I think I should go on another walk with my colleague but I cannot afford to waste one more day. I spent my day studying the clinical cases, cleaning my room and looking for patient Aufklärungsbogen for different medical procedures. I am really not the type of person to get carried away with the holidays… Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Easter and so on… As long as there is something that needs to be taken care of… I do it.

At exactly 17:05 p.m. I heard someone singing. Huh?! … It was the Scheuchs. They were all singing. I just kept to myself in my room. I was trying to be as quiet as possible, so as not to disturb this family moment. I wanted to go to the loo, I was afraid they were going to hear me. One song, then another… then another. Hmmm… They probably do this every year. 20 minutes. They sounded so happy… A tear suddenly on my notebook. What the…?!? The Germans are melting my Grinch spirit away. No way, C, you don’t have time for this. FSP!!!

You know, there is something I find particularly funny. Everyone told me: “You’re not going to make it, the Germans are too cold people. They cannot love, they are selfish, they are so and so and so…” But honestly, there are moments when I think they are so warm, caring and thoughtful… like no one I have ever met in Romania. And their honesty… I’ve yet to see something like it… Are they always like this?? God.

The Scheuchs have shown me so many things… Take for instance Day 0, breakfast. Mrs Scheuch broke her arm last summer and she cannot move it very well. So Mr Scheuch took a bun and prepared a sandwich for her. “Only butter or?” Mrs Scheuch: “Butter and cheese.” I was shocked. What would a man where I come from say? Or at least those that I know? “Ohhh you broke your arm… That’s too bad… Oh well. Now you’re going to have to learn to work with your other arm. Go make me a sandwich.”  Our talk led to another topic – “cooking”. I tried to explain to them that well… Where I come from men don’t really do much cooking… only in case of emergency :))) Mr Scheuch said he cooked all the time and that that is actually normal in Germany. His son also cooks for his girlfriend, cause she doesn’t know how to cook. Really??? Then another friend of mine confirmed it. And I always believe what he says. Really modern times in Germany… On another day Mr Scheuch was trying to tell me something, but I couldn’t quite understand him. Problem was… even Mrs Scheuch couldn’t really understand what he meant. “What do you mean, dear? Even I find it difficult to understand you.” Mr Scheuch acted just like a teenager… he was so shy…” I don’t know…you understand…” They are so lovely together. I always hear laughter in the evening. And before going to bed, Mr Scheuch always yawns loudly and he sounds so relaxed. I can hear it. Sometimes they go out and play… I am sure it wasn’t always so easy… There must have been some difficult times for them to, but they made it. Together. And now there they are, downstairs, with their children and grandchildren, singing and laughing.

Germans are not cold people.

Merry Christmas!

PS. I have finally learnt why I had to come to Germany 🙂 I needed to try this: