20. Their Sweet Friendly Demeanor

Everyday, everywhere I look I see a smiling German. They’re everywhere, singing and dancing in the streets with a skip in their step, greeting everyone on the street, smiling faces on the trams, friendly attendants bending over backwards to help you, doors being open, and then I woke up…it was only a dream. When I awoke it was the exact opposite with perma-frowns, everyone on the trams staring into space, looking unhappy, bored and depressed. And no wonder, they live in Germany! I thought it was a Christian nation with Christian values of loving thy neighbor but I am wondering why the churches are so empty and the Germans are just not nice!! If you type “I hate Germany” in Google, is it a wonder that 14,600,000 hits pop up? Or “Germany Sucks” with 5, 200, 000 hits and “Rude Germans” with 4,970,000 hits. (Ok, but to be fair, if you type in “I hate the US,” 73,700,000 hits show up and 483,000,000 hits for “I love the US” compared to “I love Germany” with 134,000,000 hits) They can try to be cordial and you will hear hellos, thanks and goodbyes, but there is no feeling behind those words and no smiles attached. And of course not everyone is so bad, there are a few nice Germans who I hear are loyal once you get to know them but it will be a challenge they let you in to get to know them. (Now I do have one very exceptional German friend who is the kindest, most generous person we met here, she adopted us and it’s funny to hear her gripes on living in the U.S. many years ago, touché!) But let’s go a little further on the really nice ones leading to the next topic…