Bit of a late German Wednesday this time, because I’ve spent all this morning under my bedsheet cover, dosed up on painkillers, trying to get rid of a headache. Yay me!

The first thing that struck me in my first weekend in Koeln was the amount that people just outright stared at us. In all fairness, I assumed it was due to us speaking English and lugging suitcases around, making complete and utter fools of ourselves – who wouldn’t be staring? Also, with English proficiency being something that a great deal of Germans aim towards, you will find yourself being stared at while speaking English because they probably just want to concentrate and see if they can understand what you’re saying.

I know that a lot of the British assistants get quite frustrated with it at times; after all, staring at someone is considered quite rude in the U.K. Does anyone remember a time when, as a child, they stared at something/or someone and then got told ‘Don’t stare!!’ by a guardian? We’re taught that it’s rude to stare, so people in the U.K get sneaky with it. They’ll stare but then as soon as the object of their attention turns towards them, they’ll quickly avert their eyes. In Germany however, it’s not uncommon to have a staring contest on the U-Bahn!

Obviously I’m not saying that every German stares at me rudely on the U-Bahn, but it seems to be less of a big deal if you are. Someone in the U.K’s feathers are likely to be ruffled if someone persistently stared at them. Perhaps it’s more of a case that the British try to stare into open space on a packed train, whereas Germans don’t really give a toss if they just happen to be staring at someone, they’re not really thinking about them anyway.

I’m definitely not the only one who noticed this, there’s a Facebook group entitled ‘You know you’ve studied abroad in Germany when…’, and at number 14… ‘You know what the “German stare” is’.