To celebrate the upcoming release of Desire in Deutschland, here’s Culture shock, Germany: the kitchen edition! (you can read about our Intro to Soccer Fanatisicm here).
Photo by Annemarie Gruden, Unsplash
When we moved into the little town near the military base, we loved the rouladen shades (think mini-blinds crossed with a roll-up door), the clean, open space, and the little space for gardening out back. We got used to the commuter train, barely 10 yards past our back window–close enough that they could see when we got a new haircut! But the whole kitchen/food thing took some getting used to.
First, we found that having a dishwasher wasn’t a given–a LOT of homes simply didn’t have one. Same for window screens, even if there was a farm nearby, complete with flies.
Second, the refrigerator was barely bigger than one of those little “dorm-sized” ones that college kids take with them to school! Why? It’s because the women were expected to shop daily, for the ingredients for that day’s dinner, so it made no sense for them to have a huge fridge. In fact, I learned later that many of my neighbors were repelled to see us come home from the grocery store with bags and bags of food–a necessity with both of us working long hours.
I went to a local store to try to find a slow cooker, a lifesaver for me at that time. I tried to explain, in my weak German, what I wanted, but the clerk didn’t get it. Finally, as I told her and the supervisor again what it was, the lights went off, though they were horrified to find that someone could be so lazy as to throw all their food in a pot and come back hours later to dish it up!
In time, we got to know our neighbors well, and after enjoying their third or fourth dinner at our place, they confessed their initial reactions. “We said, ‘They eat food from cardboard boxes!'”
There’s a hint of the cultural difference in Lieutenant Lee’s dismayed reaction to his new place. You can preorder Desire in Deutschland “wide”, through this Amazon affiliate link , OR get it now direct from the author (least expensive) or your favorite audio retailers.
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