Gianna Jessen

German Culture Lesson #1

A few different people have told me since moving to Germany that sometimes "culture shock" is worse in a place that is, for the most part, similar to the culture you come from. They say the reason is that things are similar enough to home that you unconsciously expect that most everything will be the same and when it's not it catches you completely off-guard, whereas in a completely new culture you don't really expect things to be the same. Some of my more difficult days here have definitely been when I felt like I had this living-in-Germany-thing pretty well under control and then haven't been able to do something simple like help the lady at the grocery store that insists on asking me about denture cleaners. I have no idea why she thought I looked like a denture expert! (There were tons of people in the store that day...many of whom were much older than me! :-) I ended up telling her I thought it was okay, but I was really frustrated that I couldn't understand what she was saying. We have also had some moments of "culture shock". One of these "moments" occurred many times this summer. We have come to learn that Germans believe that a draft will make you sick, maybe even kill you (especially if you're an infant). So even if it is 85 degrees outside and you're riding on the un-airconditioned train you cannot open your window (pictured above). If you do open your window people just come up and close it for you. I was caught so off-guard the first time this happened! They don't ask, they just walk up and close it. So funny! Some younger people apparently have not bought into this theory as much, so we always looked for cars with open windows on it when we traveled by train this summer. Now that it's getting cooler outside we've also learned that Germans believe it's good to sleep in a cold room...a really cold room actually. It is very common for Germans to turn the heat off in their sleeping room and leave their window wide open all night long! Crazy!! I haven't figured out yet why that draft is okay but the one on the train isn't. They will also leave a door or window open in winter to allow fresh air inside. Strange coming from people that hate drafts and are very energy-efficiency conscious! We haven't adopted this practice yet, but we've contemplated it just so it'd get cool enough in our apartment that we'd have a good excuse for Luke to start a fire in our fireplace! But I have a feeling those really cold days will be here soon enough!

Luke's Trip to Russia

Last week Luke took a business trip to Moscow, Russia for a couple of days. They had meetings one day and then had a morning to see some of the sights. Here are a few pictures from his trip!

The Kremlin

Russian architecture (notice each window is different...a Russian trademark)

Red Square (red in Russian also means beautiful...hence the lack of red!)

Cathedral inside the Kremlin

Another cathedral inside the Kremlin

Moscow skyline from Luke's hotel room.

Stalin-era apartments. Luke said these are everywhere...how aesthetic!

Notice the small, older (green) building next to the Stalin-era building. Luke said it was a city of contrasts of the very old, communist era, and the new capitalist era.

St. Basil's Cathedral

Fall is in the air!

Fall is definitely in the air here and I've been inspired to update the look of our blog! It has been a lot cooler here and a few of the trees have even started to lose their leaves. We welcomed the fall season this weekend with some chili and cinnamon rolls...yum...one of my favorites! We've also been able to take in some K-State football (replay of the games anyway) and watched the Chiefs yesterday (via Slingbox). Now we just need to figure out how to get our Kachelofen going! Our what?!...you may be asking...it's a large, tiled stove in our apartment. Apparently they're very popular in Germany, people get excited here when they find out we have one. It does produce a lot of heat and will definitely help us keep warm this winter...we just have to figure out how to carry the firewood to our apartment. The dilemmas of not having a car! The other sign of fall is that Oktoberfest is close to kicking off. We went to Munich yesterday for church and our church is only a block from the grounds where Oktoberfest is held. All the "tents" are up and ready to go. We haven't gotten our drindl and lederhosen yet, but we might go into Munich early next Sunday and check it out.

Soon to come...pictures from Luke's recent trip to Russia...