how to live with a german

last night i went with my aupair family to a musical production at the junior high. i watched a 7th grader dressed as a red cabbage do-si-do with a 7th grader dressed as currywurst. it seemed like a normal sort of family outing.

i know a lot more these days about the everyday lives of germans.
the last time i lived in freiburg, i didn't much like my german housemates. we didn't get each other. sometimes i left my breakfast dishes in the sink until after class. the germans always washed their pots and pans before they ate their food.

in college i turned in a story titled how to live with a german. i wrote it because i had no idea.

this winter is a lesson in the mundane. and in doing things the german way. i'm really immersed this time, often frustrated, usually bored, but it's helping. i am, for instance, an expert countertop composter. that's huge. it's only recently that i can sort my trash with any confidence. i can set the water temperature on the washing machine (in celsius) so the colors don't bleed, and empty all four of the dryer's lint traps. i know what condiments to set on the breakfast table to satisfy four kids, and their parents. i know, finally, what to pack for school snacks, which days to send gym shoes to school, which days the kids have recorder lessons, when the piano teacher comes, what time to leave for soccer practice...

all of these incredibly uninteresting things add up to some sort of cultural understanding that i was lacking the last time. and it's kind of rad to see this side of a place. you rarely see the lint traps and compost bins when you stay in a hotel.