I never did write Part I because it was a disaster. Last year we decided to hold a wine and cheese party after work one night to better get to know some of the German’s that Dianne works with. We invited people from the German Ernst & Young, German PWC (also auditors) and Deutsche Telecom (DT), her biggest client here in Bonn. We also invited the Americans that work for or help service the DT account. We asked everyone to bring a bottle of wine and some cheese to pair it with. We thought it would be a fun way to get to know people.
We had a wonderful evening talking to Americans. Not one German attended.
As we have discovered, there is a huge wall between work and pleasure here. Work lives simply do not intermingle with family lives or other social occasions. When work is done, everyone goes home. The thought of bring family and kids to a work function is a rather odd concept. After work wine and cheese parties also appear to be very foreign. Work and go home. On weekends, no one works as it is family time (and shopping on Saturday of course!). Ditto for vacations; no cell phones, beepers or computers, just a goodbye and see you in three weeks.
Part II to Entertaining Germans has a better ending.
Our street is made up of fairly new townhouses that they have been trying to sell for the last three years. The last house has just been sold. We decided to throw a party for all of our neighbors and see if anyone would show up. We know the people around us, but not further away. We invited the 22 homes to our house last Saturday afternoon for beer, wine and food. I even printed up bilingual invitations. About 16 homes showed up with about 50 people in total. It turned out to be a great success. Most people spoke English or a least better English than we spoke German, so communicating was rather easy. I talked German to the kids as best I could, but spared the adults the horror of listening to me attempt to speak their language.
When people found out we were from California, the question of the day became “So what to you think of Arnold?” They were shocked that anyone would elect another movie star. In Germany and France, all want-to-be politicians go to school to learn the trade. Electing a foreigner would be unheard of, especially an Austrian with a funny accent! Of course, I defended the decision and think it will liven up the political scene for years to come. However, no amount of talking will ever make them understand American politics. It certainly helped that everyone hated the current German chancellor and other European leaders didn’t get very high marks either. They also wanted to know what we though of Germany and Germans (Only good things to say, of course!) I was surprised at how may of them had lived in the States for a short period of time or visited on a regular basis.
I told the story to our cleaning lady (she’s British) and she told me the key was to make everything free. Germans will come from all over Bonn for free food and beer, so long as it doesn’t interfere with work or the short shopping hours I was told. Good advice to remember. She recently went on her first trip to the US. (How many maids do you know that take four week vacations?) She was shocked at the huge supermarkets and took lots of pictures to show her friends over here. Also she couldn’t believe fast food restaurants gave out unlimited drink refills. She was sure that if that concept came to Germany, it would bankrupt them all.
All in all, the party was great and we encouraged someone else to throw the next one.
Tom, Dianne, Kira & Conner
Thursday, October 23, 2003
Monday, September 15, 2003
Hello to Everyone in California
Hello Everyone,
Sorry for not writing much lately, actually not writing at all this summer. We’ve been away a lot from June. The times we have been here, Dianne has been traveling so I haven’t been on the computer much. We just came back from London last night. Dianne spent three days in Paris and two days in London on business and then we joined her for the weekend. She is off to Frankfurt again tomorrow and for a couple of days this week. She goes somewhere else next week and then we are off to Florida for a week to spend time with Mom and Mickey Mouse. Dianne’s on business and we are out to relax!
I’ve felt compelled to write another 10 page letter explaining our travel adventures and have kept putting it off. (I’ll attach the first couple of paragraphs that I started but haven’t quite finished.) I spent some time putting some of our pictures on the web and then ran out of time/steam. If you haven’t seen the pictures, let me know and I’ll send along the link.
I’ll also attach a Dianne quick recap of our London trip from the past weekend.
We have booked our trip to California and will be leaving Frankfurt on the 12th of December and will be in sunny California until January 2nd. Kira has a long Christmas break so we plan to take advantage of it. Dianne will be doing a bit of work, but the rest of the family will be resting, relaxing and getting caught up with everything going on in California. Will Arnold be the next governor; it’s making front page news here???
From Tom, the start of our summer vacation:
The Glynn summer is coming to a close as Kira headed back to school the 15th of August. Conner has started back at his part time daycare and the Mom & me toddler group (with Dad). The weather is turning grey and overcast and there are no more 100 degree days without any air conditioning. I haven’t written in a while, so it’s time for a Germany/Glynn update.
The vacation season started and ended badly for Dianne, but everything in between was great. We’ve got a bunch of pictures posted on the website and if I didn’t send them to you already, let me know and I’ll send them along.
The start of our vacation was a notice from the Bonn police for Dianne to appear before a police officer with regards to her excessive speeding violation. I still can’t believe Dianne didn’t faint, but after opening the letter and trying to decipher what they wanted (after all, it was in German). I think her hands shook from stress for a couple of hours. Was it time to flee the country?! It is a well known fact in Germany that people driving foreign and rental cars never get speeding tickets. All speeding tickets are issued through the use of speed cameras and for some reason these are not linked to the rental car agencies or foreign governments. As we found out, this is not the case in Switzerland. During our Spring break at Easter we drove to Italy. This requires heading south through a lot of Germany, through Switzerland and into northern Italy. All told, it was about a 12 hour drive for us over the course of two days. We had a great time. On the way back through Switzerland, we (Dianne actually) was driving down the freeway just about to head into Germany when the unmistakable bright light from a speed camera nearly blinded us. (Yes we have seen a few, but that is another story!). We quickly looked to see how fast we were going (130Kpm or around 80 mph---- it’s not that bad, we drive 150kph on the Autobahn J) and then tried to figure of what the speed limit is…we had no idea. After few minutes we figured, no big deal, it’s in Switzerland and well be in Germany in 10 minutes, nothing to worry about. Fast forward two months and Dianne is now requested at the Bonn police station. A quick internet search on speeding in Switzerland says get ready to re-mortgage your house, they are expensive. (My second speeding ticket in Germany cost me around $20. The first was in a rental car and I never got the ticket. I also got a ticket at the local store for parking crooked, $5 fine. Only accidents go against insurance BTW)
After arriving at the police station Dianne and I were escorted upstairs to meet the police officer in charge of our case. He acted like our defense attorney explaining the rules and issues. Switzerland does in fact have an office in Germany to try and collect speeding tickets. We were not obliged to pay but if we went back and were stopped we could have even larger fines and or imprisonment. We asked the officer his opinion at he stated, “ahhh, but the problem is that Switzerland is on the way to Italy, so almost everybody pays. If you plan to drive to Italy again, pay the fine. Do not plead guilty, but pay the fine.” He typed up a form stating that we were not guilty but we would pay anyway (it must be like “no contest” in the US, I didn’t quite understand), we signed and headed out the door. We noticed his picture from a speed camera taped to the wall. He said that he never speeds going home but sometimes you just have to if you are late in the morning. Speeding is no big deal in Germany! A month later our fine arrives from the government of Switzerland and we pay the $200 fine.
With the police visit out of the way, and our driver’s licenses and wallets still intact, it was time to start the family vacation. Our friends from Danville flew in to meet us and helped us do a whirlwind tour of Europe.
Dianne’s London trip update:
To All,
We just arrived back from London last night and although the trip back was a nightmare the trip itself was awesome. London is such a fabulous town - where English is spoken on every corner and people are happy to help you out! Also, there is a Starbucks on every corner, yeah! We saw the Tower of London and had a Beefeater do a 1 hour tour. The kids were not interested (Conner included - imagine that) but Tom really enjoyed the tour. We also saw the Crown Jewels there which did really interest the kids! We walked over the Tower Bridge and then saw this guy, David Blain, who is sitting in a glass box elevated off the ground on a crane. From what we hear he has been there about a week and plans to be there 30 more days. He is subsisting only on water and the box is about 7 ft by 7 ft by 3 ft.....very weird and a real crowd drawer! The Brits have been pelting him with eggs and yelling abuse at him from what we hear. All in good sport, of course! We then went on the Battleship (?) that is in the harbor which was cool. We headed off to the London Eye which is the largest ferris wheel in the world where you have panoramic views of London. Very Cool!! We then walked over to the Houses of Parliament and saw Westminster Abbey (which unfortunately was already closed). The kids were exhausted by then so off to the pub for a quick pint - home for a short rest (30 mins) and then out for dinner. We arrived home about 9:30 at night and started to watch Kangaroo Jack but everyone (including Tom) fell asleep. The next day was much less busy focused on shopping in the Oxford Circus area. We went to the largest toy store in the world which was a real hit. We arrived back at the hotel for our ride to the airport and left promptly at 1:30....and that is when the trouble began....the driver was unaware of the airport we were going to which is apparently 1,5 hours from London (uggh!). Our flight was to leave at 3:30 so we had to be checked in by 3:00 (dad would have loved this one). On the way to the airport the van started to have problems - driver thought it was electrical. We limped to the airport and made it there with 10 minutes to spare. We got onto the plane only to have the plane be held up for take off by 30 minutes.....when we arrived in Frankfurt we were greeted by the less than happy Germans who pushed and shoved to get on to the elevator. No worries we made it to the car and out of the airport on the way home....no sooner did we think we were on the way than there was a huge traffic snarl outside of Frankfurt. We were stopped still for about 1 hour and then decided we would try to make our way through the backroads. Oh yeah - Conner threw up over Kira by this point after spending 15 minutes howling away - must have been the apple juice we purchased in Germany.....It was quite late by this point - about 8:30 to 9:00 but we thought it was the best thing to do. We snaked our way through the countryside (thank god for GPS) found our way back to the Autobahn and made it home by 10:00. We probably could have taken a train from downtown London and gotten home sooner ....
