Top 10 Quirks

Here are some daily quirks that are not normal for this Texas girl! But it keeps me laughing, and thankful for where I come from!

1. Save your sacks! They are not free at the grocery store. The girl, while seated at her kiosk, will hurridly ring up your groceries, and ask for payment. You have to throw everything back in the cart, pay, and get out of the way! Then you have to stop and bag your groceries in the shopping bag that you brought with you, if you forgot it, then just hope that nothing busts and gets all over the trunk! It is an option to buy a grocery sack for about 29 cents...but I don't think so! I'll bring my own!

2. We are trashy folks! Trash is only picked up once a month, in a container that is one-fourth the size of our 90 gallon back home. You have to recycle everything. So, I often have trash sitting next to my sink, needing to be taken apart, cleaned, and separated, before we can drive to the recycling center!


3. Nothing is for FREE! And I mean nothing! I absolutely refuse to pay for ketchup at McDonald's, I just can't do it. You can't get water with your meal anywhere, if you do get water, it is mineral water, and costs around 2 euros. (Of course, if you want lemon with your water, that will be an extra 20 cents). You have to put in atleast one euro to get a shopping cart at the store, you do get it back, once you return it to the cart return. Christoph got a Coke the other day for lunch. It was about 32 ounces, no ice, flat and forget a free refill! And it cost about $5. We try to just stay home! :)

4. Watch the times & dates! Everything closes from 12:00 - 2:00, and finally for the day at 6:00. There are lots of holidays, and nothing is open on Sundays. Saturdays, everything closes at noon. This is grocery stores, and EVERYTHING! Except for restaurants. Oh, and banks close at 12:00 on Wednesdays...why? Nobody knows, it is just Wednesday! :)

5. Honey, Who Shrunk my Parking Place?? Really, Mini Coopers and Honda Civics are considered family autos. The Jeep feels like a Hummer, and I'm paranoid about parking. I park outside of the city, and at the back of the parking lot. I just hope I am never faced with parallel parking here!

6. The Cold It doesn't matter how cold it is, walking is always fun (when the sun is out). It's fun walking around town, or through the country and woods to another village. The air is perfectly crisp. You just have to watch out for when the farmers fertilize, that stuff can knock you out cold!

7. Roads Most roads are not big enough for two cars, you just have to pull off while the other one passes.

8. Where's the Clutch! Back home, it seemed like not very many people knew how to drive a stick...over here, nobody knows how to drive an automatic! My sister in law is scared to death to drive our car. Really, it's not that hard folks!

9. Hurry up! Everyone is in a hurry, especially on the roads. They drive like maniacs, fast, and passing on curves, then you know that they are just driving somewhere to sit at a table and drink and talk for 5 hours! Hurry up, we need to get there so we can sit for 5 hours...I just don't get it!

10. Remember when? It is very important that Austria beat Germany in a National soccer match 30 years ago. You can usually catch the highlights on the sports channel daily. People still know that players and exactly what happened. It's quite comical.