USA vs Germany

37 days!

Last week was just a normal week.

On Satuday, I went with Michèle to Rochester. It was raining all day long so there wasn't much to do (actually we wanted to go to an Oktoberfest with authentic German food and entertainment), so we ended up in a mall. Again. But it was a nice mall!

I thought about things I can write here because my every day life is really not that interesting. A little crisis here and there and some nervous breakdowns ... Just kidding. It's not easy with the kids, but not that bad :p

So I decided to write about differences between the US and good old Germany! 

Food

• Obviously the Americans don't have bread that is as good as the German bread. Same with beer (although I am of course not allow to try that here).
• Funny is that they sell a lot of pretzels. Normal pretzels, chocolate pretzels, caramel pretzels ... No idea why. I didn't have a pretzel yet, but I just think it's funny.
• Americans love to go out for dinner. There are a looot of restaurants here, all kinds. Mexican, Chinese, American, Turkish ... Oh, and even the Austrian one!
• Americans eat warm dishes for lunch and for dinner. At least my family. In Germany, I had something warm for lunch and bread or idk for dinner. That's just what I did, I guess some Germans also always eat something warm.

Sizes

• Everything is HUGE: supermarkets, dishes, packets (snack - sized here is normal size in Germany), malls, the country ...

People

• Most of the Americans I met yet were very friendly. Especially when you say that you're not from here and need help with the coins for example (I still don't know which coin has which value). They also greet you on the street, even if you don't know them. At least in the neighborhood.
• Like I said, at the beginning Americans are very friendly and super nice. But then, when you get closer to them, they become more and more reserved. To be honest, I didn't make that experience yet cause I don't know any Americans my age, but other Au pairs told me so. It's the opposite in Germany or Europe in general. There, people are reserved at first but when you get to know them better they open up more and more.

Culture

• Americans love America.
• You see so many American flags here, you don't even see that many German flags during the soccer world championship. It's crazy.
• Concerning arms ... Or guns. I read a sign on a car that said "The best homeland  defense is an armed citizen". Right. And in offices you see signs that say that guns are forbidden there or that kidnapping a security man is an offence. You'd think you don't have to tell people that but ... yeah, America!

Streets

• The streets are wider here.
• A loooooot of Stop signs. A lot. Like, at almost every intersection. Which is very annoying, cause when I get to an intersection and there are no other cars, why should I come to a full stop? (When I'm driving alone, I almost never come to a complete stop. My hostparents told me you can get a ticket for doing that, but come on)
• The cars are bigger. We have a "normal" car, a Volkswagen. Yay German car! But you see a loooot of huge cars. Trucks and pick-ups and everything.
• They don't really use priority to the right here. It's more like: first come, first served. When you come to an intersection and you stop at the stop sign and other cars from other streets also stop, the one who was there first can go first. I'm still not used to that rule.
• They have signs like "Don't even think about parking here" (saw that one in NYC) and "Right lane must turn right". So when you're on the lane for turning right, you have to turn right! Captain Obvious says hello. Americans, that's all I'm saying.
• The yellow and white stripes on the streets don't reflect the light in the dark. And that sucks. When we drove home from Rochester, it was raining and sometimes I wasn't able to identify my lane. Or the street. It's just so incredibly dark here! I don't know why, but it's never that dark in Germany.
• The speed! Oh my God, I feel like a snail here. The maximum speed on the interstate is 65mp/h which is 104km/h. You feel me? That's nothing when you're used to drive at least 140km/h. So even the Americans who have super nice and fast cars, don't get anything out of it.
• There's sometimes some kind of toll you have to pay. 

Bringing up children

Now I'm speaking in general, not only about my hostfamily. It's what I experienced and what other Au pairs told me.

• Most of the time, American children get what they want. When they want it. Exactly how they want it.
• Example: dinner. Someone has cooked a nice dish, but the children don't want it. So someone's making something else. When the children still don't want that, someone makes something else again. That's how it goes.
• American parents are not as strict as German parents. Basically, the children can do what they want. Play with their food, scream, interrupt adults when they're speaking to each other ... Things like that.

That's everything I can think of right now.

If you have other questions, just let me know and I'm glad to answer them!

I hope that was interesting for you :)

xoxo

Christin