On Germany

Some thoughts:

• Forget yoga.  I will arrive back in South Carolina with the balance and grace of a cat because I have ridden the German bus system.  People line up with passes and the driver scans them through.  The second he gets us all past the turnstile, he revs the engine and goes 1 to 60 in 5.4 seconds.  I’m left dodging bodies and pulling myself forward against centrifugal force by grabbing hold of anything in sight.  (I must learn how to say “I’m sorry, ma’am” in German.)
• I am suffering from smile withdrawal – not my own, but being on the receiving end.  It has become my own personal challenge to get someone to return a smile.  I have gotten precious few and they are treasures.  I think it may be because of all the cold weather.  On the other hand, when we manage to cross the language barrier and someone actually understands what we’re trying to say, they shout it out and everyone in the area joins in.  Those are occasions for smiles. 
• Have you ever had a hair stylist that asked what you want and you described it in great detail?  Then they went ahead and did what they wanted?  I was so pleased with myself today when we went to the café.  I actually knew what I wanted – well, potato soup but they didn’t have that.  Steve had gotten sauerbraten and spaetzle (lovely, tiny potato dumplings) on the mountain yesterday and it was excellent.  So I actually knew a German meal to order.  So I said “Sauerbraten and spaetzle.”  Our server frowned and said (rather loudly), “NO!”  No, we don’t serve that?  No, I hate that stuff?  No, you won’t like that?  I had not a clue.  They have an English translated menu in the back but the food doesn’t look very good.  Which once again leaves me to wonder…  But she pointed out roast pork, red cabbage and dumplings.  I was enthused.  I said “Spaetzle!”  She smiled and brought me pork in brown gravy which was really quite good, red cabbage that was really not, and two mounds of something that looked and tasted just like dressing.  I guess you can take the girl out of South Carolina…
• Nothing is free here – not the grocery bags, not the bread, the bathroom, water.  I was irritated by it at first.  But I’m beginning to realize how very environmentally conscious that is.  Trust me, after Steve and I paid .2 euros (about $.27) for two grocery bags, we remembered every time we went to the store.  There is no half-eaten bread sent back to the kitchen.  If you pay for it, you’re probably going to eat it.  There is just more care with what you have paid for.  The country is so clean.  The public waste cans are divided and labeled with recycling sorts. 
• Children and dogs are extremely happy here.  Yet there is no whining (not with the children, anyway) or begging (same goes).
• I was walking down the hill to the bus stop today and thinking how, once again, I seem to have come late to the dance.  Only just now using a little German, knowing which buses to take, etc.  Steve turned to me at that moment and said, “Do you feel like we just learned our way and now we have to leave?”
• Smiling and nodding goes a long way, no matter where you are.  I have practiced a few short German phrases and have not had the courage to use them.  Finally today, I was sitting in a window seat on the bus and a lady came in and asked if she could sit.  I nodded.  And I began to practice mentally, “Entschuldigen Sie, bitte.  Entschuldigen Sie bitte, Entschuldigen Sie, bitte.”  It means “excuse me, please” and I would have to use it to get her to let me out.  I was extremely intimidated but determined.  As we approached our stop, I tapped her and said very quietly, “Entschuldigen Sie, bitte.”  She looked at me funny and ripped off a long sentence in German, not at all unfriendly.  I started back with the old hand motions and we did a lot of nodding and smiling as she let me off the bus.