Stuttgart

Going from Switzerland to Germany is quite a transition. Switzerland is one of the more expensive countries in Europe while Germany is one of the more affordable when you exclude the southern and eastern blocks of Europe. The food and language in Germany are also somewhat different. They both like their cheese and bread but, of course, they also have their regional specialties for these things as well as food in general. They also both speak German but, again, they have regional differences. In fact, Germans tend to speak either Hochdeutsch or Plattdeutsch (mostly northerners) while the Swiss will often speak Swiss German, French or even Italian. They even have a small region where the fourth nationally recognized language - Romanian - is spoken. Overall, when we talk about Switzerland and Germany, we are talking about two very distinct cultures which, without much consideration, could be (mistakenly) seen to overlap in many if not all aspects.

In any case, I was happy to find that Stuttgart offered more than a few cultural enjoyments. On Thursday, the 12th of October, I arrived at the home of my couchsurfing friend Willy. I had requested hospitality with Willy a couple months before while I was still in the states. After that we had gotten to know each other a bit over social media, so it was cool to finally be meeting in person. Willy comes from Peru originally. This actually gave us a really nice common ground to meet on in that we both spoke Spanish. In fact, I find that most Spanish speakers are pretty happy to get to know you when they find out that you can speak their beautiful language. It makes sense actually - Spanish was designed to sound good, so naturally its native speakers are inclined to speak it!

Willy welcomed me by taking me to his favorite place in town... the sauna. For those who don't know, many German saunas have a very unusual characteristic - they don't allow clothing. Apparently it's more sanitary this way. Well, while I wasn't exactly comfortable with the idea, I really didn't feel like I had much of a choice. As local customs go, it seemed pretty harmless. I also believe in trying everything once, and have tried much more terrifying things over the years (notably Balut), so it would probably be somewhat hypocritical, not to mention a bit wimpy, if I were to draw the line at being naked.

Well, the sauna is actually quite pleasant once you get over the sight of wrinkly old fat people walking around everywhere. Which, of course, brings one to the realization that nobody in this place cares at all about seeing a little flesh. Not that I thought they would but, to those who think this encourages lust or something, think again. Not one of these people had any interest in looking at anyone else. In fact, I think the only thing to be worried about is being blinded!

After a few hours of sitting in rooms of temperatures varying from quite warm to scorching hot, we went back to Willy's to make Sopa Peruana (Peruvian soup) - a specialty of Willy's home country. I can honestly say that Peru is now on my list of places to visit. The food is really good! The next day we had Pollo Estufado Peruano (Peruvian stuffed chicken) which was also pretty tasty.



That evening another couchsurfer showed up. Willy mentioned that likes to have lots of people around. I assumed one or two but, a couple days later, yet another backpacker showed up. And, as I mentioned before, it should probably come as no surprise that they were also Spanish speakers. I mean, even when you put aside the beauty of the language, I think people generally like to hear their own language. As they say, when you speak to someone in a foreign language, you speak to their mind. But, when you speak to them in their own language, you speak to their soul. I guess that's why in English we say things like, "speak English!" (e.g., when someone talks about something in an over-complicated way), and, "now you're speaking my language!" (even though the language hasn't technically changed).

Over the next couple days, I attended a local church conference in which both English and German were spoken. I wanted to practice my German though, so I got a German outline and focused on the German translation. It was pretty good! I actually understood most things without having to listen for the English words. The message itself was on recovery, specifically the recovery of God's original desire for us both individually and corporately. I enjoyed that "we are what we are until we're not", which is basically to suggest that we should grow through our experience. This is very practical because sometimes we worry about our condition (spiritual or otherwise) as if it's permanent even though actually, if we're open to it, it's possible to overcome our natural disposition. We don't have to be limited by how we see ourselves or how we think other people see us or expect us to be.

For the last couple days in Stuttgart, I enjoyed a few more cultural delights. One was Brazilian chocolate brought by our third arrival, Victor. He prepared it by melting it down with some other ingredients to make a special dish... the name of which I don't remember. We also had some Peruvian salad as well as what is probably one of my favorite German dishes - Zwiebelkuchen (onion cake). Willy recommended it to me and, when I saw that it was only a euro, I gladly gave it a try. You might think that "onion cake" sounds a bit strange, but actually it's basically just a giant Swabian quiche. "Swabian" because, to my great disappointment, I later found out that it's really more of a southern German thing... I later found some in Dusseldorf, but it was six euros a slice! As I mentioned before, different regions of Germany and Switzerland have their own cultures. In the southwest in particular there's a region called Swabia where, from what I'm told, people are notoriously thrifty (according to stereotypes they're even a bit greedy). As a result, it seems there's a deal or two to be found in this region- namely, Zwiebelkuchen.