One thing I wanted to blog about is Germany. I lived there for two years but that was ages and ages ago. But it was also my first real experience far and away from Oregon, and in some ways was an aspie haven of sorts.
When I first arrived in Germany, I was prepared. I looked up a bunch of information in the Bend library about Germany because I had a feeling I would end up there or in Europe. You see, my goal was to join the Air Force to escape the USA. I remember the long flight and my plane having to make an emergency landing in Köln (Cologne) to refuel. My first memories were landing and all these Ford Transit trucks and vans rushing around on the tarmac.
I was so happy to see all the Opels, European Fords and other assorted cars that I had never seen in real life. Of course, this would be countered by the fact that I had to deal with Americans on a daily basis. Don't get me wrong, but for an aspie the US can be a nightmare. People in the US are so polite and nosy and pushy about being nice. Ugh.
Germans are people who all seem to be aspies. At first anyway. No one smiles or bothers to look at you in any store unless you flag them down. And usually you will be greeted with a "wass?" (what?) when asking for help. Nice.
Everyone follows the rules. No one crosses when the signs say "don't walk" (in German there are red and green men instead of the red hand and white leaning stick man). The food is more simplistic. Road signs are easy and logical. Trains run on time. So do buses. 24 hour time, little to no humor. What a dream for an aspie. Oh and the fact that I did not understand German and could simply go about my business without speaking to anyone was a bonus that even Germans were not afforded!
After a while though, reality sets in and Germany was Germany and I was still American. There were things in Germany that were totally illogical (like stores that close at 5 pm on weekdays, 1 pm on Saturdays and close all day Sunday). There were no Taco Bells. Chips came in two flavors: original and paprika. The music was like techno on speed or fake R&B stars that could not make it in the US or hadn't made it yet. TV was on AFN which was like old re-runs of US shows with public service announcements about eating too much or not leaving your car in the woods for commercials. Phone numbers and license plates followed illogical patterns (there was no fixed length for either) so one phone number could be 06565-61-097 and the next could be 06565-61-0097 and be in the same town. I did not like that at all. Plates were one letter for big cities (F for Frankfurt; except Hamburg which was HH), two for medium and three for small. Would it be so hard to just have two letter combos for every municipality? Really? (Geek side note: The one thing I liked about the plates in our area was that a lot started with BIT for BIT-burg which was nearby. A series of them used "CH" as the first two letters so there were a lot of "BIT-CH" plates that were subsequently stolen by Americans.)
I liked Germany but never loved it. Then I met a guy who lived in Luxembourg which I liked much more. It was like Germany but everyone spoke French, the only foreign language I somewhat have a grasp on. It was nice reading street signs and understanding them or being able to ask for something. But because I played my hand in the lottery, I ended up losing my free ride in Europe and ended up back in the US (on the East Coast) which was in 1997. Me and him split up soon after or pretty much when I moved.
I still miss the days of everyone being on the same schedule. Except on weeknights, Saturdays and Sundays of course. But I have noticed that although some places (which I usually don't frequent: Moe's) still welcome you as you walk in, most Americans working retail are now like Germans (or reading a text), there are self-check-outs and when you need help with someone you really have to flag someone down. The bad economy is good for something after all.
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