Not quite an entirely random post. I have several smallish things I figured I should put together before I forget all about them or such. I also have a list of ''weird things about Germans/Germany" I've been accumulating that I'm not sure where to put or how often to say something about it, so I'll put it here for now.
Content: German commentary, pics from a past Berlin trip, apartment, Neuengamme,
0. German(y) commentary:
I was recently asked what I miss from the states.
- Shopping on Sundays (outside of the few shops at the bigger train stations)
- Ibuprofen not being a controlled substance (in Germany you can only get it in a pharmacy, and those are never open on Sundays, not even in train stations)
- Internet that doesn't suck (German's all use patchy-at-best DSL. When I complained that DSL by default is slow, they said well, there also *is* superfast DSL. Yeah, but, none of you guys buy and use it. Bleah).
Things I don't miss:
- the inability to get anywhere without a car
- the sprawl of the average American city
- our absurd anti-science politics
- quiet concerns about things like the potential of being bankrupted by a medical bill
Something I'd like to have:
I'd really like a webpage where I type in something/some store I want from the states and I get out its German/Hamburgisch equivalent. Here are some examples:
States Germany
Miscellaneous cultural commentary:
Asparagus:
So, Germans are crazy about their crazy albino asparagus (Spargel):
This is now in full season and everywhere. It's grown in sandy mounds, kept under plastic to regulate the heat, and picked before breaking through the surface. To cook it, you're supposed to peel it (since it's much thicker than what I would call ''normal'' asparagus) and then boil it for ~15 minutes and cover it with hollandaise sauce. Probably also serve with potatoes.
Holidays/'Feierabend'
When leaving for the weekend, you might wish someone a nice weekend(ein schönes Wochenende), or when they're leaving work the day before a holiday, you might wish them a nice holiday(schöner Feiertag). However, people also wish each other a pleasant ''holiday evening''(schöner Feierabend). I remarked to my officemate (Bürokollege) that this seemed to express a different view on one's time relative to work. That is, you're sort of saying that your baseline assumption is to work all the time, and the time at night is ''holiday time''.
Also, man, so many religious holidays. I mean, I'm not turning down a holiday, I just find it a bit weird.
Dogs, everywhere
No, really. From the grocery store to the fancy restaurant next to the art cinema, to the mall, everyone takes their dogs everywhere. And these are not all teacup-poodle-sized, either. Labs and larger, even.
Handshake
It's not really done, here. Or, it's often the ''dead fish'' handshake, where one hands the other person their (limp) hand and it is awkwardly clasped and released.
For your amusement, some false cognates (or 'Falsche Freunde'):
- das Gift = poison
- der Ass. As in, ''Er ist ein wirkliches Ass". This was something one of the profs I teach for said in an E-mail. It means ''Ace'' or "whiz''.
- der After (I'll let you look that one up)
- die Fabrik = factory
- blenden (=to dazzle/blind with light)
- bald = soon
- fast = almost
- der Mop = mop
- der Mops = pug (as in, the dog)
- die Mappe = Folder/portfolio
- Not = emergency
- genial = clever
Additionally, there is no word for "Cranberries" in German, despite whatever dict.leo.org says. Since they show up a lot, here are the other berries one might mistake for cranberries:
Preiselbeeren = Lingonberries
Johannisbeeren= Currants
And, for your amusement, a cute German poem with illustrations
Ottos mops. This is how I learned that there's a word in German for ''to spite someone'', which is "trotzen'' (it becomes ''trotzdem'' to mean ''despite'').
I. Pics from a past Berlin trip:
I went to a big complex of gardens in former east Berlin (Marzahn, ''Gärten der Welt''). Here's the nest pic I took in the trip:
There was also a (creepy/oppressive-feeling) ''Christian Garden'' with surrounding walkways full of text (sayings of Christian religious people, not Bible text). The garden itself was roped off (i.e. you weren't allowed to enter). There should be some kind of Eden comment here.
II. My apartment
So, I made a key mistake. I'd like to share so that none of you make the same mistake, if you can avoid it. That is, I moved into an apartment where my landlady=my flatmate, and she's lived there on her own since '85 (i.e. for quite a long time). When people live alone a long time, they build up a lot of habits of ways things need to be to make them happy.
E.g., the lid on the toilet always has to be down (otherwise ``money flows out of the apartment'') and one part of my room has to be entirely yellow (because that's the part that is not included in the area that has a balcony in front of it).
There's more I can say, but I'll just leave it at that. I'm happy to elaborate over a beer if we happen to be in the same place and time (and around some beer).
I do have a nice balcony with a great view, but the weather's been a bit chilly and wet (12 C/54 F) for hanging out on it. Also, the internet signal (weak and patchy anyway) doesn't reach out there.
So, found a new place, moving in next month. Lease for a year. It's a relief, for sure.
III. Neuengamme
I'm not trying to treat this with too much levity. I'm not sure how to treat it. It was strange and somber and also somehow not inclusive of enough of the right sorts of information. One building was all about the SS workers (and how many of them didn't end up getting charged criminally -- lack of evidence, from all the document destruction :/). The last building we went into was a factory run by a separate company, and it detailed the lives and treatment of workers.
The path there was really beautiful.
Neuengamme was a ''Konzentrationslager'', near Hamburg. A work camp (where people were worked to death, actively). I visited it with my officemate. We were looking for other people who were interested in going as well, but this was complicated by the awkwardness of asking someone to go to a Konzentraionslager, and the fact that there was a Neo-nazi march (and counter-protest) taking place the same day in Hamburg which people wanted to be at to protest.
One of the workers buried logbooks, so the following records survived the general informational purge at the camp at the end of the war:
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| Your suffering, your struggle and your death shall not be forgotten/forgiven(?) |
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| From Germany 2012-2013 |
Bricks and concrete slabs were made in the camp. Moving these things around (and onto barges to ship elswhere) was very dangerous work.
After the war, it was converted into a prison and used as such for a long time. Graffiti says "Here once stood a concentration camp". People were upset as they felt this usage was the government trying to erase/ignore what happened here.
In Hamburg (at least), buildings often come with plaques saying who built it and when. This is a board put up by one of the 'international peace camps' that was involved in preservation/restoring/construction of the current exhibit/layout of the camp. There's a ''company'' that ran the labor camps, which was the "Deutsche Erd- und Steinwerke GmbH'' (German Earth and Stonework, ~LLC). That is, this is a bit of dark humor (or levity?) added later.
