Here are some more funny (or at least different) things about life in Germany:
- Trash needs to be sorted into several different categories here. As I understand it so far, you have your organic waste or compost; your glass (brown, clear, and green separated); your paper, which includes cardboard; your newspaper; plastic and foil; and everything else. Maybe by the time I leave I'll have it all figured out.
- Doors open in instead of out. In the U.S. you have fire codes that require doors to open out. Not so here. I tried to go into a copy shop two days ago and thought they closed early because the door would not open for me. Then I realized I hadn't tried pushing it in. D'oh!
- The light rail or tram doors do not slide open unless you push a button on one of the doors. I was very confused one night when I ran to a newly arrived tram, waited for the doors to open, and waited, and waited, and then the tram left. The next time I watched other people waiting and saw them press a button on the doors. At first I thought this was annoying, but then I realized it's probably a good idea not to open the doors unnecessarily when it's cold outside. As a side note, German trains are very punctual.
- Grocery stores and many other stores do not accept credit cards for payment - you must use a German MasterCard debit card or cash. As one clerk sternly told me when I handed her my credit card, "Visa nein!"
- Most grocery stores and many other stores do not give you bags. You need to bring your own bag(s) or pay to buy one from them (if they're even available). I paid 10 cents (euro) for a small bag at a household goods store today.
- Also, you must bag all your own purchases, including groceries. They do not stop the next person in line for you. A lot of the stores have bagging areas that people can move over to to finish the job.
- At the Autumn Fair, you can buy beer in a glass, but you have to pay a 2 euro deposit for the glass. You get it back when you give them the glass back. I had some excellent seasonal fermented alcohol called Federweisser at the fair today, by the way. It reminded me a bit of Kombucha. Probably because I was eating mushrooms at the time - a whole bowl full of mushrooms. I probably won't be able to eat any more mushrooms for a month.
- You can take some plastic bottles back to grocery stores for a refund (called pfand). There are no refunds for glass, though. According to one of my classmates who has lived in Germany before, this system was implemented to combat littering.
- The washing machines here are tiny (about the size of two 1-gal buckets), and the dryers don't work. No seriously, from what I've heard, Germans do not use dryers. In my dorm there are two dryers in the basement, but my neighbor warned me not to try to use them because they are expensive and work less than half the time. Everyone just uses drying racks or indoor clothes lines instead. Jeans can take several days to dry when the weather's damp, my classmate said. My mom suggested I handwash all my clothes, but without the spin cycle I think my clothes would really take a long time to dry. Plus, I'm lazy. We'll see.
- Free public restrooms are hard to come by. At the main train station in Dresden, you have to pay 70 euro cents and go through a turnstile to use the restrooms. Not all restaurants have restrooms. In many shopping malls, there are restroom attendants who you are expected to tip when you are done.
- Free water is also hard to come by (I guess this helps reduce restroom use). At a restaurant the other day my jaw nearly dropped when I asked for some water and was charged 1.40 euro. At least it was carbonated (mit gas). A glass of beer would've only cost me 20 more cents. I have a water bottle I carry around with me, but haven't seen drinking fountains I could fill up at when I'm out and about.
- You're supposed to tip the restroom attendant, but aren't expected to tip taxi drivers or restaurant servers/cashiers!
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