20 Things You Might Not Know about Germany...

When traveling somewhere, I have noticed that you tend to only get a glimpse of the culture differences between your destination and your homeland.  We have found that one of the interesting consequences of actually living in a foreign country is that you get to witness some of the nuisances of their lifestyle and their society that you might not otherwise see.  At first, I was quite surprised by all the little differences we were observing between the great US of A and good ole Deustchland.  Initially I thought to myself, “Why doesn’t everyone just do things the same way?”  And then I realized… why in the world would we?!!  With all of us spread across this vast earth, it is seems natural that each and every society would develop in its own unique way, each having their own idiosyncrasies.  It is one of the things that what makes this world of ours so fascinating.  So with that being said, I just thought I would share some of the unexpected little facts we’ve learned about Germany that we would have never discovered without living here....

1.     There ARE speed limits on the autobahn, which is actually just the German word for “freeway.”  Some of the autobahn has an actual speed limit and some of it just has a recommended speed limit of about 80 mph (130 km/h)… but most people drive much faster than that whenever they can. 

2.     About 90% of music on the radio is in English.  The DJs still speak in German but pretty much all of the songs are in English, which I found quite surprising.  Then again, most people do know at least a little bit of English… they probably learn some of it just from listening to the radio.

3.     Addresses are arranged differently.  First comes the street name, then the house number followed by the zip code and then the city.

4.     Homes are not built with what we would call “normal” closets.  You have to install the wardrobe type of closets that you can find at IKEA.  Speaking of IKEA, needless to say they are very popular over here.  Some of the larger IKEA stores actually have parking garages, and really big ones at that.  Apparently, they are doing good business.  Hmmm, maybe we should buy some stock from IKEA…. 

5.     People don’t believe in deodorant here… at least it doesn’t seem so when you are taking public transportation. 

6.     They are huge into recycling… everywhere you go there are bins for glass, plastic, and paper right next to the trash cans.  I think Germany has been “green” for a while now.

7.     All of the STOP signs are in English, and I have no idea why.

8.     Beer costs as much as soda, and sometimes it is even cheaper.  And water isn’t free… they don’t serve tap water here, only bottled.  Don’t forget to ask for water without gas!  Unless of course you like that stuff J

9.     Speaking of beer, there are no open container laws.  Basically you can walk around with an open beer bottle or can anywhere… you can walk from your house, down the street, to the subway, and off to wherever you may be going, all while drinking a beer.  Plus, they even sell beer at the movie theatre!  They really are all about the beer here. 

10. Another surprising traffic regulation… you can’t turn right on red!  I have to remind myself of this all the time.  In addition, a yellow light doesn’t secretly mean speed up… people actually slow down when they see it because yellow lights are so short, if they speed up they will most likely run the red.  And the yellow light even flashes right before the green light too… I guess in that instance it means rev your engines.

11. Voltage over here is 220 V instead of 110 V.  So coming from the States, you have to buy new electrical appliances… irons, hair dryers, DVD players, etc… or plug such appliances into a converter.  Also, lamps require 220 V light bulbs… I found this out the hard way.  Thankfully the filament just blew and the whole bulb didn’t shattered in my face!

12. Wiener schitznel is not a hot dog!  It is actually veal (or sometimes pork) covered in breadcrumbs.  Right along with bratwurst, schnitzel is the most popular type of meat dish served here.  It is pretty good… with the right type of sauce smothering it.

13. There is no standard for telephone numbers.  Sometimes they are 6, 7, or even 8 digits long (like ours is).  Even the area codes are different lengths.  Calling people here is quite tricky…. I still haven’t figured out how to call Daniel’s cell phone yet!  Thankfully it’s a Blackberry so I can just email him.  Oh, and a cell phone is called a “handy” here.

14. Most of the taxis here are Mercedes Benz.  I guess what is a luxury import car to us is the common home-made car to them.

15. Women breast-feed in public all the time… I am talking everywhere and they don’t bother to cover themselves up at all.  On airplanes.  In restaurants.  At Bible study.  They just don’t seem to care who sees…  we just try to divert our eyes.

16. Mattresses and pillows are totally different sizes and shapes here.  They are mostly squares... I guess they have a thing against rectangles.

17. The dates and the time are written in what Americans would consider “military format” but over here it is used by the general public.  Instead of 8 pm on 1/30/ 2009, they write 20:00 on 30/1/2009.  I am just thankful I was used to this format before I got here!

18. Since almost everyone lives in apartments rather than houses (at least here in Frankfurt), most Germans have what I call “satellite gardens.”  Due to the fact that they don’t have any outdoor area to claim near where they are living, they buy plots of land on the edges of the city or near parks and have a fenced-in garden so they can have their own little green space.  There are collections of these satellite gardens all over the city… people even camp in them during the summer.  Like I said earlier, Germany is all about the green.

19. It is illegal to wash cars on public streets here.  Thus the gas station car washes rake in the business, especially during the winter with all the rain and snow.  Sounds like another investment idea….

20. People wear wedding rings on the right hand instead of the left.   Who knew?! J

Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed this list and that it has given you some insight into German society.  And if you ever want to come check it out for yourselves, please just let us know.  Until next time, take care!

Daniel's New Passion!

