Further Observations of Europe

Since my last post I have been home for a week, celebrating my 30th wedding anniversary, and taking home those three bottles of Ruppertsberger wine. It was a wonderful week, and the wine was surprisingly good, in my opinion.

Also, too, a colleague and I took a two-day trip over the July 4th weekend through southern Germany, western Austria, Liechtenstein, and northern Switzerland, overnighting in the heart of downtown Zurich. Liechtenstein, the fourth smallest nation on earth, is a delightful and charming place, barely 45 square miles and 22,000 citizens, and perhaps another 14,000 additional residents. Surprisingly diverse for such a small nation, it is a parliamentary monarchy boasting a new parliament building, and a beautiful and extensive National Museum. It was there that I learned of a generally unknown bit of World War II history concerning Liechtenstein.

I knew that during the war, the Germans recruited through the SS thousands (perhaps as many as a million!) of foreign soldiers. These troops came from every European nation, and in many cases there were enough to form separate companies, battalions, brigades and even divisions. The largest of these included the Russian Liberation Army (Русская освободительная армия) or POA. Not surprisingly, the Soviets labeled POA soldiers as traitors and at the war's end, POA soldiers were repatriated in accordance with allied agreements. They were tried and sentenced to death or detention in the infamous Gulag prison camps. Several leaders of the POA were tried and hanged in Moscow on August 1, 1946.

Interestingly, Liechtenstein ignored Soviet demands for extradition of a group of POA soldiers who entered Liechtenstein asking for political asylum. Most eventually emigrated to Argentina, though a small handful stayed in the Principality.

Our trip south was exclusively on the world-famous autobahns, the model for America's Interstates. Just as famously, autobahns GENERALLY have no speed limits. The exception is in built-up areas and construction zones. Reunification has soaked up huge amounts of funds, with the rebuilding of the eastern part of Germany leaving much to be neglected in the west. But, now necessary rebuilding and repair is ongoing in the west and construction zones are rampant. So, while shifting into 6th gear at 160km/h (100 mph) in my BMW rental, and holding it steady at 200 was really cool, the speed was frequently cut to 60 and 80 km/h in these zones.

And in Germany, what we refer to as "cloverleaf" are know in Germany as "Dreieck," an exact translation being "Triangle." In both cases, of course, it doesn't matter what shape the junction may be, the name's the same!

One of the things I have attempted here is to learn German. My experience at home has caused me to believe that it is rude to live in a nation and not learn it's language. So, I have endeavored to NOT be "That Guy," and to learn the local lingo. And much like American english, German has many different regional variations. An excellent example is numbers.

For instance, the number 20 can be pronounced three differnt ways that I'm aware of, and I have used all three - zwanzig, zwanzisch, and zwanzid. But, the greatest difficulty I have had is that as soon the German I'm speaking with understands that I am a foreigner trying to learn and speak German, they almost inevitably begin speaking english - "May I help you?" I always smile and continue the conversation in english, thinking, "Yeah, you can help by speaking German so that I can learn!" I have learned to say that I am a foreigner and that my German is poor. I have also tried hard to get the accent correct, too, even being asked once if I was Polish?! I smiled and answered "Amerikaner," to the very quizzical look of the inquirer. Belgians and Swiss kindly spoke German or English to me, just like the Germans. While in Spain, though, I found the locals seemed to refuse to speak english, even though they lived next to an American navy base! I did wonder if it had anything to do with the Spanish-British disagreement over Gibralter?

One other thing about Spain, at least in the Andalusia southwest, was the incredible staccato speed of the annunciation. I work with native Spanish speakers (Puerto Rican, Mexican, and a Spaniard) and some of them had difficulty understanding Andalusian Spanish!

Speaking of language, I have mentioned that I work with a number of Britons, and we constantly joke and bicker about the language, very much in good fun. The cultures are similar, but there are differences. One I like to emphasize is that Americans believe 300 years is a long time, and the British believe 300 miles is a long trip. One of my British colleagues looked at me seriously and stated, "But it IS a long trip!" I just smiled, as another of my colleagues, an American, replied emphatically, "No, it's not!" And it was in that vein that I was AMAZED that my trip through four countries (second paragraph) took a total of less than eight hours of driving time!

So far, I have found that my belief that the Lord brought me here is justified. My bonus has been to travel to ten different countries and Gibraltar in the sixteen months that I've been here. And if I had not taken this job, I would currently be looking for new employment. Many of my colleagues where I used to work are being released and retired. So, yes, the Lord does work in strange and mysterious ways.

And, I'm grateful.