Subject: Entertaining Germans - Part II

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