Hoxtell bids auf Wiedersehn to West

Hello, my name is Eleni Hoxtell, a freshman transfer student from Berlin, Germany and this is my last full month at Oshkosh West. This second column is to share some of the differences between cultures and traditions in Berlin compared to the US. 

For example, let's talk about Halloween. Halloween in Berlin is very similar to Halloween here. Kids dress up and go trick or treating on the streets. But, we don't usually ring doorbells on houses because in the part of Berlin where I live, there are only apartment buildings, so most kids walk on the main streets to go into stores and restaurants. People give out mostly the same candy as here, but some restaurants give out smoothies or a little bag of fries. But most people just give out chocolate bars or gummy bears. What I really like on Halloween in Berlin is that some people set up stands with candy and smoke machines and scare you in the dark. Or some people let you sing or dance in front of them for candy. 

Christmas is also different in Germany. We get our presents on the evening of the 24th of December instead of the morning of the 25th. There are also a lot of Christmas markets there that are huge and always packed with people. We don’t get a lot of snow in Berlin, but if we get some it mostly melts in a day.

We also don’t have that many people with cars in Berlin, because you can walk or go by public transport. I don’t have one either because there are buses, trains and subways everywhere. Every student in Berlin gets a pass that allows them to ride trains, buses, subways and also some boats for free without buying tickets. But I don’t ride the trains that often because it takes me two minutes to walk to school. The grocery stores and a lot of parks are also only five to 10 minutes away.

We also have a few different holidays in Berlin that Americans don’t have; for example we celebrate Tag der Deutschen Einheit -- Day of German Reunification/German Unity Day on October 3rd. Just like here, we also celebrate New Years Eve and fire fireworks into the sky and it looks amazing because everyone fires them and the whole sky is filled with them. But it’s also very loud because the people fire the fireworks from 12 am to about 4 am. And in the mornings, the streets are covered in garbage.

Some laws in Germany are also a little different, for example you don’t get to drive until you are 18 and you don’t learn to drive in school you have to sign up for a course and it takes way longer to learn than here. But you're allowed to drink alcohol at the age of 16 years. So Germany and the US have a few things in common but also a lot of differences

by  Eleni Huxtell

Published October 30 2023

Oshkosh West Index Volume 120 Issue II