Alternate Universe

We've already talked a lot about how Italy and Germany are different from the US, like in these links, but here are a bunch of more mundane differences.  These apply to both Germany and Italy, except where noted.

• When people ask for your name, they mean your last name.
• Germans and Italians often don't have middle names.
• People in Germany wait for the light at crosswalks, even if there are no cars coming.  In Italy anyone (pedestrians, cars, mopeds, bikes) goes anytime it is physically possible.
• The recycling is divided differently (compostable things, paper of all kinds, plastic and metal, glass bottles), and they recycle more things, so you have less normal trash.
• Riding buses is normal.
• The metric system.
• Commercial breaks in Germany are longer, but there are about 1/3 as many.
• Europeans seem to know a lot about other European countries.
• Electricity costs more, but appliances and buildings are more energy efficient.
• I have not found central heating or AC to be common, even in newer houses.  Germany doesn't have or really need AC, and Italy just has it in larger stores.
• Most beverage bottles and cans in Germany have a deposit, so when you return them, you get your deposit back.  Or you sometimes find them on the street and then you get 8-25 cents.  Wine bottles don't have this, for some reason.
• Foreign movies and TV shows are dubbed.  They get most of the big-budget American movies and popular TV shows.  I'm told that the most famous actors usually have the same person doing the voice.  So, there's a German Julia Roberts voice, for example.  The countries also make their own movies and TV shows.
• You don't have to pay for incoming calls on cell phones.
• Health insurance is mandatory.  In Italy, they have a state-run system, so, as long as you go to public doctors and hospitals, you don't have to pay for anything (just the premium).  In Germany everyone has to have private or public insurance, and there are laws about what insurance has to cover.  The only thing I've found that I have to pay for are dental cleanings (the check-up and x-rays are covered).
• Prescription drugs are much cheaper (5-10 euros, ~$6-13), but over-the-counter drugs cost somewhat more, since there aren't any generics.  Also, over-the-counter drugs are sold only at pharmacies, and pharmacies sell only drugs (and things like band-aids and thermometers.  but no shampoo or cosmetics or whatever).
• Soccer is popular.  They have several different league levels, so that any tiny town has a soccer team.
• There are no school sports or school music programs.  In Germany, to play a sport or in a band, you join a club in your area. I'm not sure how it works in Italy, but I think it's similar.
• Handball exists.  It's broadcast on TV sometimes (at least in Germany).
• Sometimes what I consider winter Olympic sports, like luge or ski jumping, are broadcast on TV.  Not just during the Olympics.
• Germany has the term "black" music (they say black in English).  It's played in clubs, but I don't know exactly what it refers to.
• Some bands that sing in English are more popular in Europe than in the US.  For example: Queen, Dire Straits, the Eagles, Genesis/Phil Collins, Deep Purple.  People know more than one song by them (or more than 3 songs by Queen).
• They have all different car models.  Also different car companies (Peugoet, Fiat, Opel, Renault, e.g.), but Toyota or Ford or VW have different models here.
• Libraries have an annual membership fee.
• Refrigerators are smaller for some reason.
• In Germany, it is standard to put your birthday, place of birth, and marital status on your resume.  Also to include copies of your diploma, degrees, any other certificates you have, and reference letters/certificates from former employers when you apply for a job.  In Italy, I have read that resumes are usually verbose and not bullet-point-oriented.  Like, 5 pages long.
• German and Italian don't use serial commas.
• DVDs from England often cost less, even considering the exchange rate.
• When buying or renting a house or apartment, in Germany at least, the kitchen usually doesn't come with appliances or cabinets.  People buy all that and then take it all with them when they move.
• Built-in closets don't exist.  You have to buy wardrobes.
• Renting apartments is not common in Italy.
• They have butchers and bakeries that are separate from grocery stores.  And people go to them.
• Outdoor markets, like farmers markets, are more common, and the produce usually costs less than at the grocery stores.  That is where a lot of people buy their produce.
• They observe or celebrate Catholic/Christian holidays, like Three-Kings Day (Epiphany, Jan 6), the Ascension, Carnival (Mardi Gras), and All Saints Day (Nov 1).  Though, not all German states observe all of those.  Also May Day (May 1) is a holiday.
• In Germany, in small towns or residential areas, you have to yield to the driver on your right at all intersections.  Also, those streets are often not wide enough for 2 cars, but they are for driving both ways anyway.  I'm told that is intentional, so people have to go very slowly.  And many parts of the Autobahn have speed limits.
• People drink carbonated water as though it were regular water.
• Tissues are 4-ply.  They're like napkins.  
• Toilet paper is rougher, even expensive kinds.  I can't figure out why.  Also the rolls are slightly thinner and the squares are slightly longer.
• I don't think light beer exists.
• Titles on the spines of books and DVDs are printed bottom to top (American ones are top to bottom).  It's just as easy to read when they're standing up on a shelf, but if they're lying flat, the words are upside down.
• Computer keyboards have some letters and symbols in different places, like the @ symbol or y and z are switched, and they have letter keys with accents and umlauts.
• Italy has bidets.  They exist in Germany as well but are not common.
• The bathrooms in Germany are sometimes split into one room with a shower (and sink) and one room with a toilet (and sink).
• Grocery stores don't give you plastic bags.  You have to bring your own or buy them there.  A lot of people have trolleys or baskets instead of bags.  Trolleys are particularly useful if you can walk from your house to the grocery store or market.
• Movie titles are often completely different from the original titles, not just translations.
• Glass cleaners (Windex) don't have ammonia in them (in Germany, at least).
• The school systems are a little different, but not worth getting into.
• The recycling symbol is different.
• Milk is sold only in 1 liter containers (nothing bigger).

