More Friendly Than Expected
While Germans aren't big on smiling, the majority of the people I have met have been very friendly. Even the woman working the bread/pastry at the Rewe (grocery store) has warmed up to me. I have been stopping there every morning to grab something for breakfast (my own sort of "collect the pastries! Try them all!" experiment which I justify to myself because I have a 3 mile round trip walk to/from work every day). She has gone from surly and rude to now trying to have all sorts of conversations with me. She clearly knows I'm not German, so I applaud the effort. However, the conversations have been going like this as of late:
Me: "Morgan!"
Her: "Morgan! Kann ich dich hilfen?" (I get this - this is "Can I you help" literally)
Me: "Ja. Ein {insert name of delicious pastry I have chosen}, bitte. Aus haus." (That means "to go", or literally "out of the house")
Her: "Wünschen Sie noch etwas?"(Took me awhile, but this means, would you like anything else)Me: "Nein, bitte."
So far, so good, right? Yeah. Until we get to this part.
Her: "das fleegen und das urgeshcrewgen flagen unt duss muss rechning verbindgunestenien unglend nicht bergaaasden das umstang bang bang?"
Okay, so it isn't exactly that bad, but that's what it sounds like. Yesterday I could have bet money she was asking me about the "protracted polyurethane donuts turtles many shoes".
Me: (big, moronic smile) "Er... ja! Danke! Tschuss!" and then I just get the hell out of there. I have no idea what I have agreed to in the past days, but saying yes and thank you seems to be an acceptable response.
No clothes? No problem.
In the past week, while walking home from work (which takes me across my campus, through a tunnel under the train station, past the entrance for an underground garage and then through part of the main square of town), I have seen:
- A buck naked child running amuck amongst her fully clothed parents. The little girl was about 7. She was running around the entrance of the grocery store, and then followed her parents down into the parking garage. To put this in context, there is no daycare nearby. There is no pool. There is no public toilet. There is no fountain. In short, there is no reason for the child to be naked other than her simply saying, "Hmm, I'm tired of these clothes now" and just taking them all off. Her parents were quite serenely carrying her clothes and shoes while the child pranced around. People walking by didn't give a second look. I don't think they even really noticed. I noticed, because a naked kid running free isn't exactly normal where I come from (unless you're under the age of 5, and there is a sprinkler nearby and your parents were hippies).
- Several, and I mean SEVERAL, people just wandering about with no shoes. These are well-dressed individuals. They are not carrying shoes, or a bag that could contain shoes. They give no indication, in fact, of even being aware that footwear is required. They are just wandering the town square, the grocery store, my street, etc, barefoot. Which I find especially odd, as everything I've read has indicated the Germans aren't too big on sandals and showing of the feet in general.
Schitnzel. It's what's for dinner. And lunch. And breakfast.
This may just be because I'm in the tiny town of Ingelheim, but the darn schnitzel is EVERYWHERE. Yesterday, my lunch choices were (as far as I could tell, as it was all in German): some sort of buckwheat surprise (pass), a sausage ghoulash (double pass), a bunch of vegetables sauteed in butter (pass) with a cream sauce (pass pass pass), some fish situation (pass) and then a salad with chicken schnitzel and potato cubes, which is what I chose out of desperation.
I wish I had taken a photo. It literally was a huge bowl filled with salad leaves and then topped with about a half a cup of roasted potato cubes and several small medallions of chicken schnitzel. No other veggies. There were weird dressings/toppings on the side but they all looked suspiciously milk based and we all know I am only willing to suffer stomach cramps for ice cream and hot chocolate. Some of the dressings looked like a milk plus sausage situation, which also did not seem like an especially good idea. To be fair, the alleged "salad" wasn't bad per se - but it was definitely an odd combination.
And I don't get the schnitzel fascination. When I go to grab my breakfast, the hot food counter is doing a roaring business in schnitzel and sausage sandwiches and rotisserie chicken. And no, I don't mean breakfast sausage, or even British sausage. I mean big old German sausage. And sauerkraut. Looks like Oktoberfest at 8 in the morning, minus the beer. And then if I stop in the store on the way home, the checkout line is usually full of people buying all sorts of schnitzel and sausage and whatnot. I have tried the schnitzel. It is essentially breaded meat, I think fried or baked. It is good, but nothing to go crazy for. So, I repeat. I don't. get. the. schnitzel.
Germans love cigarettes.
I work in the pharmaceutical industry. I work amongst highly-educated people, most of whom have some sort of scientific background. And yet... when I walk to work, or walk outside to go to the cafeteria, SMOKE BOMB!!! I have been utterly shocked by the amount of people I see smoking. And not just casually smoking - smoking as if their lives depended on it. This is some prison-yard, Orange is the New Black, Welcome to Oz grade smoking. In the time it took me to go from one building to another (about 2 min), I watched one woman get through two cigarettes. Luckily most of the restaurants, bars and other public places have gone smoke-free, but most train stations still have the Pigpen-style cloud of smoke hovering around them.
The 80s are still alive?
I have seen more mullets than I expected, and more feathered hair than I thought was possible, given the proximity to the second decade of the 21st century. And while I get that certain fashion trends from the 80s are "back", I'm pretty sure they never left for some individuals in this town. I saw a full-on Run DMC get up yesterday (track suit, huge gold chain) worn without even a hint of irony or hipsterish self-awareness. I've seen fringe. And not just fringe - suede fringe (and for my English friends, I don't mean bangs, I mean whatever you call that fashion option where fabric is cut into tiny pieces and then dangles). I've seen more neon than is good for anyone, and I am no longer surprised that David Hasselhoff is big news here.All in all, I'm having a great time. Although I would be lying if I didn't add that I am looking forward to my US trips already, because TARGET.
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