Dear Germany,

I can’t thank you enough for the amazing time my family had last year. We truly enjoyed the majority of our experiences and even the ones that didn’t blow us away certainly taught us something.

I’ll start with the very few things we were okay saying goodbye to when we returned home. All three of us loved the outdoor culture that you celebrate. But, can we leave certain aspects of the outdoors, you know, outdoors? I think you know that I am talking about the lack of screens on your windows. I love that your climate is moderate enough that windows open is the default mode for ventilating most homes and businesses. I love that windows can actually be open several ways (wide open from the bottom or middle or cantilevered from the top). What I didn’t love was the lack of screens on said windows.

I’m not going to lie, Germany, I spent much of my indoor time during our first four months either outright killing all of the bugs that came in our apartment, or dumping them back outside. A true exercise in futility. My husband had a coworker tell him that if you had screens, how would the bugs leave your home? What if they couldn’t get in to start with?

Another small tweak, you might want to consider Germany, are your pillows. I know that this makes me sound like a super spoiled American brat, but your pillows could not be flatter or less supportive. I think I have slept on folded blankets that were fluffier. To be fair, pillow fluff is a personal preference, but when a eurosham needs to be folded in half twice to offer any type of support, I don’t think you can call it a pillow any longer.

And, the last thing is something truly awesome about the US that a lot of people here want to change: the mail service. The US Post Office takes a lot of flak for being an inefficient waste of tax dollars. And moving to another developed country, I just assumed that the mail service would be just as top notch. After all, Germany you are famous for taxing citizens for government services Americans barely even consider. And then doing those things really, really well (cough, cough, health care).

You do have a government based carrier, DeutschePost, which delivers anything government related. But, Germany, you also have like four other carriers. Some of which deliver letters, some deliver packages, and some deliver both. Your mailboxes can be accessed by any of these carriers. And as the deliveree, you might have a tracking number, but you don’t have any idea which of the carriers actually has your stuff.

A funny story to illustrate my point… My husband’s and my birthdays are exactly 28 days apart (with my husband’s being the first), both of which fell during our stay. My mother-in-law sent our cards at the same time. And I mean literally, same day, same minute, from the same post office in the States. I received my card one day before my husband’s birthday and six days after it was postmarked in the States. My husband’s card showed up a week before my birthday. And it had the same postmark as my card.

Now, Germany, I’m not saying your mail service is the worst. You never lost a package, although we did have to claim things at customs a time or two. All of our mail eventually found us, but we definitely had to play a game of mail roulette to figure out when things might be arriving. So if it’s alright, I think I’ll keep my US Post Office.

And let’s be fair, if this is all I’m complaining about, then that means you did a lot of stuff right, Germany. From the outdoor perspective, we loved your playgrounds and parks. I am sure my son and I visited every single playground in a 5 kilometer radius. Every one of them was awesome. And my husband and I are crazy missing our bikes. I mean, we have bikes in the US, but we don’t live in an area where they are a viable transportation option.

And on the subject, let me thank you Germany, for showing us a low waste lifestyle. Truthfully, our family is pretty low waste as compared to the average American family. But Germany, you really showed us several areas where we can still improve. I already used reusable grocery bags (in fact, they came with us), but I never stopped to think about all the plastic bags I was putting produce in. Since I shopped so much more frequently, I bought fewer things and had a tendency to just put them directly in my basket. A practice I have chosen to continue back in the States.

More frequent shopping resulted in less food waste. So that’s another thing I’ve brought home, Germany. I was always a meal planner/prepper, but now I take even more care to make sure that our produce is washed and ready to go and is easily visible in our (much larger) fridge.

Mostly, Germany, I’d like to say thank you to your people. Especially where we lived in Niedersachsen, the people were so friendly. I met several mothers at the playgrounds that immediately adopted my son and I. They took the time to show us the ropes and make sure we had great friends during our stay.

You guys love kids and I love that. It made having our three year old with us so much easier. We may not have spoken German, but people were always willing to smile and say hello to the little guy and help us out if we needed it. Restaurants come equipped with children’s play areas and the number of programs available to entertain kids (in addition to the outdoor recreation) blew my mind.

Germany, our experience was pretty awesome, but the people put it so far over the top. We made some great friends and made some amazing memories, too. So, thank you for everything, Germany, even your bugs and flat pillows!

Love, Melissa