German Charm

A grand adventure is definitely an understatement in describing the last week and a half. We expected the great weather, the amazing bakeries, and the lovely parks. What we didn’t expect was the subtle and highly irregular effects that this place would have on us in just a week.

New Diggs

A New World Order

 

Everything was simply new and exciting when our first Sunday in Berlin rolled around. My boss (the Diplomat at the Embassy) had gladly taken us into her lovely home and was going to help us move in later that day. Earlier we realized that we were only a mile or so away from the church and so we decided to walk there that morning. We headed out thinking we were going in the right direction only to find that we were going in circles, passing the same bewildered newspaper man we asked directions from the first time around. It was getting a little frustrating, but Jenn was positive enough to state that the real reason church is 3 hours is for people like us who need some extra time to get there. Not sure if that is true, but I have realized that 3 hours is long enough to drive me to drink with my son bouncing up and down and all around.

It is also hard to complain when you are walking through the most gorgeous neighborhoods where some of the wealthier Germans live. We had to head back and get our bearing and once we did, we realized we had gone the complete opposite direction. We reached the church and there were still people there, but we realized that the time displayed on LDS.org was 2 hours late…church started at 9am! We still got to meet with the ward leadership and instantly realized that this was going to be an amazingly intimate experience.

Jack was oblivious to all the conversations going on and was much more interested in the steep stairs going to the cellar or running outside to the main road…Jenn and I were taking turns chasing him down until I switched to Jenn and soon noticed she was engrossed in conversation with the relief society president in the ward.

I panicked! “Where is my first-born manchild!?” I cried. 

Jenn just replied non-chalantly, “he’s with his son”, indicating a man to my left. I looked at her as if she was speaking Yiddish. She was making no sense and it seemed as though the world was turning all-sorts of upside down. Jenn…letting some 12 year old boy watch her son? Hmmm…what sort of mystic spell were these people placing on her.

As we walked out, I asked her what had happened and she told me how the member took her aside and TOLD her that Jack was going to be taken care of by his son. Everything was going to be ok.

It was that instant that I realized that Jenn had met her match. She had been unassumingly charmed and disarmed by a bold yet reassuring culture that would show its face often in the coming days.

FLASHBACK!

 

It is our first date…Jenn and I are staying at her Aunt Jan’s place. Jenn wanted to make sure that they knew we appreciated them, so we were going to cook breakfast for them. Jenn only happened to get this idea in the middle of the night…which happens to be 3-4hours past my “happy hours”. She was beautiful and persistent as ever, so I followed her on a trip that ended up taking us to two 7-11 and several closed supermarkets. My patience was wearing thin (to be honest I don’t have any when it’s past my bed time). At my point of no return, I put my hand on Jenn’s shoulder and boldly said “We will get the breakfast tomorrow. Everything will be ok.” And just like that, she was disarmed and I won back some of my precious beauty sleep. There was no argument, no frustration, just understanding. She likes to point back to that moment as the time she realized that I was a force to be reckoned with. She likes to say it’s charm, but maybe it is something in my genes.

Hand Gestures-The Universal Language

 

There is something very direct and simple about the German language. I have found myself getting back my German skills and finding it a really enjoyable journey. I have to catch myself from leaning into people’s conversations in the U-Bahn (underground rail), I just get too into it. Jenn on the other hand has been more absent and probably annoyed by my child-like excitement for the language.

Coming out here we realized that there were going to be far less people who spoke English than we thought. For those who think that ALL Germans speak English, just get outside of the tourist areas and you will hear just German. To be honest, it was a challenge trying to figure out what the heck was being sold in the grocery store.

The whole thing came to a climax two a few days ago when Jenn went up to a fellow shopper in the local grocery store looking for goat cheese. In order to get the point across, she used her two pointer fingers as “goat horns” and started making goat noises. Needless to say, Jenn got her goat cheese and probably gave the German a good chuckle.

While I expected more funny stories like this in the future, something happened today in church that really threw me for a loop. While the Germans were getting a hoot out of Jack wrestling me and running up and down the aisle, Jenn snuck up to the top to bear her testimony. Jack and I walked back to hang out with the usher who happens to be perfectly identical to the older Bilbo Baggins. I picked Jack up as Jenn got up and as she got up she gave a short, yet powerful testimony completely auf Deutsch. I was so taken back that I stood there just beaming. She says it was to impress me, but everyone in the ward was so proud of her and all of that pride combined couldn’t match mine as a husband.

She has been such a good sport in supporting me through all of our adventures and she has really made it all worth it in the end. Somehow the Germans are getting to her….Who knows what else will happen.

Adapting to a New Life

 

All of this is not to say there hasn’t been challenges. One has been trying to figure out how to dry clothes without a dryer and another figuring out the six different “disposal containers” for your garbage including: glass, plastic, paper, bio, and other ones I forget. I told Jenn we could do three disposals in our home, but having six might be overly German of us (we don't want to forget we're American). Simply put, I am new to sorting garbage and may need just an easier transition into it, but this is a dang good example of how compartmentalized and systematic German life is.

Dryer solution

Another example would be trying to get student pass for the rail system out here. I went once to the official BVG office where you are supposed to get your pass (I thought I was prepared for German bureaucracy with my Student ID, passport, drivers license, and a disarming smile on my face)…boy was I wrong. The first time I was told that I also needed an official document stating I was working for the embassy. The clincher, it needed to be written in German! Well I got that the next day and showed up to another office with all the documents and was then told that I needed an “official” picture ID for my work as well to show that I work for the embassy. I got that the third day and showed up to the office fully expecting to be told to go back and learn the secret U-Bahn handshake and have an "official" Embassy approved tattoo on my hinney before I could get the dang pass!  This time I got there and they said I needed to get a passport size picture taken in order to create the ID card…I was fed up and about ready to pay full price for it all without the dumb student discount at this point! The lady pointed over to a kiosk where I could get my picture taken right then and there for the ID, so it wasn’t as bad as I thought. I got the pass and was officially introduced to a lot world full of structure, rules, and regulations.

The S Bahn Station - Our connection to the rest of Berlin

 What are the benefits you might ask, well, beautiful parks, amazingly clean streets, and healthy people for starters. Berlin is really an experience that is changing the way we view the world. Who knows what else will happen along the way.

Stroll in an old abandoned castle in the gardens

me and Jack at the ponds