How Alaskans Tell Their Guests Time’s Up

When septic systems are new to you you want to learn about them. When you move from one country to another, you will be exposed to different cultural habits even when both countries have common roots. Read a funny story of Alaskan immigrants who didn’t get that the host wanted them to go home.

Alaskans Welcome New Alaskans

Alaskans are very friendly. When someone is new in the area, everybody invites them to make them feel welcome in the community. Thus, when we moved to Alaska in 2001 we were invited a lot – neighbors, colleagues, friends of new friends. It’s quite different from what you experience when you move to another town in Germany. After a move within Germany, the first months are pretty non-social until you have built up a new circle of friends.

There Is No End Time on Invitations in Germany

In Alaska, any invitation no matter whether it is a party, dinner, wedding reception, baby shower, bridal party, you name it, has a given start and end time. For the usual mid European adding an end time to an invitation seems quite weird, odd, and may be even unwelcome. To be honest, I even overlooked it in the first invitation (emails) I got in Alaska when RSVPing.

Big mistake! It is the custom to remember the time and to just stand up even in the middle of a nice conversation, swallow down the rest of the drink and thank for the invitation, tell the hostess how delicious the meal was, the host how great the party and wine were, say goodbye and leave.

Watch the Time for the End Time

The first time, I saw guests leaving what in my opinion was “in the middle of a conversation” was at a dinner party with just two couples invited, a colleague and his wife and my husband and I. I thought that the host must have insulted my colleague somehow, but that I had missed what the insult was. Maybe he or his wife had just to be up early the next day and they had lost track of the time. Since it was in the middle of a great conversation we said good bye to them and sat down again. The host and hostess brought them to the door and came back to the table afterwards.

Known When to Go

At that time, I did not know that typically dinner parties end at 10, may be 10:30 pm. I wanted to pick up the conversation where we had stopped. However, before I was able to open my mouth our host asked whether we are on the city waste-water line or have a septic system. “The house has a septic system” my husband replied. The host continued asking questions about the septic system in the house we had rented. Then he continued on talking about their septic system and the experiences they had made with it.

Septic Systems Talk Is the Sign to Go

Not having had to deal with a septic system ever before, not to mention with a septic system in the sub-arctic, we were listening like little kids to a grandfather’s story telling. Time flew by with a lot of laughter and with a sudden I realized that it was already 1:30 am! We thanked the hosts and left. Do I have to say that we were never invited by them again?

Three Times Septic System Talk Lit a Light

After we had been the last guests for the third time with the same conversation after all other guests had left, we realized that Alaskans start talking about their septic systems when they want their guests to leave! Thus, after getting it, I never stayed so long that the hosts had to take this secret weapon.

I Felt so Naïve

In the aftermath, I felt quite dumb. I even apologized to the hosts and they were astonished about my doing so. Today I laugh about it 🙂 and put it into the “drawer” of funny events due to cultural differences. Immigrating to a different country was quite a learning curve even though both cultures are western cultures.

Have you ever had a situation where you absolutely did not get what your host was telling you? How did you feel about it later?

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Photos: G. Kramm

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