Well culture shock has been getting the best of me for the past few weeks and I decided to try to find out why. I mean, I'm living in Germany, a "western" culture in modern Europe, with plenty of similarities to life in North America. It's not like I'm living in a grass hut in an African desert or on the 50th floor of a Tokyo apartment building. What's the big deal?
Over the next few entries I will lay out a few of the components of daily life here in Germany that are almost the same as at home, but just different enough to be unfamiliar. After all, all culture shock is, "is the absence of many of the familiar cues encountered at home and the substitution of them with other cues that are strange" (Hardin, Sojourners, 47). Sounds easy enough to talk yourself out of...and it is easy, until one day it comes back to bite you in the butt.
Food/Eating Out
1. No free refills on soft drinks at restaurants. Choose if you want a small or large and then pace yourself if you don't want to pay for another one.
2. Lunch is the main meal of the day. Supper is usually sandwiches and finger foods.
3. Germans take their time at restaurants. Meals can be 2-3 hours long. No "eating and running" here.
4. If you want to pay your waiter, you have to be VERY clear about it. They will not bring your bill until you have either asked for it or made very clear eye contact, usually while raising your arm to signal.
5. When the waiter brings the bill you pay right then. No setting it down and leaving; instead you look at the total, add a very small amount as a tip (it is usually included anyway) and tell the waiter clearly how much you intend to pay. He will make change right there at the table.
6. Once you pay, your meal is over. You are expected to leave.
7. There is no such thing as getting a coffee "to go". Germans sit and enjoy their coffee and would never think about taking it with them.
8. Travel mugs are nowhere to be found. The closest thing you can buy here is a thermos.
9. Only on a very rare occasion will you see a German eating or drinking in public (outside a restaurant). The few times I have done this I have gotten stares from passerbys.
10. If you ever find yourself in a fast food restaurant (they are hard to find) don't be fooled by the familiar foods and smells. When you're finished your meal you are expected to clean up after yourself by collecting all your garbage onto the tray, and instead of dumping it into a trash can, sliding it into a type of "tray shelf" (for lack of a better term). It's extra tricky if you haven't finished your drink and it won't fit.
11. Quarter Pounders are non-existant here. Europe is on the metric system so you'll have to settle for a "McRoyale" (John Travolta also noticed this in Pulp Fiction). I assume they taste the same.
Cinemas/Movies
12. In Dresden, an English movie plays once a week at two seperate theatres, and if you want to go to a movie but neither of them interest you, tough. The week you want to see both of them, chances are they are playing on the same night and you're out of luck again.
13. Movie popcorn is not limited to one kind here. You have the option of sweet (somewhat similar to kettle corn) or salty, and if you want my advice (thanks to Robert Stolte), convince the lady to mix it half and half. Add a few crispy M&Ms, and you've got yourself an awesome movie treat.
14. Most Hollywood flicks don't arrive in the theatres here the same time they come out in the States. Not to mention when it finally comes out on DVD it takes a couple months longer too.
More to come soon!
Monday, February 28, 2005
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Why Did the Polish Tree Cross the Road?
When I was in Poland over New Year's, my family spoiled me rotten. I only knew a couple of them from before this trip, but was immediately welcomed by the whole group upon arriving. A week was planned of sight-seeing, trips to nearby Krakow and Wroclaw, and skiing in the Czech Republic! Not to mention I learned the most important Polish phrase ever: "Jestem feyna Kanadieska dziewucha" (I am a nice Canadian girl) followed by a close second: "Jestem glodna" (I'm hungry). I had a wonderful time and am looking forward to visiting again in the summer.
The day we went to Krakow started out fairly normal. My (third?) cousins Adam and Michael picked me up early and we drove the 2.5 hours to the city. We saw this AMAZING salt mine and walked around the city center for a couple hours, taking in the architecture and trying to find the significant buildings. Krakow is a cool place!
We headed home around 7pm, well past dark, and traveled most of the way back on a main highway. But the last leg of the trip was more in the backwoods, where the roads are narrow, 2 laned, and not likely to have any lines painted on them. It was fun whipping through these curvy, dark back roads at medium-high speeds (don't worry Mom, only medium-high) and things were going along very routinely. It had been a full day of activity and I was getting tired and ready to be back and rest.
As we picked up speed after we exited another small town we entered a forest area. As I exhaustedly watched the road up ahead, it suddenly changed from its flat, normal self. We came to a quick stop to find a tree, flat out across the road, that had apparently gave up on remaining upright. It was a fairly large tree, but it seemed to have smashed when it impacted the highway and was in convenient pieces for us to drag off to the side of the road. It was not a stormy night, nor even windy if I recall, so it was especially odd that it had chosen this particular time to just fall over. This road wasn't highly traveled, but there were enough cars on it to conclude that it had probably happened fairly recently being that we were the first on the scene...what are the chances!
So I guess maybe it was just trying to get to the other side...?
