Advent and other miscellaneous things

Above is what my advent calender looks like this year. Not that I have an advent calender every year, but the ones here in Europe are just so cool, that one can't help oneself even if you're way past the age where having an advent calender is considered normal. Behind each window is a Kinder Surprise Egg, which contains a little gift. From the looks of it, it will probably be one of those reindeer-like figurines, similar to the ones on the box. I don't care that the figurine is a bit naff or about the fact that at the end of December I'm going to be so sick of Kinder Surprise, that I'd never wanna see a chocolate egg again. All I care about is the fact that every morning (starting on Friday) when I wake up, I'll have a surprise to look forward to.

I am totally enthralled with the Christmas decorations being sold practically at every street corner. I'm so going to buy me something kinda useless to spread some Christmas cheer in my room. Again the decorations are way cooler here than they are at home AND you can get something really, really nice without breaking the bank. I especially love what they do with the candles and the greenery and red is not your only option, there are really cool blue and orange - amongst other - decorations to choose from.

On Tuesday Bryan and I did our weekly shopping at our local discount supermarket, Penny Markt. And for the first time I realised that we'd really adjusted to our situation here in Germany. Shopping, especially at a discount supermarket, is a distinctly different experience to shopping at P'nP. Firstly no basket, so if you're not taking a trolley (for which you need a €1 deposit) then you'll have to carry all your groceries in your arms. Well since there were two of us we got ourselves a trolley. For the first time we walked down every aisle to check out the wares. At the check-out point there's no little helper to put the groceries in the bag. You're on your own and usually the queue is sooo long (b/c only one checkpoint is open) and the cashier so fast that you feel really pressured to get your groceries off the (teeny-tiny) counter and pay in as short a time as possible. Well, we had a solution for this as well: we'd just put our groceries back into the trolley and pack our bags at the counter further on, which is what people usually do. So we left the supermarket decidedly less stressed than on other occasions:)

Another thing I noticed is the strange elevator etiquette here at Paul-Sudeck-Haus. People don't greet here - that's a fact. So naturally when one enters an elevator you don't greet either unless you know the person. However, upon leaving the elevator the person leaving usually says goodbye (tschuss). What I don't get is why people feel the need to greet when they leave the elevator when they never had the inclination to greet upon entering the elevator. Saying "hallo" and "goodbye" go together, don't they? Any way, so as not to rock the boat or come across as rude I've adopted this strange behaviour as well, although it has, as yet, not been revealed to me why I do it. Maybe I'll ask some German acquaintances about this strange behaviour, but until then I'll go on greeting strangers upon leaving the elevator.