Starting Work Tomorrow

This afternoon, after about 6 weeks of waiting, I picked up my work permit. I will start work tomorrow as the part-time community manager at an online community for independent and online authors in the US. The company is based in Munich with an established online community in Germany and a fledgling one in the US.

I'll be sure to keep everyone updated as to funny German work habits and interesting stories.

For now, I do have one short German idiosyncracy to share: crazy hair colors. I saw an older lady walking down the street the other day with what looked like a wig.

"Must be a wig," I remember thinking because it was a color that naturally could not live on anyone's head! It's hard to explain it exactly, but it was between lavender and fuschia. But really, I think I've seen just about every hair color under the sun--blue streaks, florescent purple, fire-engine red, neon green. To add to your mental picture, the hair's usually teased up and dry due to the over-dyeing of it.

My hypothesis is that it's a way to exert their devil-may-care attitude in a country where people generally do not stand out that much. Over all, I really enjoy seeing what hair colors I'll come upon that day. It's sort of like a safari in the city.