The day we went to Krakow started out fairly normal. My (third?) cousins Adam and Michael picked me up early and we drove the 2.5 hours to the city. We saw this AMAZING salt mine and walked around the city center for a couple hours, taking in the architecture and trying to find the significant buildings. Krakow is a cool place!
We headed home around 7pm, well past dark, and traveled most of the way back on a main highway. But the last leg of the trip was more in the backwoods, where the roads are narrow, 2 laned, and not likely to have any lines painted on them. It was fun whipping through these curvy, dark back roads at medium-high speeds (don't worry Mom, only medium-high) and things were going along very routinely. It had been a full day of activity and I was getting tired and ready to be back and rest.
As we picked up speed after we exited another small town we entered a forest area. As I exhaustedly watched the road up ahead, it suddenly changed from its flat, normal self. We came to a quick stop to find a tree, flat out across the road, that had apparently gave up on remaining upright. It was a fairly large tree, but it seemed to have smashed when it impacted the highway and was in convenient pieces for us to drag off to the side of the road. It was not a stormy night, nor even windy if I recall, so it was especially odd that it had chosen this particular time to just fall over. This road wasn't highly traveled, but there were enough cars on it to conclude that it had probably happened fairly recently being that we were the first on the scene...what are the chances!
So I guess maybe it was just trying to get to the other side...?
Monday, February 7, 2005
Scare-dy Cat, Part Deux
"And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." -Philippians 4:7
Amy is the jumpiest person I know.
The other night I was almost asleep when the phone rang. I sauntered sleepily across the hall to where Amy was, watching The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and it didn't even occur to me that she wouldn't hear me enter the room. But because of the angle she was sitting at, my super cool new headphones that she was wearing (that block out any surrounding sound from the wearer), and the intense nature of the film, she made no indication acknowledging my entrance into the room. I had to take advantage of this prime opportunity.
Ok so it MIGHT have had something to do with the thrilling scene she was watching, but regardless, when I quickly jumped toward her while frantically waving my arms (no sound was necessary because of my super cool headphones, remember) she quickly drew her arms up around her face, curled into a ball as best she could (with the laptop on her lap), took in a huge gasp of air, while simultaneously jumping about a half a foot off the couch. And to think, all I wanted to tell her was that her sister was on the phone...! :) mwahaha
Amy is the jumpiest person I know.
The other night I was almost asleep when the phone rang. I sauntered sleepily across the hall to where Amy was, watching The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and it didn't even occur to me that she wouldn't hear me enter the room. But because of the angle she was sitting at, my super cool new headphones that she was wearing (that block out any surrounding sound from the wearer), and the intense nature of the film, she made no indication acknowledging my entrance into the room. I had to take advantage of this prime opportunity.
Ok so it MIGHT have had something to do with the thrilling scene she was watching, but regardless, when I quickly jumped toward her while frantically waving my arms (no sound was necessary because of my super cool headphones, remember) she quickly drew her arms up around her face, curled into a ball as best she could (with the laptop on her lap), took in a huge gasp of air, while simultaneously jumping about a half a foot off the couch. And to think, all I wanted to tell her was that her sister was on the phone...! :) mwahaha
Tuesday, February 1, 2005
Where Did January Go?
Did this month disappear for anyone else too? I blinked and missed it, and I'm sorry I've been out of touch.
But for the "story of the week"...after last week's Thursday night bible study Marion, Amy, and I were leaving at the same time and had to take advantage of the snow that has recently decided to stick around the city. Of course, everyone knows that the best and most spontaneous way to do this is to have a snowball fight-! Even though it was around 10pm, we strategically ducked between cars parked on the street while forming more snowballs despite our freezing hands, and verbally shouted our disbelief when we were actually hit...ok so maybe we were being a little loud. But the funny part is that we were causing all this ruckus in English (as in, the few words that were spoken were not in the tongue of the country where we found ourselves), and there happened to be a couple of women standing outside a building across the street who, after a couple minutes, loudly said, "Uhh, we're in Germany!" Marion quickly responded (in German) that we can all speak German as well, and even if not fluently, I was glad she said something to that rude lady who was convinced only her German language was allowed. Mensch!
But for the "story of the week"...after last week's Thursday night bible study Marion, Amy, and I were leaving at the same time and had to take advantage of the snow that has recently decided to stick around the city. Of course, everyone knows that the best and most spontaneous way to do this is to have a snowball fight-! Even though it was around 10pm, we strategically ducked between cars parked on the street while forming more snowballs despite our freezing hands, and verbally shouted our disbelief when we were actually hit...ok so maybe we were being a little loud. But the funny part is that we were causing all this ruckus in English (as in, the few words that were spoken were not in the tongue of the country where we found ourselves), and there happened to be a couple of women standing outside a building across the street who, after a couple minutes, loudly said, "Uhh, we're in Germany!" Marion quickly responded (in German) that we can all speak German as well, and even if not fluently, I was glad she said something to that rude lady who was convinced only her German language was allowed. Mensch!
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