I’m in the middle of my third full week in Germany, and am trying to settle in still. I was told that not knowing any German upon arriving would be fine since most Germans speak at least some English, but it’s proving more difficult than I’d hoped. Sometimes I panic when I can’t understand a question and reply in Spanish. Whoops.
My host family consists of Brynn, a working mom, and her 11 year old daughter. Our host-mom speaks very good English and is encouraging us to learn Deutsche and is very helpful when we ask how to say things. Her daughter is learning English and French in school so it’s been a fun to practice on each other. I’m also really happy that they have a cat, since I couldn’t bring mine with me. My mom said that Little Guy (my cat) still wanders upstairs and waits for me to come out of my room in the morning... so I told her she has to send me pictures of him at least once a week like she did when I was in College Station.
Getting around is getting easier now that I’ve gone through the trial-and-error of finding which trains I need to get around and which platforms those trains are on. I can’t count the number of times I ran up a flight of stairs to a platform to see where the train was going, looked up the city on the board, and realized that train was going in the opposite direction of where I needed to be. Now I know to always check the train schedule on my phone (since I know where I’m going now) before heading to the station.
We’ve already traveled a lot with AIB! The first full day we were in Germany we toured Bonn and then went to a vineyard for a wine tasting! I think I accidentally got pegged as the alcoholic of the trip because I was so excited about the wine, and since we were all just meeting each other that impression stuck. Ah well. (Little personal note: I don’t like carbonation or coffee, and the only things Germans seem to drink are sparking water, beer, and coffee, so I was pretty stoked to be going to a winery instead of a brewery for our first excursion.) We also took day trips to Aachen and Cologne to get our semester project assignment from enmodes and see more German culture and history.
After a long winter break and getting used to a new way of life, the last thing I want to do is school. But I guess that’s what this semester is still all about. Brynn and I walked around the city on Sunday looking for coffee shops and cafes that we can study in, and I think we found one that will become our regular lunch/break spot. I'm not gonna say the name so y'all don't crowd it lol, but apparently ordering a large hot chocolate, or “heiβe schokolade,” gets you a free donut! Whoop!
I've also been keeping a running list of weird things I've noticed in Germany so far:
- People seem to be accepting of light rain. Even those with hoods on their jackets let their heads get wet in the rain even though they have a means to prevent it. Maybe because rain is such an uncommon occurrence in Texas we avoid getting wet because we are used to always being dry, but since it rains nearly every day here people don’t notice it. Maybe. No comprende.
- If you want water during a meal, you have to BUY it! It’s insane and has been very difficult for me so far. I drink water like a fish and have taken to carrying a water bottle with me whenever I leave the house. Unfortunately, bringing your own water to a cafe is frowned upon — something I just asked my host-mom. Thankfully food here isn’t spicy like the Tex-Mex I’m used to, so while I don’t like eating without some water between bites, it’s not painful or anything. I just look forward to chugging the water I have in my bag when we leave.
- Streets, especially in neighborhoods, are very narrow. Most look like one-way streets but aren’t, and cars will literally GO UP ON CURBS to get around each other. Jaywalking is also frowned upon, and most people will wait for a walk sign even if there are no cars in sight. I kinda miss the "hit me, I dare you" ways of NYC when I’m waiting in the cold wind and just want to be at school already.
- Ziplock bags and plastic grocery bags do not exist. I remember reading that the US is one of the last industrial countries to use wasteful plastic bags for carrying groceries, but didn’t think about it when I went shopping and had to purchase a tote bag to carry everything home. I just assumed Ziplocks were normal, though, and am missing my portable way to carry snacks. Here they have plastic Tupperware to transport sandwiches and such, but they are bulkier than I’d like for taking a small snack.
- I haven’t seen a single ceiling fan since I’ve been here! My room has a musty-ish odor because it’s been a storage room for the little girl’s old things, and I assume that’s why, but there is no airflow in the house to get the smell out! I’m about to spray perfume around the area near my bed to make it smell better lol. I mean, it’s not an unbearable smell, but it’s different than the rest of the house and it bothers me.
- Sausage and potatoes are a way of life. I don't mind the sausage part, as I’ve enjoyed all the “wurst” I’ve tried so far, but I’ve had more potatoes in one week than I’ve ever had in my 22 years of existence. Here potatoes are considered a vegetable, which I can’t fathom. I told my host-mom I was surprised at all the fattening foods we’ve been given by the program and that I really wanted something healthy. So the next night we had a dinner “all vegetables!” that consisted of potatoes and peppers and pumpkin seeds on pizza crust.
There is literally no way around carbs! I have to admit, though, the bread here is freaking fantastic. I usually don’t like sandwiches because there’s sooo much bread, but the sandwiches in every bakery are on these amazing rolls and I’ve been enjoying them so much.
- Nutella and ketchup are part of nearly every meal. If there’s sausage: ketchup. If there’s bread: Nutella. Which is basically every meal. Brynn, our little host-sister, and I have gone through an entire Nutella jar in just one week. Whoops.
- I don’t think the family I am staying with showers with very hot water, or maybe I just didn’t wait long enough for it to heat up, but my 10 minute shower was on the hottest setting and I still had goosebumps for most of it. Makes shaving very hard...
- There smallest paper currency is €5 and from then on its coins. And there are SO many coins... €2, €1, 50c, 20c, 10c, 5c, 2c, and 1c. The smaller ones all look the same with just a slight difference in size between worth. I have normal purchase anxiety (you know, when the cashier hands you your receipt and a handful of change and you try to put it in your wallet and move along so the next person can go as fast as you can) when buying things in America, and that’s gotten worse in a country with a different language and different currency that has so many similar coins. My coin purse is almost breaking with all the coins I’ve managed to hoard to try to be quick at the register.
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