A Tablespoon of Culture Shock

The other week we had the opportunity to eat on the local Air Force base. The Air Force base is like America junior, where it has restaurants and things that you would find in America. On base there was a Macaroni Grill that we wanted to try out. Julia and I do not go out to eat much, but whenever we do we have always gone to a place that is not on an Army post, but a regular German restaurant. Julia and I had become accustomed to the way of German dining. Let me give you an idea of German dining. In German restaurants there are rarely any hostesses, but it is find a table that looks good and have a seat. If all the tables are taken, go find a table that has extra seats and sit next to someone you don’t know and eat next to them. When your waitress comes to get your order and drink order they usually seem like they are annoyed that you are there. There are no free refills, even on water, in German restaurants so drink slow, and make sure you don’t have a spicy meal or you will be in trouble. If you ask for anything extra don’t expect to get a nice smile, but an annoyed scowl. They do not work on tips so they are not scared to make anyone upset. If you find anything wrong with your food, like a hair, don’t think it’s going to be a freebee, you’ll be brought the dish remade while the other person’s food gets cold. After experiencing German restaurant culture and now being able to get a taste of American restaurant culture was a culture shock. A hostess brought us to our table and our waitress greeted us with her name and a smile. Then we ordered drinks and I asked if they were free refills, she assured me they were and I had to have the waitress reaffirm me that the ice tea had free refills. I took full advantage of this thing called “free refills”. I had 4 refills on my ice tea, as I sucked them back faster than she could refill it. She continued to refill our bread until our meals came and she asked us how the food was. At the end of our eating she came and boxed up our left over food for us and did not scowl at the fact that I was taking it home with me. I had never left a restaurant more gleeful in my life. I was in culture shock, I thought in my mind, “they like me, they really like me.” After we left I thought about what other things I will face in culture shock when I go back to America; Heating more than one room, saying “nice to meet you” to someone after you meet them, awful American drivers who don’t know how to use the passing lane. It’s always interesting when you live in another culture and you start getting used to it, I know with our waning weeks in Germany we are going to start thinking about all that we are going to miss.