You say tomato, I say tomato... ??

After keeping my eyes peeled for the last (almost) 3 months I was thinking to myself just the other day that for the most part we have figured out the main differences between living in the U.S.A. and Germany.

In my opinion here are what I think are the biggest differences .... in no particular order ...

1. Toilets - I haven't got a clue why, but Germans (maybe all Europeans) have them built into the wall!!  Instead of pushing a knob on the tank to flush, you push a button on the wall.  To make it even more strange alot of them have 2 buttons - a large and a small.  Hopefully you can figure out what the different sizes are for ....
Oh yeah, not only do you pay for all the waste water you use in your home when you flush the toilet you also have to pay to use the WC in public.  {WC = Wash Closet}.   It all seems a little silly to me.

2. Recycling - I thought Todd and I were pretty good when it came to recycling, but I don't even think we did half of what the Germans do.  Its mandatory to recycle.   I've heard horror stories of throwing too much recycleable stuff in the trash and the trash collectors not picking up your trash for weeks at a time to teach you a lesson.   Who knows if its really true or not.   Whether we want to or not, we have to pay for 3 separate garbage can size bins (for outside the house) - 1 compost, 1 paper, and 1 trash.   For all the plastics, aluminum, tin cans, etc. we put in a yellow bag altogether.   I think we have more plastic than anything else, including the trash!   Finally that leaves us the glass, just in Molschbach we have 2 different locations (that I'm aware of) for recycling glass - brown, green, and clear.   To make everything even more completed they have a really weird schedule for pick up for specific items.   For us every Monday, unless its a holiday, is compost pick up.  Other than that we have no idea when things are getting picked up so we just copy the neighbors when they put their stuff out at the bottom of our hill.   Turns out that they picked up paper on Saturday .... yes, on Saturday!!   We didn't know it, so we still have a full bin of paper.  Maybe next time.

3. Semi-trucks - This might just be me, but I think they look so funny .... Instead of having a bulging nose (front end, whatever you want to call it), the fronts are completely flat.  See picture below.

4. Meals - Germans do their meals alittle different over here.  I think breakfast is pretty normal.  But, lunch and dinner are completely opposite of us.  Lunch is usually a larger meal while dinner is a lighter feast.   Its pretty standard for dinner to consist of bread, cheese, and meat plates.   And I can't forget they they drink beer with every meal.  Well, maybe not every meal, but it sure does seem like it!

5. My job - I knew eventually I wouldn't be using my college degree (i.e., when we have kids, I'll hopefully be able to stay at home), but I had no idea it would be this soon.  And when I mean no idea it would been this soon, I'm not referring to being pregnant in the least bit.  Instead I'm talking about working 8 hours a day taking care of other people's kids.   I never would have thought.  Now don't get me wrong, I like the kids, they are great.  I just didn't think I'd ever be working in childcare.

6. Radio/TV - I was a little surprised when I heard a song by Pink over here.  I had no idea that she dropped the F bomb until then.  Clearly they don't censor music over here.  Also, we are forced (unless we want to pay tons of money) to only have AFN for our television.  For those of you that don't know what it is its Armed Forces Network and it pretty much sucks.  American shows come on days late, if at all.  Its maybe 20 channels and half of them aren't even good.  Its also been pretty difficult to catch up on all my tv shows over here.  One would think that you could just watch it on the internet, well, Germany doesn't appear to have contracts with these American stations, so I'm not allowed to watch.  As a solution (because I don't want to spend my whole paycheck buying shows off iTunes), I've downloaded a hotshield which is supposed to give me a different IP address.  I've found its kind of hit and miss with that.  So I've resorted to watching through sidereel.com.  It takes a while to download, but it does the job.  Which reminds me, our internet isn't slow, but its not the greatest in the world either.  We were told by the internet people that our house happens to have the fastest internet line in all of Molschbach!

7. The Autobahn - Driving on the Autobahn is great.   I really like it.  Especially the open roads, not that I've done the actual driving on any of them, but I've sat in the passenger seat.  The thing that is still a bit hard to do is long distance travel because instead of having signs that say North, East, South, & West its only listed as towns/cities.  So you really have to know which way you want to head.  Shortly after we got here we purchased a Garmin GPS which has been a real lifesaver.

8. Rolladens - whoever invented this things are genius!  Instead of blinds on the inside of the window, they are heavy duty blinds on the outside of window.   I love these things!!   When shut, there isn't an ounce of light - perfect for sleeping.  Too bad we don't have them on our windows in the bedroom.  

There are over on the right side of the picture - one is completely down and the other is up

9. Bratwurst - I have no idea why, but German bratwurst are just so much better tasting than the ones in the US.   Its true when you hear someone say Germans know brats (& beer).   The weisswurst are just so dang delicious and they melt in your mouth.   Another thing that is better is brats are served with a kaiser roll instead of a bun.   A wurst, crunchy roll, and a beer ... what could be better?!

10. Beer - Germans know beer.  Come see for yourself!

From our German neighbors

I must say that I really don't miss the USA.  I do miss the fact that I can't call my family at anytime (mostly my mom to ask her about something related to sewing).  And I miss weekly shopping at Target because its just not the same online.   And the fact that there are Walmarts everywhere, I absolutely hate having to go to the BX for everything.  And fabric is everywhere back home, not so much here.  Last, but certainly not least I miss our friends.    It might seem like that's alot, but honestly I wouldn't trade anything for our chance to live over here.   I'll eventually re-unite with Target, Walmart, Family and Friends.