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One Week Since Our Arrival

 Freundliche Grüße aus Regensburg!

It's been one week since we landed into a whole new world. I am a foreigner, a stranger in a strange land, an "international", a guest in a modern European country that doesn't do things the way I'm used to. One's own culture remains undefined for the most part when that's all one experiences. I've read about other cultures, but not until the past week did I realize I actually have a defined culture of my own, and that not everybody does everything the way we do. I am experiencing a sort of 'culture shock'. The term sounds negative, like an electric shock that is exceedingly unpleasant. I'm not being shocked, but my eyes are being opened--and this culture is not that far removed from my own background. Imagine being in an Asian or African country, for instance...But even here, in Germany, everything is different.

So, I've been proud of myself for nailing it at the grocery store. I have made several successful forays, and went through the check-out without a hitch, and brought home what I intended to bring home. Well, almost. I bought this stuff that next to the yogurt, and didn't realize until I got home that I bought some quark. I don't even know if I'm going to like quark. It's said to be a cross between cream cheese and yogurt, and is used in both sweet and savory dishes. Mine is vanilla. 

I also bought some shampoo, or what I thought was shampoo. My hair really needed washing, and I took some of this 'shampoo' and started washing my hair. It didn't lather at all, but I thought, "okay, German shampoo doesn't lather. Maybe it has to do with an ingredient that's bad for the environment." They are very environmentally conscious. Then I went to dry my hair. It was heavy and didn't dry very quickly, and still looked dirty. It occurred to me to actually translate what was on the bottle. Luckily it wasn't something harmful. I had just tried washing my hair with conditioner. I don't know the German words yet for shampoo or conditioner, but I do know the label talked about hair. 

The flowers were a gift from our landlady. She stopped by today to bring us a few things for the apartment, and also brought these flowers. She speaks a little better English than I do German, and we spent over an hour teaching each other idioms and correct pronunciations in our native tongues. I think I have found a German tutor, and she an English one. She and her husband spent over 2 hours here the first time we met them. Conversation switched back and forth between English and German. Seems we might become friends. 

And tonight is Vigil for the Feast of the Cross. On that note, I'm going to sign off and get ready to catch my bus--the snazzy yellow one. 



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