My Likes and Dislikes of Deutschland

September 4, 2004 · Filed Under Life as an Expat 

I was pretty surprised at how different Germany is to the US. Before I moved, I expected it would basically be the same, just a different language. I had visited Germany for a whole month and liked it a lot, but visiting and living are not the same. It is very different here and it took me a long time to adjust (I guess I’m still adjusting).

Things I will miss if I ever go back to the US:

1. Cheese selection - I love cheese and they have a lot of it here.
2. Pedestrian shopping areas - I just love walking around and looking at the shops. It’s not even the same as the open air malls in the US (like Reston Town Center). Those still have a “mall” feeling.
3. Market Squares - I like going and buying fresh flowers and fruit here. Sure, there are Farmer’s Markets in the US, but in Germany, they’re there every day.
4. Not paying at the doctor’s office - except for 10 euro per quarter.
5. Bakeries on every street corner - I love good fresh bread. Hard to find this in the US.
6. Eating on a terrace or square - I like eating outside, but there are not that many places that have outdoor eating areas in the US. Most have one here.
7. Good wood-grilled Krakauer sausage.
8. Being able to walk - to the supermarket, electronics store, video rental, bakery, flower shop, department stores, restaurants, doctor’s office, and work. I don’t even have a car half the time because Rainer takes it to Berlin for the week.
9. Unobstructed views - it’s kinda nice having wide open windows with no screens. If you want to stick your head out the window, it’s no problem.
10. Small fuel efficient cars - in general, people in Germany are not driving around in massive, polluting, fuel-sucking monstrosities that are by far bigger than they need.
11. Life satisfaction does not equal material posessions - from what I can tell, German’s don’t have this need to have a bigger house, better car, prettier wife, smarter kids, etc than their neighbors that Americans unfortunately do. There isn’t a whole society in debt here.

Things I will not miss about Germany:

1. Lack of customer service - Some people say customer service in the US can be bad… There is no concept of customer service in Berlin, the salespeople and waiters are doing you a HUGE favor by showing up to work at all, you should be grateful! I was boycotting stores with bad customer service at first, but then I ran out of stores to shop in… in Berlin! A city of 6 million people! Although I’ve noticed customer service seems to be catching on in Rostock.
2. Doggy poop everywhere - Germans don’t scoop poop. I even saw poop in Quartier 204 in Berlin once (VERY expensive indoor shopping area - I was in there looking at the cool architecture, I can’t afford Gucci clothes, not that any of them would fit me anyway).
3. Public urination - German men - Okay! - SOME German men, feel urinating on street corners is completely acceptable. There is a field in front of my office window where men are often urinating. Nice work environment! Just to be fair, one of Rainer’s friends told me they saw a woman crouched down taking a dump at a bus stop in Berlin, so I guess it can be both sexes.
4. Doctors - there are some nice ones, but I found these few and far between. Most treat you like you have no brain and I can’t count how many times I’ve been misdiagnosed. not to mention there is often a several hour wait due to the elderly German sport of doctor visiting.
5. Making friends - It seems with Germans that you are either a good friend or you are an acquaintance. In the US, there is a middle stage that allows you to have someone to hang out and do stuff with, without being best friends. I always made friends in the US fairly easily whenever I moved or started work somewhere new. Not here.
6. Junk food - Paprika flavored potato chips and Erdnuss Flippies (peanut puffs). Blah! These are gross. I miss Doritos and Cheetos.
7. “American” food - this is generally pretty gnarly. Hamburgers are usually made from a mixture of ground pork and beef. This is just wrong! I had ribs in an “American Western” restaurant that were marinated in cinnamon and sugar. Just plain strange.
8. Work environment - too strict and formal for my taste. There’s way too many rules and paperwork and hierarchy. Germans generally believe that work life and home life should not overlap. How do you make friends if not at work?
9. A house full of bugs - okay, you get bugs in American houses too, but there are no screens on the windows here and no air conditioning, so in the hot summer, your house gets full of moths, mosquitoes, and flies (lots of them).
10. Over-priced electronics, appliances, and clothing - these things just cost so much more than in the US. My KitchenAid mixer was $179.00 in the US and is priced at €400 here.

