After the first game we drove to our hotel. Well, let me rephrase that. We TRIED to drive to our hotel. But the road turned into a pedestrian area. I was a little worried that we weren’t supposed to drive through there, but there were other cars slowly making their way through the foot traffic. I rolled down the window and asked a couple ladies if I was OK to keep driving. They were SO NICE!! They said it was fine, just go slow. So we continued on, then the road got real narrow and this old German lady looked at me and started walking to the window. I braced myself for the worst, as you have read in prior posts that I have not had great encounters with old Germans. But she was the sweetest little thing! I told her “ich spreche English” and she laughed and said “scheiße!” She didn’t let her lack of English and my broken German prevent her from trying really hard to help us. We eventually made our way out of the pedestrian area and found a parking lot. We walked to the hotel and got confirmation that we parked in a good overnight spot. Apparently the Polizei disagreed because I got a 10€ parking ticket the next morning. Scheiße!

Another busy couple of weeks for the Shearers!! Since returning from our weekend trip to Paris, our days have been jam-packed. I started a new job within Deere as Internal Audit & Internal Controls Manager for our European units, and Jay took on responsibility for more European units. The kids have had a full schedule with both JV Rugby and Redwings Baseball for Ty, and Middle School soccer, Redwings softball, and horse riding lessons for Lily.

So funny story. One Sunday Ty was with friends, Jay took Kaycee for a walk and Lily wasn’t hungry. It was a beautiful day and I wanted to enjoy some sunshine. I thought I would sit on the patio at the German restaurant and read my book, maybe sip on a beer. When I walked up to the restaurant, it was nearly full – apparently everyone else had the same thoughts I did about how to spend the lunch hour. There was one small table in the back corner, so I waved to the waiter and sat down at the table. One minute later a big German dude, probably about 55 years old, came up to me and started speaking in German. “Ich spreche English” I speak English. He pointed to the empty chair across the tiny table from me and said “Can I sit here?” Ummmmmmm. At this little table? With me? That feels a bit like invading my personal space, and I’m not really very comfortable with this, and I’m in shock a little bit, and oh man this is awkward. “suuuuuuuure????” So he sits down and makes himself comfortable. I had about 30 seconds to decide if I was going to be an extrovert or an introvert in that moment. I panicked, and went full-on introvert. Nose in book. Don’t make eye contact. The waiter asked for our order. I ordered a salad to go. He placed his order in German. About 10 minutes later the waiter brings out his appetizer – a bowl of soup. OK fine, I have to wait for him to eat his appetizer because we are sitting at the same table. But then, he slowly lifted the spoon to his mouth, and SLUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP. That was it. I couldn’t handle it. My salad, of course plated for dine-in, came to the table. I reminded the waiter that I wanted it to go, and followed the waiter out to the front of the restaurant to wait for it to be packaged for take-away. Perhaps I would have had a lovely conversation with the guy. I’m sure he had a fascinating life story and we could have become lifelong friends. But instead I panicked and bailed. What would you have done? 🙂

In another uncomfortable German encounter (this couple of weeks has been full of them), I hit my “cultural dipper”. I mentioned I got a new job. Anytime I get a new job, there is a period of time when I am trying to figure out who’s who, what’s what, what is important, what isn’t, what I need to do, etc. It’s normal, but it’s stressful. So my anxiety has been a little elevated. After a particularly busy morning, I went to the Italian restaurant to quickly grab a salad for lunch. There was one lady in the restaurant sitting alone. I needed to talk to Jay about a few things, and since I had some time at lunch, I called him. While I was on the phone, this old German lady, and even older German lady, and an old German man sat at the table directly next to me. Approximately 3 minutes after sitting down, the old lady looked at me and said “Excuse me, you are being very rude.” Ummmmmmmmmm. OK……… I hung up the phone with Jay and scooted over a table to give me some physical space between her and I. I felt incredibly uncomfortable, and I was confused. Is it against some written or unwritten law that I cannot talk on the phone in a restaurant? So after stewing for a few minutes, I said “enschuldigung” excuse me and I asked her if I was being too loud or if the problem was that I simply talking on the phone. She said “we could feel your stress.” Um. OK. So what do I do with that? Am I not supposed to go to a restaurant if I am stressed? When I am stressed, I usually need to get my thoughts out of my head (usually to Jay) and then my stress levels decline. So I was still confused, and then I got angry, and despite all of my efforts to keep it in, tears started coming down my face. I quickly ate my meal. The waiter is one of our favorite people in town, and I knew he felt terrible for me. When I left the restaurant, I said, kind of loud but not screaming, “I hope you all have a nice, quite, stress-free day”. I went home and had a little cry-session. It’s a minor thing, but I think that after 9 months of these little jabs, I reached a breaking point. I am from the midwest, where “midwest nice” is a thing. There would have to be something really major happening for me to tell someone else to stop doing whatever they were doing (I’d be annoyed quietly). That isn’t the German way. If they don’t like something, or think that you aren’t following the rules, they will not hesitate to tell you what they think – even if there is really good reasons for why you are doing what you are doing. These cultural differences are what makes expat assignments so challenging, exhausting, and yet interesting at the same time.

We spent a Sunday afternoon at the Mannheim factory for an employee recognition event. We got to show the kids Jay’s office (my badge didn’t allow me to show them my office), went on a factory tour, “milked” a cow, did a sledgehammer carnival game, ate some pretzels, and drank some beer. It was a lovely day, and a special event for the employees and their families.

We found a new hike that started in Schmitten, Germany that was really cool! All along the way there were woodcarvings of gnomes. It was about 3.5 miles long (we only did half the trail) and the elevation was not too bad. It was a gorgeous day, and we all enjoyed the fresh air, scenery, and exercise.

We have a LOT of fun things coming up. Jess & Jason are arriving TOMORROW!!!!!! We are headed to Regensburg, Germany to watch Ty’s 19U team play in the German National Baseball Championships. Go Redwings!! Jess & Jason are going to Prague for a couple nights. Riley arrives on MONDAY!!!!! Jay is taking our guests to Oktoberfest in Munich next week. Then we are all going to Füssen, Germany the following weekend to watch Ty play in the U15 German National Baseball Championships. After that, we have a week in Kitzbühel, Austria for Fall Break. After dropping Jess & Jason off at the airport, we are taking Riley to Amsterdam. There should be some good blogs headed your way – stay tuned!!