I am familiar with the concept of culture shock and was always expecting to experience it while studying abroad. However, I have been surprised to discover that, in my experience, it often comes in smaller packages than I imagined it would. For the most part, daily life in Germany looks pretty similar to the US — in a different language, of course. In the moments I have experienced culture shock here, I find that it usually has to do with the smaller details rather than something that smacks you right in the face. 

For instance, water in restaurants is not free — a realization I encountered within my first couple of days in Germany. And, not only is it not free, but it usually costs just as much if not more than a soda or a coffee. Tap water is very rarely an option: one can either purchase an individual bottle of water (but almost everything is recycled in Germany!) or a larger one to share with the table, and it is perhaps more common to order sparkling water rather than still. Additionally, there are no free refills. Instead, you would have to order and pay for another bottle. On top of that, another component of restaurant culture that differs in Germany is tipping. While it is appreciated, tips are not at all expected. Usually, I am not even prompted to give a tip at the end of a meal. 

The house I live in here has a kitchen, and I usually cook for myself. However, as I was preparing to bake bread as a special treat one day, I quickly realized that the measurements in my recipe were cups, tablespoons, and teaspoons. In other words, measurements for volume. I could not find such measuring cups, because measurements in Germany are done by weight, usually in grams. Since a cup of flour has a different weight than a cup of water or oil or sugar, I had to search for and compute conversions for each individual ingredient. Not to mention changing oven temperatures from Fahrenheit to Celsius. Needless to say, I have now learned to search for recipes already written in German in order to avoid having to do such conversions. 

Another aspect of cooking for myself is going grocery shopping. However, my shopping trips take just a bit more planning than I expected because grocery stores, cafes, and most businesses in Germany are closed on Sundays — something which I still forget to account for from time to time. My friends and I discovered this the hard way during our first week here, but, luckily for us, many restaurants remain open. 

Furthermore, I first arrived when it was still summer, and air conditioning is not common in Europe. Instead, we crack windows open. Though, this practice is not just limited to the summer. In Germany, the concept of Lüften — which is directly translated as “airing” and consists of replacing stale, humid air with fresh air from outside — is important as well as necessary for mold prevention all year round, even in the winter. As a result, it has become a habit to lüften whenever I leave the room and to turn on the heater to dispel the cold when I return. 

I always knew that certain aspects of daily life would be different while studying abroad, and I actually find it incredibly interesting to keep discovering the little things that come up, the reasons behind them, and how they become integrated into my experiences here in Germany.