Everybody had a super time and we are looking forward to our next opportunity to get to London - which might actually be in October!
We will have a quieter week this week with only a couple day trips to Frankfurt and home for the weekend. Next week I am in Hannover and Berlin and then on the plane on Saturday to Orlando. We are really looking forward to some R&R, sunshine, and Mickey!
Tom is working on an update to the Glynn family life in Germany (part 4 maybe) and hope to get this out before we head off to Orlando. Otherwise it will have to wait until October sometime. There is a slight chance we will get everyone over to Moscow for a couple of days and if not then probably London again as I have another job to do in October there. We are traveling like crazy and loving it! Poor Kailah - she feels like she is always being left. We will have to make one of these trips a dog friendly trip (not a good idea in London though - but they do like kids - at least before 6pm!)
Say hi to everyone and we will let you know as the adventure continues!
Love to all
Dianne
Sorry everyone, more to come later (but not too much later!)
Tom (Dianne, Kira, Conner & Kailah too!)
Sorry for not writing much lately, actually not writing at all this summer. We’ve been away a lot from June. The times we have been here, Dianne has been traveling so I haven’t been on the computer much. We just came back from London last night. Dianne spent three days in Paris and two days in London on business and then we joined her for the weekend. She is off to Frankfurt again tomorrow and for a couple of days this week. She goes somewhere else next week and then we are off to Florida for a week to spend time with Mom and Mickey Mouse. Dianne’s on business and we are out to relax!
I’ve felt compelled to write another 10 page letter explaining our travel adventures and have kept putting it off. (I’ll attach the first couple of paragraphs that I started but haven’t quite finished.) I spent some time putting some of our pictures on the web and then ran out of time/steam. If you haven’t seen the pictures, let me know and I’ll send along the link.
I’ll also attach a Dianne quick recap of our London trip from the past weekend.
We have booked our trip to California and will be leaving Frankfurt on the 12th of December and will be in sunny California until January 2nd. Kira has a long Christmas break so we plan to take advantage of it. Dianne will be doing a bit of work, but the rest of the family will be resting, relaxing and getting caught up with everything going on in California. Will Arnold be the next governor; it’s making front page news here???
From Tom, the start of our summer vacation:
The Glynn summer is coming to a close as Kira headed back to school the 15th of August. Conner has started back at his part time daycare and the Mom & me toddler group (with Dad). The weather is turning grey and overcast and there are no more 100 degree days without any air conditioning. I haven’t written in a while, so it’s time for a Germany/Glynn update.
The vacation season started and ended badly for Dianne, but everything in between was great. We’ve got a bunch of pictures posted on the website and if I didn’t send them to you already, let me know and I’ll send them along.
The start of our vacation was a notice from the Bonn police for Dianne to appear before a police officer with regards to her excessive speeding violation. I still can’t believe Dianne didn’t faint, but after opening the letter and trying to decipher what they wanted (after all, it was in German). I think her hands shook from stress for a couple of hours. Was it time to flee the country?! It is a well known fact in Germany that people driving foreign and rental cars never get speeding tickets. All speeding tickets are issued through the use of speed cameras and for some reason these are not linked to the rental car agencies or foreign governments. As we found out, this is not the case in Switzerland. During our Spring break at Easter we drove to Italy. This requires heading south through a lot of Germany, through Switzerland and into northern Italy. All told, it was about a 12 hour drive for us over the course of two days. We had a great time. On the way back through Switzerland, we (Dianne actually) was driving down the freeway just about to head into Germany when the unmistakable bright light from a speed camera nearly blinded us. (Yes we have seen a few, but that is another story!). We quickly looked to see how fast we were going (130Kpm or around 80 mph---- it’s not that bad, we drive 150kph on the Autobahn J) and then tried to figure of what the speed limit is…we had no idea. After few minutes we figured, no big deal, it’s in Switzerland and well be in Germany in 10 minutes, nothing to worry about. Fast forward two months and Dianne is now requested at the Bonn police station. A quick internet search on speeding in Switzerland says get ready to re-mortgage your house, they are expensive. (My second speeding ticket in Germany cost me around $20. The first was in a rental car and I never got the ticket. I also got a ticket at the local store for parking crooked, $5 fine. Only accidents go against insurance BTW)
After arriving at the police station Dianne and I were escorted upstairs to meet the police officer in charge of our case. He acted like our defense attorney explaining the rules and issues. Switzerland does in fact have an office in Germany to try and collect speeding tickets. We were not obliged to pay but if we went back and were stopped we could have even larger fines and or imprisonment. We asked the officer his opinion at he stated, “ahhh, but the problem is that Switzerland is on the way to Italy, so almost everybody pays. If you plan to drive to Italy again, pay the fine. Do not plead guilty, but pay the fine.” He typed up a form stating that we were not guilty but we would pay anyway (it must be like “no contest” in the US, I didn’t quite understand), we signed and headed out the door. We noticed his picture from a speed camera taped to the wall. He said that he never speeds going home but sometimes you just have to if you are late in the morning. Speeding is no big deal in Germany! A month later our fine arrives from the government of Switzerland and we pay the $200 fine.
With the police visit out of the way, and our driver’s licenses and wallets still intact, it was time to start the family vacation. Our friends from Danville flew in to meet us and helped us do a whirlwind tour of Europe.
Dianne’s London trip update:
To All,
We just arrived back from London last night and although the trip back was a nightmare the trip itself was awesome. London is such a fabulous town - where English is spoken on every corner and people are happy to help you out! Also, there is a Starbucks on every corner, yeah! We saw the Tower of London and had a Beefeater do a 1 hour tour. The kids were not interested (Conner included - imagine that) but Tom really enjoyed the tour. We also saw the Crown Jewels there which did really interest the kids! We walked over the Tower Bridge and then saw this guy, David Blain, who is sitting in a glass box elevated off the ground on a crane. From what we hear he has been there about a week and plans to be there 30 more days. He is subsisting only on water and the box is about 7 ft by 7 ft by 3 ft.....very weird and a real crowd drawer! The Brits have been pelting him with eggs and yelling abuse at him from what we hear. All in good sport, of course! We then went on the Battleship (?) that is in the harbor which was cool. We headed off to the London Eye which is the largest ferris wheel in the world where you have panoramic views of London. Very Cool!! We then walked over to the Houses of Parliament and saw Westminster Abbey (which unfortunately was already closed). The kids were exhausted by then so off to the pub for a quick pint - home for a short rest (30 mins) and then out for dinner. We arrived home about 9:30 at night and started to watch Kangaroo Jack but everyone (including Tom) fell asleep. The next day was much less busy focused on shopping in the Oxford Circus area. We went to the largest toy store in the world which was a real hit. We arrived back at the hotel for our ride to the airport and left promptly at 1:30....and that is when the trouble began....the driver was unaware of the airport we were going to which is apparently 1,5 hours from London (uggh!). Our flight was to leave at 3:30 so we had to be checked in by 3:00 (dad would have loved this one). On the way to the airport the van started to have problems - driver thought it was electrical. We limped to the airport and made it there with 10 minutes to spare. We got onto the plane only to have the plane be held up for take off by 30 minutes.....when we arrived in Frankfurt we were greeted by the less than happy Germans who pushed and shoved to get on to the elevator. No worries we made it to the car and out of the airport on the way home....no sooner did we think we were on the way than there was a huge traffic snarl outside of Frankfurt. We were stopped still for about 1 hour and then decided we would try to make our way through the backroads. Oh yeah - Conner threw up over Kira by this point after spending 15 minutes howling away - must have been the apple juice we purchased in Germany.....It was quite late by this point - about 8:30 to 9:00 but we thought it was the best thing to do. We snaked our way through the countryside (thank god for GPS) found our way back to the Autobahn and made it home by 10:00. We probably could have taken a train from downtown London and gotten home sooner ....
Everybody had a super time and we are looking forward to our next opportunity to get to London - which might actually be in October!
We will have a quieter week this week with only a couple day trips to Frankfurt and home for the weekend. Next week I am in Hannover and Berlin and then on the plane on Saturday to Orlando. We are really looking forward to some R&R, sunshine, and Mickey!
