OK, so the last bit might have been on the not quite so cheery/positive side, so I'll switch gears and give a brief update on the things that make this experience I'm having in Germany so great. Most of it's basic, hardly profound, but important to relate all the same.
This won't be a top list of great things, since I've managed to lose the notes I made on the train the other month. Instead, it will simply be a list of intersting bits.
1) late night Kebap shops - There's just nothing better than staggering into Miro's on any given evening around 2am (or 12 or 10, depending on sobriety state) and having someone whip you up a couple of durums. They always ask you if you'd like a nice tea to drink while you wait, and you always say yes, whether you want it or not. Sometimes guys are in there playing cards, sometimes some guy is scratching out a tune on a guitar. You never know, and you always enjoy it, even the next morning when you're asking yourself why on earth did you think you could eat 2 doners in the same sitting.
2) hitting the metro at the right time - For some reason, every time I go to my local U-Bahn stop, I walk down the stairs, and then feel really cool as the wind tunnels through (usually because of a departing or an arriving train). My jacket sort of whooshes out, and I always feel like I'm in a John Woo film. (note - this may be one of those things that you just have to experience to appreciate)
2 1/2) hitting the metro at the right time - there's a guy who sometimes busks in my U-Bahn. He plays a mean Spanish guitar, and without fail, I give the guy 2 euros, even if I'm blaring my iPod and can't hear a thing he's playing. I've heard him enough times before and recognize the smirk on his face as he plays to himself. Very cool.
3) hitting the metro at the wrong time - Despite the random trash and the lunatics that tend to ride on a regular basis (that probably includes me), the metro is pretty straight forward, effecient, and easy. I don't like having to wait too long for a train to come by, and normally, my timing is pretty good. However, sometimes, you're forced to sit there and wait almost 10 minutes.
Last Friday around noon (hungover from hell day), I was standing there wondering where the fuck my iPod was (home in the jacket pocket of my other coat) when an clearly insane man started having a very enthusiastic conversation with someone invisible. There were a fair amount of people standing around waiting, and no one was really paying attention to him, though just about everyone gave him the odd glance out of the corner of their eye. Suddenly, some jerk started mucking about with this man. The jerk did a little dance right in front of him, then grabbed the man's cane and started walking briskly towards the exit. The unfortunate insane man suddenly reentered reality and was pursuing him, shouting, "hey, that's my cane."
In two years, I've been fortunate not to have seen something this sad. My thoughts that day were already a bit dark, and they brightened only a little when finally a woman jumped in and retrieved the cane for the ailing old man. Very weird.
4) Creatures of habit - the workers at the Crobag right next to platform 13 in the hauptbahnhof are totally in the groove, and they're always ready to get me a milchkaffee on the fly when I race up to the counter to grab a coffee before I jump on my train for work.
The girls that work in the kiosk in Darmstadt HBF are pretty much the exact same. They're always appreciative and pleasant when I drop by to pick up a few packets of cigarettes. Yes, I tend to see them almost as regularly as the Crobag crowd, but that's just because I appreciate being appreciated.
Recently, I caught a late train home from Darmstadt and got into the small bar just as the guy was closing up for the evening (there's an onboard bistro on one of my regular trains). The guy recognized me and handed me a Beck's even though the til was closed up tight. "Enjoy it, " he said. I did.
5) Enjoy the thanks - Last Saturday, I had the team work, as we needed to reduce our repair backlog. This normally doesn't go over well with the workers, but I'll be the first one to stand up and say that I'd just as soon not do the Saturdays either. However, sometimes you have to. Normally, I go in to show support for the team, but because of the recent hours I'd worked, I needed to stay at home and be quiet. Nonetheless, I arranged to buy the team lunch as my personal way of saying thanks for the extra work. (note - most Germans I've met don't know how to react when I thank them for doing a task). I quietly mentioned to the supervisors that I had personally forked over a couple hundred (or so) Euros to fund enough pizzas for the team (2nd note - we've got a pizzeria down the street from the repair center that's fucking good).
On the following Monday, I discovered that my gesture had created quite a stir. One of the other repair lines had also worked the Saturday, but those employees initially thought that they'd been jilted, only to find out that they had misinformation.
Quite a few members of the team that works for me approached me at various times during the course of that Monday to say thanks for what I'd done. It's amazing how a few pizzas go so far.
Yep, it's not the biggest of lists, but they all impact me, and help me to realize that for now, at any rate, I'm still where I need to be.
keep the faith
bryan
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