Word Descripts

OKTOBERFEST IN MUNICH:

dazzling lights

county-fair-like festivity but with community

flying and swinging rides

music, singing
linked arms swaying to music while standing on benches

raising and clanging glass beer mugs - "cheers"

hats, feathers

heart-shape chocolate cookies with frosting called LEBKUCHEN worn as necklaces (given in place of stuffed animals at our county fairs?)

giant pretzels

sugar-coated nuts in pointed paper cups

accordians, drummers, German bands

meat meat and more meat

sweets sweets and more sweets

butter butter and more butter

salt salt and more salt

long tables in Biergartens

train ride home: men sleeping or passed out in wives/girlfriends laps

chickens on rotisierries

brats twice as long as buns

liederhausen and checkered shirts and dirndel dresses with aprons COSTUMES

GERMANY AND AUSTRIA

clean neat orderly tidy

mild-mannered

contained controlled

flowers, gardens, window boxes

color and design as part of houses and architecture

perfect postcard alpine villages

skinny steeples or orthodox onion-bulb

tended graveyards that explode with flowers and plants
fizzy water from bottles - one must ask for water from the pipe or pay 2.50 euro for water at a restaurant

Unusual adjustments for Americans:

surcharge on food if you dine in the restaurant (Italy)

showers from cold to water that stays on 5 seconds before one has to push the button again and again and again.

water that drips down the wall vs shooting out. 

shower water that doesn't drain and pools in room.

sleeping with strangers in a coed mixed 6-bed dorm. (you say you cannot or would not do it but know what? anyone can do it. it is choice. Okay, so you don't choose. By choosing, I have been able to go on this trip.)

sleeping on top or lower bunk. I like lower because I hang my sarong and make a private cubby.

customer service - not generally American standards

only last night did I learn that it is considered rude to bring the bill when done eating. That is American style to scoot us out for the next round of customers. Europeans expect you to stay the evening and linger. It is rude to bring the bill before one asks.

paying to use the toilets. I have paid up to 1 euro ($1.50). It kills to pay for the bathroom!

not looking people in the eyes as one passes. not smiling. Americans smile and look!

What Americans don't have

public transportation

trust: I have been on buses that transport children to school. Children from elementary to high school ride public buses with workers and tourists. There is a trust and code of behavior that is minimal in America.

adults seem to parent the whole village and it is allowed. Americans are afraid of being dragged into court.

minimal anger - are Americans angry? 

relaxed and holiday time - our culture is work oriented, driven, crazy mad and then we die - money money money - we stand on it.

we are not number one period. we are one culture among many. we don't have as many "greats" and freedoms as we think we do. other countries have more freedoms than we believe they do. (I am super generalizing! Don't yell at me! I know about barbaric countries.)

Austria has been one of the cleanest countries. Very little litter. One can feel the pride in the land, gardens, houses, lakes, mountains, and sky!

beautiful prams! I love how they transport the babies!

When our Presidents say God Bless America, it has irritated me from little girl on. It should be God Bless Everyone.

The Slovene national anthem, written by a poet as a poem, is one of the few national anthems that closes with a blessing and peace for all people.