Kultur 3

I thought these articles were really interesting. It's pretty crazy, and awesome, how many different types of beers they have in Germany. The statistic that they have 3/4 the breweries in the entire EU is staggering. It's no wonder that people aren't too keen to go along with bans on public drinking. That's definitely a tricky issue. I'd love to be able to casually have a drink outside, or while walking around with friends, but I understand why it's hard to draw a line between this responsible behavior and the public drunkeness on the other end of the spectrum. I also liked the article about the "eco-centrism" in Germany - sounds a lot like the collegetown I grew up in! I think it's great that the demand for organic foods is transforming the farming industry to encourage farmers to stop using chemicals, etc.

The articles about German humor/pessimism were also great - I think I would fit in pretty well there. My family and I joke that our German relatives are completely, stereotypically humorless, but it's true that they have a dry, biting sense of humor that is pretty amusing. Deadpan is my favorite, so I think I would be a big fan of the typical Hamburger. I'm also extremely pessimistic, so I kind of like their gloomy outlook. I'm starting to think I should just drop out of school and move to Germany...