Tom is working on an update to the Glynn family life in Germany (part 4 maybe) and hope to get this out before we head off to Orlando. Otherwise it will have to wait until October sometime. There is a slight chance we will get everyone over to Moscow for a couple of days and if not then probably London again as I have another job to do in October there. We are traveling like crazy and loving it! Poor Kailah - she feels like she is always being left. We will have to make one of these trips a dog friendly trip (not a good idea in London though - but they do like kids - at least before 6pm!)
Say hi to everyone and we will let you know as the adventure continues!
Love to all
Dianne
Sorry everyone, more to come later (but not too much later!)
Tom (Dianne, Kira, Conner & Kailah too!)
Friday, May 2, 2003
Hello from Tom & Family in Germany
To All my friends in California, Hello!
I haven’t written much in a long time since returning from Christmas. My family was rather annoyed at my long silence, (especially those I did not see at Xmas), and asked me to give them an update of life in Germany. I wrote a couple of e-mails with some of our adventures and funnier moments in this far away country. I’ve pieced the messages together below to let you know how life is. My apologies if you heard some of these stories already. The note is rather long, but I hope you enjoy it anyway. I miss California and the funny stories from Mattson (but not the work!) Life as a stay at home dad is pretty good still.
I’m trying to post some pictures on the web, but don’t hold your breath quite yet!
Hope all is well.
tom
============================================================================================
We have finally settled into life on this side of the water. Speaking on behalf of the family, I can say that we are happy we are here. It is definitely not paradise, but it is good and getting better. I believe the arrival of spring and summer will make a big difference also. The sun is shining more often and we are planning our summer trips.
In early April spent a weekend in Brugge, Belgium. It is a very nice little city filled with canals. It was fairly cold, but we plan to return in the summer to enjoy it even more. We took a tour of the canals on a boat, which was a lot of fun. We also strolled around the city for most of the day Saturday. We were told Belgium is famous for beer, French (freedom?) fries and chocolate. We indulged in all three. We stayed at a little 10 room bed and breakfast just outside of the city which was great. They were very nice people running the place. They served a fixed menu meal on Friday evening and breakfast both days. We were greeted at the front door when we arrived and it got better from there! On Sunday we watched part of a professional cycling race. It was cold and the cyclists blew by us at high speed, but it was fun to watch. Next year we will watch on a hill when their speeds drop to less than 25 mph.
We went to Italy for Spring break around Easter. We rented an apartment in a renovated farm house in the Tuscany region of Italy. It was not on the coast (although we have explored that too) but was within a 1 hour drive of the coast. It was very relaxing and a great place for the kids to play. Kailah (our dog) also joined us which we would all loved. Italy is much different than Germany (as described in a few stories below). Once of our tour books summarized it quite nicely. “For many Italians, finding ways to get around the law is a way of life. They are likely to act with surprise, if not annoyance, if you point out they might be breaking a law. Few people pay attention to speed limits, many motorcyclists and drivers don’t stop at red lights – and certainly not at pedestrian crossings. No one bats an eyelid about littering or dogs pooping in the middle of the footpath.” Needless to say, we had a wonderful time and look forward to going back in the near future.
We have also booked a July vacation in France and we will be returning to Italy in early July also. Some of our Danville friends are coming to see us for a whirl wind tour of Europe. Kira's best friend Mandy will stay with us after her parents leave. In late July, early August, we head off to Canada to see Dianne's parents and spend some time in Ottawa and at the cottage. I'm hoping we can meet up with you guys for a part of the stay if you are around at that time.
Our stay in Germany is getting better as we learn their culture and try to understand it more. Not that we approve, but at least we understand. As one German told us, "why would you buy a dryer when you could hang dry your close for three days in the basement and save all that electricity". Americans all laugh about these types of stories. We have found many of them to give the appearance of being unfriendly as they rarely say hello or engage in informal chatter with near complete strangers. Americans, on the other hand, become best friends with people, just because they meet someone else from the States. German's find us plastic and insincere for this "phony" conversation. I have become very aware of our follow on to "hello" as "how are you doing?" Our relocation lady's husband (both are German but have dealt extensively with Americans) relayed a story to us over dinner about how someone asked him how he was doing. He went into a very long answer to fully explain how he was doing. When he looked up, the American was long gone, having never truly expected a real answer to "how are you doing". I went into a computer store the other day, and after they noted that they spoke a little English I said, Hello and then let slip "how are you?", to which he responded "I am supposed to say I am well, and you are well too, yes?".
Germans are very well known for their quality and ability to work hard. We have found none of this while we are here. A local monthly English newsletter joked that they must export all their quality items. They seem to want to talk things to death and can never make decisions. This is clearly evident in the international scene, and Dianne says it is rampant at work.
There are very few entrepreneurs in Germany. Most businesses have to put up large deposits with the government before they can begin. Labor laws are very pro worker making it almost impossible to get rid of people. As well, Germans are very pessimistic, and almost all realize that going into business for yourself is high risk and does not have a high probability of success, so why bother. We have found the entrepreneurs to be wonderful people who welcome us into their business and community. We go to several local restaurants and they always remember us. In the local Lebanese restaurant, Conner is usually whisked away by the owner and given a tour of the kitchen. He always returns with candy or dessert. In the little Italian restaurant (owned by a Bosnian), he always gives us handfuls of candy for Kira, if she doesn't come with us. We have also found a great wine shop that has been very nice to us. We have been to several wine and cheese pairing parties that he has given. He almost always throws in a free bottle when we stop by. We normally buy 6-10 bottles in 5 minutes or less, using his recommendations past and present. Most of his German customers appear to be agonizing for hours over a $5 bottle of wine (yes, he opens the bottle so they can taste), and they always seem to buy only one bottle.
I think I have mastered the most stressful part of the German experience, grocery shopping. Seriously, this is the worst experience for almost all foreigners here. I shop for the four of us, and always have a full cart. I often stand behind Germans who have practically nothing in their carts. Why would you shop, stand in line for 10 minutes and have to bag your own groceries for a yogurt and two beers, as the person in front of me yesterday did? Our new neighbors, originally from the Netherlands, recently from Egypt (that they loved), want to leave Germany because the people are so unfriendly and shopping is horrible. A new co-worker of Dianne's was so proud of himself last weekend for making it through the grocery store by himself and finding the 20 or so items that he needed / wanted. After paying for the goods he quickly realized that the food was not going to be bagged for him and the next customer's goods were already beginning to commingle with his. Not knowing where the shopping bags were and not being offered any help from the checkout person, he began stuffing the goods into his jacket and ended up staggering down the street as his groceries kept falling out all over the sidewalk.
I have found that Germans are also very cheap. They will buy lower quality to save a few pennies. One grocery store, Aldi, is very famous in Germany. It is all cash and carry. Most food is of lower quality, but most Germans swear by this store. The stores are typically very small (2 times the size of a 7-11) and the products change daily. A couple of years ago they started selling computers at deep discount. People would line up overnight to buy these computers filled with cheap parts. They are now the largest sellers of computers in Germany. They are also the 5th largest clothing retailer. They have one isle, kind of like the Ross junk stores in California. On several occasions I have been stopped in the grocery stores by people telling not to buy whatever I just picked up because it is pennies cheaper at Aldi. People don't seem to mind that all the fruits and vegetables purchased there go bad in a day or two.
We invited one of Kira's German friends over for dinner several weeks ago. Germans do not like to eat with their hands. We served beef tacos. Kira's friend noticed the ground beef on the stove and wanted to know why we were cooking food for our dog at dinner. She laughed when we showed her how to eat tacos.
Kira is doing very well and will be sad to leave Germany in a few years. She belongs to a local youth group, run by the local American church. In April they raised money for a homeless shelter by sleeping outside for the night and getting sponsors. Probably 50 kids participated and they raised around $1,000. She is doing well in school and has enjoyed playing basketball and other activities. I think she will be close to trilingual when she leaves here in three years, which will be excellent. Report cards are due out this week and we will see! Kira is still actively involved in basketball and Hip Hop at school. She attended a basketball tournament during the month of February in Rotterdam. Although they did not win the kids all seemed to have a great time. She was really impressed with how big the Rotterdam International School was. She went to Munich for a weekend for basketball and touring in the middle of February and she was very excited. Her school work continues to be easy (which is not what we expected but what we are dealing with). There are a few administrative changes and personnel changes happening in her school and we are hopeful that an increased focus on challenging the children academically will happen. She is doing very well in German and French and may be the only one in our family that has a knack for languages. She is maturing fast and is quickly becoming a young lady. I am sad to see her grow up and want to keep her protected but this is not possible. To that effect the boy she has been going to the dances with asked her to be his girlfriend just before Xmas. She was thrilled and I guess they are an item. Although he says she doesn't pay much attention to him at school - women never change!
