Last Friday (July 8) I completed my last day of class in Germany. These past six weeks have gone by extremely fast and I am so grateful for this once in a lifetime experience. At the end of my trip, my dad came and met up with me and we took a weekend trip to Switzerland. It was an awesome way to end off this trip.
However, for my last blog post I want to discuss some of the perceptions of Americans that I encountered while in Germany. It has been very cool to be in an environment where I was often the only American. This put me in an interesting position of hearing different opinions and views on the US.
Throughout my time in Germany, I had many meaningful and insightful conversations with my host. Towards the end of my stay, I explained to her that my dad would be coming to visit me in Germany and we were going to visit Switzerland for the weekend before flying home. She then explained to me about a certain perspective that many Germans have towards Americans. She said that there is a stereotype that Americans try to experience “Europa in einer Woche” (Europe in a week). It is apparently very common for Americans to come to Europe for only a short amount of time, but to try and see as many countries, cities, and sights as possible. I thought this was very funny and also quite true. However, I think the reason is that it is generally quite expensive to travel to many countries in Europe and it is considered a “bucket list” activity for many. So, many Americans want to see as many places as possible in the time they have here!
Another experience where I discussed the United States was with my classmates and teachers. Often, the topic that came up was American politics. There were differing views on American politics, some positive and some negative. However, what surprised me most was that many were not so keen to express their own political opinions; rather, they were interested in my own opinions on American politics. My classmates said they often saw news stories on their own local news about American politics, but they were curious about what I thought about these stories and topics.
A more humorous example came from discussing the temperature with other students in my class. All of the other students in my class came from countries where celsius was used to measure the temperature. So, we had a lot of fun debates about the usefulness of celsius versus fahrenheit. Many of my classmates thought that it was ridiculous that Americans do not use celsius, or any of the other metric measurements, in day to day life. I have to say, it would have been very convenient if I was already familiar with celsius before arriving in Germany!
The last example comes from one of the after class activities hosted by Carl Duisberg. We went to the park across the street from the school to play soccer (aka football) together. We had to split into two groups: those who had a lot of experience playing soccer and those who were less experienced. As we were forming the groups, one teacher from Carl Duisberg asked me which team I wanted to join, to which I responded that I definitely belonged in the less experienced group. She said something along the lines of, “Oh right, I forgot that you’re American, you definitely need to go into the less experienced group!” I thought this was very funny. It is certainly the collective opinion in Germany that Americans are less skilled in playing soccer.
Lastly, I will include a few pictures of the Brühl Castle, which I visited with my school during my last week of classes. This castle is located in Brühl, Germany, which is only about a 30 minute train ride from Köln.
