A Year Later

On August 11, 2011, I posted some things I had learned thus far in my 10-day-old German experience. Now that a year has passed, what observations can I add?



1.   Here you pay waitstaff differently.  For example: at the end of your meal, the waiter brings you the check, and it is 18 Euros; you want to give him two Euros for a tip (because tips are smaller here--waitstaff get an actual wage), which brings what you owe to 20 Euros.  So, you hand him a 50 Euro bill and ask for 30 Euros, right? WRONG.  You tell the waiter how much you want to pay him for the bill plus tip (20 Euros), NOT how much change you want.  If you are in an area that is accustomed to having Americans, it may not be a problem...or you may just end up with an extremely happy, overtipped waiter. Of course, you may be able to avoid the problem altogether if you pay with a credit card, but really it is better if you...

2. Carry cash. Yes, you can pay with a card in a lot of places, but there are still plenty of places where you can't. 


3. Keep an umbrella handy.  There is a saying in Texas, "If you don't like the weather, just wait a minute--it'll change." That saying really shouldn't be about Texas--weather doesn't really change, unless you count from "hot" to "really hot" as a change--but it fits Germany.  When I had visitors in May, they went on the Rhine River tour...in one afternoon, they were at different times hot, cold, wet, or wind-blown; for a short while they even endured hail.  Rain, though, is the most likely scenario. Hang on to the umbrella.

4.  Recycling looks complicated, but it is doable.  I recently read Steven Glassman's explanation of it, and it's very similar to what we do in the Frankfurt area. The thing that surprised me the most when the recycling system was explained to me is that it is actually VOLUNTARY, yet everyone seems to do it. 


5.  I eat like a German.  So does that mean I eat of "German food"?

I do eat my share of Schnitzel and Bratkartoffeln, but I eat a lot more of what the Germans around here seem to eat a lot of: Italian food...pizza, all kinds of pasta, and even some salads. :)  Of the three restaurants that were near my old apartment, two of them were Italian; now I have one right outside my building's front door...and that's fine with me!

Country...French Style

I have never been interested in going to France. Though I have only a few days in Paris in high school to base an opinion on, when I think of France, the first word that comes to mind is snooty...I imagine a guy who pays way too much attention to his appearance looking down at me with his nose in the air, telling me how little we Americans know about culture. Maybe that's because I come from freedom-fries-loving Texas where (during the invasion of Iraq, at least) there were bumper stickers that read TEXAS: It's bigger than France.   By the way, the French have their ideas of what Texans are like, too. So, I was curious when I heard that there is an annual country music festival in France, and that it features some artists from Tennessee and Texas.

The festival is held in the south (of course!) of France in a small town called Craponne...which is actually not pronounced very differently from the way you may be thinking...when the French say it, it sounds something like KRHAP-un. It's up in the mountains and far from everything, so you have to have a car.  Two friends of mine (representing Kansas and Kentucky) and I rented a car and made the trek to the festival.  Though we only attended one day, the festival is actually a three-day event.  Walking up to the festival grounds, we passed many tents and RVs, several of which were adorned with Texas and U.S. flags.

 I don't know how many people were actually there that day, but i would guess at several thousand.  After seeing all of the flags, I imagined that there would be lots of ex-pats at the event, but nooo.  We met two Americans. We spotted a few more...Americans are usually easy to pick out of a crowd, and the fact that many of the French were wearing "western" wear made it even easier.  Yes, the land that invented haute couture also has people who wear cheap 10 Euro "cowboy" hats, American flag scarves, large silver-looking belt buckles, jackets with fringe...basically stuff that I have never seen anyone wear in Texas. 

The first band we saw was Modern Earl, and they were, well, you can see for yourself...this sounds pretty typical of their performance:

They were awful --and the French audience ate it up! I have to give the lead singer some credit, though. He must have practiced some lines in French before the festival, and whatever it was he said in French, the crowd found it pretty amusing.

Modern Earl on stage in Craponne

crowd at the festival; notice the LINE DANCING in the upper left corner, and NO, I didn't participate in that--I am from Texas. ;)

After that awful band, the rest of the night belonged to Texas artists, or at least in the case of Amber Digby, artists that call Texas home. Next, my favorite couple, Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis, performed. Bruce sang some of his songs that have been recorded by artists like Tim McGraw, the Dixie Chicks, and George Strait...I figured if I saw anyone singing in the audience, that person was likely an American; I saw one. Oh,well. The French seemed to enjoy Bruce and Kelly, too, even if they didn't know the words.  

Maybe next year I'll wear a Shiner shirt like Bruce.

The headlining act that night was Whiskey Myers.  Have you heard of them? Whiskey Myers is one of the best bands in Texas (at least, that's what the emcee of the festival said)!

Whiskey Myers lead singer, Cody Cannon

Of course, it was a road trip, so we also spent some time in nearby Lyon, and in the wine country near Anse.  Everywhere we went, people were so nice, and--considering that among the three of us we knew about four phrases in French--most people tried to speak English with us.  Somewhere I've heard the saying, "People travel abroad to have their prejudices confirmed." Nothing could be further from the truth in this case.  I went to France expecting not to like it very much, and found that France, and the French, were pretty cool.  I saw a whole different side of France, and I liked it!

Countryside near Anse, France

I am back!

I have been a very bad blogger.

It's probably more accurate to say I have been a lazy blogger.  It's not that I don't have any material; on the contrary, I have been very busy the past few months ...so busy, in fact, that when I have some down time I end up watching Netflix instead of writing blog posts.  I felt I had to write something today, though, because I first arrived in Germany exactly one year ago, and today is also my first day in my new apartment.  I still have two weeks before school starts, so I am planning to do a little catching up on the blog!

My new view--you have to walk up to the fourth floor for it. :)