Conner is also growing up fast. He is walking now as a routine matter and has decided that sleeping in his crib is not appropriate for a boy of his age and stature. After throwing himself out of his crib 2 nights in a row in January he convinced us that sleeping on his mattress on the floor was a safer place to be. We have to lock him into his room at night so that he doesn't wander out as his room is right at the top of the stairs. He sleeps soundly through the night now and to my knowledge has not tried to get out of his room during the night. Conner is doing great. He goes to preschool 3 half days a week. I take him to a Mom and kid toddler group for a couple of hours twice a week. He is going to be a rough and tumble kind of kid, I'm pretty sure. A couple of weeks ago he took a spill, banging his face and putting a big bump on his head. This week, he did the same to the other side of his face. He is certainly different from Kira. We went swimming in April for the fist time and he had a great time. I'll probably take him once or twice a week in the future. He still isn't talking a whole lot, but knows such key words as dog, woof, cat, truck, dad, mom, ra (for Kira) and a couple of other key words. He completely adores Kira and so far the feeling is mutual.
Dianne spent some time in Moscow working on a telecom client. Although she worked very long hours they did manage to get some sightseeing in. They went to the Balshoy ballet which was fun. It was a modern ballet, which she was less than enthusiastic about, but she got to see the buildings (there are actually 2 - a new one and the original - this production was in the new one). As well, the production was being sponsored by the Netherlands and the Queen of the Netherlands was there. They also had a tour of the city in the evening and saw a lot of the architecture (7 sister buildings put up by Stalin, University of Moscow, and the Kremlin). On the Thursday morning they visited Red Square and saw Lenon in his tomb as well as the outside of the Kremlin wall. They were unsuccessful at getting inside the Kremlin but they will do this in May when they return. We hoping to tag along with her in May as it would be a good time to do some touring.
All in all we are beginning to get settled here. We were sad to leave CA after a return visit at Xmas (probably Dianne more so than Kira and I) but have decided that if we are going to live here for another 2.5 years than we had better make it feel like home. To that effect we have almost hung up all our pictures. We have also leased a second used car as Dianne hates me driving her around. She can now zip around down in an old 96 BMW convertible. Its a little cold with the top down, but it sure looks good!
Everything else is status quo and we are just trying to make it through the winter so that we can begin to enjoy the outdoors etc. The weather was terrible when we came back from the Christmas holidays (-12 with snow for about a week). Everyone tells me this is unique but I am not certain. We are now typically in the plus 15 range or higher (about 60 Fahrenheit) so that is not bad. It is always grey here which is really hard to get used to. I really miss the CA sun!
I thought I would finish up with some of life's funnier moments here in Germany as I wade through the cultural landmines that abound around here.
Large underground parking lots are great in Germany and are very automated. Typically you drive in, push a button, out pops a ticket, the barricade lifts up, and you drive in and find a spot. On the way out, there are cash machines on most floors that you insert your ticket, it tells you how much you owe, you pay, and then at the exit you put your ticket in a machine, the barricade lifts up and you drive away. Simple and elegant. However, here in the suburb of Bad Godesburg where we live, this garage also has an attendant that roams around enforcing all the rules, explicit and implicit. Women only parking on the first floor is for women drivers only. Mother and child parking is NOT for father and child. Explicit rules are easy. An unwritten rule seems to be you need to park in the first available spot. I always drive to the bottom floor where there is plenty of parking. One day several months ago, Dianne was also attempting to follow my very good advice when the parking police (polite version of name Dianne gave to him) came running after Dianne screaming at her that she had apparently missed parking in a spot. As she continued to drive on, missing small narrow spots, this guy became infuriated, yelling at her in German to park the car in an open spot. Dianne rolled down the window, smiled, said that she only spoke English and drove to the bottom floor. She is still traumatized today and I usually park the car for her fear of meeting up with the enforcer.
Recycling is taken very seriously in Germany. When we moved in, we were given bins for paper, plastic/metal, bio waste and regular garbage. I asked the property manger when we were getting the glass recycling container. He replied, "Oh, you don't need a bin, we have large containers conveniently located all over the city that you can drive your glass to". I thought, that's weird, I wonder if he is just lazy and won't give me one so I asked the neighbor what they do about glass and was told, "Oh, you don't need a bin, we have large containers conveniently located all over the city that you can drive your glass to" Every week or so I now load the car with glass and drive around looking for 20 minutes for a convenient bin. Very weird.
Recycling pick up times are issued in a very large book and sent to us in the mail at random times. Sometimes regular garbage is done weekly, sometimes bi weekly. The other stuff is all done a couple of times a month, and different dates every month. The bins are never picked up on the same day. Every night I look out the window and say to myself, I hope the neighbors can read that damn manual as I scan to see if they have left cans out for the next morning pickup.
I also found out that everyone takes sorting very seriously and have heard many stories where recycling collectors will go through your bins and if anything is out of order they either (politely) just leave the bin without emptying it or (rudely) knock the bin and its contents all over your lawn. The collectors always look through our bins (what are they looking for? Do they keep the good stuff??), but have always taken it away.
The have just instituted a new deposit program for some plastic bottles and most aluminum (mostly beer) cans whereby stores charge you a deposit when you buy it and give you back your money when you return it. Almost all the stores hate this bureaucracy and require you to keep the receipt showing you were charged the deposit at their store before they refund you any money. I was at a store and had spent a considerable amount on groceries when the clerk starts talking to me at high speed in German about the receipt. I tried, but just couldn't figure out what she was saying, so she tracked someone down to explain to me that if I wanted my 50 cents in deposit back, I would have to keep the receipt. I naturally just threw the stuff into the recycling bins when we were done with the goods. Two days later the maid (yes we have a maid? Dianne hates my house cleaning abilities), pulls the bottles from the bins and proceeds to tell me all about the new deposit program. I tried to tell her that for 50 cents, it just wasn't worth the hassle so I threw away the receipt. She was truly disappointed. In the future I am going to have to do a better job hiding the bottles from her.
The funniest thing of all about German recycling is that they do not have the infrastructure to deal with all the sorting done by individuals, so it is all combined at the end process and burned. Many people know this, but insist that it is still good to practice sorting, so when the infrastructure can handle it, the transition will be easy.
When we arrived for our first visit last year in June, we ran across a very bizarre habit whereby Germans turn off their car at busy intersections and at train crossings to cut down on pollution being emitted form the car. The other day I was sitting waiting for a train to pass and I blurt out under my breath, why doesn't that idiot in front of me turn off his car. I guess I'm adapting rather well.
We were having dinner with some Germans when the topic of health came up. The German stated that he couldn't believe how unfit Americans were compared to Germans. I believe his view came from visiting Florida. What he really saw were French Canadians lying on the beach with their speedos. Our opinion was that Germans were incredibly unhealthy compared to Americans. 40% of Germans smoke (the highest % in Europe) and they eat incredibly greasy food. Everything is fried. Good German food is Italian! Americans have a life expectancy of 77 years and the Germans 78, so I guess they are right. Perspective is very interesting.
Germans also love to bike. It is definitely weird to see an 80 year old lady huffing and puffing up the steep hill to our house. I also see men in business suits and a poncho riding to work in the pouring rain. Only severe snow seems to keep them away. No one wears helmets. Dianne was having German lessons last week. One of the exercises was to use a work in a made up sentence to check your understanding. Dianne's word was "helmet" and she said (in German) "I wear a helmet when I ride my bike". The German teacher says "No, "helmet" ", so Dianne repeats the sentence. The teacher raises her voice and says no you don't understand and proceeds to mimic wearing a helmet on her head. After a 3 minute explanation that Dianne really did wear a helmet when she cycled, the teacher kind of gave up with a perplexed look in her face as if to say, "you really do wear a helmet?"
When getting a shopping cart you must always have a Euro ready to unlock the cart from the group in the parking lot. Of course, when we first arrived, we rarely carried a Euro coin around, and if we did, it was by luck. Several times we simply strolled into the store and asked the clerk to break a bill. At every store they would point to the cash drawer and say, sorry I can't open it, so we would have to go begging to people around the store to break a bill or buy a 10 cent item with a 50 Euro bill. We would curse the employee for days. As I watch more carefully these days, the clerk says, sorry the drawer won't open, but they mean, sorry I can't open the drawer, but if you wait until the next customer to pay, then I'll make change. It's hard to pay attention to nuances when you are stressed to death about grocery shopping. The other day I was in a parking lot returning my cart to get my Euro back, when a lady comes up to me and asks to break a two Euro coin so she can get a cart. I'm thinking to myself that I wonder if she is new to Germany too? Don't all Germans carry Euros? I only had one Euro in my pocket, so I brilliantly told her (in German), Give me your two Euro coin and I'll give you the cart (with the Euro in it) and my one Euro. Apparently she didn't trust me, even with Conner in tow, so we had to walk across the entire parking lot, return my cart, take out the Euro, do the exchange for the two euro coin and then she deposited my coin back into the cart and started on her way to shop. Germans are very distrustful and never assume the best. I'm sure the expression; "benefit of the doubt" does not exist in Germany.
