In a new place / by Liesl Pfeffer

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Leipzig, Germany
February 2019

I keep a list on my phone of things I like about Germany. Here’s what I have after 10 months here.

  • The apartment windows (they open out on two different hinges, one for letting in a small draft and one to open the entire window so you can ventilate your apartment and watch the world outside whilst leaning over the sill)

  • Wurst

  • How they put a tree on a construction site to celebrate finishing the walls/foundation

  • The way they eat bread with toppings for dinner and call it Abend Brot

  • Kaffee und Kuchen in the afternoons every day if you want to

  • Only major industrialised nation to commit to phase out nuclear power after Fukushima

  • The word Feierabend and the act of enjoying Feierabend

  • No plastic bags

  • The announcement on the U-Bahn that is so much longer in German (“Bitte achten Sie auf den Abstand zwichen Zug und Bahnsteigkante”) than in English (“Mind the gap”)