Week 6: April 24 – April 30,2016
Living in Berlin for the last month or so, I’ve noticed some things that are different here… some of which left me very confused and others that I think are pretty interesting.
As I mentioned in a previous post, the stores here are pretty much all closed on Sundays, as it’s the day of rest. I’ve gotten used to shopping for groceries earlier in the week (although I’m still not used to going once a week, since the sizes of things are smaller than what I’m used to seeing in the US). I really like that I can go to the store and buy fresh rolls and bread for less than a euro.
Other food things: I love that I can get a meal for 5 or 6 euros and it will almost always be really good. Coming from DC (which has great food but is definitely more expensive, I’m really happy that I can eat good food without spending too much!) For example, I had this amazing waffle the other day for 2 euros!
At the grocery store, I find it funny that there is an aisle for “American” food: peanut butter, Oreos, etc. It always makes me laugh to see American flags on food items in the store. One example of this: my bread “Sammy’s super sandwich.” It’s good bread and it actually doesn’t have the bottom or top of the bread that I usually don’t like eating. I will say though, I feel super American every time I purchase it because it’s the only one with obnoxious wrapping.
Things I find weird: Because people don’t do small talk here, I’ve been mostly doing a trial-and-error with food from the store to see which brand I like best. I tried asking someone at the store about their coffee brand of choice and I got no response (that’s what I mean by lack of small talk!) Nobody really likes talking to strangers, especially engaging in small talk. It’s weird because I never thought I would miss small talk (or even really think about it being a thing for that matter) but I noticed it right away when I got here that people just don’t like engaging in small conversations. It’s because small talk is unproductive. Personally, I never think of small talk as being productive per-say, but I think it helps build relationships. I’ve been trying it out in the office (asking how are you, etc.) and some people will respond. I will say though, I feel like because there isn’t that much small talk, I do get more done ( so yeah, I guess it’s more efficient). But I still missing chatting with someone in the elevator or at the grocery store.
Another thing that’s complicated: recycling. When I first moved here, I had to take out the recycling from my apartment since it was left full. And man, was that an experience. I spent 20 minutes just opening all the bins and making sure that I put things in the right bins. So there are 6 bins here at my apartment (you might be able to see some of them in the picture below). There’s one for paper, one for packaging, one for trash, one for compost, one for plastics, one for red glass, one for brown glass, and one for white glass. It’s a complicated process, but it’s really nice to know that people actually care enough and take the time to sort their recycling each week. Outside of the dumpsters, on the streets, people usually put their bottles right below the trash cans so that people who collect bottles don’t have to go through the trash (which I think is a rather nice concept). People can be found walking the streets (similar to other major cities) searching for bottles and giving them to the superstore to get money back for them.
Another thing I think is odd: in this picture above, you might see that many people don’t have curtains. I find this really weird especially because I’ve been told that Germans really value privacy. I usually have my curtains closed, unless it’s sunny and I don’t mind having the neighbors see everything that I am doing.
And last, I did some research earlier this week because I was looking for a place to visit and was confused why the house numbers on streets aren’t consistent. And of course, there’s an answer. There’s always an answer. Basically, there are two systems here: the zigzag and the horseshoe. The zigzag is what I’m used to seeing (odd on one side of the street and even on the other side). The horseshoe is a bit more complicated. The first building at the end of the street has the number 1 and each building on that side of the street is given a higher number until the end of the street. When you cross over to the other side of the street, you’ll see that the houses are also numbered in consecutive order and that the building with the highest house # on one side of the street is opposite to the house with the lowest house number.
— All of this aside I will say, I am enjoying Berlin and all of its quirks. Especially the beautiful clouds that I keep seeing, like this one. 
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