I have written about this on here before but we lived in Germany in 2015. Took 2 of my 4 kids, one in Jr High at the time. So she was in a german school learning german. Not much of it stuck as at the end of the year I got laid off and had to find a way back to the states.
But while there we made a few great trips, Hit Berlin, Munich, Nurnberg, Neuschwanstein castle was a high point. We went to Paris. With our church group my daughter ended up visiting more countries than the rest of us as they had weekend trips to Poland, Switzerland, Austria, Czech republic, somewhere else.
I have been to England a few times on business, Manchester mostly. Really liked the city. I was there the day they celebrated Manchester City winning the championship, or whatever. I do not follow soccer at all. However, it was interesting because their color is blue and Man United, the bitter rival, is red. And I was wearing a work shirt in our company colors that happened to be red. Brought some interesting stares from the crowd. lol
Being in another country was eye-opening in lots of ways.
For my wife and I it was more of a cultural/political awakening of sorts, where I saw a true socialized health-care system in action - my son has a form of epilepsy and he had an incident there that prompted a call to german 911, an ambulance ride, and a 3 night stay in a neurological hospital along with an EEG and other tests. Total cost out of pocket - 30 euros (35 bucks maybe). My wife had several tests done for a chronic hip problem she had, and got the diagnosis of hip dysplasia which is causing bursitis, something half a dozen doctors in the US brushed off as "you are too fat" even when she was barely 130 pounds. Ridiculous. The total out of pocket cost of her tests, dr appointments and MRI, CT scan, couple x-rays, and physical therapy that worked wonders for her - maybe 200 euros total. We also found the doctors to be very professional, knowledgeable, caring, took the time to work with their patients. Her primary care doctor, in essence a PA, took the time to call her personally after her first physical therapy appointment to ask how she was doing. I told my friend this, who is a primary care doctor in Arizona, and he said "man it would be nice to have that kind of time". Exactly. We stack appointments up purposely to make people wait so the dr never has a missed appointment, can't miss that revenue. It is all about chasing the dollar here. There they all were paid basically a salary, way better than most other professions, but the focus isn't getting the cattle through to make the money. The money is there, so they can take the time with the patients. Completely different way to look at health care. They treat it more like I have been saying we need to, as a utility that everyone should have reasonable access to. Not as a commodity to be packaged and sold to the highest bidder, like we do. It is a travesty how badly our health care system has lagged behind.
But we also saw the downsides to the German political machine. Many parties means a lot of conflicting ideas and priorities and that much of what gets passed as law is hated by a substantial portion of the population. I think having multiple viable parties is far far better than our anemic 2-party cluster-****/circle-jerk that is going on now, but it has its downside when so many parties are strongly ingrained in the public consciousness. Germans are passionate and vocal about their country, their national pride, and their politics in general. Merkel was loved, reviled, hated, and revered. It was kind of weird. There is still a strong nationalist pride in Germany, not as much a "keep the race pure" thing of course, but more of a "we like our Germany the way it is, we don't need anyone else". To the point there were public demonstrations weekly in Leipzig against the influx of new "ausländer" (foreigners), primarily the Syrian refugees, but really anyone not of German descent, to the point where it almost bordered on riots. It was a heavily vocal minority, but after we were out in the city center during one of these protests, people carrying signs, armed police watching over the whole thing, and getting the side-eye, as it is hard to hide you are American, and we felt distinctly that we were listed among the "ausländer", so we did not feel safe. So for the next few months we made sure to not be outside on Monday nights. But that was really a special circumstance. And otherwise we felt welcome and safe in all other ways really. Every country has its problems like this though. But no one attacked the Reichstag over the whole thing. Imagine that!
Anyway I could go on and on about that kind of stuff.
But for my kids it opened their eyes to see how big the world really is. My daughter had a bunch of friends in her "new kids learning german" classes from all over the world. 2 or 3 were Syrian refugees with their families. Another one from Africa, one from eastern Europe, I think from Belarus. Another was from Georgia. Despite Germany being heavily white, her class of maybe 30 kids had like 4 white kids, the rest were of color and some other ethnic group. It was a great experience for her, and she still keeps in touch with many of them. For my son also, as he interacted with her and he friends probably more than anyone else, as he was disinclined to get too involved. He tells me now he really regrets wasting his time in Germany and not getting out there and doing more things to explore and get to know people and experience the culture more. We all have those, right? But now those 2 kids have a much broader view of even domestic issues, being concerned about how they affect other countries and what our influence is abroad. Heart-warming for a parent, for sure, to see their experience so expanded and their minds open to the differences across the globe. Great experience for them.
If I ever won the lottery, I am moving to Germany. At least shoot for dual citizenship, or something, and get a house there and spend most of the year there probably, exploring the rest of Europe and venturing further east. Despite all the issues there, I really want to visit Russia. I have not been to the east either, and Japan is high on my list of preferred destinations. As is South Korea. I had a friend who went there on a mission and his stories made me want to go.
And I still want to visit Australia, even though I might run into
@Rubashov or
@Douchebag K ,even by accident. Worth the risk!
