Wanna Hear A Joke?

Me oh my, but it has been a long time!

A fair amount has happened since my last post, the most exciting thing being that my nephew was born and he and his parents spent a month and a half with us over the summer. He's the cutest kid in the whole world and I'm not even exaggerating.

I recently completed my third and last co-op rotation with Bosch. There was a whole new group of people that time and I was the only one out of over 20 American co-ops and German interns who has been here before. My roommate that rotation was German, which was pretty cool. Because of that (and partly because I've been making a lot of progress with going out and doing things and talking to people over the last year) I've been able to get to know some of the German interns better than I have in the past. In the process of getting to know them, I also learn more about Germany and what they think of things there vs here in the U.S. so I thought it would be fun to make a post with a list of all the things that they've told me or which I have observed so far along those lines.

1. Everything is bigger here
2. The tomatoes have more flavor here
3. School spirit is nonexistent in Germany. They don't have mascots, school colors, or even t-shirts for their schools. Apparently, people would think you were crazy if you went around wearing a t-shirt for your school.*
4. Everything is sweeter here (except the popcorn. So far that's the only thing we've encountered that we usually eat salty and Germans eat sweet)
5. They have very strong feelings about bread and it's much better in Germany. Theirs is darker, denser, and has a hard crust.
6. Students often take a gap year before they go to university and do a year of service work. One of the German girls worked with the EMS. I think that's really cool because not only are you working to help the community but you're also learning useful skills.
7. In different regions of Germany the people speak what seem to be different dialects. Apparently, these dialects are different enough that they have a formal German which is used in the workplace so that everyone can understand one another. Everyone is adamant that their German is the "right" German.
8. People in Berlin are generally considered very strange by the rest of Germany. In Berlin anything and everything goes.
9. In Germany you cannot simply name you child. The government has to approve the names that you want to use. This is to prevent any names that might prove embarrassing to the child.  
10. Most of the Germans that I have gotten to know grew up in villages of a few thousand people and then moved to a larger city for their studies. 
11. When it comes to meat, they go for the steak here because it's so much cheaper than in Germany
12. In general, they don't get married until they're older (late 20s or later) and often not until they've dated the person for several years. Apparently, Germans don't jump from one relationship to another as often as many Americans do. 
13. Oktoberfest is mostly attended by tourists (unconfirmed)  
14. They have no Santa Clause in Germany. German children receive presents from St. Nicholas 
15. Our water tastes very different. Germans usually drink carbonated water rather than "dead water" and they told me that even when filtered they can taste the chemicals in our water.

There was gobs more, but I can't remember it all. As it comes back to me I may do a second post. :)

*Turns out they do have a limited selection of shirts and sweaters for their schools, but nothing like what we have here