Distrust seems to manifest itself everywhere. Everything is locked, Our house has 16 doors and all have a lock and key. Every key is different. If you leave you're car for 1 minute, it's locked. Some of my neighbors lock their car as they haul each load of groceries into the house. It feels like I live in Detroit, but I doubt if we have ever even had a minor crime in our neighborhood. One of Dianne's co workers did commit an unwritten crime though. Too much grilling on the barbeque. Apparently a neighbor was irate that he was using his BBQ once a week and that was too much, so he came over to explain that he need to cease and desist. There are no such laws on the books, but people have no problem telling you that what you are doing is offending them.
Culture can change and Dianne has proved it. Germans never say hi when they walk by you. It's as if they are busy and life is too important for the small stuff. We have about 15 blue collar construction workers in our neighborhood that are working to finish up the houses they have been working on for the last 3 years. One morning Dianne insists on saying "Guten Tag (good day)" to the three or four people she sees in the morning. No one looked her way or responded. I laughed at her. Three weeks later, Dianne is still saying 'Guten Tag' every morning to the stone faces. But low and behold, about a month later, one responds back. Today, all the workers say "Guten Tag" to us every morning without prompting. Go Dianne! The world is a friendlier place for us and I'm sure the Germans can't wait for us to return to California.
Bye for now
tom
I haven’t written much in a long time since returning from Christmas. My family was rather annoyed at my long silence, (especially those I did not see at Xmas), and asked me to give them an update of life in Germany. I wrote a couple of e-mails with some of our adventures and funnier moments in this far away country. I’ve pieced the messages together below to let you know how life is. My apologies if you heard some of these stories already. The note is rather long, but I hope you enjoy it anyway. I miss California and the funny stories from Mattson (but not the work!) Life as a stay at home dad is pretty good still.
I’m trying to post some pictures on the web, but don’t hold your breath quite yet!
Hope all is well.
tom
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We have finally settled into life on this side of the water. Speaking on behalf of the family, I can say that we are happy we are here. It is definitely not paradise, but it is good and getting better. I believe the arrival of spring and summer will make a big difference also. The sun is shining more often and we are planning our summer trips.
In early April spent a weekend in Brugge, Belgium. It is a very nice little city filled with canals. It was fairly cold, but we plan to return in the summer to enjoy it even more. We took a tour of the canals on a boat, which was a lot of fun. We also strolled around the city for most of the day Saturday. We were told Belgium is famous for beer, French (freedom?) fries and chocolate. We indulged in all three. We stayed at a little 10 room bed and breakfast just outside of the city which was great. They were very nice people running the place. They served a fixed menu meal on Friday evening and breakfast both days. We were greeted at the front door when we arrived and it got better from there! On Sunday we watched part of a professional cycling race. It was cold and the cyclists blew by us at high speed, but it was fun to watch. Next year we will watch on a hill when their speeds drop to less than 25 mph.
We went to Italy for Spring break around Easter. We rented an apartment in a renovated farm house in the Tuscany region of Italy. It was not on the coast (although we have explored that too) but was within a 1 hour drive of the coast. It was very relaxing and a great place for the kids to play. Kailah (our dog) also joined us which we would all loved. Italy is much different than Germany (as described in a few stories below). Once of our tour books summarized it quite nicely. “For many Italians, finding ways to get around the law is a way of life. They are likely to act with surprise, if not annoyance, if you point out they might be breaking a law. Few people pay attention to speed limits, many motorcyclists and drivers don’t stop at red lights – and certainly not at pedestrian crossings. No one bats an eyelid about littering or dogs pooping in the middle of the footpath.” Needless to say, we had a wonderful time and look forward to going back in the near future.
We have also booked a July vacation in France and we will be returning to Italy in early July also. Some of our Danville friends are coming to see us for a whirl wind tour of Europe. Kira's best friend Mandy will stay with us after her parents leave. In late July, early August, we head off to Canada to see Dianne's parents and spend some time in Ottawa and at the cottage. I'm hoping we can meet up with you guys for a part of the stay if you are around at that time.
Our stay in Germany is getting better as we learn their culture and try to understand it more. Not that we approve, but at least we understand. As one German told us, "why would you buy a dryer when you could hang dry your close for three days in the basement and save all that electricity". Americans all laugh about these types of stories. We have found many of them to give the appearance of being unfriendly as they rarely say hello or engage in informal chatter with near complete strangers. Americans, on the other hand, become best friends with people, just because they meet someone else from the States. German's find us plastic and insincere for this "phony" conversation. I have become very aware of our follow on to "hello" as "how are you doing?" Our relocation lady's husband (both are German but have dealt extensively with Americans) relayed a story to us over dinner about how someone asked him how he was doing. He went into a very long answer to fully explain how he was doing. When he looked up, the American was long gone, having never truly expected a real answer to "how are you doing". I went into a computer store the other day, and after they noted that they spoke a little English I said, Hello and then let slip "how are you?", to which he responded "I am supposed to say I am well, and you are well too, yes?".
Germans are very well known for their quality and ability to work hard. We have found none of this while we are here. A local monthly English newsletter joked that they must export all their quality items. They seem to want to talk things to death and can never make decisions. This is clearly evident in the international scene, and Dianne says it is rampant at work.
There are very few entrepreneurs in Germany. Most businesses have to put up large deposits with the government before they can begin. Labor laws are very pro worker making it almost impossible to get rid of people. As well, Germans are very pessimistic, and almost all realize that going into business for yourself is high risk and does not have a high probability of success, so why bother. We have found the entrepreneurs to be wonderful people who welcome us into their business and community. We go to several local restaurants and they always remember us. In the local Lebanese restaurant, Conner is usually whisked away by the owner and given a tour of the kitchen. He always returns with candy or dessert. In the little Italian restaurant (owned by a Bosnian), he always gives us handfuls of candy for Kira, if she doesn't come with us. We have also found a great wine shop that has been very nice to us. We have been to several wine and cheese pairing parties that he has given. He almost always throws in a free bottle when we stop by. We normally buy 6-10 bottles in 5 minutes or less, using his recommendations past and present. Most of his German customers appear to be agonizing for hours over a $5 bottle of wine (yes, he opens the bottle so they can taste), and they always seem to buy only one bottle.
I think I have mastered the most stressful part of the German experience, grocery shopping. Seriously, this is the worst experience for almost all foreigners here. I shop for the four of us, and always have a full cart. I often stand behind Germans who have practically nothing in their carts. Why would you shop, stand in line for 10 minutes and have to bag your own groceries for a yogurt and two beers, as the person in front of me yesterday did? Our new neighbors, originally from the Netherlands, recently from Egypt (that they loved), want to leave Germany because the people are so unfriendly and shopping is horrible. A new co-worker of Dianne's was so proud of himself last weekend for making it through the grocery store by himself and finding the 20 or so items that he needed / wanted. After paying for the goods he quickly realized that the food was not going to be bagged for him and the next customer's goods were already beginning to commingle with his. Not knowing where the shopping bags were and not being offered any help from the checkout person, he began stuffing the goods into his jacket and ended up staggering down the street as his groceries kept falling out all over the sidewalk.
I have found that Germans are also very cheap. They will buy lower quality to save a few pennies. One grocery store, Aldi, is very famous in Germany. It is all cash and carry. Most food is of lower quality, but most Germans swear by this store. The stores are typically very small (2 times the size of a 7-11) and the products change daily. A couple of years ago they started selling computers at deep discount. People would line up overnight to buy these computers filled with cheap parts. They are now the largest sellers of computers in Germany. They are also the 5th largest clothing retailer. They have one isle, kind of like the Ross junk stores in California. On several occasions I have been stopped in the grocery stores by people telling not to buy whatever I just picked up because it is pennies cheaper at Aldi. People don't seem to mind that all the fruits and vegetables purchased there go bad in a day or two.
We invited one of Kira's German friends over for dinner several weeks ago. Germans do not like to eat with their hands. We served beef tacos. Kira's friend noticed the ground beef on the stove and wanted to know why we were cooking food for our dog at dinner. She laughed when we showed her how to eat tacos.
Kira is doing very well and will be sad to leave Germany in a few years. She belongs to a local youth group, run by the local American church. In April they raised money for a homeless shelter by sleeping outside for the night and getting sponsors. Probably 50 kids participated and they raised around $1,000. She is doing well in school and has enjoyed playing basketball and other activities. I think she will be close to trilingual when she leaves here in three years, which will be excellent. Report cards are due out this week and we will see! Kira is still actively involved in basketball and Hip Hop at school. She attended a basketball tournament during the month of February in Rotterdam. Although they did not win the kids all seemed to have a great time. She was really impressed with how big the Rotterdam International School was. She went to Munich for a weekend for basketball and touring in the middle of February and she was very excited. Her school work continues to be easy (which is not what we expected but what we are dealing with). There are a few administrative changes and personnel changes happening in her school and we are hopeful that an increased focus on challenging the children academically will happen. She is doing very well in German and French and may be the only one in our family that has a knack for languages. She is maturing fast and is quickly becoming a young lady. I am sad to see her grow up and want to keep her protected but this is not possible. To that effect the boy she has been going to the dances with asked her to be his girlfriend just before Xmas. She was thrilled and I guess they are an item. Although he says she doesn't pay much attention to him at school - women never change!
