Trivialities
Living abroad has a way of highlighting day-to-day cultural differences that vacations simply cannot. It is at once a curse and blessing (typically in that order): cursed for the inconvenience of deciphering the Rosetta stone of local life but blessed when you do and learn to appreciate that there is more than one way to pour a beer.Allow me to call out a few trivialities I've been hating/loving since returning to Europe:
- Love: Groups pay separately at restaurants/bars as default
- Hate: There's no one at the grocery store to bag your groceries (fear the day you fumble around in front of a Bavarian checkout lady with a long line)
- Love/Hate: Tipping means rounding up, which is much easier than the States but less amazing than tip-less Australia
- Hate: Missing a bill by a day means instant disconnection (pray you do not mess up your electricity bill in winter)
- Love: Trains. Period.
- Hate: Those cleaners who sit outside bathrooms in public places, demanding a euro for you to use the toilet that they are paid to clean but are clearly not cleaning because they are sitting around asking for money
- Love: That it's light until 10pm at night in the summer.
- Hate: The impossibility of using anything but small bills, much less plastic (woe to you the day the cash machine only spits out 100Euro notes and all you need is a wurst)
- Love: German conscientiousness (the world would be a better place with a spoonful of this medicine)
- Hate: German unwillingness to change plans or demonstrate general flexibility ("Can I bring John Doe to dinner tomorrow too?" "No." "Why not? You have space and we can bring some extra food." "No, we only planned for 4. He can come next time.")
- Love: Group public singing, be it on the street or in a beer garden
- Hate: Not knowing if I should address co-workers formally ("Sie") or informally ("du")
- Love: Drinking beer on the street. Drinking beer on the bus. Drinking beer on the train. Drinking beer everywhere, legally.
P.S. Nurnberg photos are up: http://brightside.smugmug.com
Labels: Bar, Beer, Cafe, Daily Life, Europe, Germany, Hate, Love, Train, Travel, Trivialities
posted by Jason @ 5:28 pm
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