cart. While this is happening, you need to be shoveling these items into your cart. If not, you will end up with a massive pile of your groceries and a very annoyed look from your cashier, and maybe even the people in line. At no point will the cashier smile or ask you how you are or if you found everything. I'm shocked German cashiers haven't been replaced with machines--they basically already are and you wouldn't have to pay them.

- One thing I absolutely love is that tax has already been included in the price. And this is the case for any product except plastic bottles--you have to pay about 15 cents extra, but you get this money back if you return the bottle. For example, if you see a shirt that says "10 Euros," you're going to give the cashier 10 Euros and be done. If it says 4.99, you're going to pay 4.99. It just makes it easier to figure, I think. But I do think it's silly they do this and still have prices that end in .99. Just spare me the trouble of that penny and make it one cent more.

Restaurants
- If you go to a sit-down restaurant, you will not be greeted by a hostess. You just walk in and sit at a table. A waiter will notice you and come to you. When you order, they put-in the order on a cool handheld machine they have with them and the order goes to the kitchen. They use this machine when you pay at the table, too. The waiter just has a pouch filled with money and will make change right there on the spot. It is also not MANDATORY that you tip the waiters. It is polite to tip a little bit, but they do not depend on tips like in America.

- There are some places where you order at the front and sit down and they bring you your food. These are mostly the Turkish kebab places. Then when you pay, you just go to the front and remind them what you ate. I have noticed in Ulm and other cities that these Turkish-owned kebab places are very, very popular. I can think of at least 6 in Ulm alone. They also usually serve gyros and individual pizzas. Quite the combination.

- Free refills don't really exist in Germany (except in the next point). Neither does free water with your meal. I suppose I can understand the free refill thing, but REALLY? No free water with your meal? Something about this just irks me.

- You can get free refills at a soda fountain in some fast food places--namely KFC and McDonald's. Even then, the selection is limited to 5 drinks (3 of which are Coke variations). The menu at McDonald's is also a little different than the US menu. It has fewer options and the options they do have just seem like the exact same thing. Like, what's the difference between the McChicken and the Chickenburger? I couldn't tell you. They look the exact same. Although they do have McBaguettes, which I think is hilarious.

- Germans stole "bon appetite" from the French. They say "Guten Appetite." It just sounds a little silly to me.

Language
- In Germany, children start learning English as early as 1st grade in school. I have found that almost everyone speaks enough English to communicate with me if I need help or something. I have also learned that "I speak a little English" means "I can communicate clearly and fluently." Germans seem to be very self-conscious when it comes to their English abilities. Maybe they think as a native speaker, I am just waiting for them to make mistakes. Language is about communicating, not using "perfect" language.

- As I mentioned earlier with the "Guten Appetite," Germans have adapted some French words and sayings. I cannot give any specific examples at the moment, but believe me. I find this interesting considering France and Germany are kind of rivals, I figured Germans wouldn't want to take French words. France, on the other hand, has a government organization that controls the dictionary and translates everything that comes to France so they don't use "foreign words."

- German has an interesting aspect of the language called compound words. A compound word is essentially two or more nouns slammed together to describe something in lieu of prepositions. For example, the word "Hähnchenbrustfilet." This is essentially three words: Hähchen (chicken), Brust (breast), Filet (filet). This has led to both confusion and enjoyment as I walk down the streets and see words that are 15+ letters. Many Germans have complained about this.

- German numbers are also an interesting area. I know many foreign languages do this same thing, but it still annoys me. Each number is essentially original (though 13-19 is debatable) until 20. From there, instead of saying "twenty-one," they say "one and twenty," "two and twenty." This is, of course, a compound word: einundzwanzig.

- I didn't know where else to put this factoid, but the Germans have a cute word for gloves: Handschuhe. This translates literally to "hand shoes." Isn't that just adorable?

Driving 
Note: this area has caused many frustrations
- Traffic lights. In the US, you stop at the white line (or a little past it, whatever) and you can comfortably look forward and up a little bit to see your traffic light hanging on the opposite side of the intersection. Neat. It's right in front of you and easy to see. In Germany, you stop at the white line and you look forward and all you see is cars looking back at you. This is because traffic lights are on your side of the intersection. There is usually one directly above you (mostly for the cars behind you) and one of the right and/or left on the sidewalk. This means you have to twist your neck and maneuver yourself to look past the rear view mirror or any other obstacles. And people tell me, "Well, you have to stop AT the white line. You can't go past it like you do in America." Joke's on them: I do stop at the white line. I've even started stopping several feet in front of it so I don't have to turn my head like an owl.