Conner is also growing up fast. He is walking now as a routine matter and has decided that sleeping in his crib is not appropriate for a boy of his age and stature. After throwing himself out of his crib 2 nights in a row in January he convinced us that sleeping on his mattress on the floor was a safer place to be. We have to lock him into his room at night so that he doesn't wander out as his room is right at the top of the stairs. He sleeps soundly through the night now and to my knowledge has not tried to get out of his room during the night. Conner is doing great. He goes to preschool 3 half days a week. I take him to a Mom and kid toddler group for a couple of hours twice a week. He is going to be a rough and tumble kind of kid, I'm pretty sure. A couple of weeks ago he took a spill, banging his face and putting a big bump on his head. This week, he did the same to the other side of his face. He is certainly different from Kira. We went swimming in April for the fist time and he had a great time. I'll probably take him once or twice a week in the future. He still isn't talking a whole lot, but knows such key words as dog, woof, cat, truck, dad, mom, ra (for Kira) and a couple of other key words. He completely adores Kira and so far the feeling is mutual.
Dianne spent some time in Moscow working on a telecom client. Although she worked very long hours they did manage to get some sightseeing in. They went to the Balshoy ballet which was fun. It was a modern ballet, which she was less than enthusiastic about, but she got to see the buildings (there are actually 2 - a new one and the original - this production was in the new one). As well, the production was being sponsored by the Netherlands and the Queen of the Netherlands was there. They also had a tour of the city in the evening and saw a lot of the architecture (7 sister buildings put up by Stalin, University of Moscow, and the Kremlin). On the Thursday morning they visited Red Square and saw Lenon in his tomb as well as the outside of the Kremlin wall. They were unsuccessful at getting inside the Kremlin but they will do this in May when they return. We hoping to tag along with her in May as it would be a good time to do some touring.
All in all we are beginning to get settled here. We were sad to leave CA after a return visit at Xmas (probably Dianne more so than Kira and I) but have decided that if we are going to live here for another 2.5 years than we had better make it feel like home. To that effect we have almost hung up all our pictures. We have also leased a second used car as Dianne hates me driving her around. She can now zip around down in an old 96 BMW convertible. Its a little cold with the top down, but it sure looks good!
Everything else is status quo and we are just trying to make it through the winter so that we can begin to enjoy the outdoors etc. The weather was terrible when we came back from the Christmas holidays (-12 with snow for about a week). Everyone tells me this is unique but I am not certain. We are now typically in the plus 15 range or higher (about 60 Fahrenheit) so that is not bad. It is always grey here which is really hard to get used to. I really miss the CA sun!
I thought I would finish up with some of life's funnier moments here in Germany as I wade through the cultural landmines that abound around here.
Large underground parking lots are great in Germany and are very automated. Typically you drive in, push a button, out pops a ticket, the barricade lifts up, and you drive in and find a spot. On the way out, there are cash machines on most floors that you insert your ticket, it tells you how much you owe, you pay, and then at the exit you put your ticket in a machine, the barricade lifts up and you drive away. Simple and elegant. However, here in the suburb of Bad Godesburg where we live, this garage also has an attendant that roams around enforcing all the rules, explicit and implicit. Women only parking on the first floor is for women drivers only. Mother and child parking is NOT for father and child. Explicit rules are easy. An unwritten rule seems to be you need to park in the first available spot. I always drive to the bottom floor where there is plenty of parking. One day several months ago, Dianne was also attempting to follow my very good advice when the parking police (polite version of name Dianne gave to him) came running after Dianne screaming at her that she had apparently missed parking in a spot. As she continued to drive on, missing small narrow spots, this guy became infuriated, yelling at her in German to park the car in an open spot. Dianne rolled down the window, smiled, said that she only spoke English and drove to the bottom floor. She is still traumatized today and I usually park the car for her fear of meeting up with the enforcer.
Recycling is taken very seriously in Germany. When we moved in, we were given bins for paper, plastic/metal, bio waste and regular garbage. I asked the property manger when we were getting the glass recycling container. He replied, "Oh, you don't need a bin, we have large containers conveniently located all over the city that you can drive your glass to". I thought, that's weird, I wonder if he is just lazy and won't give me one so I asked the neighbor what they do about glass and was told, "Oh, you don't need a bin, we have large containers conveniently located all over the city that you can drive your glass to" Every week or so I now load the car with glass and drive around looking for 20 minutes for a convenient bin. Very weird.
Recycling pick up times are issued in a very large book and sent to us in the mail at random times. Sometimes regular garbage is done weekly, sometimes bi weekly. The other stuff is all done a couple of times a month, and different dates every month. The bins are never picked up on the same day. Every night I look out the window and say to myself, I hope the neighbors can read that damn manual as I scan to see if they have left cans out for the next morning pickup.
I also found out that everyone takes sorting very seriously and have heard many stories where recycling collectors will go through your bins and if anything is out of order they either (politely) just leave the bin without emptying it or (rudely) knock the bin and its contents all over your lawn. The collectors always look through our bins (what are they looking for? Do they keep the good stuff??), but have always taken it away.
The have just instituted a new deposit program for some plastic bottles and most aluminum (mostly beer) cans whereby stores charge you a deposit when you buy it and give you back your money when you return it. Almost all the stores hate this bureaucracy and require you to keep the receipt showing you were charged the deposit at their store before they refund you any money. I was at a store and had spent a considerable amount on groceries when the clerk starts talking to me at high speed in German about the receipt. I tried, but just couldn't figure out what she was saying, so she tracked someone down to explain to me that if I wanted my 50 cents in deposit back, I would have to keep the receipt. I naturally just threw the stuff into the recycling bins when we were done with the goods. Two days later the maid (yes we have a maid? Dianne hates my house cleaning abilities), pulls the bottles from the bins and proceeds to tell me all about the new deposit program. I tried to tell her that for 50 cents, it just wasn't worth the hassle so I threw away the receipt. She was truly disappointed. In the future I am going to have to do a better job hiding the bottles from her.
The funniest thing of all about German recycling is that they do not have the infrastructure to deal with all the sorting done by individuals, so it is all combined at the end process and burned. Many people know this, but insist that it is still good to practice sorting, so when the infrastructure can handle it, the transition will be easy.
When we arrived for our first visit last year in June, we ran across a very bizarre habit whereby Germans turn off their car at busy intersections and at train crossings to cut down on pollution being emitted form the car. The other day I was sitting waiting for a train to pass and I blurt out under my breath, why doesn't that idiot in front of me turn off his car. I guess I'm adapting rather well.
We were having dinner with some Germans when the topic of health came up. The German stated that he couldn't believe how unfit Americans were compared to Germans. I believe his view came from visiting Florida. What he really saw were French Canadians lying on the beach with their speedos. Our opinion was that Germans were incredibly unhealthy compared to Americans. 40% of Germans smoke (the highest % in Europe) and they eat incredibly greasy food. Everything is fried. Good German food is Italian! Americans have a life expectancy of 77 years and the Germans 78, so I guess they are right. Perspective is very interesting.
Germans also love to bike. It is definitely weird to see an 80 year old lady huffing and puffing up the steep hill to our house. I also see men in business suits and a poncho riding to work in the pouring rain. Only severe snow seems to keep them away. No one wears helmets. Dianne was having German lessons last week. One of the exercises was to use a work in a made up sentence to check your understanding. Dianne's word was "helmet" and she said (in German) "I wear a helmet when I ride my bike". The German teacher says "No, "helmet" ", so Dianne repeats the sentence. The teacher raises her voice and says no you don't understand and proceeds to mimic wearing a helmet on her head. After a 3 minute explanation that Dianne really did wear a helmet when she cycled, the teacher kind of gave up with a perplexed look in her face as if to say, "you really do wear a helmet?"
