Observations

So I've noticed a few things about Germany since I've been here for the past month and a half.

1. High latitude. Germany has a pretty high latitude, putting it as far north as southern Canada. This is most noticeable with how long the days last here. It starts getting dark around 9:30 PM and it's bright outside by 5 AM. It might get lighter sooner than that but I haven't been out of bed that early. I did wake up at 4 AM once and I almost couldn't go back to sleep because the birds were singing too loudly.

2. Air Conditioning. Germans don't believe in air conditioning. None of our apartments have it, the trains don't have it, and the research institute doesn't have it. Which is usually fine because with that high latitude comes lower temperatures. However, on the days that it reaches the mid 80's it gets pretty uncomfortable. Especially when you can't go inside to get away from it.

Apparently, Germans all believe the myth that if you have cold air blowing on you that it will make you sick. I've heard this most in relationship to getting kidney infections, you can't let your back get cold or you'll get a kidney infection. I didn't really know that kidney infections were a thing.

3. Alcohol free beers. They have all kinds of alcohol free beers here. I knew that Germans love their beer but I didn't realize that this extended to the alcohol free kind. In the U.S. there's one kind (that I'm aware of, I wouldn't say that I'm really in the know). Apparently, they love beer so much that they still want to drink it when their pregnant (or in other situations where you wouldn't want alcohol).

4. Pork and Potatoes. Germans love pork. In fact the only two traditional meat dishes I can think of are bratwurst (pork) and schnitzel (pork). Even though I've been here over a month I've had chicken maybe twice and beef maybe twice (and always at american style restaurants). It's been pork all the other times. With their pork they usually have potatoes, typically cubed and boiled.

5. Environmental awareness. Germans are very environmentally friendly. There are always three (or more) garbage cans to separate your trash into. I'm not very good at knowing which one to put my trash in so I usually just put it in the "restwaste" container and hope that nobody is looking. Also, here at the institute the lights in the hallways are motion sensor. They typically remain off unless somebody is walking down the hall. Several times I've stopped in the hallway to read something on the wall and had the lights turn off around me.

6. Pay bathrooms. I've mentioned this before but it's important to carry fifty cents around at all times in case of emergencies. Germany is pretty socialist as far as education goes so it's interesting that they are not socialist at all when it comes to bathrooms.

That's all I can think of right now. I'll let you know if I can think of anything else.