MoldovAnn

I have a cold. Two completely free days in Bonn – with tons of shops, beautiful parks, interesting museums and galleries, and I barely have the energy to get out of bed. Oh, cruel fate!

I did manage to get across the street yesterday to the natural foods shop. Heavenly! I roamed the aisles for 45 minutes or so, reveling the huge variety of organic foods, all-natural household supplies, and more. Germans seem very keen on “clean and natural.” I’ve seem people of all ages riding bicycles around town, in suits as well as sport clothes. The streets and parks are amazingly clean, and recycling seems fully integrated into the culture. There is rarely just one trash bin, but instead two or three in a row for the different kinds of trash. I haven’t figured all that out yet – who would have thought it would be so complicated to throw away your garbage! I went to the pharmacy to get some relief from my cold, and I couldn’t even get drugs with actual drugs in them. One pharmacist recommended a decongestant “from flowers.” Another gave me an “all-natural” nasal spray. Maybe they are better you in the long run, but geez, give me some Nyquil and good old-fashioned chemicals to make me feel better now!

Germans are also conscientious with natural resources, as well. Escalators that start up when a person approaches, instead of running constantly, using electricity, when no one is riding on them. Hallway lights that turn on as you walk along the corridor, instead of burning constantly when no one is around. There’s a little sign in my hotel bathroom encouraging use of the towels more than one time, so as to conserve on water usage.

So, given all this obsession with clean, conservation, and natural, it is a real surprise to see about 2 out of 3 people, of all ages, smoking up a storm. And they smoke everywhere, inside and outside. A no-smoking section in a restaurant? Hah! Even in Ukraine, I can (usually) get a no-smoking table, even if it is in the corner next to the bathroom. During our coffee breaks during last week’s workshop, all the smokers headed to the break room to light up and have a cup of coffee. I was not alone in being surprised by the smoking inside, and the utter lack of consideration for the non-smokers. Yuck, I hate smoking so much! It’s such a bizarre contradiction to be surrounded by Germans and German residents who seem so committed to a healthy lifestyle (bike riding, organic foods, natural medicines), and then these same people are sucking chemical-laden smoke into their lungs and spewing it back out in the faces of everyone around them.

Well, I’m hoping my non-drug drugs will kick in today and give me some relief so I can get out and enjoy the town. On the other hand, I won’t be missing much today. The country is closed on Sundays, and most shops close at 8 pm on other days of the week. I think I missed my window of shopping opportunity yesterday when I was comatose in my hotel room. I’ll be in training sessions at the UNV headquarters until 6 or 6:30 for the next two days, which won’t leave much time (or energy) for anything else in the evenings. Looks like I’ll be getting most of my presents at Duty Free on Wednesday morning!