Let the sun come into your life!

I would have tons of "cases" to tell about Germany and the german people but I'll write about one of the things that bothers me more: the german weather (and the relationship of the germans with it).

Well, we "latins" normally open the window when it's warm and sunny outside (to bring some good vibrations to the place where we are) and close it when it's freezing, of course.
I got very scared once, at work, when I opened the window on a wonderful day and the colleagues almost died! They got very scared because the warm air would come into the office! How can this be?? How can it be that someone wants warm air inside a room? How? They couldn't believe that someone wanted to feel the good breeze coming from the outside instead of feeling the terrible smell of sweat people...
The other day was my time to get scared. It was a very cold day and they opened the window to make some "frische luft" come into the office.... I really HATE this "frische luft"!!! It's not fresh air, it's COLD air! Freezing air! It's also very normal to dress the babies with warm clothes on winter days and put them on the balcon to do the "mittagsschlaf" because like this they get "frische luft"... the only thing that they can get is a frozen hand, please!
Once I heard that 15°C is a very pleasant temperature and summer vacation at Ostsee is the best! You have 17°C almost every day and can even go to swim!!

Actually, I prefer to end my story here otherwise I'll get into a very very very bad mood.... (the good thing is that at this moment the sun is shinning!!!)

This text is from an anonymous font, we'll keep it that way. Enjoy!

From the origins...

Du hast alles kaputt gemacht!

This may be the first real German phrase I could really understand. At first it seemed that I was to be blamed for all the sorrows of the world, guilty of opening Pandora's box on me and my surroundings. Hell on Earth brought by a Portuguese mischief. Discordance is a common problem encountered in communication between humans, especially if they are not from the same cultures. All have a very specific way to deal with it. As a Portuguese kind of Frenchy I would switch between drama queen and auto derision at a very quick pace, but I must confess that my Drama would never reach the levels I have encountered here.
Actions and events barely annoying turned to be just Apocalyptic ones. My lack of understanding of how things worked (here) could be punished by death on sight a few centuries back but today it would be only THE END OF ALL! Suddenly each of my actions out of good faith (most of the times) may provoke an unwanted and unexpected snowball effect which would be ended by a fatalist:

- Du hast alles kaputt gemacht!

Whatever the situation would be the moment it was occurring, it was a killer phrase. After that, check mate. No exit. You'll be going down. And I went. More than once. Actually quite a few times, not to even say periodically.

Strange series of words for the non German speakers (like me) but it could be translated by:

- Ahora si, la cagaste!
or
-Tu as vraiment foutu la merde!
or
-Now you really blew it up!
or
-Vai te foder! (with an ironic tone)
or
- Du bara förstör allting!

I was sadly glad to hear later on that I wasn't the only one and that actually I was just the average Joe on this one. For once being normal had a bitter taste. As I learned during the years, this infallible argument is recurrent in a man's life. To listen to it I mean. As far as I can remember I can't find something similar in the French or Portuguese culture, at least with similar impact. As I mentioned in a talk with some friends the other night, things in German may sound quite harsher than they actually are but this one take all the Oscars for the best Overreacting line as it is used for everything in all kinds of situations. Once a friend told me he had a fight with his girlfriend for a stupid thing (as fights usually are) and received this "Du hast alles kaputt gemacht!" damnation. Strangely, that day their path crossed other couples which had the same ending. He ended up laughing about it with the consequence of getting things worse on his side. I can't see from where this expression comes from, surely a turning point in German history may be to blame and nowadays all Germany has to live with this one. Leaving no parry to it.
It's kind of funny to still listen to this once in a while, seeing the defenceless accused giving up all hope beyond this point.

Language and culture are indissociable and all together make the differences between us. It's not only the things we say but the way we say them that turn meaningless events or sayings into real hurting weapons. Understanding and accepting those differences are part of the communicational process which can be quite difficult internationally speaking as you may know.

Wilkommen!

1989. 9th of November.

The Berlin Wall fell. A brand new world opened. Both ways. East and West started to learn about each other, sharing the same world as main property. Soon the East was West-ernised, not to say America-nized, and all seemed to be running well... Was it? Well... Bad habits die hard and cultural shocks were slowly taking over the situation. Instead of a wall there was now a chasm.

East Germany is a beautiful country, I have found in it a wonderful and amazing set of people. Some are foreigners and many are Germans but all are incredible.

I could have made a blog about France or Portugal in the same manner as this one. But I didn't.

I want to write about the here and now. About today. Because here in East Germany I am a total stranger. I don't belong here. And that´s why things struck me harder. It is challenging living abroad sometimes being a foreigner. There are those little and not so little things occurring that are completely awkward for the non-locals, some situations and reactions are just not being permitted in the general sense. Others are just funny - as funny as my way of living may sound to them.

So this is what this blog is all about.

I'll be writing about my own experiences and some of others who prefer to be kept in the dark due to possibles "Du hast alles kaputt gemacht" moments and other disagreements. Of course I'll keep this open to some possibly known quality writers and expecting some of you to join in later on. A bit of fun, some anger and many cultural differences which are worth mentioning. Real moments in the life of the persons it crossed. I don't mean to be rude or disgraceful after the blessings Germany has given to me and still is, but some things have to be shared.

Some good other bad but all in all these were situations making me believe as I was experiencing them that I was finding myself in a "Twilight Zone" episode.

Image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Berlin_fallofwall_emerson.jpg