Culture Shock

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The view from the cafeteria roof is so beautiful!

Living in Germany has been really fun so far, but the you can definitely tell that the culture here is very different from the United States. For one, my supervisor always makes fun of Americans for saying that everything is 'so cool' and 'awesome'. There are also lots of small, everyday things that are just a little bit different from how we do things in the US. For example...
  • On German keyboards, the position of the Z and the Y keys are switched! The only German words that contain a Y are words borrowed from foreign languages, so the Z is used way more often. I've accidentally typed 'verz' and 'especiallz' too many times to count!
  • The handicap signs here are facing the other way! Maybe it's just because we've had to reproduce the ADA symbol so many times in my civil engineering classes at Mines, but it's very noticeable for me and it just looks so wrong!
  • The escalators in Germany stop when nobody is on them. I'm sure this saves tons of electricity, but I totally thought they were broken until I saw someone activate it just by stepping on. Also, if you're going to stand on the escalator you have to make sure to be all the way to the right - the left side is kept clear for people who like to walk (or run) up. 
  • At crosswalks, the little green man is king! Even if there are no cars as far as the eye can see, people still wait for the light to change before crossing. I've seen students break this rule if they're about to miss the train, but otherwise it seems to be almost universally accepted.
The crosswalk by my apartment has a blinking sign that just says "wait". Some of the others around the city instead have a little light that says "green is coming", which I find hilarious.

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