Six Months In

At this point we've been here a little over six months.  By my count, we've been to 24 cities in 6 different countries so we're making the most of our time.  I thought I'd put some random thoughts / facts about Germany, the Army and our travels since we're more or less at the halfway mark.

1.)  The autobahn is pretty crazy, at least at first.  The recommended speed is 130 kph which is roughly 80mph.  I drive about 140 (86) and still people blow by me regularly (typically station wagons - the european SUV) like I'm standing still.  I figure they must be going 40-50 mph faster than me so that puts them at about 135-145 mph.  And that's with German gas prices at about $9 a gallon.  On the other hand you have the semi's, which are only allowed to go 100 kph, which is about 62 mph.  This means at any given time two vehicles on the same road can vary in speed by 70 to 80 mph.    It sounds dangerous, but you get used to it.  A couple basic rules to follow (always stay to the right, NEVER pass on the right) and it actually seems safer than US highways.  I'm curious to see how slow 65 mph is going to feel when we get home.

2.)  When you are standing in line at the market (or anywhere else) you have to stand almost right up against the person in front of you or a German will cut in front of you in line.  Very annoying.

3.)  When you are at the market and you want, for example, 1 bratwurst, you signal with your thumb, not your index finger.  If you use your index finger, you might end up with 2 bratwurst.  To signal for 2, you show your thumb and index finger, and so on.

4.)  To cross your fingers for luck, Germans close their fingers around their thumb, instead of crossing their index and middle fingers.  I haven't learned what the equivalent of the finger is - I'm going to have to make a note to find that out.

5.)  The most commonly used German expression is "genau", which means exactly, or correct.  They say it constantly.  I also have heard "jawohl" (prounounced ya vole) a lot which always reminds me of Hogan's Heroes.  "Jawohl Herr Commandant!" says Sgt. Schultz

6.) The smallest euro bill is the 5 euro.  The rest is change.  Not a big deal for women, but I haven't found a convenient way to carry it all which means sometimes I jingle.

7.)  When we try to speak German we've noticed that unless you pronounce the word exactly as a native speaker would pronounce it, they will have no idea what you are talking about, even if it's somewhat close.  For example, Haaken goes to school in the neighboring town of Hütten.  There is no town anywhere near here with a similar spelling.  Yet when I told my neighbor that Haaken was going to kindergarten in Hooten, he had absolutely no clue what I was talking about.  It's maybe two miles away.  The ü apparently is sort of a combination of ee and oo sounds which I can't do.  Finally he figured it out and said, "Ah, Hütten!"  Didn't sound much different to me.

8.)  Dogs are allowed and brought everywhere.  Shops, restaurants, grocery stores, you name it.

9.)  The publicly maintained flowers in the German cities are absolutely amazing.  Tons of flowers, always in bloom.  In fact the flowers in Grafenwoehr were still in bloom just a couple weeks ago.

10.)  Anytime is a good time for ice cream in Germany.  I've been out at 9am and seen people walking around with cones.

11.)  Same goes with beer.  One of the first times we went out for breakfast here we walked into a bakery at about 9:30 on a Saturday and there was a table of guys drinking beer with their breakfast.

12.)  German liquor stores do not have a section where you can get cold beer.  This is probably because most Germans don't refrigerate their beer, they just keep it in the basement.  Prior to coming here I really didn't like warm beer very much, but I'm getting used to it.

13.)  Most places we've eaten in Germany have a very limited wine selection.  Usually it's a couple 'dry' wines and a couple 'sweet' wines.  Apparently a 'dry' wine in Germany is a Reisling, which is extremely sweet for my taste.

14.)  Although Germany is only about the size of Montana, it's economy produced roughly 25% of the US GDP.  I find this pretty unbelievable, especiallly since it was basically bombed back to the stone ages in WWII.

15.)  In our area people heat with oil or gas, but they also have woodburning stoves and they pile wood in their yards like the apocalypse is coming.

16.)  You are expected to bring your own bags to the grocery store.  If you forget them, you can either cradle everything in your arms, or pay for plastic bags.  Also, shopping carts are locked together with chains.  If you want a cart, you put in a euro and if you want the euro back, you have to lock the cart back up when you are done.

17.)  Most places we've stayed have a pane of glass for a shower curtain that only spans half of the bathtub.

18.)  US soldiers are extremely polite.

19.)  We live probably a mile from the base and at probably 3 miles from the closest shooting range, yet we can clearly hear machine gun fire regularly and some of the tank guns literally shake the house.  Also, when the fighter pilot practice bombing runs it is really loud.

20.)  It's very disappointing, and I think I said this early in our stay, but the administration of the Army is incredibly inefficient and frustrating.  One of Carissa' coworkers who was an Army dentist right when he got out of dental school says if there is the Army is deciding between something that makes sense and something that doesn't, they always pick the one that makes no sense.  Even Carissa's colonel said that going around to the different office is extremely frustrating because no matter where you go it seems like the person helping you is doing it for the first time and has no clue how to help you.

21.)  At 5 pm everyday is the Retreat, where the German and US flag comes down while a bugle plays.  Everything within earshot of this ceremony stops.  Cars stop in the middle of the road and people get out and face the flag, and anyone walking outside stops and does the same.  All the soldiers salute until the bugle stops playing and then everyone resumes whatever they were doing.

Off to Budapest tomorrow morning.  I pretty sure this will be the first time in my life I won't have a Turkey dinner for Thanksgiving.  Hopefully we can find some good food to make up for it.