It happened without warning; just kind of snuck up on me like a monster in the dark.
I did not even see it coming. One minute I was Dana the jaywalking, debit card using,
car driving, high tipping American who found it odd to hang wet clothes on a drying rack
in my kitchen. And then poof, I woke up one morning, Germanized.
Hey everyone! I’m Dana and you’re watching Wanted Adventure Living Abroad.
Moving to a different country changed me in many ways: how I think, how I talk, my understanding
of different cultures, my understanding of the world. But these are more broad, abstract
changes. Today we’re going to look at some of the more concrete good ol’ American habits
or practices that I simply don’t do anymore after living in Germany for 6 years.
Where I’m from in Florida jaywalking is not a big deal, especially if you’re downtown
where traffic is slower, you’ll often see people looking both ways, waiting for the
road to be clear and then scampering from one side of the street to the other. It’s
just a normal, common way to get to the other side. Adults do it with their little kids,
teenagers do it, old people do it, everyone does it. But I noticed that’s not exactly
the case here in Germany, at least not in Munich, where I’ve even seen people get
scolded by little old ladies for crossing the street on a red. There are even these
amazing signs reminding people to set a good example for the children and wait for the
green light before crossing. But I have noticed a very big exception to this general rule. If
someone is running for their tram, so they see their tram pull up and they have to run
across the street for it, all cares and etiquette and example setting for children goes out
the window, and even that little old lady that was just scolding someone will dash across
the street to catch their tram. And it seems to be totally acceptable and understood.
Well of course that person ran across the street on a red; their tram was coming.
Then all seems to be forgiven.
Okay, so just a quick clarification here; I’m not talking about alcohol, but rather just
liquids in general. Back in the U.S. I used to drink so much. At home and when out to eat.
First of all, our cups are just bigger. This is the largest water glass that we have
here at our home in Germany, and this would be considered a small cup by American standards.
I remember having these huge cups at home in the U.S. Recently I’ve started drinking
water from beer mugs here in Germany just so that I have something a little bit bigger.
And when going out to eat, in the U.S. water is totally free in restaurants and fountain sodas
cost like three dollars with completely free refills, so I would just slurp, slurp,
slurp down my drink all throughout the meal, getting like three or four refills. Now I’ve
noticed that when I go back to the U.S. and go out to eat, the servers look at me like
I’m kind of crazy because sometimes I barely even finish my first drink or if I get a refill,
I’ll just ask for it to be filled about halfway the second time. So yeah, now after
living in Germany, I definitely, in general, drink less.
Well, this one is pretty obvious. Since I moved to Prague seven years ago, I’ve driven
a car about, maybe 10 times. And all of those times were in the U.S. And I love it. I love
having public transportation, or walking, and not having to drive.
For as far back as I can remember into my childhood, the dryer was there, sitting right
next to the washing machine, rumbling and shaking as it dried my clothes. And as a kid I
can remember hopping up onto it and laughing as it shook me from side to side.
And I remember being sad when my mom finally broke the news to me that I was too big to do that anymore
and that it would break the machine if I sat on it. Guess what Mom,
I still did it for a few more years and it never broke. HA!
When I moved to Prague one of my first purchases was a drying rack because, yeah, no dryer
in the apartment! And now it’s just become normal. I almost forget that dryers even exist.
Although I will say that I do miss the way that towels feel after being dried in a dryer.
With the drying rack they always feel kind of stiff. I miss that fluffy, soft, warm feel to them.
But oh well, it’s better for the environment.
Paying with plastic means paying with your credit or debit card, which is how I used
to pay for almost everything before moving to Europe. In the U.S. I almost never had
actual cash on me. It’s funny because here in Europe I often notice people sigh and roll
their eyes at the grocery store when someone tries to pay with their credit or debit card,
whereas in the U.S. I can remember there was actually this commercial encouraging people
to pay with plastic because it was faster than paying with cash. You just swipe!
And I knew I had become Germanized with this one when some friends visited us from the U.S.
and we went to the Christmas markets and they said something like “Oh, I don’t have
any cash, but it’s okay, I have my debit card.” And I laughed! How ridiculous I thought
it was that they could think that the Christmas market stands would take debit cards!
They don’t, right? Well where I’m from in the U.S. they probably would.
Just kidding, just kidding! I didn’t carry a gun with me in the U.S. ever. I’ve never
even held a gun, but I was well aware of the fact that lots of people did. And that’s
something that I really love here in Germany. I don’t have to worry or wonder if just
some random person on the street has a gun. So I guess the way I’ve been Germanized
here is that guns have pretty much become a non-issue. You don’t have these mass-shootings
every few months in Germany or wake up to hear about smaller shootings on the news.
If you walk past someone at night, you don’t have to wonder if they’re carrying.
And if you hear a loud pop burst through the night air you don’t have to think, well that was
either someone’s car backfiring or a gun shooting going on. Actually, in Germany you
know that it was neither, because there are no guns and the cars have to go to the TÜV
every two years, so it wasn't that. So the noise was then, I don’t know, probably someone
preparing the New Year’s fireworks which everyone comes out en masse to shoot off and
scare the crap out of me, but that is a subject for a different video.
So my question for you is: are there any habits or customs from your home country that you’ve
shaken off after living abroad or even just after traveling abroad?
If so, please let me know in the comments below.
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Until next time, auf Wiedersehen!
There are no guns and the cars have to go to the TÜV every....
Peter pecked a...Peter, Peter picked a peck of pickled pepper. If Peter Piper picked a
peck of pickled peppers, how many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick? A peck!
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. Okay I'm ready to go.