Some things

- It seems to be the season for selling Lederhosen and Dirndls.

- Tip of my hat to Swiss and Austrian TV stations for giving you the option of watching some American shows with the original English language track.

- Apparently it's a thing in Germany to plant fruit trees on public property, at least in residential areas. Genius.

- Also, I've seen grapes growing on people's railings.

- When it's hot, people here wear shorts (in Florence they continued to wear pants).

First Impressions of Ulm compared to Florence

1. snow. seems to be a permanent feature
2. Burger Kings
3. pointed roofs

Not much

There haven't been many posts recently, because there hasn't been that much going on. It is the hot, sunny season here (the summer, like winter, has very stable weather).

I said before that Italians like to talk. I have also noticed that this seems to be the cause of and solution to some of their problems. Things are generally inefficient, but people often don't seem bothered by it, because they're distracted by talking to each other. I don't think there's any way to make anything happen more quickly, so talking seems to be the key to not getting angry at having to wait forever for something that shouldn't take very long.

Two more foods to add to my list:
- percoca, a type of peach
- scarola. I think it's called escarole in English, but it has a disc shape.

Visa, Round 2

After mailing my visa application and a bunch of other required documents to the Italian Consulate in Philadelphia, waiting for 23 days (last year they had it to me in a week), and leaving messages and emailing the consulate and receiving no response, I drove to Philadelphia the night before my flight to try to get the visa from them in person. When I signed in, the employee behind the window said she recognized me and that my application was still being processed. I explained that my flight was scheduled for later that day, and I was hoping to get my visa now. After waiting about 1.5 hours, the woman called me over and said that I didn't need a visa, because I'll be getting a permesso di soggiorno. You'd think it would have been pretty easy to tell me that three weeks earlier. I also think it would be helpful if something to that effect appeared in a logical place, like on their website, or in their directions for applying for a visa, or in the directions for applying for a permesso di soggiorno, or in the book we have about living and studying in Italy, or on the Italian embassy website (perhaps on the "do I need a visa?" page), or on the Italian immigration website.

We'll see what the questura says.

On an unrelated note, I swear the sun is hotter here.

Field trip season

It's class field trip time in Florence, apparently. There are large groups of middle or high school-age kids everywhere.

More Observations

The bus drivers must be engaged in an ongoing contest to see who can wear out the brakes the fastest. They're all doing pretty well, because 95% of the bus brakes screech loudly.

Also regarding buses: no matter what stop I go to or at what time, I have to wait at least 15 minutes for the D bus. It's supposed to come every 12 minutes.

A little more on fashion (from previous posts): apparently heels go with everything. Also, in the winter, it seems the only accepted footwear for women is boots. It was kind of impressive to see stores go from selling nothing but sandals one day to nothing but boots the next.

Two projects that were progressing surprisingly rapidly for Italy were the renovation of the Santa Maria Novella piazza and the building of the tram lines. Then the SMN project ran out of funds and was temporarily halted, and the tram line installation was put on hold for a month around Xmas, because the store owners by the lines complained it was affecting business. That's more like it. Another funny thing about the tram lines is that some people don't want them running near the duomo, even though there's a constant stream of buses and cars there now.

The concept of customer service is still not known here, especially at Vodafone, which is the worst company in the world. It now out-ranks U-Haul's terrible policies, Bank of America's lying employees and website, and Telecom Italia's terrible policies and lying employees and website. When we were in the Vodafone store recently*, where the totally incompetent employees were not able to do anything for us again, a number of other people were in there with complaints. I overheard a conversation in English wherein a woman was explaining that she had recently bought a pay-as-you-go internet "service" from Vodafone, but when she tried to use it, she was only able to send one email in 4 hours. The response from the employee was that the woman should bring her computer in to the store to be tested, because the Vodafone service is "very good." The only accurate thing that employee said the whole time was when the woman asked for a refund for the time she wasn't able to use Vodafone's crappy service, and the employee told her, "In Italy, we don't give back money."

