Culture shock has set in. It has been pretty stressful dealing with everything. Some has to do with the isolation from not being around friends and family, some with the frustrations with language, and some with just how long it takes to get things done here. The German washers and dryers take much longer to get the laundry done, so that has stressed me out. I have even shrunk some clothes. The other day some clothes were in the dryer for 3 hours and they still were not dry. Frustratedly, I took them out and laid them in the sauna in our hotel room to dry.
The last few weeks we have had several surprises. Last weekend we went to visit a swimming pool - we didn't swim, but wanted to see how much it costs and what the facility was like - and accidentally walked into the sauna....it was a traditional European sauna, very uncomfortable! Our rental car got locked in a parking garage in Heidelberg and we struggled trying to get help to get it out. Our hotel keys were in the car as well so even if we wanted to take a cab to our hotel we would not be able to get in our room. There have been several times we've ordered food in which the salesperson did not understand us and brought us something else.
Through trial and error we are learning the German way.
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