I’ve been tagged by Blythe over at Blythe Spirit, so here goes:
Name five things you love in your new country:
1. Cheese and bread selection
2. Public transportation – although DC’s Metro is pretty good
3. Chickens in gardens – I love how people keep chickens in their gardens, it’s so cool to walk around the neighborhood and watch the chickens. I want chickens when we get a house!
4. Well-trained dogs – at least half the dogs are off leash and walk loyally and quietly next to their owners, I’m so jealous.
5. Sauerbraten
Name four things that you miss from your native country:
1. Big, fresh salad bars with mescaline salad mix, ripe and tasty tomatoes, garbanzo beans, sprouts, croutons, blue cheese dressing, etc.
2. Ripe tropical fruit
3. Smiling at and friendly small talk with strangers
4. The ease of making acquaintances – I think good friendships take the same amount of time either place, but getting someone to have lunches with or go to the movies with is easier in the States.
Name three things that annoy you a bit (or much) in your new country:
1. Smoking everywhere
2. Dog poop everywhere
3. Lack of blacks and Asians (and the way blacks and Asians are sometimes treated by a few folks here)
Name two things that surprise you (or surprised you in the beginning) in your new country:
1. Unending bureaucracy, whatever happened to German efficiency?
2. Plus-size clothes = granny clothes, no exceptions
Name one thing that you would miss terribly in your new country, if you had to leave it:
1. The lack of competitiveness with neighbors. Germans are (at least compared to Amis) not very materialistic. There’s no real sense of who has the biggest house, car, ring, bank account, etc.
And I tag: J, Haddock, Heather, Claire, and Traveller One.
——————-
This week has been pretty crazy. I met a bunch of folks at the Girlie Weekend, Monday we had training with the dog guy, then Tuesday I had breakfast with a very cool woman in Regensburg that I met through this blog. Today I had lunch with another cool woman and her super cute toddler that I met through the German Way, and now I need to get ready to meet the dog guy. He stopped by this afternoon to ask if we’d like to let the dogs play and I said Rainer was out of town (the other night he talked to Rainer the whole time, so I assumed he mainly wanted to befriend Rainer). But no, he wanted to know if I’d meet him, so I said sure. I am a socializing maniac this week!
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Alright… I’ve done it! How’s that for promptness?!
I’m blog-less, but having moved from DC to Duesseldorf I have some comparisons to make!
We really miss the DC Metro compared to D-dorf’s transport, which requires a lot more bus travel, plus costs a lot more, too.
I’ve heard that people in this Rhine-land area are the friendliest in Germany, though I agree it is easier (and far less formal!) to arrange things with Amis.
NRW has the biggest population of Japanese in Europe, so you would see more Asians here. But moving from the Chocolate City to here was a big shock for us too!
Dog poop is even worse in Brussels!
And…down with smoking! All of my colleagues smoke in their offices, so it gets a bit stinky at work…
LOL! I did it Last week
I really miss “small talk” too.
@TravellerOne: Great! I’m jealous of your weather, it’s been snowing here for the past two days!
@michael: I haven’t gone into R-burg enough for it to get on my nerves yet, but there’s no U-bahn or tram system here – only buses (that Rainer complains are overcrowded). Potsdam, Rostock and Berlin are all fairly well covered. — I never felt like a minority until I moved to Germany, but maybe I’d feel differently in NRW — And dog poop is worse in Paris too, but it still gets on my nerves here! — That smoking in the office sucks. When I worked in Berlin many of my colleagues smoked in their offices and it spreads into the hallways, it’s inescapable! — You’re academic genealogy is a cool idea, btw!
@j: Man! Shows how good my memory is!
@Schokolade Madchen: It really makes the day a little brighter, I think!
Nice list! Am surprised that you miss tomatoes, around here you can get the most amazing variety, most of which taste better than the American ones, although the sheer size of American tomatoes astounds me. (Not sure though that this might not be some extreme genetic manipulation!)
Smoking is now outlawed (finally) in our cafeteria. I think this will finally decrease here over the next couple of years.
I agree very much with the unmaterialistic side. I hate materialistic competitiveness.
@vailian: Congrats on the smoke-free cafeteria! I get the impression (from the number of folks that gush about German fruits and veggies) that it really depends on what part of the States you are from. I used to buy my fruits and veggies in North Carolina off a farm truck on the side of the road. The tomatoes, peaches, corn, zuchini, etc. were amazing – more like candy than health food. And in the southeast, even supermarket produce was pretty tasty. I find most things here pretty bland (the more northernly grown fruits and veggies, like apples, are fine though).
@vailian: Oh, and I was never a fan of the giant tomatoes – they’re mainly just water. I really love nice, ripe, juicy cherry and roma tomatoes.
I just did this meme today. How could I have forgotten the dog poop! You’re right about the fruit and vegetables. I’ve also heard so many people say how great they are in Germany, but where I come from they are WAY better. It’s all relative, I guess.
I didn’t know all this about the Germans. I would LOVE to have a chicken in my garden! Chickens rock. Cool meme.
So, do the designers of German plus-sized clothes assume that all curvy people are TALL? I am not tall, and no, I do not look good in, or want to wear a, paisley tent!
Don’t get me started about German maternity clothes! Try to fit plus-size boobs into H&M Mama stuff. Hello Oktoberfest!
(We know each other from the German Way list as well – I am 8 weeks ahead of you pregnancy wise!)
hooray for christina’s socialising week! it *is* tough to find new friends in germany when moving to a new town, even for germans. having a dog (and a cute one like your charlie) always helps getting in touch with strangers. you’ll always have something to talk about.
how is little oliver coming along? still practising penalties?
@christina: Maybe it’s cause the dog poop is not quite that bad in the villages, but in cities it’s terrible!
@grafs: Chickens do rock! It’d be cool to have fresh eggs from your backyard!
@sarah: You crack me up! Oktoberfest – hahaha! I’m 5′8″ (so not exactly short) and the stuff is still way too tall for me! I need to get all the pants I buy here shortened. But even H&Ms plus size stuff is less flattering than a burlap sack – I don’t get it! And congrats on the baby!
@rita: Yup! We’ve been out three with the old guy now and today his wife came along. She’s really cool and funny! And Oliver is practicing penalties, punting, backflips and breakdancing in there. It’s almost too much! I’ve had to tell him to cut it out a couple times already!
@rita: that should be “three times”
Christina,
judging by the picture you posted on March 2nd, you can’t possibly need plus size fashion?!?!
@Shiela: Thanks
but it’s true. I’m a US size 16 (or 46/48 here), and while I can generally still shop in most regular stores in the US, in Germany this falls well on the plus-size side of things! Some stores here only carry up to size 42 (US 10/12)! I even found a plus-size store in Göttingen that started at size 8!!!
I do hope you meant “mesclun” salad instead of “mescaline” salad. But…maybe not?
@ed: Haha! I did notice it a day or two after I made the post (a typo the spellchecker wouldn’t have caught), but it cracked me up so much (yeah, I’m odd that way)that I thought I’d leave it in to see if anyone else would notice. Good eyes! (or maybe everyone else just decided to pretend not to notice!)