Germany? Different?

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!