Kultur 7

For Kultur 7 I started out by reading the "What Discipline? Of German Lines and Pythons" article, which I found to be really interesting. Although the author did seem to come across a little over zealous at times, mainly when discussing the effects garlic will have on the German population, I wasn't really expecting for lines in Germany to have such a drastic difference from American lines. It came as quite a surprise that the lines were compared to "a six-meter long python wrestling with its soon-to-be devoured prey" when I was expecting a similar measure of restriction that was afforded to cross-walks. I think that those are just two really good examples of how German and American culture differ, in the strangest of ways.

I also read through some of the posts made on the USA kulinarisch and noticed the seemingly cultural fascination that Germany has in regards to Americans sweets. A majority of the recipes that I came across all surrounded a need to satisfy their sweet-tooth. I found it interesting that America's array of sweet food and desserts in what was focused on out of all the other possible dishes and meals that could have been chosen.

To continue on with the slight theme of food, I noticed in "365 Dinge" that a lot of the things presented were connected to food, beverages, or just dining in general. I think that this just shows how essential food is to tourism for not just Germany but for every country. The tourist guides for America are filled with the most enticing dishes and restaurants that are a necessity in order to fully indulge and understand American culture. The entrees concerning food in "365 Dinge" ranged from McDonald's to the Hühnerhaus, where it's possible to get a delicious meal at 2:30 in the morning. Overall from all of my readings I found that the German and American cultures remain to me to only differentiate in small, distinct ways. I think that if you were to look at both generally they still follow the same guidelines, but at some instances choose to pick opposite ways of handling them. I think history has more of an impact on how each society and culture is shaped today which explains most of the differences between the countries.