It has been more than a year in Germany now. I am from India so this is what I found shocking:
- People will greet you even if they do not know you: I meet random people in the lift at work and they never fail to say hello when they enter the lift and ciao when they leave the lift.
People in the canteen will say mahlzeit when I join a table full of strangers. The housemaster of the building will greet me when I walk past him while he is cleaning the leaves. It was pleasant and surprising for me considering I was new to Germany. - So many types of Bread: Germany is a "Bread Paradise", and 3050 different recipes have been registered by the county's bakeries at the Central Association of German Bakers.
It took me a while to explore the most common bread I can buy from the supermarket. Before that, my knowledge of bread was limited to bread slices and Indian Pav.
- Cars will stop to let you cross the road. During the first week in Germany, it was confusing for me because no one cares about pedestrians in India. Cars will stop to let me cross the road and I stopped to wait for the car to pass and it was confusing.
- Sunday feels like curfew: all shops closed and empty streets Sunday is a day of rest at home in Germany. This was odd since In India Sunday means shopping day.
