We moved to Germany a month ago. I feel like my eyes have been opened wide. Besides sharing our adventures with family and friends another goal of doing this blog was to look back months and years from now to see how far we have come. I thought 1 month into living here, would be a good time to reflect back on the craziness, strangeness and pure beauty of what I have noticed since being here.
I will start with our experiences on this base then move onto Germany itself:
I thought being on base here would be just like any other base in the US. It is in many ways. Signs are in English, you can find almost all your american food and household goods here (Lysol, Pantene, Kraft, Dove, General Mills, etc), parking spaces are bigger and parking lots are filled with SUVs and minivans and most of the people are American. Sounds like an easy transition, right? Now let's look at some of the differences we have to deal with. First we have certain items that are rationed. Want to buy coffee, cigarettes, alcohol? OK but you must hand the cashier your ration card and it shows how much you have purchased that month. I'm not sure if they allow a lot or not because those are items we don't buy (well alcohol but that's on a rare occasion). I'm not too worried about ever going over my allowed amount of any of those. Another thing rationed, gas. You have to register you vehicle and you are given a gas allowance to use in a month depending on your specific car. So our little, tiny clown car is allowed 400L a month. When our Ford Escape arrives we will likely have a bigger allowance for that vehicle. There is no sharing your ration between cars, no roll overs of unused gas...you get what you get and don't throw a fit! Speaking of gas, it's crazy expensive here! We got gas off base this weekend and we filled up our clown car and it cost almost $60...that was only for 1/2 a tank! Now we are very fortunate because gas on base cost the same as is in the states...cheap. We are also allowed to go to a specific German gas station, Esso, and fill up at the cost of base prices. So we really didn't pay $60 (we would have had we not had our Esso card). Another tidbit on gas stations on and off base...no pay at the pump. We have to walk inside to pay...UGH!! Seriously, we stepped back to 1990 when we moved here! One last difference on base but this also applies off base, there are no pennies. Sunday Joslyn took her chore money to the BX and bought a pillow that cost $9.99. She gave the cashier 2 $5 bills. The cashier said, "Your total is $10" although the register clearly said, $9.99. So Joslyn got her receipt and no penny!
Now onto our experiences in the economy (off base):
When we first got here and went off base I remember the looks people gave us (remember my story about the dirty looks I got in the ER waiting room?). Well that happens everywhere! We all stare, just admit it, we all do it. Now when we get caught staring we immediately turn our head as if we weren't staring for the last 3 minutes. Nope, not here. They don't turn their heads when they get caught staring, it turns more into a stare down. A very awkward stare down. I've tried the nod of head, little smile towards them...nothing. They continue to stare. The stare is usually accompanied by a very serious, non emotion face. Not a glare, just a plain old stare. Actually my first experience of this stare was in the airport from Seattle to Frankfurt. There was a lady who was a few rows away from us in the waiting area. She stared and stared at me and the kids. The girls weren't behaving too bad so I just figured she was a mean old lady who didn't know how to smile or anything. That was until her husband and friends sat down next to her. Then all 4 of them were chatting away and she was laughing and smiling...then she looked at us...smile is gone and stare was back. That lady's stare will always be stuck in my head but really we get those stares all the time. I am just now starting to feel better about it and realize it's not because of anything I'm doing. I am going to get those stares during my whole time here and I can't take it personal. I have talked with other military wives here and they have said the same thing. You just have to realize that is their culture and something they do (not everyone does it but a good portion do) and I will just brush it off.
We may have had some experiences with grouchy, staring people but I can also say the locals are soooo nice. When we, ok Josh, struggles ordering us food it usually ends up with everyone laughing at us and them laughing at themselves for their poor English. We went off base to a T-Mobile store to buy our cell phones. The lady was so nice and spoke excellent English, as many Germans do. Something we have seen time and time again is how they apologize for their poor English when they are practically speaking fluently! We assure them that they are doing great and we apologize for knowing very, very,very little German. Everyone we have asked help from, ordered from, etc have been so nice and that makes up for the awkward stares we get from others!
