Life In Germany #2




	You have to register your dogs with your local rathaus (city hall). It costs about $90/year per dog. We have cable TV with about 30 German channels, one Turkish channel, CNN, BBC News and a weird NBC channel. It shows home shopping and web sites in German during the day then in the evening changes to Time & Again, then Dateline, then Jay Leno then Conan O'Brien. These are all NBC-produced shows so I guess they don't have to pay extra to show them over here. We have 3 phone lines: one for voice and two for a dual-channel 128kb ISDN connection for the computer. The nasty thing is that all phone calls cost 12.5 cents to start, then some charge per "unit" where a unit is most expensive during the day and cheapest in the middle of the night. Now imagine how fast the charges add up: 25 cents just to connect to the Internet (both channels), then per-unit charges on both channels. Now imagine my shock at the first full month's phone bill. Oh for an unlimited cable modem or ADSL connection. Oh for any competition in the phone market here. Most workers immediately get 30 days of vacation per year, with an additional 10 days or so of public holidays depending on what region of Germany you live in. I've been told it's best to get a project somewhere in southern Germany as they get the most holidays! Seniority doesn't seem to help for vacation time though, I was told you only get one extra day per year when you've been with a company for 20 years. The entire radio dial plays mostly what I call "The New Disco" and teen pop groups. There are a few classical stations and a station for the British forces personnel stationed in Germany - they have a base about 200 km west and another one 60km north near the site of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Driving rules are mostly the same as North America, but there is no right turn on red. The one big difference is right of way - if you see a small yellow diamond sign, you have the right of way. If you see a sign with a symbol that looks kind of like a fire hydrant, then anyone coming into your road from the right has the right of way. It's a little disconcerting constantly checking to see if you have the right of way or not and if you know you don't then you have to check every road on the right as you approach it. It seems the Germans don't completely follow or understand this rule though - I've seen great confusion at some intersections! FLASH: Alert reader "Carsten" emailed me about the above comment and passed on this information to clear up my confusion: Right of way: The rules are a bit different to how you describe them, and also most Germans understand them quite well. They are: - On an unmarked intersection the traffic from the right has right of way. This includes unmarked T-intersections. - The diamond sign says: "You are on a major road and have right of way on the following intersections until further notice" - The "fire hydrant" sign says: "You have right of way on the upcoming intersection only; there are no guarantees about the ones after that". See http://gettingaroundgermany.home.att.net/zeichen.htm#ROW Also, right turn on red exists although it is not very common. It is allowed when there is a sign with a green right arrow attached to the traffic light. The streets tend to be very narrow, especially in the older or residental parts. Our street is technically 2 lanes wide but people park on both sides, so you end up having to zig-zag your way down the road. If there is a car coming the other way, you get to play chicken to see who can make it to the next gap in the parked cars. More facts of life