showed up my foreigner-ness that is...
Germans are creatures of habit like old people tend to be (apologies to the grandparents reading this) they like their tea at a certain time, coffee made a particular way, watch a specific channel at a regular time and heaven forbid anything should come between them and their regular patterns.
I'd had this topic on my list of possible blog topics and had ignored it because I thought it too tenuous, then today...
Jasmine is 8 and has a group of friends she plays with after school and sometimes they sleep over at each other houses - you get the picture, they all know each other, the mothers all know of each other even if they're not friends.
Today I picked Jas up from school (which labels me a foreigner straight away because ALL German kids walk themselves to and from school alone (although usually with a friend, but certainly no adult is involved) from the age of 6 (scarey prospect eh?)) as I was fetching Jas I told her she had time this afternoon if she wanted to have a friend to play, she turned to Luisa (bf) and asked her if she 'had time' (a quaint German expression) Luisa thought about it and said yes, so I asked if her mom would be at home then because then we could ring her (mobiles are so useful) and then Luisa could come straight back with us rather than walking home and having to get her mom to then drive her round to ours (we live in the opposite direction from school to Luisa)
So Luisa rang her mom, and yes, it was ok for Luisa to come back with us. I thought it was all fine and then later Frau Flohe collected Luisa ...
From the tone of her voice at expressing her surprise of Luisa's phone call and the going straight to a friend's house from school, bypassing the seeing mom first step. Honestly, you'd have thought I'd kidnapped her darling daughter and held her ransom! Break in the pattern you see, they don't like it, it does not compute...
What had originally made me think that Germans were creatures of habit (gewohnheitsmensch) was the fact that friends would want to do a particular thing at a particular time on a particular day, every week. For example the arrangement to walk my dog with a friend had to be on a specific morning, I don't have a problem with people having routines especially when they work, but if they don't, and so have time to do what they want when they want why do they feel the need to be so damn regular about it?
I was walking Logan (the dog) in the woods once and met another dog walker who clearly liked everything English (the Barbour jacket and head to toe Burberry (they have no idea how chavvy it is!) a bit of a give away) anyway the dogs got on well together and she was keen to know whether I always walked Logan at that particular time, I had to confess that no, I didn't, I walk him whenever I want, sometimes it's first thing, sometimes its not, it depends on the rest of my day (and the weather - we're not keen on rain) whereas the German dog walkers all have their specific time slots - if you pick the wrong time of day you'll be surrounded by a pack of dogs when you go out, at other times (mid morning for example) the woods are deserted and you'd think Germany was a dog free zone! Unfortunately it will never be a dog poo free zone, but that's another blog entirely!
I have to go now, it's time for my, regular as clockwork, Friday night glass of wine, it's not a habit you understand, just something I do regularly, every Friday! Bottoms up.
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