Saturday, May 23, 2009

Reality vs. Expectations

Ok, so I had all these ideas about our visit to France. But I hadn't given a great deal of thought to what it would be like to visit Germany. I was very much looking forward to seeing Anton (oh, and his parents....), but little in the way of expectations.

It has been wonderful to play with the baby and spend time with Blumi and Fatma. The county is beautiful and the people are warm and gracious. But the thing I did not expect was to be mistaken for a German.

Almost everywhere I went, people started speaking to me in German; shop keepers, waitresses, little girls in the WC, even. As I speak perhaps 10 words in German, and have only the vaguest ability to read the language, I did quite a bit of smiling & nodding. (Greg said he though there were two things going on. First, I look German. Second, not a lot of tourists visit the areas we've been to.)

There was a strange feeling of familiarity in Germany. Folks look very much like Junes and Kurths. Lots of meat and potatoes are consumed. People like to hang out, drink beer and eat.

Just like home.

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