When I was back in the U.S. this past January, I paid close attention to all the big and
little differences in the home compared to the homes I’ve seen and lived in here in
Germany. And I found quite a few, actually!
Hey everyone! I’m Dana and you’re watching Wanted Adventure Living Abroad.
Home is where the food is, so let’s start in the kitchen. Way back when I first met
Mr. German Man, one of the first things I noticed about the kitchen in his apartment
was…huh? You don’t have a refrigerator?! There was no refrigerator. Or at least it
didn’t look like there was one. Just cabinets.
What?! Of course I have a refrigerator, he said, opening one of the things that I had
thought was a cabinet to reveal that it was in fact a hidden refrigerator. I had never
seen that before. A fridge camouflaged as a closet with a door that really looked exactly
the same as all the other closet doors in the kitchen. In the U.S. the refrigerators
are usually these huge stand-alone things. And you can definitely tell where it is in
the room without having to ask.
Since living here in Germany for a few years now, I’ve seen both kinds. So, some people
do have those stand-alone refrigerators and then other people have the one that I saw
in Mr. German Man's apartment. So where it does look the same as the rest of the cabinets
and kind of blends into the rest of the room.
And something that actually is missing from any of the German homes I’ve been into...the
garbage disposal. Oh how I miss the wonderful magical garbage disposal! Garbage disposals
are under the sink and they tear the food into small enough bits so that it can go through
the plumbing. So no worry about that gunk building up in the sink drain stopper. Ew,
it's so gross. It just all goes down the hole and then while running the water you just
flick the switch and everything gets disposed of. Uh, yeah, I really miss those.
Now let’s mosey on into the bathroom, where the first difference I noticed was, the counter….or
lack thereof, really. So in most homes that I’ve seen in the U.S. the bathroom comes with a
counter that goes over the sink and then extends out past it. It’s certainly not always as
pretty or nice as this one — in my rental apartments in college it was not pretty at
all, but it was still there for me to put my stuff on. And then underneath there are
little closets where you can put your blow dryer or cleaning supplies. Whereas in Germany
I don’t think I’ve ever seen this kind of thing built into a bathroom. The sink does often
have a little bit of room on it, but not that much.
But I do really like the toilet paper holders that I’ve had here in my apartments in Germany.
Simple, functional and just really nice looking. The common ones in the U.S. are kind of tricky,
there’s like this spring thing you gotta pull back to get the roll on there. And then
it doesn’t have that pretty little cover like the one that I have in Germany does.
Now let’s get super personal and take a peek into the shower. Shower faucets and handles
will differ from place to place, but I’ve seen this one quite a lot in the U.S. So,
you turn the knob to whatever temperature you want and first the water comes out of
the faucet and then you pull this little thing up on the faucet and the water comes out of
the shower head. Pretty similar in Germany, but I’ve often seen the handle and the faucet
connected, so as one piece, and I often see the line for the shower head coming from the
bottom of the faucet, whereas in the U.S. it’s often all hidden behind the scenes,
so behind the wall. But that’s just my experience, I’m guessing that it’s different from
apartment to apartment, house to house, place to place.
Alright, let’s move on to a different kind of handle, the door handle. Yes, many homes
in the U.S. do have round doorknobs, and I think they're kind of know for having doorknobs
rather than handles, but actually a lot of places that I’ve lived in the U.S. do have handles!
And this is a pretty common door handle design that I’ve seen in the U.S. Kind of designy,
whereas my German door handles are pretty modern and sleek.
And something interesting, in both of my apartments in Germany the doors came with keys and you
can lock the doors from the outside. Very helpful if you are a wicked step-mother and
need to lock your beautiful step daughter in her room while the prince stops by. But
in the U.S. I guess we don't have to do that so often, and so often the doors can only lock
from the inside, not the outside.
As far as doors to the outside go, something I see almost everywhere in the U.S. is the
deadbolt lock. So you have a sort of “normal” lock on the actual handle of the door and
then you've got another lock called the deadbolt lock that slides this heavy metal bar into
place. And something that I had to be very careful about in Germany is that if you close the
front door it often just automatically locks. So, you have to insert your key to open the door.
Whereas in the U.S. you generally have to manually lock the front door. So it's not
locked just by shutting it. These two different ways both have some pros and some cons. Okay,
in the U.S. you don’t have to worry about forgetting your keys and getting locked out
of your own home -- if you shut the door and you then realize, oh no keys! You just open
it back up again. But in Germany at least you can’t ever forget to lock your door!
Because once you shut it, it’s locked. But then, you better not forget your keys inside.
Now, look up! What do you see in your home in Germany? Maybe a light? If you look up
in many rooms in the U.S. you will often see a ceiling fan, usually also a light in the
middle. So that’s another difference — having a ceiling fan to circulate the air. I don’t
think that I’ve ever seen a ceiling fan in any home in Germany, now that I think about it.
And while we’re on air, in the U.S. forced hot air is a common way to heat the home,
whereas radiators are the norm in Germany. Homes in the U.S. often have these little
vents in every room and in the winter hot air comes out and in the summer it’s cold
air from the air conditioner, so the vents actually are used for both heating and cooling
in that U.S.
Now, let’s just take a quick crawl over to the door and check out the door stoppers.
So, in a lot of places that I’ve lived in the U.S., behind most of the doors was a doorstopper
built in there. And I can remember playing with these things as a kid. They make this
really funny noise. Especially to a seven year old. But, yeah, it’s still amusing
to me as an adult. Brrrr.
And lastly, let’s look at the light switches. So in the U.S., this is a pretty common light
switch. You flick it up and down to turn on and off the light. In Germany I’ve noticed
that light switches are often bigger, and you don’t really flick, but rather push them on
and off. But the biggest difference that I’ve noticed with this is that in Germany sometimes
the light switches for the bathroom will actually be outside of the room. So not inside the bathroom
itself, but actually on the outside wall of the bathroom.
And I feel like this is a big deal because it could cause a lot of drama if you grew
up with brothers and sisters. I can just imagine it. Like, you know, you’re sitting in there,
in the bathroom doing your thing and your funny little sister runs by and turns the
light off while you’re in there.
So my question for you is: did your siblings ever turn the bathroom light off while you
were in there, and what other home differences have you seen around the world? Please let
me know in the comments below.
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Until next time, auf Wiedersehen!
When I was back in the U.S. this past January, I played...I'm already stuttering.
It's a cabinet that has...this makes no sense. Whereas in Germany I don't think I've ever seen this
kind of a set up. Where you have... I don't think I've ever seen this kind of thing built
into the bathroom the s... But I do really like the toilet papl...
You pull this little thing up and the faucet and the...huh?