The Little Things...

Friends often are the best critics, are they not? That trusted confidant can expose flaws in your writing and even sometimes in your character in ways both needed and inoffensive...

One such friend, a German who I had met along with his lady love at JFK International Airport in NYC before flying over to Frankfurt, gave me some good advice on my blog. He said that one thing which interested him was the "little things" or rather, the "little differences" I mentioned previously... the little differences between life in America for instance and that in Germany.

Of course, many interesting, profound, mundane, or puzzling differences could also be found for Expats from Japan, Argentina, Turkey, Norway, or Australia living in Germany too for that matter. This is truly a universal expatriate experience I believe.

I have often felt that one of the reasons I love travel abroad so much, and even more so living abroad, is the exploration and attempted understanding of just such differences - but, also, the surprising similarities. Both can amaze, confuse, and cause us to laugh out loud!

One of the most interesting and HUMOROUS differences for me has been the concept of "the DRAFT". No, not the one where everyone gets a nice green uniform and a piece of paper saying you're going to the combat zone... ha, ha... the other one. The draft that comes from the rush of wind by an open car window as you're driving, or from a strong breeze coming through an apartment window.

The one which many Europeans, and in particular it seems, Germans, DREAD. I have only discerned bits and pieces of the complete story, here, but basically I think they feel a rush of wind or breeze - especially if you are damp or wet for some reason - is automatically a ticket to an onset of a bad cold or flu!

Coming from such an Air Conditioning-loving culture as I do, this is a bit hard and puzzling to understand. So... what you're saying is, you WON'T leave a window open on a sweltering, burning-hot train or car, but you WILL ride down a hill on your bicycle at 30 kph, wind blowing in your face? I'm not sure I follow! Ha, ha... my new friends from Kosovo & Bulgaria steadfastly claimed that a little sweat (such as from hiking on a hot day) combined with a strong draft or breeze - well, how could I do such a thing, I'll end up in a sick bed! We all had a nice laugh on that one.

Then, we have my interesting new friends from Germany who experienced an over-heated hotel room in New York City. As Olaf proclaimed "the room was at about 25 degrees C (mid-70s Fahrenheit folks), and I could not turn down the heat in any way" (paraphrasing here Olaf!)... or rather, "the only way we could moderate the temperature was to turn on the Air Conditioning, which we HATE. Every time we have done that before we always got a cold the next day!"

While I don't doubt my new friends, it does raise a bemused eyebrow for this Yankee Expatriate... having grown up with beautifully air-conditioned movie theaters on sweltering hot July days, ice-cold Coca-Colas to quench the thirst from the heat, and cool supermarkets... the idea of getting a cold from a breeze is truly incomprehensible! That said, my fellow Americans (and I as well) could certainly learn to moderate our use of natural resources to power our Air-conditioned lives, but to our friends abroad we have to ask - could we PLEASE open a window? It's HOT in here!

This all goes to show how even small things are up for exploration and discovery abroad... some things that they (and we) took for granted growing up as normal, is considered quite the opposite somewhere else. I will never grow tired of it.

Of course, you will always find the surprising similarities as well - things you just assumed would be different, and really weren't that different at all, even in some quite unusual places... but then, that's the subject of another blog.

Tschuss!

Brett

Day 59 and counting...

I have noticed that certain habits that I used to take for granted as a part of the travel or "expat" experience have atrophied.

Take for instance the art of writing, or specifically, writing a journal. Remember when that was THE thing to do on the road in Europe or elsewhere? When a rainy day in the city cafe, Lenny Kravitz overhead on the radio, writing in your journal about the places you've been or people you've met... was the preferred way to immortalize your travel experience?

Ha, ha... I sure do. I keep trying however to "bail" on this tried-and-true method, and switch full-time to the 21st century (aka "my laptop computer"). However, I always come back to how cool it is to one day, years later, look back upon my handwriting from an earlier time... not some inantimate, non-emotional thing... but MY handwriting from a time long past. I always wonder, what was going on with me then... what was I thinking or worrying about, or wishing for, when I wrote that particular passage?

Things which might get lost however in writing the old-fashioned way are some details, which get lost when your "writer's cramp" sets in and you begin to wonder if I should just "sign off" now and go get another Pilsner!

Details like the look of intellectual curiosity about the learning of languages, discovering other places, and getting to know people of other cultures, that I saw in the eyes of two new friends today. I had met these two people, a 20-something guy from Kosovo and his 20-something Bulgarian girlfriend, on my way into the Schlossplatz (Castle Square) here in Schwetzingen... the two approached and in a very polite way asked in German "Wo ist die Schlossplatz, bitte?"

Having uttered a few of the German words I DO know at this point (give me a break though, it's over 200 by now), I was able to respond... but they quickly determined my origins (USA) by my accent. The guy is a fellow explorer and lover of languages... as is his girlfriend, and they were really trying to learn English! I of course am trying HARD to learn Deutsch... which they know very well.

As you do when in Europe, you quickly size up people and "flash-bond" friendships... and numbers got exchanged... a sort of "Well, if I don't get a method of contacting these very cool people, I will never see them again, SO..." moment. We've all had them over here.

That said, a trip the following week was made, 3 countries represented by the 3 of us, all of us Expats living abroad in Germany, to Heidelberg to explore with wonder the over-touristed but still amazing beauty of the Heidelberg Schloss (Castle) and the MAGNIFICENT views of Heidelberg spread out below like a pictue postcard.

This all occuring after meeting a really effervescent and humorous British couple of Expats the day before in the Biergarten... studying my German over Schnitzel or Apfelstrudel as always.

I knew I would enjoy this experience, as much and in some ways more than even my experiences in my 20s, but this truly is a joy, plain and simple.

Cheers to world travel! Stay traveling my friends out there on the road, and stay connected to the Grapevine. Represent. Represent well.

Tchuss!

Brett