The Smiths do Germany part 1:

After some arm twisting, I have agreed  to keep a blog during our stay in Germany. At first, I thought, "no way", but then as I go through these experiences, I realize how I would like to "keep" them instead of letting the memories disappear as they tend to do. For my kids especially, this will be a memoir of a 4 month adventure they once had.

Well, I knew Americans had a reputation for being overindulgent and now that I am here I can sorta see why. Which leads me to the title of this post, "Europe is like camping." Surprisingly, Europe's lack of (most) things American hasn't bothered me much but then again I've only been here 24 hours! I am sure the time will come for this spoiled American because, as I mentioned, Europe is like camping.

Yesterday we went to look at an apartment in the Neunheim neighborhood of Heidelberg. The apartment is on the second floor of an old building with a giant, beautiful wooden door. You walk up the stairs and the apartment takes up the 2nd floor of the building. Anyway, the rooms are typical of many old buildings/homes in Atlanta: high ceilings, huge windows and spacious rooms. Lovely. However, there were a few things that struck me.

Upon entering, the first thing the (French) owner of the apartment, Madame Marioni, told us was that there was no air conditioning. I pretended not to be at all affected by this, but I had already noticed it was a wee bit toasty. Now, sitting here at this later date, I really underestimated no air conditioning in 90 degree weather. The first few days here were brutal in this department. There was just nowhere to escape. That kind of heat in small increments is doable, but day and sleepless night got old, fast. My only saving grace was a tiny fan that I slept with blowing directly in my face from only a few inches away. Luckily, the weather has turned a lot cooler and we only had about a week of the heat.

Back at the apartment, we continued down the hall and I noticed a large clothes line out on the deck...no dryer. No way. I knew I had to keep an open mind, but seriously? Have you seen how much dirty laundry my family puts out?

While the size of the rooms were huge, the kitchen was very small and equipped with all things tiny. They offered us some coffee as they showed us how the coffee/cappuccino machine worked. We sipped out of little tiny cups and I had to ask how do you make a big cup when you need a coffee to go? They reached down into the way back of their drawer and said well we have this giant sized cup but we've never really tried it. I laughed when I saw the cup was the same size of the ones in our home. I laughed and said, "American sized!"

On a positive note, I loved the fact that all the huge windows opened fully allowing light to pour in. The apartment has several giant, beautiful plants that I was instantly glad to have as roommates. (Don't worry I warned her that my house is a plant cemetery. She is now asking the housekeeper to "watch" them.) I fell in love with the little terraces overlooking the park and neighboring buildings. There was so much to like that it made it easy to overlook what was "missing".

I am amazed at the way Europeans conserve. The entire building's trash can with 6 adults and 1 teenager is about half the size of the one at home for our family of four. They recycle/reuse everything and use very little to begin with. For instance, the grocery stores do not give out bags. Everything, like the coffee cups, are just smaller. No Big Gulps here, folks.

Another thing that took some getting used to was that our rental car shut down completely when you took your foot off the gas. We didn't know what was happening when we were at our first red light and the car literally just shut off when we put our foot on the brake. Ahm...?

Other observations were the way the lights turn off and on automatically when you enter and leave a room. Walking down the long corridor of our hotel, the lights flicked on one at a time as I approached them. Then in the hotel room, you have to put your room key into a slot in order to turn on the electricity.  

While the Germans seem to be far more efficient conservationists, there are some things we do better. Probably the most noticeable difference is the obvious lack of warmth and casual smiles. At first, I thought it was just us...they must be scowling because we are Americans or we aren't parking right or whatever. After time, I realized it is really just the culture. Smiles with strangers rarely happen. It's not to be taken personally, it's just the way it is. I'm so used to doing it that I think I really startled some people when I smiled at them. I realized I have always taken for granted (even been annoyed by) the obligatory smiles and have-a-nice-days that are casually expressed in the US. Now, going through my day as a stranger-in-a-strange-land, the lack of smiles can gnaw at you a little.