Long and difficult Winter

(From the Archive, January 2010)


I've really been quite bad at blogging this past year. It has been indeed a difficult year.

I thought I'd post this experience from another ex-pat to just give yet another indication of how Germany is a bad place for sensitive thinking people, because the people and the rules here will grind you down, and the lack of friendliness of your fellow city dwellers is hardly a pick-me-up. If you rely on other people to give you a boost, do not come to Germany. (EDIT: Friends of course are there, and very very necessary. I was meaning in the context of just random people in shops/streets/social transactions)

Read this little gem:

I had to pay a fine once for littering. An entire bag of rubbish was found about 5 blocks from my apartment building and it was originally from my apartment (they apparently sorted through it and found mail addressed to me). The bag was found on the same day that the garbage truck (whose route went from my building and past the point where the bag was found) collected rubbish.

I had to take off work, go out to a police station on the very edge of town to even find out exactly what the fine was for. Then had to send a certified affidavit explaining that it was likely the fault of the garbage haulers. I explained that for their theory of my littering to be true, that I would have had to carry that bag down 5 stories from my apartment, past the rubbish area in the courtyard, onto the street, then would have had to carry it five blocks, across a square and toss it on the roadway. Because I had been told that I was a lazy foreigner who had chosen to disregard rules for disposal I asked them why, if I am so lazy would I partake in such a long journey to dispose of rubbish that I could have left in my very own building? I even pointed out that the team that picks up the rubbish every week drives down that route and does not close the back of their truck until they get ready to turn back onto the main street.

A few months later I got a letter from the courts telling me that upon investigation it was determined that I had indeed chosen to litter the pristine streets of Nuremberg and would have to pay the 50 euro fine.

I have a few more anecdotes of my own, but instead of giving an account of them, I need to start thinking about my future, and what the next step is. Germany / Canada / Elsewhere is seriously the next major decision I have to make. The thing about Berlin is that it's Neverland - you really never want to grow up when you live here. You also don't really have to.