Skin Head Paradox

Yes there are some still roaming in Deutschland. I won't talk about the ones we have back home in Portugal or France, as I consider them even more stupid than the ones living here. It makes no sense for me to defend the arian theory of German pure Blood being someone from another country. Surely a too difficult task for those brains. Instead, I'll talk about an anachronism I saw last Friday at a concert with the brazilian band Sepultura in Erfurt (yes they did came to play in Centrum!). Sepultura, two more bands from the US and one from Spain came along in a a very Worldwide concert.

As from another time and space a typical neo-nazi was in the middle of the crowd. He wouldn't have been spotted easily if it wasn't for the red flashy t-shirt proudly announcing Arian Deutschland something. Was he looking for trouble or even, paradoxically, wanted to just listen to some non-aric music? I am not sure, but what I am sure of is that he was stupid. Most of them are anyway. But this one won the Oscar for it. Or Should I say the Berlin Bear? I have big difficulties understanding the fact that a follower of the Nazi doctrine would be paying twentyfive euros to go to a concert full of Ausländer bands. What is the point of being Ultra-Nationalist when you do or join something foreigner related. Like neo-nazis riding Harley's (after all it was born in the US), or International (yeah, true!) Neo-Nazis meeting in Lisbon or other cities, or using clothes made in Pakistan or wherever else than in Germany. I can understand pride and the feeling of belonging proudly to a specific nation as a sociological need. As long as other cultures could be seen from the same perspective not depreciating others. But all the hatred around rejecting all that is not "national", not recognizing the value and importance of diversity, is unnatural.

When the Spanish Band Hamlet finished, he shouted the already classic "Auslander Raus!" being totally ignored by all the other fans around. In the perfect indifference he searched for some reaction whom never came. Germans and non Germans around were just enjoying the music with beer or some others alcoholic beverages not providing to this obviously confused man the attention he wanted. Hopefully he wasn't drunk enough to pick up a fight so he kept on going around drinking beer and posing proudly with his red T-shirt. If this, of those of his kind are the "White-pride", well it sucks to be white.

Sausage and Beer

All countries have traditions. Portugal has codfish and wine, France has cheese and wine, Italy has pasta and wine... and Germany has Sausage and beer. I can't recall a visited German city without it (I didn't travel so much inside Germany but I know a good deal of them) or an event where I couldn't find them both. Even in a Wine Fair. Any cultural manifestation has it here.From Christmas to Christmas there will be sausage. And beer. Amazingly we can find as many type of sausages as France has cheeses or Portugal ways to do codfish. I know, I am repeating myself. As much as I can see sausages in a day. For breakfast, lunch, the afternoon break, dinner, or a snack. All the time and everywhere. It's for me unbelievable how many sausages they could eat a day. Everyday.

I can't hide that the "Thüringer Bratwurst" is the King of the sausages and they can really make it tasty. Aber, not all the time. I wonder how they can see us, Portuguese, with the ... yes you know, codfish or the French with... yeah, you got it. I know I eat more fish myself in a year than half of this citys' local population but can I consider myself addicted to it? Never mind. Let's get back to the sausages. Most stereotypes are taken from facts, and I believe they are just master lines of the cataloging of other cultures in a way to difference them from others and, especially, our own. Some clichés are important to point, as much as the baguette is bound to French people as much is also the sausage and beer for the germans I know. Simultaneously symbols and rituals of these local icons are in each German city I have been. A way of living, an integration mark to blend in.

Take a sausage.

Feel your German side.

Windows

Opening a window to get some fresh air is quite normal. It's refreshing and allows air to circulate for five minutes. It Sounds good indeed. But "fresh" and "five minutes" seems to be very different from my own concept of it. During winter, usually around minus twenty Celsius degrees, all the windows have to be open. For the all day. Which Creates a wind whirlpool quite deranging when you prefer not to work with your parka on.

Funny is that would only happen in winter time, when we can freeze to death at work. What I found very impolite is the fact that nobody thinks of others doing so and keep in maintaining the window open, whatever the opinion of the surrounding colleagues. It reaches peaks of unreasonableness when we have colleagues from the other side of the room opening the window on the opposite side, leaving them with the fresh air required but leaving the others in front of an open draft where all the wind meets.

Worse than this situation is when the fellow worker near you open the window whom is in the AOE (Area of Effect) of both and go for a break! And close it when he/she comes back. The first time I was surprised and thought:

- Whhhhattt??????

But ok, once is only once. Until it occurs enough times to be called a modus operandi. What is wrong with them? Is the world just a place where they have not to share? Is the end of communism the start of an Egocentric Dictatorship? Why is it so hard to see, accept and interact with other without the ME first?

Once more I don't see concessions made, even if I am not a big fan of windows opening in general.I obviously accept it open for a period of time. That way, I think, both parts can be happy. As we live in a shared environment it's better to be aware of all persons thoughs, that's what I call socializing.

Smile!

Smiling is part of being happy. Or just keeping a positive attitude. Looking into life is also taking a peak at our future so, better to take it with a smile. Don't you think? As a habit out of good disposition and stubbornness or plain happiness I smile most of the time. Reflection of my current way of seeing life and what lies ahead. Life is a gift, I can't think of any other way to take it. That's why I can't understand why the common unsmile, thankfully not so much in younger generations, occurs.

I look at the human faces and I see smile wrinkles. But inverted. Sad or not, seriousness is mandatory and no expression of any feeling is allowed. In fact, I had a game with my wonderful girlfriend during Christmas. Each time we went out to do our shopping we counted the smiles on the faces we crossed. For a morning shopping the average was seven. As a shop seller has to please clients, many smiles could be disqualified. As an example, how is it not possible to get the Christmas spirit going; even atheists should be carried away by the global good mood. I only saw those same faces happy with some Glühwein in their hands. Otherwise it was with a sausage and/or a beer. Of course this is not a rule and hopefully many (but not so many) locals smile. I'm not sure how well they are seen by their peers but I get the feeling that showing emotions is a sign of weakness. Especially good ones. Last time I saw that was in last day V episode. In a typical day I'm on the tram to work and I can't see signs of life in there, almost no sounds, just unsmiling commuters. At any time of the day, this is the same. Except in the late trains when the alcohol speaks louder and tongues untie. Then I can hear laughs, speeches, teasing, verbal aggression, a kind of a tutti frutti of emotions long constrained behind the curtains of an imaginary ward. In this little city, I could make some parallelisms with movies like Gattaca and Equilibrium (except for the priesthood style). This apparent lack of emotions leads me to think people are not feeling anything. I wonder some times if they are happy. Could they? Can they now?

On the opposite side we have the "too loud", "making noises" and "talking all the time". That's the Ausländer squad. For me it is disturbing to see excessive smile and loudness also, but a middle point would be appreciated. I understand better why foreign women are so much appreciated here. They smile, laugh and well, behave "normally". The way I see it, most of people are attracted to happy others. So if sad faces are up to make any possible attempt of social interaction to go away - congratulations, it works!

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