- Manual transmissions. As you probably know, almost everyone in Germany (and Europe [and the rest of the world]) drives a stick-shift. I learned a little bit before coming and having to drive every day has made me, I dare say, quite proficient at it. However, this does not mean I enjoy it. The invention of the automatic transmission was mankind's triumph. People may say it makes us lazy, but so does a lot of technology, and they're not complaining about that. Maybe I'm just a spoiled princess. I don't care, I'm looking forward to driving an automatic again.

- Cryptic yielding rules. In certain areas of the city (most residential areas, but it seems unclear to me), you must forfeit the right-of-way to the person on your right regardless of the intersection. Cruising along at 30 km/h and you approach and intersection with no yield or stop sign. Suddenly, a car on your right (who wants to turn left in front of you) slowly inches its way to the intersection at 5 km/h. How long does it take Sean to rage at the fact that he has to slam on the brakes so His Majesty can make a left turn? Come on.

- Nebulous speed limits. At every entrance to the residential area, it says "30 Zone." Fine, got it. As soon as you leave this zone, there is a nonexistent sign that tells you the speed limit in the town. I shouldn't have to ask a local what the speed limit is in an area. The only place the speed limit is clearly stated is on country roads between towns and the Autobahn. I'm just used to frequent reminders and notices of changes.

- Big Brother. In Germany, there are traffic cameras everywhere trying to catch you speeding. In the cities, on the country roads, on some parts of the Autobahn... If the radar on the camera catches you speeding, you will see a flash and you will receive a letter with a speeding ticket within the week. Additionally, it is common (I am told) for police officers to park in civilian cars on the side of the road (in parking spots) in civilian clothes and to clock your speed and take a picture and send you a speeding ticket in the mail. Essentially, Big Brother is Watching.

- Not entirely about driving, but the radio in Germany is very interesting to me. I am not sure if I have explained it in an earlier post, but I'll describe it again. The radio will have 5 solid minutes of German commercials. Okay, pretty normal. They will then play 4 songs in a row from the US. And maybe one song in German, French, or Spanish. Then a little talking in German, then another English song. Then more commercials. The ratio of US songs to German (or even European) songs is quite one-sided. Also, the radio does not censor profanity in any language. This is because they believe the artist used those words for a reason and does not feel it is their place to censor. I really like this, actually. I have always thought this kind of censorship was a bit much. It just gives profanity more power by making it so stigmatized.

Stereotypes Regarding the USA
Note: Many of these come from a conversation course at Mortimer in which we discussed stereotypes
- "Americans are crazy." Some Germans believe that the American way of life is seen as a bit strange and we are lunatics. Based on the conversation about this point, I believe this stems from Americans being more willing to be open in public and to groups. It seems like Americans are more willing to be goofy and loud in public and to let people know that they are having a good time. These outward emotions seem to make the Germans a little uncomfortable.

- "All Americans own guns." Frankly, not far from the truth. The Germans are aware that gun ownership is big in the US. In Germany, owning a gun is virtually impossible, it seems. They thought it was strange when I said the right to bare arms was put in the Constitution basically to allow people to protect themselves from the government. But that was how the US was born, really. We had to fight against a government to gain independence.

- "You can't skateboard? But you're American!" An excellent quote from my host mom. And not a stereotype I expect to hear.

- "Cowboy hats." Self-explanatory. Gave me a good chuckle.

- "Hamburgers and hot dogs." I was very quick to respond with "Schnitzel and Bratwurst." We all agreed that we all enjoyed our stereotypical foods. No harm, no foul.

- "Americans are lazy." Yeah, yeah. We know.



Unfortunately, that is all I can remember at the moment. Or care to write because I am pretty tired and this post is already late. Whoops--things have been a little hectic the past couple of days.

Tomorrow morning I leave for PARIS. I am very excited to explore the City of Love with Becky (take that as you will) for the next week. And we just found out that she gets work off all day Thanksgiving. We will be going to many, many tourist spots and such. Hopefully I will be taking lots of pictures (that's the plan, at least) and will be able to write a couple of good blog posts about my trip. I think that should be easy. So chances are good that my next post will be coming to you from Paris. How cool is that?

