The culture germany

Landed in Germany last August. These were some of the culture shocks for someone coming from morocco

• Sundays are off! You have nothing open on Sundays. You need anything, you buy it on Saturday. Even Pharmacies (except few emergency pharmacies) are closed on Sunday ou pay a deposit on most beverage bottles when you buy them. This you can reclaim once you return the bottle.

  Every supermarket has one of these machines.

• Their cots are different. They have something called lattenrost on top of a regular frame. To be honest, it somehow adds to the comfort
  The Lattenrost is replaceable.

• Germans are generally punctual. They tell you the exact time (not rounded off to even the nearest 5th minute) of arrival. And they also immediately inform if they cannot make it at that time. But they almost always make it on time.

• The windows are different. Rich or poor, everyone has the same windows in Germany. They are pretty cool.Basically they open two ways. One, along the vertical hinges. This is, if you want to fully open the windows. However if you want them to be just about open allow some ventilation, you can tilt open along another horizontal hinge.

• Germans do not prefer to drink still water. They love their sparkling water.

• Germans are very serious about sorting garbage. They have 6 categories and a colored bag for each category.

• Germans have much bigger and flatter pillows than morocco. I think the pillows are about 2ft*2ft in size.

• In morocco, electricity is billed once a month. However in Germany, you select plans and pay a fix charge every month and your usage is checked once every 6 months and accordingly you will be charged extra or reimbursed.

• Your address is your street name and building number. It is not usual to have a separate door number (At least in buildings with fewer than 15 apartments)

• Almost every city has its own Red light district.