hammering in my head

germans are known for being efficient and organized and i will give them both of those qualities - in fact, thats partly why i wanted to come here: i thought i would fit in, or at least fit in better than i do anywhere else. and i am always so pleased when i find something and think, "that is truly efficient!" and i havent had to think anything other than that except for TWO things which bother me a great deal.

i have found their weakness!

first, german street numbers are not in a logical order. in fact, i dont know how they do it - but they dont put odd numbers on one side and even on the other, which seems very logical to me. here is a picture of my building - note that i am 21.
now i turn from the exact spot i am standing in the middle of the street and take a picture of the building across the street and look at what it is
doesnt make sense!!

to show again, here is my building with my number 21 and the door next to us, number 20.
it's tough because you would never know if you were going the right way down the street until you had walked a few blocks! i used the fancy panoramic function to get a picture of my whole building:
yes, its' very communist era. my door is to the far left.

the other thing that bothers me is, and i have mentioned this before, but now have pictures to show how truly annoying it is, the spines on books do not all face the same way. here are two books from stefan's collection - both facing "up":
now look at what it looks like when i turn those books on their side so that the "front" is still "up":

you can't read the name without turning your head!

here is another picture to illustrate my point:a few weeks ago i was at dussman, basically a german borders or barnes and noble, and spent over 100 € on books i probably dont need. i bring them home and realize they wont stack nicely! the spines are all wrong!!! what is the point of this?? it's so inefficient! and now my book collection will look messed up - as if I had made the mistake. horrible. terrible. i don't know why this dosn't bother more people.