Also known as 16 Things About Germany that Confuse Canadians:
1. All of their rooms have doors…all of them…it’s like walking through a maze of doors
a. And they close all of them all of the time
b. So you have to navigate the labyrinth when you have to get up during the night
2. The houses are mostly heated by wood burning stoves, so if you live anywhere the stove isn’t, it can get a little chilly
3. They seem to like little dogs
4. They have giant buttons to flush their toilets and the water tanks are behind the wall…so I don’t know what they do if their toilet breaks… 
5. There is no big, one stop shop here like Wal-Mart or Superstore; there are like 5 different grocery stores that all sell different things so you have to go to multiple stores to get what you need (and then department stores to get clothes and whatever else)
a. There are also no thrift stores, and is a world without Value Village even worth living in?
6. They have no top sheets, just giant duvets (that they fold in half when they make their bed)
7. On the topic of bedding, the pillows are these giant strange square masses that you have to fold three times to get any support for your head
8. Three stories, that’s how tall most houses are
9. OH MY GOODNESS WHY DO YOU HAVE SO MANY STAIRS?!?!
10. They have skeleton keys to lock their doors with
a. Which means that it is very easy to get locked in a bathroom because you don’t know how to twist the key to unlock it
11. There are also electrical sockets and light switches in the strangest places 
12. The doors in their public bathrooms go all the way to the ground, and have no gaps in between the door and the walls (which is something that I think Canada should consider…)
13. They enjoy putting a little WC sign on their bathrooms, which I will admit is quite helpful 
14. The roads are like roller coasters… the amount of twists and turns seems a bit unnecessary
15. They eat their big meal at lunch…which is actually something I can get behind because who needs to eat a giant meal right before you go to bed?
16. No one says “excuse me” or “sorry” when they bump into you or try to get past you (thinking about it though, this might be a uniquely Canadian struggle)
So there you have it, 16 things that are uniquely German. Now I’ve only been here for a couple of days, so I’m sure that the list will have grown by the end of my trip. All in all though, it’s a beautiful country and I can’t wait to keep exploring it (and discovering its little quirks)!
Simply Katherina 