I have now been back in my own country for a little over two weeks. I have noticed slight differences, but luckily the reverse culture shock has not been nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The biggest differences I noticed were at supermarkets and restaurants. First of all, it saddens me to report that I can no longer find satisfactory bread. After five months of being accustomed to a very high quality variety of bread, I have been disappointed with our supermarkets’ selection of “toast”.
While at my first American supermarket in five months, I stumbled upon a whole aisle dedicated to (large containers of) peanut butter. This product seems to be very rare in German supermarkets, and container sizes tend to be quite small there—hence my surprise upon finding this aisle. And, shockingly enough, the employees at this supermarket were suspiciously friendly, asking how I was doing, and if I could find all of my desired products. The most that one can expect to hear from an employee in a German supermarket is, “Vorsicht!” (“Watch out!”), as they lug a huge quantity of products through the aisle to restock the shelves. Germans simply do not want to start a conversation with a stranger that will yield superficial questions and answers (i.e. “How are you?”// “I’m doing just fine, thank you very much.”) They prefer to get into deep, meaningful conversations around the dinner table with family and close friends. As far as my restaurant experience, I miss sitting wherever I want to instead of having to be seated by the host, but I can’t complain about the free bread and water in American restaurants!
I have been trying to come up with clever ways of simulating my former environment, so that I will not lose all of the German that I added to my repertoire during my time abroad. Therefore, I try to read part of a German novel every day. I try to watch an episode of a German TV show every day. I have even joined a monthly German language meet up group in the Central Florida area, and I’m considering attending a monthly German church service here.
As I continue processing my time abroad, I hope to glean more and more from my experiences there. I do miss Germany, but I find console in telling myself that I will live there again in the future—and I don’t doubt that. Just for memories’ sake, I have included some photos from my last night in Germany.