Before we moved here I had read somewhere that it is mandatory in German schools to learn English. Now I really don't know that for sure but it makes sense because most people know some English. I joke that they have to learn English because how else would they understand the music that is played on the radio and stores. Yes, that's right American music is played. Get in your car and you can hear a range of R&B, country, 70's, 80's and pop all on the same station. Then a commercial or VJ comes on and it's all in German. I read on someone else's blog awhile ago about Germany-the 80's are just as good now as they were 25 years ago! You walk into a grocery store, mall or restaurant...English. Still not sure why that is but I have yet to hear any German music.
It stinks here. Really it does. It stinks. Like poo. Walking outside you want to take cover when you walk by a sewer cover...EEWWWW! Our hotel room stinks. The sewer smells come up from the drains (no mom vinegar and baking soda did not help), its just a smell that comes and go goes here. I say it's very similar to the Aroma of Tacoma (my Washingtonians understand that smell). When driving in the car the smell will come and go as we drive along. When we smell that smell now we just say, "Germany farted."
The driving here could take up another 4 blogs so I will make it short. It's easy, it's hard, it's complicated. I think I'm getting used to most of it but I'm sure there will be many things I will never understand...like their rules for right of way at unmarked intersections. If you want to check out the differences just look at this website which is used to help study for our German license. See how good you do :)
http://usareurpracticetest.com/ Speed cameras are placed in random spots around corners, hiding by trees, etc. The autobahn is crazy. A lot of it has specific speeds (not that many people follow it) and then there are the stretches of no speed limit. That's scary. As soon as the no restriction sign is posted people floor it and are flying by so fast you often wonder if it really was a car that just passed by! To ease my dad's fears about his girls on the autobahn I will say our clown car can't go real fast so I think the most Josh has done is 130-140 KM (about 75-85 MPH) and that was to pass someone. We all giggled this weekend when Josh was passed by a Smart Car!! Oh and Smart Cars are HUGE here. I like to say replace all the Prius' in Seattle with Smart Cars and that is what Germany looks like :) Mercedes Benz and BMW are very common here too. In fact the 3 taxi rides we have had were all in newer Benz's. Not too shabby for a cab!
Now onto a favorite of ours and a very popular fast food place here. Doner Kebab.
Walking around Germany you are sure to find a big selection of these stores that have hanging meat from their ceilings. They shave the meat off with a knife and it is served various ways. You can have it in a pita, by itself, on pizza and it's usually served with a salad and french fries. It is so good. Not good for you I'm sure but good none the less. To help you understand how common these fast food joints are I will give some numbers. There are roughly 13,000 McDonald's restaurants in the US (we all know how easy it is to find a Mickey D's). I couldn't find a specific number as of 2012 but in 2010 there were over 15,000 Doner Kebab restaurants in Germany. Oh did I mention that Germany is roughly the same size as the state of Montana?! Needless to say we can always find a place to eat last minute here!
I think I will end this with the beauty I have witnessed. If you are my friend on facebook then you have already seen many of our pictures of this beautiful country. I'm still in awe of it. My breath gets taken away every time we leave base and drive. There is something I love so much about the looks of the villages surrounded by all the greenery, all of Gods beautiful work is shown. When we drive somewhere we typically get lost and our GPS takes on some old back road which is what we love. This weekend during one of our detours Josh said, "It's like they build the roads around the land." It's so true and so completely opposite of what we do in the states. I'm truly amazed at the beauty of this country. I can't wait until fall when the leaves turn colors and even frost will appear. I have a feeling it will still be breathtaking.
There are still so many more experiences and eye-opening culture shocks we have witnessed. Here is a link to another military wife's blog and she puts a list of culture differences that were collected from various sources. Being here only a month and I can say that I have witnessed and agree with almost every single one of the listed items.
http://lifelessonsmilitarywife.com/?p=270
