Talke Talks – So, Ahoi

Howdy from Hamburg, dear readers,
Yes, you read correctly: Howdy from Hamburg – or as you say here: Moin! I was already in the process of packing colorful monogrammed stuff for the Texas beach when my invitation to the US citizenship ceremony finally arrived at the end of the month. That was the sign that I had been waiting for all year round. I spontaneously decided to travel to the old continent (after the ceremony you can no longer do it) and turned down on dark rainy things.

Oh, there was something – the hottest German summer ever! So I added a few summer dresses and sandals. On our first morning in Hamburg, neighbors of my parents wanted to know from me whether we are ready for the high temperatures, very well ignored in which hell heat we are actually at home. “About 30 degrees in Hamburg!” This is the perfect spring and autumn weather in Texas; However, without the spacious, Hanseatic wind. We drove to the ice -cold Baltic Sea instead of the warm Golf and didn’t even get color there. It took me a long time to adapt the fanatic-American LSF smear-now I can no longer leave it. And the next day the heat was over again and I was annoyed not to have packed enough of knitting jackets.

But in one place Hamburg is always hotter than Texas: in the S-Bahn! There is no system that is as omnipresent in the USA as Walmart and purified water, but does not seem to be invented in Germany or is considered too expensive, which is basically the same. The climate! The railway was not only full of the brim and superstobric when we entered it after a routine inner city tour, but it failed to stand out (as always) “unexplained circumstances” simply for ten minutes. My daughter, who is otherwise not known for moderation, inner peace or self -control, became very quiet, the shock was probably deep. Perhaps that was even her first trauma, in any case she probably found what I had experienced as very skibidi.

In general, our first week in Germany was a kind of mini culture shock. My daughter has forgotten most of it since the last visit when she was only four years old; I can perhaps trace my memory gaps back to progressive aging. In any case, it seemed extremely strange to us that napkins in Germany have become an exotic estate, where they are literally thrown behind in America like dollar certificates in old rappners.

Paper and plastic are still inexhaustible resources in Texas. I had explained to my daughter in advance that we didn’t just throw away, but she was still shouting: “Is that recycling or what?” When her grandfather filled her limo bottle from the previous day to the next excursion with apple spritzer. I accidentally grabbed a loop in the Lindt shop for a chocolate box. “The loop is gift packaging and costs one euro, is that okay?” Asked the seller. “Digger, this is not a gift, I kill in the train, and since when has been a polo loop?” I wanted to say, but asked for another box instead.

I also thought I was very open and now exposed my prudery when I condemned a couple in the spirit for making it so unabashedly kept around in public. Nudity on the beach is also an absurdity, in Texas it is only for parades and certainly not to brown, which has long been out. In the free peeing toddlers and drunk men (just a hit movement) seem just as strange. Walkers who don’t greet anyone either. Run around with beer bottles outside seems illegal, but it is not. And just smoking! I have to keep in memory that I thought it all as normal, back then before I became a Texas suburban mum.

After a week, my brain is finally Teutonized again and my daughter is desensibilized. Next week the comfort zone expansion will continue: we fly to France.