Until next time, here is a quote:

"Preservation of one's own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures." 
- Cesar Chavez

November 14th: Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Hello!

So, I feel like I should apologize. It has been two weeks since my last blog post. Two. Weeks. And frankly, that is unforgivable. I am not sure if this post will be long, but I suppose we shall see. I will get you up to speed and talk about some future plans.

I think this post took awhile for me to write because many things are becoming so ordinary and I am falling into a rhythm. Earlier, everything was so new and I was traveling every weekend. Now I have a schedule and that schedule has some variations, but nothing too wild. This causes time to fly by rather quickly. I blink and the weekend is over. I blink again and it's Wednesday.

In this blog post, I will discuss two big events that have occurred/that are occurring. The first one is the local English club/school called Mortimer's. The second thing, and the title of this post, is my trip to the very scenic Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

Just two streets away from my house in Germany is a small business called Mortimer's English Club. My host mom knows the owner and teacher, Bernd. I met Bernd at a Stammtish (bonus points if you remember what that is) he was having for students of his school. Almut invited me and I got to speak with some of his students and they were excited to be speaking with a native English-speaker. I was then introduced to Bernd who is a young, charismatic fellow. Frankly, I thought he was a native speaker when I first met him. He was happy to meet me and happy I came to talk to some of his students. He then invited me to come and attend a course at his class to see how it operates and to offer my services (I suppose) as a native speaker.

This was several weeks ago. I attended the evening conversation course (there is a different conversation course every weekday at 6 PM) and had an absolute blast. The classes are usually between 3-6 people. And I was surprised at the average age of the students in these classes. In the first class I went to on Wednesday, roughly half of the class was 60 years or older--with the oldest being 73, I believe. They were incredibly warm and inviting. And although self-conscious of their English (which is honestly quite good), they were very happy to speak with me and to ask me questions about the USA and what I thought about Germany and everything. It was such a good time that I agreed to come back the next week. And after the next week, Bernd convinced me (although it didn't take much convincing considering how much fun I was having) to attend the evening conversation course whenever I could. And I have tried to do just that.

Doing this, I have met many people spanning various ages (17-73), professions, reasons for learning English, and levels of English competency. I have learned a good amount about their culture and the "average" German's view of America. In fact, in the first class I attended, Bernd threw out his lesson plan and we did an impromptu lesson about different stereotypes and conceptions (or misconceptions) of Germany and the USA. It was quite and interesting experience hearing what they had to say and sharing what I believe to be commonly held German stereotypes by Americans. (Only representing my country--no big deal.)


Last Saturday I decided to take a Saturday trip to a town called Rothenburg ob der Tauber. First, let me tell you a little bit about the town and then I will show you some pictures. The reason the name is so long is because Germany contains several Rothenburg's. And in order to tell them apart, there is a second part to the name. In this town, they added "ob der Tauber," which means "over the Tauber [a river]." It is often shorted to just "Rothenburg odT." The town is incredibly old. I believe dating back to the 14th Century or so. It was built on a plateau overlooking a valley through which the Tauber flows. The town is surrounded by a large wall as a kind of fortress to protect its citizens and royalty.

Due to its beautiful setting and historic buildings, the Nazi Party in the 1930's considered it to be the ideal German town. It was essentially put up on a pillar to be admired by all Germans. During WWII, there was only minor bombing (compared to the other cities I have visited like Augsburg where large portions of the city were destroyed) because the US general understood the historical importance of this city and ordered it not be shelled with artillery. When the German soldiers occupying it realized the Allies would win, the commander went against Hitler's orders of fighting to the bitter end and threw down their weapons in order to preserve the town. To me, this is an incredible demonstration of both sides understanding the importance of history and not wanting to destroy it.

Now, a little about my trip (though there really isn't much to talk about...oops). I woke up QUITE early to shower and get what I needed. I rode my bike in the cold darkness of morning to the Neu-Ulm Bahnhof, bought my ticket, and jumped on my train three minutes later. Like my trip to Füssen with Becky and my trip to Freiburg, this trip involved changing trains many times. Luckily, I had a small index card in my wallet where I wrote out what time I would be arriving at what stations and what platform my next train would be on, so I was never in a hurry and always knew what was next. In total, the trip to Rothenburg odT was 3 hours one-way. Similarly to my trip to Füssen, the closer I got to Rothenburg, the more Asians I saw. It's interesting, really.

