So today, being the five year anniversary of actually landing in Germany for our move (ir's always an overnight flight going this direction), I am still feeling very nostalgic, so I hope you will humor me in one more reflective post.
I was thinking today about which things I have learned to live with in Germany, that I would really miss if we ever leaved; there are quite a few, including:
Rolladen--the opaque blinds that roll down over every window. They block out nearly all light, in case you want to sleep in the daytime, or past 5:00 in the summer months. They keep the house warmer in winter and can keep sun from warming the house in the summer.
I would seriously be looking for someone to install them on a house anywhere we moved. I often wonder how we ever lived without them.
Sundays off. No shopping. No mowing the lawn. Just fun or relaxing activities. It's wonderful.
Excellent bike trails and lanes. I love being bale to bike nearly everyone and feel pretty safe doing so. Even when you do have to bike along the road, drivers are much more aware of cyclists here than in the US.
Really well maintained roads and highways (which make those crazy autobahn speeds more reasonable).
Never worrying about the cost when deciding if one of us is sick or injured enough to see a doctor! This is huge. I cannot tell you how much less stress you have in life when you never fear a catastrophic bill from a medical emergency.
and I also still think about those things we miss:
Lots of foods (nearly all "junk" foods) fall into this category: sweet tarts, red hots, malt powder, ranch dressing, etc
Free, and unlimited ice water at restaurants. I would really love to have this in Germany.
Ice in general. Try getting more than a couple of cubes of ice when dining out here!
The confidence with the language, and system to get through those oddball situations that arise with a minimum of stress. Recently a builder working on the lost adjacent to ours was running heavy machinery as earls as 6:45 and left a twenty foot deep hole bordering our property line totally opened and fenced. It took me nearly two weeks of asking people and going from one place to another to find the right agency to speak with to get it taken care of, and I had to spend lots of time prepping by looking up new vocabulary words like "building permit" "front end loader" "foundation" etc. This is something that I could have accomplished in about a half day of phone calls in the US, instead of the 30 or so hours it took me here.
Target. Yes, I miss Target. I love Target. Go ahead and laugh!
There is plenty more in both categories, but you have indulged me enough. We are off on a new adventure tomorrow, so there should be photos and a report up in the next couple of days, bringing an end to the reflective posts (for a while, anyway).
--Hadley
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