Life in Germany

It is still strange to be home in the U.S., although it's been nearly a week now. I wouldn't say I'm having full-blown culture shock, but using dollars for the first time in five months blew my mind. I used five different currencies in Europe without a problem, but coming home and realizing that it's only going to be the dollar from now on was extremely strange. I also finally recognized just how big our American cars are. Everyone in the U.S. has heard about this for years, of course, but it really takes being away for a while to see how excessive some of those SUVs are. I can't think of one good reason for a family of four to own a Hummer, but I've seen at least two average-looking people driving them down the freeway. A Hummer, I think, is the sure sign of excess in a country criticized for overconsumption.

I think it would be useful to sum up my student life in Germany, especially if anyone reading this blog is interested in visiting or living there. I'm still formulating my political post because I've been doing quite a bit of thinking about it, and that will have to come at a later point. For now, I'll just break everything down into categories for the sake of simplicity. These are the issues that I thought about the most as a student.

Transportation: Germany wins here, hands down. Public transportation was fantastic in Germany, especially in my beloved Freiburg. The tram system was always clean, well-organized, on-time, and relatively cheap, especially with a monthly pass. It was also easy to figure out with a good website that had an English option in case the German was too confusing. I could get nearly anywhere I wanted in Freiburg with ease, although I didn't use the system more than once or twice after I bought my bike in April. The German train system, the Deutsche Bahn, was also great. It could not be easier to book tickets online, there are always good discounts if you know where to look, and it offers special deals like the Schoenes-Wochenende ticket that I've mentioned on this blog before. The trains are modern, fast, clean, and quiet, and the train stations are easy to navigate and well-marked, even in the small towns. Even with a bit of a language barrier, I found the Deutsche Bahn far easier to navigate than Caltrain, which I barely ever use and for good reason. Not only does taking Caltrain necessitate a 30-minute drive to Palo Alto, it just doesn't cover the same amount of ground and with the same efficiency. Trying to figure out public transportation in San Francisco is a hassle, especially if you need to use the subway AND above-ground transportation. Boston is quite a bit easier and has an excellent subway system, but the quality of the experience on its slow and old trains pales in comparison to my experiences in Germany. Finally, Germany is much more bike-friendly, especially in a green city like Freiburg. The bike lanes were always wide and well-marked, bike racks are available EVERYWHERE, and bike stores and repair shops are easy and accessible. I loved walking or biking around Freiburg and seeing people getting their groceries or running errands on a bike rather than in a car. This also has to do with city layouts - you don't see much of that suburban sprawl like we have in California where you really need a car to get to where you need to be. In Freiburg, all the main stores and establishments were downtown and easily accessible by subway, foot, or bike. Now that I'm home in rural La Honda, I really miss the ease of transport.

Food: The food in Germany was one of the highlights of my experience. Not only did I get the chance to try traditional specialties like Spargel, I got to enjoy the benefits of a country that just prizes food. Food and mealtimes are special in Germany, and you'd never see kids wolfing down TV dinners or parents buying Costco-sized bread rolls. Instead, families eat together, choose seasonal produce, buy fresh bread nearly every day, shun artificial ingredients, and generally relish eating as an experience. It wasn't hard for me to get into that - I could access high-quality produce, dairy products, and meats at my local grocery store for excellent prices. Sometimes I'd be thinking, "Oh, I've picked out a full basket of items, most of which are local or organic - I'd better break out the 50 Euro note" only to reach the line and face a bill of 15 Euros. Then, on the way out, I could stop by the bakery above the grocery store and get some fresh Brezeln or bread for a Euro or two. I could also access the farmers' market nearly every day, which was a truly great way to get any kind of vegetable or fruit I wanted. I've been fortunate enough to eat high-quality food and produce in the U.S. as well, but I think there is still a distinction in the eating cultures. You'd never see Germans do the Atkins diet - they're much thinner than we are as a whole, but if they want to lose weight, they'll exercise more and cut down on treats. Bread is an essential part of the German diet, and the Germans aren't willing to cut traditions or their way of life just to cut pounds. It was so nice and refreshing to live in a place that views food as something to be cherished rather than as something to be controlled.

