Returning to the German town of Halle after being in the USA for three weeks, I was reminded of a couple cultural differences:
- People here stare. Mostly they don’t smile, mostly they don’t show any expression and mostly they look directly at you. And if for some reason you are moved to smile at them, they give you a kind of frown and keep walking.
- Grocery shopping is a stressful affair. Once at the cashier, one has to shift into high gear to get all one’s items onto the belt as fast as possible. Then the cashier moves crazy fast trying to swipe all the bar codes before you have a chance to load them back into the shopping cart. And I can only suppose that this is a holdover from socialism, but the cashier actually gives you low-level heat if you don’t have the proper change, as if there is a money shortage. Further, there are no baggers, and in fact there is very little space to organize the items – the only option is to put them in the cart and deal with it somewhere else. And if one isn’t fast enough to load one’s items before the cashier starts with the next customer, well… stuff is going to be all mixed up and you’re the big loser for not being quick enough.