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9 Responses to “My Likes and Dislikes of Deutschland”

  1. Argh I hate mosquitos! | an american expat in deutschland on November 11th, 2007 11:07 pm

    […] I’m allergic to German mosquitos and they can’t get enough of me. I get huge 3-inch in diameter welts. Another thing I definitely wouldn’t miss. […]

  2. Alice on August 6th, 2008 9:23 pm

    Wow. I know this posting is way old, but it’s SO true! I’ve been here in NRW for 1 year now. My list (if I had one) would be very similar to yours! Is that really why there’s always such a long wait at the docs office???

    Also - I’m looking for where I can buy some american goodies - like maple syrup. Any ideas?

    Thanks! Alice

  3. Christina G on August 9th, 2008 9:24 am

    @Alice: It’s interesting, in Bavaria, I hardly ever have a wait at the doc’s office. Must be a regional thing. Also, maple syrup is available in pretty much every store. Check by the honey or in the Bio section. You can find more tips in my food subsitutes post.

  4. Donna on September 27th, 2008 5:49 pm

    In answer to Alice, Kaufhof has a few american products, as well as of course the English Shop in Köln (if you’re still in NRW).

    As for likes & dislikes, I’m still trying to make myself get out of the house enough to determine those. Great list. You actually made the good outweigh the bad, in my opinion. Which helps, believe it or not.

  5. Christina G on September 27th, 2008 6:31 pm

    @donna: it gets better with time ;-) I posted this three years ago, I think I’d have a huge adjustment to make now if I moved back to the US. Thanks for commenting!

  6. Alison on October 1st, 2008 8:15 pm

    So good… what I would really miss if I left would be the bread & pretzels “Brezn” fresh & hot out of the bakery oven… I definitely would not miss the trips to any “Amt” they are all rude and unfriendly because they can not be fired so they have the power and use it! What I miss most is how nice and genuinely friendly the people in the US are (mostly maybe not in NYC but otherwise…) the Germans tend to think this is us being “falsch” but I truely believe that the people from the US are genuinely friendly and want to meet new (especially strangers from Europe) people. Mostly I miss people just smiling and expressing their happiness. Ever hear people on the radio who have won money… no shouting or jumping up and down just oh gee thanks.
    Last but not least TELEVISION all those horrible “reality” shows we love to hate and not dubbed in German with a very horrible non-fitting voice to match.
    Sorry, I just had to get all that out of my system, I feel better now really.

  7. Christina G on October 1st, 2008 9:28 pm

    Thanks for commenting, Alison. I don’t watch German TV all that much. Too much dubbed stuff. The Simpson “auf Deutsch” is just awful. But as a counterpoint, my hubby Rainer did not have the best experiences at any of the “Amt”s in the US. The DMV doesn’t have the rep of being the happiest place on Earth, right? Glad you feel better ;-)

  8. Donna on October 2nd, 2008 3:59 pm

    Lol, true true Christina. I always thought the same at the clinic when getting my children’s immunizations in the States. Govt agencies in the US can be very prudish & rude a lot of the time.

    And Alison, I know what you mean. I miss having people exchange a smile on the street in passing. My husband (he’s german) has noted that if you smile at a stranger here in Germany they think you either want something, or you’re a looney, lol. Today’s a day for me to laugh at it all (tomorrow I might cry). To think there are so many of us here, and we probably pass each other not knowing the other is American and could use that smile, lol. I’d say I’d start trying it (smiling at strangers for the glimpse of another american or just a friendly german), but they might label me as the “town looney that smiles a lot”. :)

  9. market-oil.ru on October 18th, 2008 12:39 pm

    Нормуль! :)

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