Environment: I already knew that Freiburg is a green city (and is in fact the only city in Germany with a Green mayor), but I was still very impressed with how environmentally conscious everybody was. EVERYBODY recycles into five or six different categories, windmills grace the hills around the city, people bike or walk as much as possible, solar panel usage abounds, and nearly all new buildings must reach tough energy efficiency standards. This is true for much of Germany, but especially for Freiburg. The car-free neighborhood of Vauban is hyper-conscious about the environment - not only do most houses have solar panels and/or passive energy constructions, it costs 18 thousand Euros to park your car. Effective disincentive right there, I think! Environmental consciousness isn't casually dismissed as unrealistic or a luxury problem like it is the U.S. - EVERYONE can play a part, whether it's sorting through trash into the appropriate receptacles or buying an expensive passive house in Vauban. It's no secret that the U.S. lags far, far behind Europe in energy efficiency and surges way ahead in oil usage and emissions levels. No contest in this category.

Friendliness: I had heard lots of stereotypes about hostile Germans before I got here, but fortunately, they were wrong for me. It's true that Germans won't walk around and smile at every person they see, throw out a casual "how are you" out of habit, or say "we should hang out sometime!" just to be polite. What they will do, though, is enthusiastically greet their friends and acquaintances and really mean it when they ask how they are. Their friends will respond with a honest assessment of how they are rather than "I'm fine, and you?" If a German says "we should hang out," it means you'd better get out your calendar, set a firm date and time, and genuinely want to keep the meeting. If you don't feel like hanging out at a particular time, there's no need to do the old "Oh I'm so sorry, I really would, but I already promised I would do X on that day..." It's considered okay and non-offensive if you just don't feel like it. In many ways, I think Germans are friendlier than Americans. Americans will be aggressively cheery towards each other, but with a good deal of fakeness. Germans are more genuine, and at the same time, nice to strangers. I've asked for help with directions or whatever many times and every single person I asked was more than happy to help me out. I'm happy to say that this particular stereotype was debunked during my experience.

Education: Unlike in the U.S., nearly all of Germany's universities are public. The point I want to focus on is the vast difference in cost for German students versus American students. Students at public schools in the U.S. will pay at LEAST several thousand dollars per semester and usually more, while students at private schools encounter costs as high as $55,000 per year. Every time I told Germans this, their jaws dropped. They absolutely could not imagine how or why anyone could pay that much, even if they had enough money to easily do so. In Germany, tuition was banned until 2005 when states won the right to charge student fees. Even now, the states that have exercised this right (including Baden-Wuerttemberg, where Freiburg is) don't charge more than about 550 Euros per semester. While there are some other costs for students that can add up to a few thousand Euros, studying at the most expensive German university will still cost less than studying at the cheapest American state schools. When the 500-Euro fees were introduced at some German universities in 2007, students took to the streets in protest. They viewed the imposition of fees as an abridgment of their fundamental right to education. The charges would, in fact, make university prohibitively expensive for many students, effectively preventing them from exercising their rights under German law. The U.S. considers education a right until at least the 12th grade, but the more time I spent in Germany, the more I wondered why that right should suddenly cease after high school. True, we have federal financial aid, but the neediest families aren't going to find a measly $4,000 Pell Grant enough to cover even one semester at an average public school. Rather, too many students and families will find themselves drowning in debt after only a few years. German students aren't even familiar with the concept of student loan debt and would shake their heads in disbelief when I talked about it. I believe there should be as few financial obstacles as possible on the road to public higher education, and not because I think it would be a piece of cake to offer a fully funded education to all students at the college of their choice. Rather, the U.S. has a compelling interest in facilitating the university education of as many students as possible. Our economy and civil society would no doubt be better off if, like Germany, we truly viewed education as an investment rather than a cost.

This post came out a bit longer than I intended, so I'll cover a few more categories later on to avoid cramming everything into a monster post. I'll be offline for a few days, so bis spaeter!