So in my last post, I mentioned that Daniel really enjoyed skiing and that he was going again while he was down in Switzerland for work last week.  Well it seems that the Alps now have my husband addicted to the winter sport!  He had an unbelievable time skiing down in Switzerland at a place called Gstaad, which is about an hour south of Bern.  To quote my excited spouse, "It blew Feldberg and Tahoe out of the water!"  Here are some photos of him conquering the slopes.

Dainel said that you could essentially ski from town to town if so desired, and also you are so far up in the mountains, you literally ski through the clouds.  Like I said, he had an amazing time, and he can't wait to go skiing again.  Not surprisingly, those Alpine slopes are very quick and steep, so I will probably be enjoying some cocoa at the base of the mountain whenever we head back down there, but undoubtedly, Daniel will do enough skiing for the both of us!  It looks like skis are already on his birthday wish list so he can maximize the skiing opportunities while we live over here in Europe.  I don't blame him... we gotta make the most of everyday, right?  Carpe diem!  Until the next post.... 

Happy New Year!

Can you believe it is 2009 already?!!  I certainly can't!  However, it has arrived and we hope that it has gotten off to a good start for everyone.  Here in Frankfurt, our New Year started with a bang... literally.  In order to celebrate the occasion, the thing to do here is to light off fireworks.  So of course that is what we did... as well as everyone else in Frankfurt it seemed, as the fireworks could be seen and heard all around the city for quite a spell after midnight.  

Growing up in Texas and North Carolina, Daniel and I were accustomed to setting off fireworks for the appropriate holidays, but since we've lived in California for the last few years, it had been quite a while... with the danger of wildfires always looming in the Golden State, the general public is not permitted to light off fireworks.  After living through the last two devastating wildfires in San Diego county, I totally understand why!  But now that we are here in Germany, it was fun to get to set off our own fireworks again... while I mainly stuck to the sparklers, I know that Daniel especially enjoyed lighting things on fire and blowing stuff up :) 

I apologize for the blurriness of the pictures... I am learning that taking photographs at night is a fine art.  As you can see, we had a good time ringing in the New Year, and the fun would continue on a couple of days later...

Daniel and some of the guys at work decided that another enjoyable way to begin the year would be to go skiing.  Therefore they arranged an outing to the Black Forest, which is in southern Germany about 3 hours south of here.  So well before sunrise this past Saturday, a group of us headed out... me and Daniel, our friends Matt and Heather, Daniel's boss and his three kids, and another co-worker all made our way to Feldberg to go skiing for the day.  While I was less than thrilled with the early morning departure, by the time we made it to the mountains, I knew it was worth it... the drive up to the ski resort was beautiful as every inch of scenery was blanketed in snow.

Once we got to the ski resort, the "excitement" began... when everything is in German, figuring out where to park, where to rent equipment, and where to buy lift tickets becomes very interesting.  Needless to say, it took us quite a while to finally hit the slopes but once we made it up there, the view made it all worthwhile.  The sun was beaming down and we could see for miles... it was just gorgeous!  

As the day went on, it seemed more and more people had come to ski.  The lines to get onto the ski lifts resembled those of a popular roller coaster at an amusement park... they were pretty much packed.  In contrast, the slopes were actually pretty empty... because everyone was in line!  We think it was so busy for several reasons.... it was New Years weekend and people were probably still on vacation; it had also snowed recently plus it was a beautiful, sunny day.  Lastly, ski resorts over here are a bit different than back in the States, at least here in Germany... they only have a few slopes at each place and the runs are not very long.  So it all added up to a very busy ski resort... but we still had a lot of fun!  Even despite the freezing temperatures.  In the middle of the afternoon it was -7 degrees C... that's a balmy 19 degrees F.  Like I said, it was freezing!

When the shadows started to grow longer and longer on the mountain, we knew it was time to head home.  The walk back to the car turned out to be very nice... the light blue sky faded into a pale pink as the sun set.  It was a peaceful, pretty end to the day.

Although we had a good time down in Feldberg, I must admit that Daniel enjoys skiing a little more than I do.  He loves the thrill of speeding down the mountain, and the cold air in his face makes him feel alive.  He is even going skiing again this week while he is down in Switzerland for work!  I, on the other hand, prefer being able to feel my extremities.  Plus I don't really like wearing so many clothes that I can barely move or not being able to keep up with my running nose.  But it is all worth it in order to spend some quality time with my husband :)  In addition, I love the beauty of a snow-covered setting.  Since winter here in Frankfurt tends to be gray, gray, gray, I enjoyed being up there in the mountains because everything was so white.  It made me wish we could have a little snow in Frankfurt to brighten the mood.  Well, my prayers must have been heard because this morning I woke up to several inches of fresh snow coating the ground!  It was so beautiful I just had to go out and take some photos at a nearby park this afternoon.

Something about snow is just magical.  I am so enchanted with it.  Maybe it's the way it purifies the landscape in an envelope of white.  Granted I have never really lived where snow is commonplace so I haven't had to deal with the headache of driving in it, shoveling it, or dealing with it for an extended period of time.  But I sure think it's pretty :)  Maybe, just maybe this snowfall will stick around a while.

Well,  it seems that I have rambled on for long enough.  It looks like January is going to be a pretty boring month around here for the most part, so I don't think I will have anything too exciting to blog about, but I will try to be creative!  Again, we hope 2009  is off to a great start for all of you.  Until the next post, take care and God bless!