Year in Review Blog: Perspective

As the end of my first year in Germany approaches its inevitable conclusion, I reflect on my time here, the lessons I have learned and the person I have become. Many stories will get told for the first time, some existing stories will get a behind the scenes look. This series will last a week and by the end of the week, hopefully you will have a better view of what it is like to be a student abroad.

Episode 5: Perspective.

Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time – Steven Wright

 Over time, your opinions of things might change. You may have once loathed something that you now cannot get enough of. This happened to me with carbonated water. San Peligrinos and Perriers used to be something that I despised above almost all other beverages. My father would bring home Perriers and he would be the only one to ever touch them. The summer before coming to Germany I had a choice to make. I could continue hating this extremely popular drink style in Germany, or I could learn to like it. I figured the latter was more beneficial so I endeavored to like Perriers. (Since being in Germany I have forgotten the English name for carbonated water so I will from here on out refer to them by the companies in which they are the most common in the US). My trick for learning to like such a horrific thing was to drink it only when I felt I was dying of thirst. That way whatever I was drinking was quenching my thirst and I would learn to associate it better. It worked dramatically. Within the first few bottles of the stuff (back then they lasted longer) I learned to enjoy them. Now that I am in Germany, I drink it so much that I prefer it to regular water.

Water hasn’t been the only thing that I have changed my opinion on. Most kinds of foods that I didn’t like, which before coming to Germany were already a minimal amount, I learned to like or even love. Perspectives change when you are in the right situation. And though it may require you to feel like you are dying before you like it, as was the case with the Perriers, your perspectives will inevitably change.

In addition to flavor changes, my perspective on the world dramatically changed. I realized that as an American I was radically uneducated in what the real world was like. There were so many things that the media would show me that just weren’t right. I went to an Islamic country and had one of the best times of my whole year here. I did get tear gassed there, but the protest that was happening was one that, were it happening to me, I would have probably been right there in on. I never got blown up, taken hostage, or decapitated.

I also was uneducated in the ways of other cultures. You really have to learn on the go as you travel through some of these places. They do give you a little bit of leeway because they know you are a foreigner and you probably don’t know. But as soon as you are taught, you are expected to know and then act accordingly.

In America we are taught that it is the best country in the world, all other countries look up to us because we have so much to offer, and that everyone either loves America and is willing to risk life and limb to get here, or hates us and wants to blow us up. Before leaving for Germany I was one of those people that was blindly patriotic with an unbridled zeal like I was taught to be by…well everything in America. The truth of it is that most people don’t care where I am from. The dollar isn’t the currency to wave around in most countries to get what you want at least in this region. It’s the Euro. America isn’t any better than a lot of other countries, and no one, apart from a few shepherds with AK-47s in a cave somewhere, thinks about us that often. In Bulgaria I mentioned I was from America and it wasn’t that big of a deal other than, “wow you are a long ways from home.” 

In the beginning it made me a little sad…no one thinking about America. I wasn’t sure if I was sadder because no one thought about us, or because I wrongly thought everyone would. In Germany they think about us about as often as we them. America sometimes comes through the news headlines, but only things like “Giant flood in Colorado” or “NSA caught spying on Angela Merkel”. At that second news headline, many Germans did have a lot to say about Americans. I became a little less proud to be called an American, but I did keep my loyalties, I just wasn't waving a flag out in the streets.

But American is what I am. It is my homeland. While I was raised in the country with a blind patriotism, I have now changed into a well-informed person who loves his country. I may not always be the proudest person of my country but I do love it. So in case you were thinking I might be losing my heritage, I am not. I am always very concerned with where I have come from. I have just changed my perspective a little.

Well enough of that. To quote Marty McFly “This is some heavy stuff Doc” and well, heavy doesn’t fly. So on to something a little more my steam.

A final perspective shift I have had is that I thought I couldn’t handle spicy foods. Now don’t get your hopes up. I am still as white as the walls on a padded cell, but my spice tolerance is leaps and bounds above most Germans. To quote one of my friends, “If it is spicier than bread, they cannot take it.” Now I know we can make breads pretty spicy, with all kinds of peppers and all, but what we are talking about is your regular run-of-the-mill bread. I don’t really have a problem with their inability to eat spicy foods; back home I am normally the one who is sweating through something that has a jalapeño somewhere in it. The problem of perspective has arisen. Whenever I eat with Germans, I can eat the spicy things they cannot. I fear for the day when I get back to America. I am used to being somewhere on the upper end of the spice tolerance ladder. This just isn’t me in real life. As soon as I eat anything in America that is remotely spicy my mouth will explode and man will have figured out faster-than-light travel.

Perspectives changing can be dangerous in regards to spice tolerance, but I have found that most of the time, it is a positive thing. Altering the way we look at things because of the new information we have gathered is one of the most basic levels of growth. So I challenge anyone who reads this, to go travel outside of your own culture and country and develop your own perspective shifts. It is one of the coolest things to look back on. 

Side note: I had this in my notes for this blog but then didn’t find the best place to add it in. Another perspective change I had was about milk. In America, our milk is not all the way pasteurized for marketing reasons. Because we always had milk in a place where it was kept cool, people never changed it when selling it because they thought it would discourage milk drinkers if it wasn’t cool. Well in Germany, they don’t worry about this nonsense, and their milk is pasteurized. This means that one can pick up milk right off of a shelf…and put it in ones cupboard. This novel idea really made me happy. Now I can buy milk, not use it for a while, and keep it in my room without a fridge. Beware: it does need to be kept cool after it has been opened. But I have now gotten used to room temperature (or in America “hot”) drinks. I had a cold drink the other day…I was confused…it tasted funny. Room temperature drinks are now something that I have no problem with…unless its semi pasteurized milk in America that someone left out.