When in Germany, do as the Germans do!

Went out to dinner on Friday night with some friends of the family, then met up with James at the Irish pub, and met some Welsh guys who want to move to NZ and had heard the Waikato was the place to go!! They invited me to come back the next night to watch the Rugby with them, Wales vs. NZ and so I dragged myself along in the vain hope of other NZers magically appearing. I only stayed for the last half, and was the only female and the only one under 30. But the old boys treated me ok, they all stopped and stared when I went in, and one even said "A WOMAN!" but not in a "This is man territory, get out", just shock that I would show up by myself to watch the rugby and have a beer. I was a little surprised at myself as well.

Me and the boys, Max is 7 and Mike 5.

Then headed over to a mates place and mucked around for a few hours just chatting. When I left her place, I noticed a note had been left on my windscreen. It was all in German so it was straight to the dictionary when I got home. The writing was barely legible as it was, and so the only words I could translate were "Unfortunately" and "Pressing Charges". The whole family had gone to Düsseldorf, and so I had to wait till morning to track someone down to explain it to me. Apparently I had blocked someone’s driveway and instead of getting my car towed, they had made a complaint with the police against me. Of course I freaked out, as images came to mind of me standing in a court room having some angry German judge screaming and spit flying! But after calling Sandra and Luis (friends of the family’s who I get on really well with, i.e. the ones I went to dinner with on Friday) they told me that as they hadn’t got my car towed, there’s really not a lot they can do now, the police won’t be bothered with it. But we will wait and see what happens. I didn’t know if I should go apologize, or what. But everyone I've talked to, said not to worry about it, this guy sounds crazy, and they had never heard of someone going to the police over it before. Just my luck huh? Just to clarify, I did not for a second think I had ever parked in someone’s driveway, it was dark and raining heavily, and looked just like a normal parking space. To put it in a better perspective, in most suburban streets, the roads are very narrow and are often one-way, so to combat the parking problems you are allowed to park on the pavement. Of course seeing it in broad daylight the next day, I can’t believe how stupid I was, but at least lesson now learned.

Anyway, on to other things, here is a bit of a list I’ve complied to give you an idea of the differences of living in Germany to life back home in New Zealand:

At restaurants you always just go straight to a table, never wait to be seated.

Mandatory military service for all males over 18, for at least 10 months.

Germany has over 300 universities, of which students don’t have to pay any fees.

There are around 1,500 kinds of sausage.

They drink sparklingly mineral water like nobodies business, and tap water is considered fine for bathing in, but ‘only a barbarian would drink it’. But at around 30c a bottle, it’s not so bad.

Random photo from a Black and White party I went to a few months back, just thought it looked cool

Germans tend to leave work right on finishing time. To stay any later, would show you’re inefficient with your time.

Most German washing machines are front loaders, and can take up to 2 hours to do a load, but surprisingly using less water in the process. I haven’t seen one clothesline the entire time I have been here.

Religious studies are compulsory in all schools.

In-sink garbage disposables are banned, as is importing Garden gnomes from Poland.

There are usually locks on every internal door in the house.

Most of the transport network, works on an honour system – meaning that there are no barriers to go through and conductors are rare.

It costs €2000 to get a drivers license and requires between 25 to 40 hours of professional instruction, plus 12 hours of theory.

Germans aren’t prudes and have a very casual attitude about nudity. They happily walk around the changing room in the gym without a care in the world, completely in the buff.

They have to pay for local calls, and pricing is quite expensive, comparative to NZ.

When Germans rent an apartment, they need to bring everything with them (sometimes including even the kitchen sink). The rooms are completely bare, no light fittings and no curtains! When they leave, they usually have to paint all the walls white. So this means that most get quite creative with decorating their flats, as they have to paint over it at the end regardless. Unlike our stiff rules for renting in NZ, I have seen people put whole new kitchens and bathrooms into their apartments at their own expense, not the landlords. As renting is more common than owning in Germany, I guess the philosophy is that they have to live their and so they want to make it as much their own and as comfortable as possible.

The biggest thing I hate about Germany is that it feels like everyone here smokes! It’s probably just because there are few smoking restrictions in public places, the workplace, and even restaurants. It really is a non-smokers hell. Non-smokers are completely at the mercy of smokers, as the attitude seems to be if you don’t like it – you move! Not the other way round, it’s their god given right to smoke where ever they want. I had forgotten just has awful it is to smell yourself when you come back from a night in a pub. Yuck!

At intersections, the traffic lights are only on the side of the road that you are stopped at, not across the road as well. This means if you are at the front of the queue, you are inline with the traffic lights, meaning it is often very difficult to see when the lights change.

Biking everywhere is quite common, and wearing a helmet is not compulsory. There are bike paths and lanes everywhere.

An urban treehouse in Berlin. Not sure if this is art or children actually made it.

They are fanatics about recycling, and have four different bins. Plus most bottles have a ‘pfand’ meaning you get money back when you take them back to the place you brought them from. To give you an idea, of the extent you have to go to discard ones rubbish, to ‘chuck’ away one teabag, you actually have to use all four bins! Their plastic bottles for sodas etc are much thicker than ours, as they are used repetitively instead of being melted down first.

Companies are very efficient in finding ways to save money, by replacing workers with machines or making the customer do the work. At the supermarket, no one packs your bag, or even puts the food in the trolley for you. They just push it to the end of the checkout and you have to load it in yourself. To get you to return your trolley to the terminal, you have to put a €1 coin into a slot on the handle to begin with, as it releases it from the rest of the line. To get your money back you have to connect it with the remaining trolleys. In a parking garage, you have to take your ticket with you and pay before getting back into your car, so no grumpy attendant in a booth waiting for you like back at home.