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Spiffor
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CPA - Evil Clone brigade
Nov 2001
time: 06:20
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I've been living in Germany for three weeks now (hence my non-presence here), and I love this country. Each time I'm amazed by how "different" the place is.
1. Naked, mixed gender saunas
Well, it doesn't deserve to be the #1 perk of Germany, but this way I'm sure you'll be reading my thread 
I went yesterday for the first time in a German sauna, with two female friends and a boyfriend of theirs. Here, many German / Finns would wonder "so what?", but from my French (and hence nudity-shy) perspective, it was something completely new.
Dozens of naked people, of both genders and all ages above 16, we entering a sauna, taking a shower, or bathing in cold water. And I was among them, quite unsure of what to do. Fortunately, my friends (whom I saw naked for the first time as well) helped me feeling comfortable quickly.
It's quite strange at first, as I was still considering nudity as something sexual, something intimous (and I still do to some extent). But the mood was really good, and I was soon completely unhinibited. Not only with nudity, mind you, but with other things as well (I tend to avoid speaking German, as I'm shy on my German skills - such inhibition disappeared just the same as my nudity-inhibition).
Because in such circumstances, we don't evaluate each other. We are all wholly exposed, and thus don't we feel like criticizing the other. In a kind of way, we're completely equal. I didn't even think some snide comment about the old naked people in the sauna; heck, I didn't even noticed them 
It was really gemütlich as the German say, a pleasant feeling of being like at home... In any case, it was an excellent experience, that I recommand to everybody here, and that I'm looking forward to repeat 
(btw, I happened to watch "Girls Gone Wild" some time ago. It's basically American girls exposing their breasts to everybody on the beach during springbreak, and making a big fuss about it. So what? I just showed my dick to dozens of people, and just saw dozens of breast - where's the big deal?)
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Spiffor
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CPA - Evil Clone brigade
Nov 2001
time: 06:20
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2. Ads
I love German ads. When I first came to Germany, four years ago, they were still "old-school" ads, i.e they just showed the name of the product, and told it was good 
A very famous ad is Müllermilch (some milk product): it goes "Müllermilch, Müllermilch, Müllermilch geschmeckt" ("Müllermilch, Müllermilch, Müllermilch tastes good").
Sadly, these kind of "old-school" ads, completely devoid of today's glitz, of today's acute manipulation of the psyche, have now disappeared 
But they have been replaced by some really stupid ads as well. My personal favorites are sexist ads. Cigarettes (especially West) are extremely adept at creating sexist ads that makes the feminists seethe.
These days, I see everyday a billboard where you see one man at some café, between two women. The two women are not well-focused (soft image) while the man is very well focused. The man has a closed mouth, but for the cigarette, and the two women look like they are screming more than chatting. The parole "Für einfach mal di Halte klappen" ("to shut up, for once") is the icing on the sexist cake.
ANother billboard I see advertises for a free cell-phone given with an abo. It goes: "Show this to your woman: something good looking which is free". Simply amazing
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Spiffor
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CPA - Evil Clone brigade
Nov 2001
time: 06:20
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3. Bureaucracy
No essay about Germany would be complete without speaking about their excellent bureaucracy.
Let me get this straight: in August, I had found a job in Stuttgart starting October 11. I had plenty of friends able to host me in Stuttgart (including my girlfriend), a more-than-willing employer. And the nightmare begun.
A°/ It is a legal job. So, I must have the Lohnsteurkarte (a card that has all my info wrt taxes)by Oct. 11 in order to sign the contract.
B°/ To obtain my Lohnsteuerkarte, I need an Anmeldebestätigung, i.e a paper proving that I live in Stuttgart.
C°/ To get the Anmeldebestätigung, I need a legal place to live in Stuttgart. Problem is, most of my friends live in student dorms, and are forbidden to legally pretend that I am a legal resident of their place.
So, in order to work, I was compelled to find a frigging place to rent, despite being able to live for free at half-a-dozen's friends.
Useless to say, my quest for a room quickly turned into the "quest for the right signature". I eventually found a friend of mine who was legally able to give it. But this idiocy actually threatetened the job I was completely able to do.
As a foreigner, and despite being a European, I am also entitled to have an Aufenthaltsbewilligung, an authorization of staying. The precise documents one needs to get the Aufenthaltsbewilligung vary from bureacurat to bureaucrat, but it looks like this:
- Proof that I am a student (per paper given to my by the uni - in my specific French-German programme, my obtaining this document was made extraordinarily easier than normal)
- Anmeldebestätigung
- Bank documents for the three last months, to prove that I'm rich enough, and that I don't come here to suck the social services (one can only get this document if one can justify more than a specified monthly income)
- Healthcare documents, which I cannot procide, because my French health-care can't send me the documents I would need, in a very French-bureaucratic way.
- ID-photos.
- ID
(when doing my Aufenthaltsbewilligung, I generally take all the official documents I can gather, because it's always better to have too much than not enough - especially considering there is an average of a 2-hour-long queue  )
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21-10-2004 01:31
that's nice spiffor
I shouldn't write in German when I'm tired like that
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