Italian mosquitoes don't die. It's freaking winter.

Something positive: I like the Teatro della Pergola.

* There are several episodes in the Vodafone saga we've skipped so far in this blog. Maybe eventually we'll post the whole thing.

Christmas Decorations

A good thing: In Florence, people don't put up Christmas decorations until the end of November. And you don't have to hear Christmas music coming from every store all the time for two or three months.

Some more random observations

• Italians don't seem to like urinals. That's the conclusion I've drawn from their absence in almost all restroom facilities - even in airports and other places where you'd think there would be a big demand.
• My Italian colleagues introduced me to a famous (?) tradition: the appearance of the calendars for the new year. Mostly, these consist of attractive women in various stages of undress. The interesting thing is that these are prominently featured on the websites of the major daily newspapers such as La Repubblica or Corriere della Sera, which are of a similar standing to the New York Times and Washington Post in the US or Frankfurter Allgemeine or Süddeutsche Zeitung in Germany. Warning: you probably shouldn't look at the calendars at work.
  

Additional Comments on Conclusions after Two Months Here

Refer to this post for the original list.

1. The concept of customer service still doesn't exist here, although I will say I've found a few places that will try to help you and/or not rip you off. In general, they aren't familiar with the idea of keeping customers by providing a good product or good service.

2. They don't snuff out their cigarettes, they just drop them on the sidewalk. Also, while they don't smoke in indoor public spaces, a space with a roof and 3 walls is considered outside.

8. I put this in a comment somewhere, but another fake meat product that I like is Yves canadian bacon.

10. Piaggio, which I see a lot, is the parent company of Vespa.

15. Some things that cost less here: watermelon, bottled water (only at supermarkets, not downtown), some vegetables, some cereal (though the selection is fairly small), pineapples (even though they come from Costa Rica), generic brand pasta (by the way, they do have Barilla here), wine
Some things that cost more here: pine nuts (aren't they an Italian ingredient?), ramen and lo mein noodles (though I haven't checked Prato yet), sun dried tomatoes (aren't those also Italian?), other things Italians apparently don't eat (peanut butter, soy sauce, corn, dried chilis, etc.), electricity, sun screen

17. Mosquitoes can disappear

21. I've actually seen dried cranberries and cranberry juice in more than one store here, but they're definitely not common. There's not really a word in Italian for them either.

Conclusions about Florence after a month here

1. the concept of customer service is nonexistent
2. everybody smokes
3. Italians like to talk
4. they use "permesso" more than "scusi"
5. they speak slowly enough to pronounce every syllable, unlike the Spanish speakers I've encountered, who can't get through the words quickly enough
6. apparently they don't consider sliced bread the best thing
7. they don't have portabello mushrooms. It's all about porcini.
8. the fake meat products in the US are far superior (especially, and you should try these, Morningstar Farms "grillers prime" veggie burgers, Veat breasts, and Quorn chicken nuggets, chicken tenders, and "grounds")
9. they capitalize only the first letter of acronyms, e.g., "Usa"
10. I have seen very few Vespas. The motor scooters are other brands.
11. I have been asked for directions 4 or 5 times by Italians
12. I would describe Italian fashionable clothing, as in the rest of the world, as "ugly." The standard procedure for dressing yourself, I imagine, is to take 8 or 9 pieces of fashionable clothing from your closet that don't match, and put them all on together. You must include large plastic jewelry that is not necessarily the same color as anything else you're wearing. I was excited, however, that Converse- and Keds-style sneakers seem to be popular. Also, the hot weather clothing seems to be better, except for the face-engulfing sunglasses, since it generally consists of a tank top, shorts or skirt, and sandals.
13. The city is more racially diverse than I expected
14. English is used in unhelpful places like T-shirts. Some text on T-shirts I've seen: "Wild Monkey High School," "I'll come right to the point," "you drive me crazy," "monster on the dance floor," "I play in a garage band," and "now give mummy a smile." There is also a store called "Sexy Shop Kickdown," which recalls: "I know those words, but that sign doesn't make any sense." -Lisa Simpson. Actually, sex stores are usually called "sexy shop"s, but I can't explain "kickdown."
15. Despite the exchange rate, you can still find things that cost the same amount as they do is the US.
16. "Old" here is pre-1600, in contrast to the "historic" items in the US from the 18 or 1900s.
17. I have killed an average of 1 or 2 mosquitoes a day since I've been here
18. cashiers will always ask you if you have some amount of money other than the amount you're trying to pay with. They don't seem to like to count more than one coin or a couple of bills for change. Unlike the Central and South American countries I've been to, however, they will accept units of currency larger than one.
19. McDonalds is the only American fast food chain I've seen so far. And they have "McDrives" (drive-throughs).
20. I don't think they have crickets
21. cranberries are solely a US/Canada thing