I arrived safely in Bremen a few hours ago. The hotel is fantastic but I've been in kind of a fog most of the afternoon due to the jet-lag. Sure, I've only been in Germany for a short while, but there are already some aspects that I've picked up on since my arrival.
- Their women wear much shorter skirts than American women do. This is not necessarily based on empirical data, but rather based on the pictures for women's restrooms at the airport. I tried to get a picture of one on my cell phone, but it didn't work so well. Trust me on this, German women's restroom icons like to show off a lotta leg.
- They have a much more enlightened perspective on the fact that sex...exists. This was made most evident for me upon my arrival at the Munich airport, where i had to make a connection in order to get to Bremen. One of the first stores I saw while I was here was a sex shop - *in* the airport. It was great. I mean, say you're a modern business women flying off to some business meeting in Kiev. And when you get to the airport, you realize that you've forgotten your vibrator at home. Heaven forbid you have to pick up some poor quality Ukranian vibrator in a sketchy part of an unfamiliar city. In America, you'd be screwed - but in Munich, you can just pick something up on your way to the gate. In fact, there were two separate locations in different areas of the airport.
- So far, it has been completely true that everyone speaks English. Sure, there's an awkward pause initially, but everyone picks up on my silence pretty quickly and switches over. It helps if I start off with a greeting in English.
Comments