Everything costs money on this continent, and most of the time they prefer you pay in cash. This is not my first trip to Europe, so I really should have been more prepared for this, but life in America with that wonderful piece of plastic can quickly cause you to forget how the rest of the world operates. Is paying for everything with cash the more responsible, economical way to do things? Is it really necessary to charge money to use the bathroom? Why are there no water fountains?? With the amount of coffee this country drinks, I would think those would be two things they would need ample access to: water and bathrooms.
Anyways, this weekend our band of music-therapists-to-be took a trip to Leipzig for the Bach Festival! What an adventure! It is mind boggling to realize that I attended a concert by Bach, in front of Bach (his remains, of course). Travel causes one to encounter all of the monetary challenges mentioned above. For example, if you have to use the restroom at the train station (and chances are you will if you have been drinking coffee like a German), you must forfeit 1 whole euro. There is an upside to this though. Upon depositing your euro into the machine that looks like the ticket lines at an amusement park, out pops a coupon that says you have 50 cents off your next visit to this facility! How convenient! And, I must say, how amusing! That is one reason why you must always, always carry coins. These machines only accept coins.
Another reason to carry coins is WATER. I never realized how much I love water until this trip. Cool, refreshing, life-giving water. The tap water here, the water they will give you for free at McDonald's, is carbonated water. Yes, I went to McDonald's in Germany. I'm sorry. I asked for water at the register with my fries and I made the mistake of not asking for "stilles wasser." One sip told me this was not the cool, refreshing, life-giving liquid I craved. Embarressed, I attempted to communicate to her that I wanted the water without carbonation. This resulted in a frustrated cashier calling the manager over and having me fork over another euro, along with holding up the rather long line. I know, I know. Ugly American party of one.
Concert programs are a very specific reason to carry around coins. I don't know if this is typical for all concerts, but every single program this weekend costed two euro. I knew this by Sunday, but I was still unprepared. I went to hear Haydn's Creation at the Gewandhaus. It was by far my favorite experience of the weekend. Upon approaching the entrance to the hall, I suddenly remembered that I had to pay for a program. I frantically pulled out my wallet while attempting to juggle my ticket and camera and proceeded to count out every single coin I had. It came out to be exactly two euro. I handed it to the lady selling the programs and was given a sigh of disgust. She went through all the coins and counted them out one by one in a drawn out, annoyed manner, before taking them from me and handing me my program. I apologized (in German!) over and over again, but she wasn't having it. Oh well. Again, ugly American party of one.
This got me thinking. What does it mean to be an American when you are abroad? You are representing an entire country. Apparently there are those who have gone before me who have made my life incredibly difficult by being insensitive to cultural differences. We have a reputation for being ignorant and expecting things to be the same abroad as they are at home. We have a repuation for becoming rude and frustrated when they aren't the same. There are a lot of things here that are different. All countries have their own way of doing things, which is part of what makes it such an adventure to go abroad! When people come to America, I'm sure they have similar struggles. Why are our bathrooms so dirty? Aren't water fountains unhygenic? Isn't it a waste of paper to give out free programs? After this weekend, I decided something. I no longer want to compare which way of doing things is "better." They are simply different. Differences are what make places and people so beautiful and fascinating. Learning to do things differently and accepting those differences helps us improve our character and become more flexible. Experiencing differences also helps us get outside of ourselves, outside of our comfortable world. We can realize that not everyone thinks the same way we do, and they are not unintelligent for it. By facing these cultural differences, we can also learn that it is ok to make mistakes and laugh at ourselves. At the end of the day, we're all in the same boat.
Oh, by the way, maracuya nektar is amazing.
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