59 days until I leave for Germany! I have my passport in hand and my flight booked. Also, I have lots of interesting reading material and explicit directions on almost everything graciously provided to me by the Fulbright-Kommission. I feel a little buried under all the little things I need to do to prepare. Is my German good enough? Nein. Have I been working on it as das Kommission wants me to? Auch nein. Oh well.
And then every once in awhile I read something like this, and get a little scared."While Americans, in becoming acquainted, automatically try to create a relaxed, informal atmosphere, Germans react with a kind of polite formality, accepting the distance between themselves and strangers as a normal fact of life.... Thus, in meeting a stranger, the average German will tend to be reserved and formal, and may not make a special effort to overcome the feeling of awkwardness. "
Actually, on second thought, that doesn't scare me. Now my awkwardness will just be normal instead of awkward. Awesome! But Germans do do some weird things, as I have been reading in my book These Strange German Ways.
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