ohne butter, ohne kase

Germany, lunch time

When you are allergic to something and you have to travel to a country where you don't speak the language, where they don't speak any of the language that you know and where they put this "something" everywhere, eating can became quite a challenge.

I don't speak German. I just know a few words here and there. And as it is lunch time, I was trying to get a sandwich without butter and cheese. It turned out, this is a very complicated task. Much more of a challenge than doing the same thing in France, where at least I speak the language.

I ended up buying just some plain bread and water, after getting something that I thought to be harmless (I asked "was is das?" what is that?, and then "mit or ohne butter und kase?" thinking that they could understand that I was asking if it was with or without butter or cheese) and intead turned out to be made with butter or containing milk....because, and here my mistake, asking if it is with or without butter or cheese doesn't
1) include milk in the list and
2) mean that I am also asking if it is made with some of these ingredients....

So, I got sick....a few hours before my job interview....not too bad, not too bad....

If I will have to move here, I will definitively learn German as quickly as possible if I don't want to spend every day sick.

In any case, being in Germany again after many years and being in another part of Germany, made me realize what it makes me easily sad here. Everything is, or looks, perfect. Well organized, functional, clean. It crushes against the messiness of my life. This country would work perfectly for my mom. But I am more of a far from perfection person and being here just makes me feel even more out of place than I normally feel. My Italianiness doesn't fit with this perfection. Of course, when I lived in Germany I loved the fact that things were working the way you hope they would. That people are professional, that things are clean, that there are plenty of green spaces and bike roads....but when in a country everything seems to work so well, what is it left to complain about? sure it makes your daily life easier, not always worrying about a possible coming strike that would paralyze the entire country for months (like in France) or not being able to see a dentist for weeks because in August nobody works, but still....I need a bit of "out of perfection"....

I guess that this is one of things I loved most about living in Holland. Things work and yet, you also get the feeling that the rules are not so strict and feel a bit free to be messy or different in your own way....

In any case, in France I always tell everyone how great was to live in Germany where daily things actually work. And here, I feel that I miss the messiness of France....I guess that this says a lot about me.....