The thing I miss most about Montana right now is the way strangers react to each other.
At home, when you see someone you don't know and you are relatively close to them, you make eye contact and smile. Makes the situation less akward and both parties walk away feeling a little brighter. Well, in Germany, that doesn't appear to be the case (at least from my personal experience). People go out of their way to avoid acknowledging your presence on the street, on the train, in stores or restaurants, etc. Everybody seems to be walking around with blinders on so that everyone else is blurry and non-existent. That is, unless they recongnize you out of the corner of their eye as a friend.
If you happen to actually make eye contact with someone, they will stare at you, dead serious. If you smile, they continue to stare, dead serious. There are only two ways to end this horrible occurance: a) you have to look away first, or b) the other person blinks out of physical necessity or gets bored with you. That's it.
NEVER TRY TO OUTSTARE A GERMAN. Your eyes will bleed. They always win.
I just don't understand why people have to be so cold to people they don't know. It's not even just in the big cities like Berlin; this happens everywhere. Walking around trying to fit in to the culture by acting and looking so serious actually puts me in a bad mood sometimes.
The purpose of this entry isn't to make the German people out to be mean, because that's definitely not the case. I have met a lot of extremely nice, friendly, and incredibly generous Germans once I got to know them. The key is appropriate timing and being as polite and non-intrusive as possible.
That being said, I miss driving down the road at home waving or waving back at other cars. I don't expect that level of friendliness here, but a smile once in a while would be nice.
