It's been an odd year. Observations:
1. Up to this point, I've been approached in Wiesbaden....either in the shopping district or in actual grocery stores....around 30 times by beggars. It's something that would have never happened in 2002.
Last night....in the middle of a major grocery store in town....came a beggar gal (non-German). I simply shake my head and utter 'nein'. If you asked me the balance, I'd say fewer than 25-percent are German....the rest are people that I suspect are undeclared migrants. If you declare yourself, then you run the risk of failing the asylum application.
2. The end of hype over Covid masking-up in stores.
From late-spring 2020....to around March of this year....masks were continually hyped-up over Covid. Then....it just dropped like a rock. You still wear masks on buses and trains, but it's just odd how everyone fell into this habit, and then fell out of the habit. I would take a guess around grocery stores....probably 15-percent of people still mask-up.
3. The use of this 9-Euro a month train/bus 'pass'.
I think for a fair segment out of society....they got 'hooked' onto the 'pass'....like a binge thing with drugs.
They all want a ultra cheap ticket....never realizing that the fed folks have to deposit several billion in tax revenue....to make the cheap ticket work.
4. For about six years....waiting in anticipation for the Qatar World Cup games....which required shifting five months into the Christmas season....we finally arrive at reality. There just isn't that much interest going on for the games, the results, or viewership.
The ton of money that pub owners traditionally took home for the games every four years? It's missing.
5. The war. This whole Russia-Ukraine goes beyond the imagination of Germans. Just to suggest it's about some Nazi-crazed folks running around.....amuses people and is like some one-star script for bad movie.
On accepting Ukrainians as war-refugees? This has shocked a fair number of Germans....just basic acceptance and no negative hype like you saw in 2015/2016. Oh, they admit housing issues, and a cost factor is existing.
6. The ultra-dry season. In a normal year (at least here in the Rhine Valley)....over a hundred-odd summer days....you'd have five to ten light rain periods. 2022? There was probably two days with a 30-minute period of light rain. For close to 12 weeks....I didn't have to mow my grass.
7. Inflation comes up almost daily. You stop in some shop for a espresso and slice of cheesecake.....getting the bill, and kinda shaken up that you are paying 60 cents more than you did a year ago.
Grocery-shopping with the wife? I now get lectured at least four times on every single trip....such-and-such went up 10-cents....50-cents....or a Euro.
8. I'm utterly shocked at how many American politicians are known by name/face by the German intellectual society. If you asked a thousand Germans on the street to name one single German judge on the Constitutional Court....they can't name name a single one.
There must be at least two hours each week of American-dose political news on German public TV.
9. Germans started to wake up and realize....well....yeah, there is propaganda going on in our midst. It's not just the evil Russians, or the evil Brits, or the evil FIFA management folks, or the evil whatever.
Now, everyone is running around and trying to help you by moderating everything....so you don't fall for any propaganda. It's almost like propaganda against propaganda.
10. It is utterly shocking how everyone has reset their heat temperatures in the house, and accept 18 or 19 C....as 'normal'....in order to save on heating cost. People talk about their discomfort, or share their heat woes story....like a tragic Greek opera.
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