Little Differences

These are just some of the little things we've noticed or learned about living here that I thought were interesting and/or different from living in the US.

1)Before a stop light changes from RED to GREEN, you get a warning Yellow light so that you can prepare to go. When we first saw this, Alisa and I thought about why this must be. After driving a stick shift around for a couple weeks we came to the conclusion that, since most vehicles here were stick shift, that the yellow light was telling you to get into gear because you are about to be able to go and we don't want you holding up the line :)

2)During none peak driving times, mostly late at night, certain stop lights are just turned off. When a light is off, you just make sure that if there is an intersection and other cars are coming so that everyone gets a turn and you don't get into an accident, but you don't have to come to a stop if no one else is around. Sure beats ideling your car at a red light for 5 mintues in the US at night when no one is around and you are waiting for the light sensor to kick in!

3)You cannot name your children "weird" or different "made up" names that would cause a child to be made fun of (as our German friends put it). You have to name them classic names that I guess have been around Europe forever and considered a "common" name. Gwen Stephanie and Gwenyth Paltrow would have been out of luck with their kids names. Now, if you are a "foreigner" that has moved to Germany and your child is born here and you have a name that they don't consider to be a common place European name, you can show proof that the name you want to give your child would be a "common" name in the country you came from. They even told us that our son "Mason" would probably not have been allowed without petition because it is from a profession, the "stone masons".

4) You do have to bring your own bags to the grocery store or you will be charged about 15 cents per bag. I remember the riots that practically broke out when Seattle wanted to pass a law requiring a 5 cent per bag fee. Really people, its not that big of a deal! Just bring your own reusable back, all kinds of companies are giving them out for free now!

5) Speaking of grocery stores. You have to deposit money into a slot to unlock your shopping cart from the racks to use it for shopping. Most places its a 1 euro coin or 50 cent piece which you then get back once you click your grocery cart back into place. If you don't have a coin, or don't have a lot of shopping to do, you can use the little arm baskets, but beware, they have security tags on them so you can't take them out of the store. The carts also have all four wheels capable in going every direction that does make it easier to move your cart through some of the aisle or out of someones way, but if you are walking through the parking lot and happened to hit a slope in the concrete, its a ab work out just to get the cart to go straight to the direction you want to go!

These are just a few that I remembered for now as I write. More will surely come.