When getting a shopping cart you must always have a Euro ready to unlock the cart from the group in the parking lot. Of course, when we first arrived, we rarely carried a Euro coin around, and if we did, it was by luck. Several times we simply strolled into the store and asked the clerk to break a bill. At every store they would point to the cash drawer and say, sorry I can't open it, so we would have to go begging to people around the store to break a bill or buy a 10 cent item with a 50 Euro bill. We would curse the employee for days. As I watch more carefully these days, the clerk says, sorry the drawer won't open, but they mean, sorry I can't open the drawer, but if you wait until the next customer to pay, then I'll make change. It's hard to pay attention to nuances when you are stressed to death about grocery shopping. The other day I was in a parking lot returning my cart to get my Euro back, when a lady comes up to me and asks to break a two Euro coin so she can get a cart. I'm thinking to myself that I wonder if she is new to Germany too? Don't all Germans carry Euros? I only had one Euro in my pocket, so I brilliantly told her (in German), Give me your two Euro coin and I'll give you the cart (with the Euro in it) and my one Euro. Apparently she didn't trust me, even with Conner in tow, so we had to walk across the entire parking lot, return my cart, take out the Euro, do the exchange for the two euro coin and then she deposited my coin back into the cart and started on her way to shop. Germans are very distrustful and never assume the best. I'm sure the expression; "benefit of the doubt" does not exist in Germany.
Distrust seems to manifest itself everywhere. Everything is locked, Our house has 16 doors and all have a lock and key. Every key is different. If you leave you're car for 1 minute, it's locked. Some of my neighbors lock their car as they haul each load of groceries into the house. It feels like I live in Detroit, but I doubt if we have ever even had a minor crime in our neighborhood. One of Dianne's co workers did commit an unwritten crime though. Too much grilling on the barbeque. Apparently a neighbor was irate that he was using his BBQ once a week and that was too much, so he came over to explain that he need to cease and desist. There are no such laws on the books, but people have no problem telling you that what you are doing is offending them.
Culture can change and Dianne has proved it. Germans never say hi when they walk by you. It's as if they are busy and life is too important for the small stuff. We have about 15 blue collar construction workers in our neighborhood that are working to finish up the houses they have been working on for the last 3 years. One morning Dianne insists on saying "Guten Tag (good day)" to the three or four people she sees in the morning. No one looked her way or responded. I laughed at her. Three weeks later, Dianne is still saying 'Guten Tag' every morning to the stone faces. But low and behold, about a month later, one responds back. Today, all the workers say "Guten Tag" to us every morning without prompting. Go Dianne! The world is a friendlier place for us and I'm sure the Germans can't wait for us to return to California.
Bye for now
tom
Thursday, April 10, 2003
Subject: News from Germany - Part II
I thought I would finish up with some of life’s funnier moments here in Germany as I wade through the cultural landmines that abound around here.
Large underground parking lots are great in Germany and are very automated. Typically you drive in, push a button, out pops a ticket, the barricade lifts up, and you drive in and find a spot. On the way out, there are cash machines on most floors that you insert your ticket, it tells you how much you owe, you pay, and then at the exit you put your ticket in a machine, the barricade lifts up and you drive away. Simple and elegant. However, here in the suburb of Bad Godesburg where we live, this garage also has an attendant that roams around enforcing all the rules, explicit and implicit. Women only parking on the first floor is for women drivers only. Mother and child parking is NOT for father and child. Explicit rules are easy. An unwritten rule seems to be you need to park in the first available spot. I always drive to the bottom floor where there is plenty of parking. One day several months ago, Dianne was also attempting to follow my very good advice when the parking police (polite version of name Dianne gave to him) came running after Dianne screaming at her that she had apparently missed parking in a spot. As she continued to drive on, missing small narrow spots, this guy became infuriated, yelling at her in German to park the car in an open spot. Dianne rolled down the window, smiled, said that she only spoke English and drove to the bottom floor. She is still traumatized today and I usually park the car for her fear of meeting up with the enforcer.
Recycling is taken very seriously in Germany. When we moved in, we were given bins for paper, plastic/metal, bio waste and regular garbage. I asked the property manger when we were getting the glass recycling container. He replied, “Oh, you don’t need a bin, we have large containers conveniently located all over the city that you can drive your glass to”. I thought, that’s weird, I wonder if he is just lazy and won’t give me one so I asked the neighbor what they do about glass and was told, “Oh, you don’t need a bin, we have large containers conveniently located all over the city that you can drive your glass to” Every week or so I now load the car with glass and drive around looking for 20 minutes for a convenient bin. Very weird.
Recycling pick up times are issued in a very large book and sent to us in the mail at random times. Sometimes regular garbage is done weekly, sometimes bi weekly. The other stuff is all done a couple of times a month, and different dates every month. The bins are never picked up on the same day. Every night I look out the window and say to myself, I hope the neighbors can read that damn manual as I scan to see if they have left cans out for the next morning pickup.
I also found out that everyone takes sorting very seriously and have heard many stories where recycling collectors will go through your bins and if anything is out of order they either (politely) just leave the bin without emptying it or (rudely) knock the bin and its contents all over your lawn. The collectors always look through our bins (what are they looking for? Do they keep the good stuff??), but have always taken it away.
The have just instituted a new deposit program for some plastic bottles and most aluminum (mostly beer) cans whereby stores charge you a deposit when you buy it and give you back your money when you return it. Almost all the stores hate this bureaucracy and require you to keep the receipt showing you were charged the deposit at their store before they refund you any money. I was at a store and had spent a considerable amount on groceries when the clerk starts talking to me at high speed in German about the receipt. I tried, but just couldn’t figure out what she was saying, so she tracked someone down to explain to me that if I wanted my 50 cents in deposit back, I would have to keep the receipt. I naturally just threw the stuff into the recycling bins when we were done with the goods. Two days later the maid (yes we have a maid – Dianne hates my house cleaning abilities), pulls the bottles from the bins and proceeds to tell me all about the new deposit program. I tried to tell her that for 50 cents, it just wasn’t worth the hassle so I threw away the receipt. She was truly disappointed. In the future I am going to have to do a better job hiding the bottles from her.
The funniest thing of all about German recycling is that they do not have the infrastructure to deal with all the sorting done by individuals, so it is all combined at the end process and burned. Many people know this, but insist that it is still good to practice sorting, so when the infrastructure can handle it, the transition will be easy.
When we arrived for our first visit last year in June, we ran across a very bizarre habit whereby Germans turn off their car at busy intersections and at train crossings to cut down on pollution being emitted form the car. The other day I was sitting waiting for a train to pass and I blurt out under my breath, why doesn’t that idiot in front of me turn off his car. I guess I’m adapting rather well.
We were having dinner with some Germans when the topic of health came up. The German stated that he couldn’t believe how unfit Americans were compared to Germans. I believe his view came from visiting Florida. What he really saw were French Canadians lying on the beach with their speedos. Our opinion was that Germans were incredibly unhealthy compared to Americans. 40% of Germans smoke (the highest % in Europe) and they eat incredibly greasy food. Everything is fried. Good German food is Italian! Americans have a life expectancy of 77 years and the Germans 78, so I guess they are right. Perspective is very interesting.
Germans also love to bike. It is definitely weird to see an 80 year old lady huffing and puffing up the steep hill to our house. I also see men in business suits and a poncho riding to work in the pouring rain. Only severe snow seems to keep them away. No one wears helmets. Dianne was having German lessons last week. One of the exercises was to use a work in a made up sentence to check your understanding. Dianne’s word was “helmet” and she said (in German) “I wear a helmet when I ride my bike”. The German teacher says “No, “helmet” “, so Dianne repeats the sentence. The teacher raises her voice and says no you don’t understand and proceeds to mimic wearing a helmet on her head. After a 3 minute explanation that Dianne really did wear a helmet when she cycled, the teacher kind of gave up with a perplexed look in her face as if to say, “you really do wear a helmet?”
When getting a shopping cart you must always have a Euro ready to unlock the cart from the group in the parking lot. Of course, when we first arrived, we rarely carried a Euro coin around, and if we did, it was by luck. Several times we simply strolled into the store and asked the clerk to break a bill. At every store they would point to the cash drawer and say, sorry I can’t open it, so we would have to go begging to people around the store to break a bill or buy a 10 cent item with a 50 Euro bill. We would curse the employee for days. As I watch more carefully these days, the clerk says, sorry the drawer won’t open, but they mean, sorry I can’t open the drawer, but if you wait until the next customer to pay, then I’ll make change. It’s hard to pay attention to nuances when you are stressed to death about grocery shopping. The other day I was in a parking lot returning my cart to get my Euro back, when a lady comes up to me and asks to break a two Euro coin so she can get a cart. I’m thinking to myself that I wonder if she is new to Germany too – don’t all Germans carry Euros? I only had one Euro in my pocket, so I brilliantly told her (in German). Give me your two Euro coin and I’ll give you the cart (with the Euro in it) and my one Euro. Apparently she didn’t trust me, even with Conner in tow, so we had to walk across the entire parking lot, return my cart, take out the Euro, do the exchange for the two euro coin and then she deposited my coin back into the cart and started on her way to shop. Germans are very distrustful and never assume the best. I’m sure the expression; “benefit of the doubt” does not exist in Germany.
