3: Challenging Experiences (Olivia Cotton)

    Not a lot of my views have really been challenged while here in Europe, however, there are certain social normalcies that have most definitely made me reconsider my own way of interacting with people. While here, many students have commented on the general bluntness and lack of small talk Germans participate in. While yes, it can be a bit jarring sometimes to not get a ton of smiles and talk from your waiter, I do think this method of interacting with strangers is one I’d love to experience back in the U.S.

    One of our first times going out to a restaurant here, I found it incredibly refreshing to not have a waiter in my business and constantly approaching my table. It was different for sure, but it was a change I was happy to accept. On multiple occasions eating at restaurants in the U.S. I have had waiters completely insert themselves into my conversation, and was once even asked what I was texting to someone. That experience threw me for a loop because I found it quite odd that a total stranger would be so open about wanting to know pretty personal information about my life. What’s even crazier to me is the fact that at that moment I willingly told them the whole story and what I was doing, even if I had felt a little uncomfortable doing so. 

    

    Privacy is clearly an important thing for Germans to protect, and looking back now I know that something like that situation would truly offend any German, and would never happen while here. Instead, when I go out to eat here I am met with efficiency in taking my order and a waiter that never prods or tries to start a conversation. I love it. I’m able to eat my meal in peace and have good conversations with the people I came with, with no worry that the waiter is listening in and trying to insert themselves in our group. It could come off as rude sometimes just how little they cared about you as a person, other than what you were ordering and how you were paying, but I knew that this was because of my experience as an American. Going forward, I know it won’t happen, but I do wish people in the States respected privacy more. Although I can’t change an entire culture, I do think that changing my views on this and widening my perspective will lead me to be more guarded about my privacy when in public. I’d like to think that if I encountered the same situation today while in the U.S., I would politely decline to share this information instead of giving in despite my discomfort.