When I arrived at the tiny, tiny Bahnhof in Rothenburg (only one track that only goes to one other station), I was underwhelmed. I expected to be greeted almost immediately by this beautiful city. Instead, I was greeted by a very modern town. I walked to a street corner that I thought might be the way to the scenic section of the building and a German man came up to me and asked me (in German) if I knew where this particular building was. I shrugged and said, "I don't know" in English...it slipped my mind how to say that in German at the moment. He laughed and asked if I knew what he said and I told him yes and I translated the question into English, but that I didn't know where that building was. He then completely understood that I was here for the tourist part of the city. I asked him if he knew where it was and his answer was very simple: he pointed at a group of Asian tourists reading papers and said, "just follow the Chinese." We shared a laugh and I followed his advice. Of course, following the Asian tourists took me straight to the city.

One of the multiple entrances to the walled town.

What most of the streets looked like.

Had to grab a little snack when I arrived. The thing on the far left is a local specialty called a Schneeball, which means "snowball." It's a pasty made from strips of dough compounded together...or something. Pretty good.

I had no final destination or things that I HAD to see. So like my trip to Freiburg, I was armed with my phone camera and a desire to see some beautiful buildings and to see what Rothenburg has to offer. I also had a good gift ideas for my family back home, so I made sure to buy a couple of things. So instead of telling a story about my day (because it was basically just me walking around and admiring things), I am just going to post all the pictures and comment if I have something to say. Just like my day, I want you to just enjoy the sights.

Lots of colorful buildings.

These towers can be seen around the town. They used to guard the major roads in and out of the city.

The Rathaus. Unfortunately, they were doing construction (like the rest of Germany). But because it's a popular tourist spot, they put up a tarp that looks like the building, as you can see at the bottom of the building. 

Nice try, Rothenburg.

The side of the Rathaus and the bell tower connected to it.

One view from the outer wall.

It was surprisingly hilly.

Large church (for the town, small compared to the Münster and other churches). They wanted me to pay for admission. I'm sorry....but no.

A semi-creepy, Jesus-y figure outside the church.

People like to rub his finger for luck.

More colorful buildings.

This store NAILED their target audience. Good work.

Frankly, I don't remember taking this photo.

Another view from the wall.

The road split in two. This is a popular view of the city.

A smaller church.

Part of the fortification around the town.

You can walk on the wall and see the town from a higher vantage point. Very small walkway, though.

A picture from the wall.

Another tower and gate.

A view from the wall.

There was a part of the town that was basically a nice garden overlooking the valley.

Picture taken from the train back home. Bavaria is just killin' it.

Selfie on the wall overlooking the valley. Yeah, I'm rockin' the tourist backpack.

As for the future, this weekend is very busy. The magazine my host mom publishes is released once every two months. Therefore, I have to stay home and watch the kids all weekend while my host parents spend all day finalizing the newest issue of the magazine. So I probably won't have any pictures from places I go because I won't be going anywhere.

The Wednesday evening class at Mortimer's is also having a raclette dinner. A raclette is a grill that sits at the table and you melt cheese and heat up meat and other foods. It sounds similar to a fondue, but is a little different. I will be able to tell you more about it when it happens, but I am excited. This came about because we were discussing cooking and someone mentioned they had a raclette meal and I asked them what it was. We were talking about it for a bit and then Bernd suggested we bring some raclettes to class. People were assigned to bring certain things (I'm in charge of wine) and we are going to speak English and make some delicious food.

This upcoming week, I am going to try really hard to make a blog post about German culture. I want to discuss various aspects of German culture that I have found interesting during my time here. Many of these things I hope you will find interesting, too. It will consist of little things that you might not think of to bigger things that are hard to miss.

And for some very exciting plans for the future, I depart for Paris on the 23rd! I am very excited to spend the week in Paris with Becky. While she works during the day, I will be doing a little exploring on my own and we will meet up later in the day. There are a couple of things we are doing together, though. We both want to go see Versailles and I believe we are going to climb up the Eiffel Tower. You know, tourist stuff. I am excited that I will get to spend Thanksgiving in Paris AND with an American. Due to lack of kitchen in Becky's apartment, I have offered to take us to dinner on Thanksgiving. My way of repaying her for hosting me.

I will try really, really hard to write my next blog post about culture next week. I don't want to make any promises, though...things happen, you know?

Thank you for reading! Sorry again about the long time between posts... Hope you enjoyed.