Distrust seems to manifest itself everywhere. Everything is locked, Our house has 16 doors and all have a lock and key. Every key is different. If you leave you’re car for 1 minute, it’s locked. Some of my neighbors lock their car as they haul each load of groceries into the house. It feels like I live in Detroit, but I doubt if we have ever even had a minor crime in our neighborhood. One of Dianne’s co workers did commit an unwritten crime though. Too much grilling on the barbeque. Apparently a neighbor was irate that he was using his BBQ once a week and that was too much, so he came over to explain that he need to cease and desist. There are no such laws on the books, but people have no problem telling you that what you are doing is offending them.
Culture can change and Dianne has proved it. Germans never say hi when they walk by you. It’s as if they are busy and life is too important for the small stuff. We have about 15 blue collar construction workers in our neighborhood that are working to finish up the houses they have been working on for the last 3 years. One morning Dianne insists on saying “Guten Tag (good day)” to the three or four people she sees in the morning. No one looked her way or responded. I laughed at her. Three weeks later, Dianne is still saying ‘Guten Tag’ every morning to the stone faces. But low and behold, about a month later, one responds back. Today, all the workers say “Guten Tag” to us every morning without prompting. Go Dianne! The world is a friendlier place for us and I’m sure the Germans can’t wait for us to return to California.
Bye for now
tom
Large underground parking lots are great in Germany and are very automated. Typically you drive in, push a button, out pops a ticket, the barricade lifts up, and you drive in and find a spot. On the way out, there are cash machines on most floors that you insert your ticket, it tells you how much you owe, you pay, and then at the exit you put your ticket in a machine, the barricade lifts up and you drive away. Simple and elegant. However, here in the suburb of Bad Godesburg where we live, this garage also has an attendant that roams around enforcing all the rules, explicit and implicit. Women only parking on the first floor is for women drivers only. Mother and child parking is NOT for father and child. Explicit rules are easy. An unwritten rule seems to be you need to park in the first available spot. I always drive to the bottom floor where there is plenty of parking. One day several months ago, Dianne was also attempting to follow my very good advice when the parking police (polite version of name Dianne gave to him) came running after Dianne screaming at her that she had apparently missed parking in a spot. As she continued to drive on, missing small narrow spots, this guy became infuriated, yelling at her in German to park the car in an open spot. Dianne rolled down the window, smiled, said that she only spoke English and drove to the bottom floor. She is still traumatized today and I usually park the car for her fear of meeting up with the enforcer.
Recycling is taken very seriously in Germany. When we moved in, we were given bins for paper, plastic/metal, bio waste and regular garbage. I asked the property manger when we were getting the glass recycling container. He replied, “Oh, you don’t need a bin, we have large containers conveniently located all over the city that you can drive your glass to”. I thought, that’s weird, I wonder if he is just lazy and won’t give me one so I asked the neighbor what they do about glass and was told, “Oh, you don’t need a bin, we have large containers conveniently located all over the city that you can drive your glass to” Every week or so I now load the car with glass and drive around looking for 20 minutes for a convenient bin. Very weird.
Recycling pick up times are issued in a very large book and sent to us in the mail at random times. Sometimes regular garbage is done weekly, sometimes bi weekly. The other stuff is all done a couple of times a month, and different dates every month. The bins are never picked up on the same day. Every night I look out the window and say to myself, I hope the neighbors can read that damn manual as I scan to see if they have left cans out for the next morning pickup.
I also found out that everyone takes sorting very seriously and have heard many stories where recycling collectors will go through your bins and if anything is out of order they either (politely) just leave the bin without emptying it or (rudely) knock the bin and its contents all over your lawn. The collectors always look through our bins (what are they looking for? Do they keep the good stuff??), but have always taken it away.
The have just instituted a new deposit program for some plastic bottles and most aluminum (mostly beer) cans whereby stores charge you a deposit when you buy it and give you back your money when you return it. Almost all the stores hate this bureaucracy and require you to keep the receipt showing you were charged the deposit at their store before they refund you any money. I was at a store and had spent a considerable amount on groceries when the clerk starts talking to me at high speed in German about the receipt. I tried, but just couldn’t figure out what she was saying, so she tracked someone down to explain to me that if I wanted my 50 cents in deposit back, I would have to keep the receipt. I naturally just threw the stuff into the recycling bins when we were done with the goods. Two days later the maid (yes we have a maid – Dianne hates my house cleaning abilities), pulls the bottles from the bins and proceeds to tell me all about the new deposit program. I tried to tell her that for 50 cents, it just wasn’t worth the hassle so I threw away the receipt. She was truly disappointed. In the future I am going to have to do a better job hiding the bottles from her.
The funniest thing of all about German recycling is that they do not have the infrastructure to deal with all the sorting done by individuals, so it is all combined at the end process and burned. Many people know this, but insist that it is still good to practice sorting, so when the infrastructure can handle it, the transition will be easy.
When we arrived for our first visit last year in June, we ran across a very bizarre habit whereby Germans turn off their car at busy intersections and at train crossings to cut down on pollution being emitted form the car. The other day I was sitting waiting for a train to pass and I blurt out under my breath, why doesn’t that idiot in front of me turn off his car. I guess I’m adapting rather well.
We were having dinner with some Germans when the topic of health came up. The German stated that he couldn’t believe how unfit Americans were compared to Germans. I believe his view came from visiting Florida. What he really saw were French Canadians lying on the beach with their speedos. Our opinion was that Germans were incredibly unhealthy compared to Americans. 40% of Germans smoke (the highest % in Europe) and they eat incredibly greasy food. Everything is fried. Good German food is Italian! Americans have a life expectancy of 77 years and the Germans 78, so I guess they are right. Perspective is very interesting.
Germans also love to bike. It is definitely weird to see an 80 year old lady huffing and puffing up the steep hill to our house. I also see men in business suits and a poncho riding to work in the pouring rain. Only severe snow seems to keep them away. No one wears helmets. Dianne was having German lessons last week. One of the exercises was to use a work in a made up sentence to check your understanding. Dianne’s word was “helmet” and she said (in German) “I wear a helmet when I ride my bike”. The German teacher says “No, “helmet” “, so Dianne repeats the sentence. The teacher raises her voice and says no you don’t understand and proceeds to mimic wearing a helmet on her head. After a 3 minute explanation that Dianne really did wear a helmet when she cycled, the teacher kind of gave up with a perplexed look in her face as if to say, “you really do wear a helmet?”
When getting a shopping cart you must always have a Euro ready to unlock the cart from the group in the parking lot. Of course, when we first arrived, we rarely carried a Euro coin around, and if we did, it was by luck. Several times we simply strolled into the store and asked the clerk to break a bill. At every store they would point to the cash drawer and say, sorry I can’t open it, so we would have to go begging to people around the store to break a bill or buy a 10 cent item with a 50 Euro bill. We would curse the employee for days. As I watch more carefully these days, the clerk says, sorry the drawer won’t open, but they mean, sorry I can’t open the drawer, but if you wait until the next customer to pay, then I’ll make change. It’s hard to pay attention to nuances when you are stressed to death about grocery shopping. The other day I was in a parking lot returning my cart to get my Euro back, when a lady comes up to me and asks to break a two Euro coin so she can get a cart. I’m thinking to myself that I wonder if she is new to Germany too – don’t all Germans carry Euros? I only had one Euro in my pocket, so I brilliantly told her (in German). Give me your two Euro coin and I’ll give you the cart (with the Euro in it) and my one Euro. Apparently she didn’t trust me, even with Conner in tow, so we had to walk across the entire parking lot, return my cart, take out the Euro, do the exchange for the two euro coin and then she deposited my coin back into the cart and started on her way to shop. Germans are very distrustful and never assume the best. I’m sure the expression; “benefit of the doubt” does not exist in Germany.
Distrust seems to manifest itself everywhere. Everything is locked, Our house has 16 doors and all have a lock and key. Every key is different. If you leave you’re car for 1 minute, it’s locked. Some of my neighbors lock their car as they haul each load of groceries into the house. It feels like I live in Detroit, but I doubt if we have ever even had a minor crime in our neighborhood. One of Dianne’s co workers did commit an unwritten crime though. Too much grilling on the barbeque. Apparently a neighbor was irate that he was using his BBQ once a week and that was too much, so he came over to explain that he need to cease and desist. There are no such laws on the books, but people have no problem telling you that what you are doing is offending them.
Culture can change and Dianne has proved it. Germans never say hi when they walk by you. It’s as if they are busy and life is too important for the small stuff. We have about 15 blue collar construction workers in our neighborhood that are working to finish up the houses they have been working on for the last 3 years. One morning Dianne insists on saying “Guten Tag (good day)” to the three or four people she sees in the morning. No one looked her way or responded. I laughed at her. Three weeks later, Dianne is still saying ‘Guten Tag’ every morning to the stone faces. But low and behold, about a month later, one responds back. Today, all the workers say “Guten Tag” to us every morning without prompting. Go Dianne! The world is a friendlier place for us and I’m sure the Germans can’t wait for us to return to California.
Bye for now
tom
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