Culture Shock: Germany. Number 5.
To celebrate the upcoming release of Desire in Deutschland, the next few posts will be the Top 5 Culture Shocks we experienced moving to Germany. It was fun to write, having lived for three years in Germany! We moved there in ’95, so much has changed, but it was eye-opening to live in a new culture, in a country that was way older than the United States. We chose not to live in military housing, but rather “on the economy” to be immersed.
And immersed we were! Our very first trip to downtown Kaiserslautern, we were surrounded by a rowdy mob of soccer fans, who loudly demanded to know our team allegiance.
Photo by Connor Coyne, Unsplash
Not good, when we didn’t even know who was playing! But the happy crowd was glad to educate us when they found out we were American, and even invited us to join their post-game celebration.
At the time, we assumed that this level of enthusiasm was because someone’s brother or cousin was on the team, but it became apparent that to them, soccer was THE sport, like American football and basketball rolled into one. My baby was soon outfitted in a tiny team jersey, and was gifted a tiny little soccer ball by a neighbor. They were passionate about the game, but it was a bridge to communication, too, and though my Deutsch was shaky at first, just talking “football” was a sure way to open a conversation, as was the sight of my little boy in a Red Devils team jersey!
While I’m pleased that early reviewers who’ve lived in the area loved the authentic details, this story is NOT an autobiography! Certainly, I never did THAT in the local castle ruin! You can read more about the tumbledown schloss in this blog post.
Desire in Deutschland will be out on the 16th! You can get it on Amazon through this affiliate link (nets Gus more kibble at no cost to you) or “wide” here.
Or get the audio now, direct from the author, through this affiliate link to Audible, or wide here.
Stay tuned for more Culture Shock moments!
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