Germans have funny ways of dealing with cold, air, and light. I knew that Germans were obsessed with (durch)lüften--airing out rooms--but it didn't strike me how fanatical they were about it until now. When I was in Heidelberg, you'd frequently find the bathroom window open in the middle of the winter, but I figured that was to counteract the stuffiness-and-mold-creating effects of the warm shower. We do that in my dorm here, too, but it goes even further. At my school, all classrooms are lined on both sides with windows that can be opened--and that frequently are. Sometimes a teacher will even make a point to ask that the students open up a few windows to get some "air flow." I'm just thankful that most of the time I stand at the front and don't have to put on an extra scarf and sweater to handle the freezing air blowing by.
Which brings me to the related point that makes the situation even weirder. While they sure like their fresh air, Germans are worried about drafts and about getting sick from not being bundled up enough. I'm not exactly a warm-blooded person, and in America I usually feel like I'm more warmly-dressed than other people. At Baker, you'd see people galavanting about in nothing more than jeans and a hoodie in the middle of January (and normal people, too...that's to say nothing of the more extreme exceptions). I generally require a shirt or two, a sweater, a parka, a scarf, and some gloves. So it's not like I'm one to avoid winter clothes. The teachers here seemed worried about my wardrobe, though, and I got several concerned comments when I went outside in September and October with my warmest layer being a "Strickjacke."*
The German relationship with light isn't weird, I guess...just un-American. Natural light is preferred to articifial, which makes sense to me, but is less popular in America than one might think. I remember being surprised when I moved into the Baker dorms at how few people opened their blinds during the daytime. In any case, I started thinking about this on a particularly sunny 2:00 pm one day last week. The position of the sun was such that it was blinding for some of the kids in the class I was teaching, but the head teacher refused to draw the curtains. Instead, they had to reposition their desks so as to avoid the sun as best they could. "I'm not going to turn on the lights when the sun's shining outside" was the response. Hm. Maybe that's a generational thing, actually, not a national one.
Speaking of other German oddities (or, more kindly, "differences"): I'm learning that when it comes to traditional German cuisine, you really cannot make assumptions about the ingredients involved. I thought I'd get some food at the Christmas market today, figuring potatoes and cabbage/sauerkraut dishes were pretty safe vegetarian bets. When I got ready to order, I could see that the cabbage vat included chunks of sausage, so I stuck to an order of Bratkartoffeln. Fried onions and potatoes, right? But even those included pork bits. *sigh* You just can't escape the pig fat in this country.
I was reminded last Sunday when I went to Carsta's house for lunch (duck, potatoes, and cabbage) that I possess a Christmas tree. I got it down the other day from atop the wardrobe where it'd been sitting and put it up. Took about five minutes. It's pretty small. But it's nice! So with that and a felt-reindeer-featuring stocking (also left by a past TA), my room has become quite full of Christmas cheer. I have a box of lights, too, but I don't think I'm going to mess with them. I like Christmas lights a lot, but not when I have to figure out how to put them up.
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*Sweater with buttons/a zipper on it. The kind you've seen me wear every day since I started ninth grade.
It's amazing the cheer that a Christmas tree can emit in December. Oh, and you will have to have your own Justine-style gingerbread house making party in Deutschland!
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