Things to Know, Part II

So tonight marks the first time that I'm starting to feel a little better after this cold or as my colleagues call it "my flu".  I'm pretty sure it isn't/wasn't the flu, but they all keep on referring to it as die Grippe or flu.  After two and a half days of almost exclusively lying in bed and going through approximately three packs of tissues, I'm starting to feel a little bit more like myself.  To honor this, I thought I would continue a series of posts I started back in September: Things to Know--my cultural observations as an American in Germany.

German fashion can be a bit weird.  Normally it looks pretty similar to American fashion from the 1980s (this means you, Berlin), but there are two fashion trends in Germany that I find particularly troublesome: Fanny packs and Ed Hardy.

• I hestitate to say that fanny packs are cool in Germany, but they are definitely more prevalent amongst the under thirty crowd here.  While in the US fanny packs are viewed as pretty dorky, here they are mostly worn by the urban crowd (as in slightly more thuggish).  Side note, fanny packs are known in the UK/Australia as bum bags because fanny means...well, something different.
  
• Ed Hardy is something I normally associate with white trash whether it's southern or Jersey, but it's pretty much evenly dispersed here.  Makes me wonder why people consider Europeans to have a more developed sense of fashion. 

Germans bring their dogs everywhere.  Seriously, everywhere.  It doesn't matter whether you are in a restaurant, on the subway, in the mall or at a bar, chances are someone has their dog with them.  The one positive side to this is that most German dogs are considerably better behaved than their American counterparts.  The downside is that there is much less of a taboo about cleaning up after your dog.  I've stepped in dog poop at least twice this month alone.  Really Germans, clean up after your dogs. 

Christmas Eve, or Heilige Abend as it's known in in Germany, is more important than Christmas Day.  On Heilige Abend you exchange gifts and eat a large Christmas dinner, usually goose, and Christmas Day is kind of a do nothing holiday with the family. 

Social Etiquette is quite different here in Germany or at least less strictly followed here than in the US.  For example, in Bremen we were trying to take pictures in those little woodcuts where it's a picture and you stick your head through one side and crazy Germans kept on walking right in our picture--even when they saw what was going on they didn't seem to care (and it was quite obvious).  No, this is not universally true, but it definitely seems to be a recurring issue.  Second example, multiple times I've found myself getting cut while waiting to order food at a to go restaurant.  I really don't even think it crosses their mind, but in Germany when you want something you go up to the very front and kind of yell what you want while in the US you politely wait until someone sees you and asks you what you want.  In general maybe this section could be titled, "American Politeness Won't Get You Far in Germany".  A further example: it's not that rude in Germany to stare at someone (makes me pretty uncomfortable on the subway) but smiling at someone can earn you a dirty or at least confused look.

On an unrelated note, it's currently snowing north of here in Germany, and it's supposed to snow in Hannover tomorrow!  Get pumped!