I have been to Germany for a few days, this time without any American family with me, so immersion is complete since I don’t have to translate between the two languages all the time, forming a conduit for communications rather than being a communicator.

A few observations hit me.

Observation 1: Coming from California, Germany seems like a miniature country. Everything is close together and small.

Observation 2: I am amazed how a nation and people can stay nourished and healthy by eating bread or baked goods three times a day.

Observation 3: There are still a lot of bookstores here, in shopping centers, on downtown streets, at railways stations. People buy books everywhere – the Kindle revolution has not happened yet. I also rediscovered a word I had long forgotten that they have here, for which we don’t have a one word translation in English: Schmökern.

This means, and I am going to try to be as succinct as possible here: Reading books, most likely old and used books, often in public places, like book stores, libraries or bazars, by thumbing through the books, while hanging around, perhaps drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes while doing so.

Schmökern is therefore not just “Reading,” but rather reading under all those other conditions. If any German-speaking reader knows a more precise translation of Schmökern, I’d appreciate the comments.

Warning – here comes the bathroom humor…

Observation 4: I can’t get over how you have to pay to use public bathrooms in Germany, whether they be at a freeway rest area, or in a shopping mall, or at a railway station. Either there is a turnstile system like in the subway, where you need to put coins for 70 cents into a slot before the turnstile lets you in. No money, no pee-pee. If there is no machine collecting, there is definitely a young or older woman standing there right by the door with a collection container of some sort, making direct eye contact as you try to enter the bathroom. I can assure you it is really hard to walk by without depositing some coin first.

Observation 5: I find it really disconcerting to have women in the men’s room. Since the young lady that collects our coins in front of the door is also responsible for keeping the bathrooms clean, it is not unusual that you stand at the urinal doing your business while she is mopping right around your legs without skipping a beat. Today, some guy’s wife walked right into the men’s room with him, chattering away about something while he was at the urinal lined up with half a dozen other men, standing right behind him and within a couple of feet of the next guy. This does not seem to faze the Germans, but it definitely is really awkward for me. Let me out of here.