Good Germans

Where did January go? I feel sort of silly asking that when we're already hip-deep in February. It seems like we were just traveling, leaving cold and snowy Boston and arriving back in cold and snowy Germany. But no, we've been back from the US for many weeks and are half-way through our fifth month of living in Hamburg.

I've started to categorize our months here with some sort of descriptor, in an attempt to keep track of the time. For example, October was the month of Confusion, what with not understanding anything and getting settled. November was the month of Email due to Zoli being on the boat. Now, looking back, I think January was our month of being Good Germans.

Living here it seems like there's a greater collective consciousness than there is in the US about when one should do certain things. Recycling, for example. We walk our recycling to large metal bins around the corner, which are the recycling facilities for our part of the neighborhood. Good Germans recycle on Saturday and Sunday, such that even though the bins are emptied on Saturday mornings they're chock full by Sunday night. Full to the extent that you have to actively shove your recyclables into the available nooks and crannies and you're guaranteed to have at least two or three other people doing the same thing at the same time.

Bottles for beer, water and soda are redeemable at a machine that's in the back of most grocery stores. Good Germans redeem on Saturday afternoon - the queues in all the grocery stores are enormous with people redeeming shopping carts full of soda, water and beer bottles. It's tedious to stand in line with just the five or six bottles we accumulate at one time, but it can be worth it for the people-watching. One Saturday I was behind a man who redeemed a cart full of beer bottles - I was behind him in line at the register as well, and all he was buying was beer.

Not all Good German activities have to do with the disposal of recyclables. Saturday is shopping day, starting with food shopping and ending with shopping for things - the stores are packed and good luck if you actually want to try something on in a dressing room. On Sundays, Good Germans go for leisurely walks, and then in the late afternoon to a café for Kaffee und Kuchen. If you're an exceptionally Good German you'll go walking in a Fußgängerzone (pedestrian zone) and Schaufensterbummel machen (window shop). My favorite part of being Good Germans is that I learned about many of these activities in my high school German class and thought they were the craziest things ever. It makes sense actually living here (especially since most shops are closed on Sundays), but it doesn't make it any less amusing.

But Being Good Germans is tiring. It's exhausting shopping all day Saturday. Sometimes on Sundays you just want to sit on the couch in comfy pants and watch the snow, rather than walking through it on ice-covered sidewalks, even if your reward is cake. So far February is shaping up to be the month of being Bad Germans - not only did we put our recycling in the (blissfully empty) bins on a Wednesday night, I also redeemed bottles in the grocery store on a Tuesday. Watch out, you never know what we'll do next.