Things I Must Get Un-Used To

Well, I'm back. This will be my final post here on the "Squirrel Blog."

There have been a lot of emotions over the past week and a half. I had the opportunity to visit England and Denmark the week before our flight to the United States, so my "leaving Germany" emotions were dampened first by thoughts of "I'm visiting London, I must enjoy London," and later the stressed out knowledge that I, "Must pack, must be under the weight limit, must get on the plane." Interesting times. My first day in London was a constant realization that I was no longer in EP6 and that my daily German soundtrack was missing. It was really hard.

In my last weeks there, I started compiling a list of the things I'd have to get un-used to once I returned to the States. It is as follows, in no particular order:

• The 24-hour clock and the way Europeans prefer "half past" and "ten 'til" to "three thirty" and "four fifty."
• DD.MM.YY. Everything I write now is dated this way, and the transition is not going to be pretty.
• Open windows. Already in the States I've had to put on sweats because of the chill of air conditioning.
• Writing the number 1. My German class in the spring forced me to write European-style 1's, and I kept up the habit once I arrived. Now I'm not sure if I will switch back or not.
• Looking nice everyday. Females in Europe do not wear t-shirts. As the Jedi said when I informed him of this, "it is not forbidden," but it is definitely not a thing. Because of this, I've spent my summer thinking more about my wardrobe than t-shirt and jeans. It's been nice.
• A lack of that. German only has one word referring to a thing in front of you, and it translates to this. There is no second word that would be the equivalent of that, and so most native German speakers use only this in English conversation. It is so prevalent that I found that slipping out of my own vocabulary during the summer and had to work to retain it.
• Walking everywhere and feeling completely safe while doing it. Not to mention public transportation.
• German. I hadn't even gotten on the plane from Frankfurt to London and I was missing the constant swirl of German around me. By the end of my summer, I was making significant progress in understanding at least the idea of German conversations, and one of my biggest worries upon returning is that I'm going to lose that momentum.
• German keyboards. I'm used to my laptop being the English keyboard, but every time I sit down at a desktop computer, I get my y's and my z's backwards. Not to mention the different placements of quotation marks, apostrophes, semi-colons, and hashtags.
• What-you-see-is-what-you-get prices. In Europe, the tax is included in the label price, so what you see is what you pay at the register. When I bought breakfast in JFK airport on Friday, I was so confused by the additional cents added to my purchase.
• Change in 0.20. The Euro has twenty-cent pieces, not twenty-five, so I've spent the whole summer calculating change with that in mind. I've already discovered it's harder than you would think to get used to quarters again.
• Seeing the news. While in Germany, I got most of my news from a quick glance over my Facebook news feed and the trending corner. About every ten days I would go to my preferred news site and get more official information. But there has been some culture shock coming to the States where all the TVs are blaring CNN and all the newspapers have headlines I can actually read. I could go all philosophical on this, but I'll stop and just say it's weird being so inundated.
• An inability to read. Now that I'm in America, I can read all the things. Signs, menus, labels. It's weird. You kind of realize how much you didn't really need to know.
• A lack of small talk. The best part about being back in an English-speaking country is the ability to make small talk. I can chat with the barista, the waitress, the person in line beside me. It was one of the things I missed most in Germany {that, and Tex-Mex, and yes, I've already remedied that}.
• Group lunches and the following coffee break. I honestly don't know how I'm going to handle having lunch by myself. And what about those coffee breaks, where we discuss anything and everything and occasionally science? There is little hope of a replacement for either here {college life is too busy for such communal things}, especially since the people that made them so great are so far away. :(

I'll spare you the sappy blog post {and save it for my personal blog}, but in answer to your next question: Yes, I enjoyed my summer in Germany, every single aspect of it. I got to travel and see cool and historical sights, but my favorite part was my lab experience--and I'm not just saying that! You can ask Miquela; I was so excited to go to "work" every morning. My research was exciting and full of questions to answer...and my labmates were kinda the best, if you haven't figured that out already. :) It was a summer I won't forget, and I'm beyond grateful for the opportunity to have experienced Physics In Germany.