13 Things That Are Different Here

I (Gina) keep discovering things that are done differently here. Mostly with food, but a few other things, too.

1. You can buy tomato paste in a tube, like toothpaste. Genius! You squirt out what you want, recap it and return it to the fridge for next time. This is unlike a can of tomato paste: For most recipes you only need a few tablespoons and I always end up throwing away the other half of the can.

2. Eggs are sold in packages of 10 instead of 12. No baker's dozen here. They don't refrigerate them in the store. Mine often come with a few chicken feathers attached, as if to remind you that these are fresh from CHICKENS, not some other animal.

3. Shelf stable milk. Hardly anyone here buys refrigerated milk. I know they have it but I don't even know where it is in the store. This is one of the things I really like here. You buy very small packages of milk that don't go bad for months. You can store them in your cabinet to have on hand, kind of like flour or canned tomatoes. When you empty the carton in your fridge, you just pull another one out of the cabinet. They're such small packages that you use them up before they can spoil. You don't have to stand there in the store, glaring at the refrigerated wall units, agonizing for 30 minutes over whether you need a 1/2 gallon or a gallon, and if you can use it up before it spoils. We NEVER waste milk anymore. I have also found butter, creams, whipped cream and some other dairy products just sitting out on room temperature shelves.

4. Baking soda. They sell baking soda in tiny envelopes instead of boxes. You tear off the top and measure out up to 2 tablespoons. But what if you don't need a tablespoon? What do you do with the rest? You have to store it in your pantry and hope you don't knock it over so that it spills all over your cabinet. I DON'T like this. I'd much rather have a larger container with a lid instead of a bunch of little sugar-packet sized envelopes.

5. Sparkling water. Carbonated water is 19 cents for a 1 liter bottle. In the States, that would cost almost $2. I will definitely miss this whenever we leave. I have cut way back on my soda intake by replacing it with ice cold carbonated water.

6. The windows here open two ways: straight out into the room, like your front door, with the hinges on one side or the other; or with the top of the window tilting inward to let in just a bit of air. Most windows can do both, and you can alternate it by turning a handle to open it one way or turning it another way to open the second way. I really like this.

Additionally, the blinds aren't things you buy at Home Depot and hang on the inside, getting the cord tangled up, or collecting dust on the flimsy horizontal plastic thingys that let in 90% of the daylight as if the sun were standing directly outside your window, peeking in. No, these blinds are like super, space program, military grade metal blinds that are BUILT IN to the wall outside the glass of your window. There is a cord attached to the side of the wall by the window and it goes into holes in your wall. You pull the cord one way or the other to lift these rather heavy blinds. When you close them, they block out every speck of light (and I suspect all air particles as well) so that you think the sun no longer even exists. Take a nap? You'll think it's midnight when you wake up. Wake up at 7? You'll think it's still midnight. LOVE these, too.

7. Friendliness. Here, it is customary to greet every person when you enter a room. For instance, you enter a doctor's office, so you say "Hello" to everyone, and they all look up from their magazines and say "Hello" back. Now, at a more intimate gathering, like a housewarming party, you are expected, when you enter, to go around the room and say hello to each person in turn, and introduce yourself to anyone you don't know. When it's time to leave, you go around to each person and shake their hand again. Sometimes even in a restaurant when there are only a few people, the other diners will say goodbye to us when we leave. It's something of an introvert's nightmare, but I also kind of like this expectation that people include everyone when they enter a room and greet people, and no one is excluded.

8. "Coffee with cream" here is a cup of very dense coffee with a huge dollop of homemade whipped cream with heavy whipping cream. Not those cute little tubs of thick milk.

9. Grocery shopping. Grocery stores don't give you bags for your groceries, and no one bags them for you while you stand there and wait for your total. You have to bring your own bags and do it yourself. If you forget your bags, you can buy some. They have varying thicknesses of plastic bags -- most intended to be used multiple times -- or big vinyl shopping bags that you can use forever, I think.

10. I haven't really seen fruit pies here. I don't know why German people don't seem to eat them -- especially not the two crust kind. They either eat a huge variety of cake, or things made with flaky pastry dough, but that's about it.

11. Honor system. In this immediate area, a lot of people sell things outside their homes on the honor system. There's one cabinet standing across the street from EuNC which has pots full of water and then gorgeous fresh roses in them. You can pay $10 or $15 francs into a box in the wall and take the roses. There's no one there to take your money or to prevent you from just stealing the roses. There's another thing like that with eggs; you pick out how many eggs you want, drop your money in the box and go. I also saw a big milk dispenser at someone else's house; presumably they have a dairy farm or something: you bring your jug, put in so much money and then collect your milk from a spigot. Can you imagine how long something like this would last back home, even in one of our small towns? A day. Maybe.

12. Toy cars. Apparently, some European auto makers don't build cars to actually be driven. Or I should say, they don't build them to go long distances, or to be driven on the autobahn. I'm not talking about cute little toy electric cars that fit one person in a reclining position, and look like they could take off into space, or even tiny Smart cars. I'm talking about your average-sized BMW sedan. We keep trying to drive different cars that look perfectly normal to us, and take them to, say, Zurich, or a few hours south in Switzerland, or a few hours east in Germany. People keep telling us, "Oh, you can't take that car. It's not built for the highway." Or, "That car isn't made to travel in. You need to stay around here." No explanation has been forthcoming so far as to what distinguishes these apparently toy cars from "real" cars, and why anyone would build or purchase a car that you don't intend to drive.

13. Washable paper towels. They sell these things here -- napkin-sized thin cloths that you use to clean surfaces in your house. They're really soft and washable. You wipe up the counter in the kitchen, or dust all the wood surfaces, or clean the bathroom sink and shower. Then you just wad it up and throw it in your laundry. A few days later -- Voila! A clean, dry paper towel, all ready to use again. I LIKE these. I'm totally bringing some home with me.