1.) The Bus Driver Nod.
The Bus Driver Nod (BDN) is something that I witnessed early on in my exchange, and have continued to see on an almost daily basis, if I'm lucky. One of my first days here I was on the bus going to the train station when our bus was put into the prime situation for the BDN to occur, although I didn't know it at the time. This happens when our bus is waiting to turn left at an intersection and another bus, coming at a ninety degree angle from our left side, turns towards the right, therefore giving the two drivers a second of relative closeness. THIS is when the BDN goes down: the drivers make eye contact, smile slightly, and nod, as if to say, "Yes, I see you, brother, fellow member of the Bus Driving Fraternity." I LOVE THIS. In fact, every morning, I do my best to get a forward-facing seat on the left side of the bus just to be able to witness this event.
2.) The Coveted S-Bahn Seat
There is undoubtedly the one seat on the S-Bahn that anyone picks if they have the option. I like to call it the "coveted seat." To explain, I have made a diagram.
As you can see, the train consists of two sets of four-seat pods, which repeats up and down the car. The coveted seat, hands down, will always be seat #1: forward facing and next to the window (a good place if you are tired and want to sleep). If I were still in Honors Bio and had to analyze this situation, I'd say that since it replicates the drivers seat in a car, people are naturally inclined to take it. The second best seat is therefore #8, which I call "shotty," obviously, and then comes either 2 or 7. Seats 3,4,5 and 6 are always the last to be taken. This is a fact. The only other situation that would happen is that seat #1 is occupied, and someone takes #3 because they don't want to sit next you/ across from you and then have to make eye contact. You can walk into a train on a fairly slow time, and even if there are only 5 people in the whole car, they will be in the coveted seats. I might consider publishing a study on this subject.
3. Dogs
The constant presence of dogs has definitely been a main difference that I've noticed between the US and Germany. By that, I mean that dogs in Germany probably have more rights than women did before the gained the right to vote in the 20th century.
Dogs are welcome literally everywhere. I have dined next to dogs, I have shopped next to dogs, and, in the spirit of this post, I have ridden the S-Bahn next to many dogs. Nobody blinks an eye when a person walks Fido onto the train.
4. Swangin' Bottles
It is an everyday event to see a person drinking either from a bottle or a liquor bottle in the train system. Odds of seeing this obviously go up the closer you get to the Reeperbahn on a Saturday night, but that's not to say that I haven't seen somebody sipping a Becks at two p.m. on a weekday. I actually saw the most fascinating thing two days ago: I was on the train (indeed, I was in the Coveted Seat), and as we pulled up to a station, I saw a man on the platform with a designated beer pocket in his coat. I witnessed, no lie, him drink from his bottle, open his coat, tuck his bottle into an inside pocket, close his coat, and continue his conversation with another person without breaking eye contact. To say that I was extremely impressed with this is an understatement.
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