Sonntags nicht geöffnet.

I come from the land where things are open "24/7, 365 days a year." Most stores stay open until 9pm on weekdays and 10pm on weekends. Virtually nothing is closed on Sundays. Unfortunately, I'm living in the land where almost everything closes at 6pm on weekdays. When you work until 6:00 or 6:15, this makes life really inconvenient. Nothing is open on Sundays. Nothing. No grocery stores, no clothing stores, nothing. German life is efficient, but they definitely didn't make it convenient. In fact, I think the two concepts are at complete odds with one another. What is efficient cannot be convenient, and what is convenient cannot be efficient.

Public transportation - incredibly efficient. Incredibly clean. Always on time. But, the times that it runs are not always in line with when I need it to. No U-bahn line always takes me directly from where I am to where I need to go... there are always transfers involved. A car would be more convenient, but it is less efficient. Too many cars lead to traffic jams, longer commuting times, environmental destruction, etc.

Recycling - the German recycling system is incredibly efficient, and incredibly inconvenient (from a foreigner's perspective.) In America, you put your trash and recycling on the street every Friday morning, and the garbage collection comes to take care of it. Here, there are drop-off sites for your recycling. Green glass gets sorted from brown glass and clear glass; paper and plastic are also separated. (I forgot to separate glass colors last night while attempting to help clean up empty beer bottles after the game... whoops. There were a lot of empty bottles because Germany lost - not good.) The nearest recycling point to my apartment is three blocks. With a car - fine, no problem. Without a car - fuck me, this sucks.

Maybe it isn't a question of convenience vs. efficiency. It is one of responsibility.

In Germany, you can drink beer and wine at 16, hard liquor at 18, and there are roads with no speed limits. Periodically, there are police officers on the U-bahn to make sure you bought a ticket, but that's been extremely rare in my experience. German culture places an enormous responsibility on you to do the right thing. They have systems in place - recycling centers, U-bahn ticket stamps, ambulances for young people who drink too much - but they leave it up to you not to fuck up. Don't drink too much too quickly, don't drive faster than you can handle, don't throw away things you know you shouldn't.

My family jokes about how my siblings and I get our lazy, fun side from the Irish, and our discipline from the Germans. In a way, I think that's true. Yes, there is strong social pressure here to do the right thing solely because it's the right thing to do. But it takes a lot of discipline to live in Germany - discipline to make you do some things and refrain from overindulging in others.

And now, I'm going to stop procrastinating, be German, and do the errands I've been putting off all day.



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