Inverse Culture Shock

You've heard many times about people getting "culture shock" when they go to a place where the culture is different than what they're used to. According to dictionary.com, culture shock is "a state of bewilderment and distress experienced by an individual who is suddenly exposed to a new, strange, or foreign social and cultural environment."

Being in Germany has hardly caused me to be in a state of bewilderment, and certainly not distress, and in fact, I am quite enjoying many of the changes that I'm experiencing. I think I'm experience something akin to inverse culture shock. Especially with driving. Before I took the driver's exam, people told me that it was the hardest written driver's exam I would ever take, and that things over here are just confusing. But when I went in to take the prep course for the exam, I was rather pleased. Things are definitely run differently here, and there are about 4-5 times as many signs as in the states, but it makes much more sense to me.

First, they have this concept of a priority road. If you are on the priority road (designated so by a yellow diamond), you don't have to stop for anyone, unless instructed to do so by a traffic signal (light). Now this may not sound like much because America is run entirely by traffic signals, stop signs, and yield signs, but in Germany, many intersections have no such signs, just a sign designating who has priority. There are also many intersections that simply do not have any signs, and at that point, you just go by the simple rule "right to left," which means the person furthest to the right goes first. The Germans think having a green arrow to designate that we can go right is dangerous because there is no thinking involved.

To Americans this might seem like senselessly dangerous, but as I'm driving around Europe, I'm seeing that it actually produces better drivers. The onus is no longer on the traffic engineers to try and prevent stupid drivers from hurting themselves, but on the drivers themselves to not be stupid. They also have a rule here where the left lane is designated as the passing lane...and the Germans actually use it as such. The traffic flow on the Autobahn is incredible, and so wonderful! I have driven many hours between Nashville and Ft. Benning, Georgia, when I went to go visit Matt, and I cannot tell you how many times I have been stuck behind someone in the left lane going the exact same speed as the person in the right lane. So aggravating! That NEVER happens here and I love it.

Perhaps I like it because I was taught to drive by my father, a very good defensive driver, yet not afraid to be aggressive when the time calls for it. I've always tried to use my brain while driving, and I think that is finally paying off.

Something else that I love? They use much less electricity than we do. They were kinda forced to use less because electricity is so expensive here, but they know that an appliance still uses electricity when it is plugged in, so they unplug things they're not using. They also bring their own bags to the grocery store so they don't have waste.

There are definitely things here that are different in a "negative" way, like the impossible-to-see traffic lights, or that they closed down part of a major highway for a roller-blading competition, but I was prepared to be blown totally off guard, and was very pleasantly surprised to be doing quite well and rather enjoying myself.

Every Day Life
Since I wrote so much about the inverse culture shock I'll try to be quick about our goings on here.

We went through a very long day two days ago trying to figure out when we could move into our house. After going to a few different offices and filling out many forms, we finally figured out that we will be moving into our new house on June 12th, Matt's birthday! We did a walk-through on Monday and the place looks absolutely amazing. The place looks like a completely new house, not just one that was renovated. We found out that our landlord is a head carpenter who works a couple hundred yards up the street from our house, which might explain why everything looks so amazing.

As we were walking through, I asked if I was allowed to put up curtains, and Mr. Kohl (said "cool") said that he would put up the rods for me. Wow! About a week earlier we had been there and asked if we could have a car port for two cars since the other tenant had the garage. When we saw it on Monday we couldn't believe our eyes: it was a beautiful structure that looked more like a beautiful bright yellow gazebo with fancy brickwork laid in the bottom than a car port. Our realtor Burger suggested that we could use it for picnics and parties, and I would heartily agree. Because we were on a roll, we later asked if we could have a door put in upstairs to designate a third closed-off bedroom, and he agreed. Man, we seriously have the best landlord ever...if only he spoke English!

Other small news: I got to make cookies with my friends Krista and Veronica. Matt's CO took us out to this ridiculously cool restaurant where you cook your own meat on a rock. They served regular beef, lamb, shrimp, as well as crocodile, kangaroo and ostrich! Such a treat. We heard about a castle that's about 30 minutes from post where you eat in the middle of the courtyard, so we're going to check that out this weekend. We war daily with the cleaning ladies who think that coming to clean our room during the hour and a half that Matt has to shower and eat in the morning is a brilliant idea. I tried a spin class for the first time today! For those who don't know, spinning isn't just a bunch of people turning in circles in a room, it's getting on a stationary bike and doing some pretty hard stuff. I haven't sweat that hard since I was running!

For those who don't know, I had to stop running a while back due to achilles tendonitis in both achilles. I was kicking butt while training for the Nashville Country Music 1/2 Marathon, and around 8 miles my achilles just started hurting. Since I've tried staying off them and tried steroids without any improvement, it might be something else, but for now I call it achilles tendonitis.

Ooh! In really good news (kinda menial, but great news nevertheless), we signed up for a plan that allows us to talk for FREE any time to any phone in the United States and Canada! There are other perks as well, and it's not the cheapest plan ever, but it is ridiculously good. So if you don't have skype and want to chat with me, let me know when a good time to call you is, give me your number, and I'll give you a holler! But don't forget that we're 6 hours ahead of Eastern and 9 hours ahead of Pacific Time. Oh, and this won't start for another couple of weeks, so start the emails then.

In more somber news, I received an email reporting that one of our soldiers from 1st Squadron died in Iraq (there are 6 squadrons located in Vilseck, Matt is with 1st). This is my first experience with anything like this, and there will be a memorial service held tomorrow for him. I don't know any details on how he died, but this is a dose of reality to me. This is a war our soldiers are fighting, it's dangerous, and some don't come back.

I guess I'll end here. There's loads more that I forgot to tell you about, but I suppose I can't keep you up to date on ever little thing in my life, though I might like that. I know the lack of pictures made this post difficult, so I'll try to work on that before my next post.