Culture

This post will be about the differences in culture.
Enjoy.

Recycling
In America, there is recycling and most people do it, but its mainly things like paper, glass bottles, cans and things like that. In germany, everybody does it! and its pretty much required. In every house, everyone has 4 or 5 different types of trash cans. Things for glass bottles, plastic bottles (more about that later), paper, food waste, plastic things, and other items with this little arrow on it. Its crazy. It takes some getting used too. Another thing is at train stations or other public places, they don't have a trash can for everything. Its split into 4 different containers. Its quite confusing trying to figure it all out.
Everytime you buy a plastic bottle, its the price of the bottle +25 cents. Once your done with your drink, you can go to any supermarket and it has a machine where you put in the bottle. It crunches it up, and gives you a receipt for 25 cents. This encourages people to recycle because you would be stupid not to do it. Its like throwing away money.

Patriotism
It almost doesn't exist here. In american, you see american flags everywhere! In front of schools, houses, supermarkets pretty much everywhere! Its because the flag reminds us of are freedom, it shows we fought, and still will fight to keep that freedom.
Here in germany, people relate the flag to the army. Many people are still quite ashamed of WW2 even though its not their fault. Theres been a few times in the past century where germans were proud of showing their flag. When the Wall came down, in the 2006 FIFA world cup because it was hosted here, and in Euro 08 because they made it so far.

Food
Food is amazing here. Its always great and theres plenty of it. Nobody ever makes to less.
The breakfasts are my favorite part though. They warm up bread, and put 4 differnt butters, about 6 differnt meats, 3 differnt jelleys, cheese, pretty much anyhting. If you want it, they have it. The only thing i cant eat is meat paste... its literaly meat turned into a paste and its in a tube......
Another thing about food is how they eat it. The keep their fork in their left hand and and their knife in their right. It doesn't matter if your right or left handed. They think its funny how americans switch hands to cut food, or don't use knives at all and use their fork to cut it. They also keep they're wrists on the table when they're eating and when they're done, THEY CAN STICK THEIR ARMS ON THE TABLE. As kids, apparently they are discouraged from keeping their hands under the table, which is the complete opposite in america!
I've glady adopted this custom.
And i now twirl my spaghetti with a spoon.
They dont have free refills at restaraunts.
All their water is carbonated. Its really difficult to find just a plain bottle of water... I have been forcing myself to drink the carbonated water for the pasty 3 months and i still cant do it without cringing...ahh.

Transportation
The public transportation system here is really great, compared to America. They are occasionaly but you can generaly rely on them. Most towns have buses and a transtation. A smaller town may not have as many trains coming as often as a bigger city but you still get a decent amount. With my 25% BahnCard, i gets 25 percent off all tickets, its a pretty sweet deal.

Drivers lisences are really difficult to get here. You have to take i think10 or 12 hours of theoretical and then after that, around 20-30 hours driving with an instructure. And you have to pay for every hour with them. The tota price for getting the lisence ranges from 1500 - 2000 Eu. Thats crazy. PLus the driving age is 18.

Movie Theaters
In Movie theaters, you can't just sit wherever you want. You have an assigned seat....... I found this extremely odd.

J-Walking
It doesn't really exist here. Its not even a temptation. You just don't do it. IT doesnt matter if there are no cars and the light thing is red.....they stand there untill it turns green.

Drinking Age
The drinking age here is extremely relaxed. I still haven't gotten a straight answer on what the drinking age. I'm pretty sure its 16 for beer and wine and 18 for hard liquor. But it was supposedly changed last new year to 18 for everything. Whenever i ask, my answer is split between the 16 & 18 and only 18. AFS, my organization says its 16.

School
The schedule changes everyday and the rooms change frequently too. Classes are normaly two 45 minute periods in a row.
They take gym class serious here.....a little to serious for me....
I'm too used to
"Lenio! i'm not running today."
"Why not?"
"I dont really feel like it..."
"....Well.....ok"



Theres a couple more things on my list but i think ill save them for another time. I hope you enjoyed it. suggest any other things you want to hear about

I havent forgotten about this

I'm going to make a post about culture soon but i figured if im going to do it, i should make it good. I'm even making notes so i wont forget anything.. It will mainly be about the differences in culture...

i would translate the article from my previous post to english but i cant yet. i will try in a few months to see if my germans is improving.
Liebe Grüße!

John

Gettin Famous

I was recently featured in an article in a local newspaper.

It meens "I find Germany great!"
I acutally didn't say that.
I didn't say anything.
They just wrote that!

Mail Me!

If anybody wants to send me a letter or a postcard(or Reeses Peanut Butter Cups), you can send them to this address:

John Rogan - Leimbach
Bäckerstieg 23
06449 Aschersleben
Germany

Thanks!

"I have both buttons, so i'm right either way."

Nothing much has been happening lately. I went golfing last weekend and i didn't do to horrible. Golfing is actually pretty fun and i cant wait until im better at it. I can't go and play on the course unless thomas is there because i need a license for it.

I had to get dressed up...i didn't wear the hat though..

Thomas was invited by the U.S General Consulat to an election party in Leipsig. There we're over 300 people there and it was pretty cool. They had a singer there who was dressed up like elvis and singing elvis songs. It was pretty entertaining.
It's crazy to think that people in other countrys, like germany, care what is going on in America. I guess it just shows how imporant this election is. It was pretty funny to see everybody wearing Obama buttons and the Mccain buttons laying in shunned piles. For every 1 Mccain button i saw, there we're 6 or 7 Obamas.
I took a quiz about the election process for america and i got everything right so they called me up around 12:30 A.M. and i recieved an "American Roots" CD and a magazine about it.

Thomas and I had some time before the party so we went to a place where they used to keep cannons stored for wartime but i cant remember what it was called. Its now a bar/ restraunt and it was pretty cool... it was all undergound and the food was cheap. It started to fill up when we were leaving. The have one room that can sit about 25 seats and they show soccer games for free.

We also went to Völkerschlachtdenkmal which is the tallest monument in Europe. It was dark but they had lights on it so you could still see it. ITS SO BIG.

I don't update this blog much because nothing interesting is happening! If anybody ( about the 4 readers that i have) has any suggestions about what you think i should write about or what you would like to hear, post in the comments.

There are some more pictures that i will post but i don't have them yet.