Eine Woche

One week. Wow, what a week. I arrived last Thursday, and it's been a bit of a whirlwind since then. I spent my first three days on deck waiting for my baggage. *I* was able make a connection in Paris in about an hour and a half--my bags were not so lucky. They arrived in Stuttgart the next morning, which was good, but instead of taking "up to 48 hours" for delivery, the company took a good 54 or so hours. I had been prepared for travel delays and actually had an extra change of clothes in my carry-on bag, so I became very proficient at washing a very small load of laundry each night.

However, this is certainly a very welcome change from Yuma weather! I am told it was hot for a short period of time about a week before my arrival. "Hot" meaning in the mid-90s. I will qualify this by saying that many buildings here don't have air conditioning, so these temperatures are a bit more uncomfortable than they would be in Yuma. Fortunately, since I arrived I don't believe the temperatures have gotten over the low 80s. Every afternoon the beautiful outdoors beacons and I enjoy a run, or walking around the base or into the nearby town.

I hesitate to say that Germany is exactly how I imagined it, but it is very close. I live right next to a small town outside of Stuttgart, which is considered a major city. The town has narrow roads and homes with steep roofs packed closely together. All of the cars are extremely small but traffic is very orderly. It's easy to walk around the downtown area, and you will see housing and shops intermixed with each other. The people are very friendly, and I have started being able to say a few simple phrases, although I do very poorly with prices. I need to learn to say "please say it more slowly."

I spent a lot of time this week sitting in orientation classes. Some things, like "Army Substance Abuse Program" were boring and painful and yielded little to no new or pertinent information. Some, like the German hospital tour, were interesting and quite useful. I feel sorry for all the new people here who have children. Not all German hospitals will serve children, so if you bring a child to the emergency room at the wrong hospital, the emergency room will send you away to a hospital that treats children. To further complicate matters, hospitals have specialties. So if you are sick, you go to hospital X, but if you have a broken bone, you go to hospital Y (which makes an exception for children with broken bones, even though it normally only treats adults). Fortunately there is a Patient Liaison hotline for us confused Americans that will tell you which hospital to take the patient to.

The other major difference that will take more getting used to is German traffic signs and traffic laws. There are maybe five signs that will look familiar and mean the same things as in the U.S. For example, their stop sign is exactly the same. The yield sign is identical except for the fact that it doesn't say "yield" on it (or anything else or that matter). One of three signs they can use for a railroad crossing is very similar--but the other two aren't. Some signs are similar but mean very different things. A sign with a bicycle on it does not mean "watch out, there are going to be bicycles on the road", it means bicycles only, if your vehicle has a motor, then stay out. (Same thing for the pedestrian sign: it doesn't mean "watch out for pedestrians" it means "pedestrians only".) A red circle around something does mean that symbol is prohibited, but it won't have a red line through it.

And then most of the signs you just have to learn from scratch. For example: any guesses as to what this sign means?

No stopping!

Ah, but then what does this one mean?

Restricted no stopping! Which means you can stop for up to 3 minutes as long as you don't park. Parking is defined as a stop longer than 3 minutes, or getting out of your car. Clear as mud, right? And then you start adding arrows to the signs... Honestly, it's not really that complicated. It's just different.

One other large difference in German traffic laws is right-of-way laws. If there are no signs at an intersection, the general rule is right-before-left. (There are many intersections on my way into town that have no signs whatsoever.) There is no requirement that the vehicles arrive simultaneously. If you arrive at an intersection and there is a vehicle approaching from your right, you must yield to them. The instructor at the class we are required to take before getting our German driver's licenses drew a scenario on the board with four vehicles at an intersection with no signs. In this case, you use what is called the Gentleman's rule: one vehicle yields their right-of-way to the vehicle on its left. This allows the intersection to clear, but the Gentleman vehicle ends up going last.

Next week I'm being sent to Greece and Italy...darn. Don't know how I'm going to handle that one. But hopefully once I return I'll have more fascinating cultural notes to share!