Kultur 8, Alex Hodge

Sometimes, I find these articles on German culture a bit broad or hard to believe. This is one of those times. Especially the idea that an entire nation – one that apparently has a problem getting people to stop educating themselves – has the same strange compunction with moving air. I can understand how one might think that being in a drafty building or car on a wet or cold day could be less than healthy (it’s certainly less than comfortable), but I can’t imagine the kind of culture-wide conditioning it would take to keep people from cracking a window on a sweltering day in the middle of summer. Maybe it’s just the reckless American in me, but I’d risk getting the sniffles if it meant avoiding getting baked like a potato in a car or a sweaty office. Maybe it’s just a cultural obsession with climate control, since another of the articles focused on the apparent German obsession with saunas (I didn’t have nearly as much of a problem with this article, though it also seems a bit broad. But hey, I love a good steam too. Maybe I’m biased).

To completely change the subject, words have yet to be created which can adequately express my jealousy of German Studenten.  Of all the problems a nation could have with its higher education system, making prolonged studies less attractive barely even counts. I’m surprised there are any Germans actually working instead of enjoying the wonderful and heavily subsidized academic paradise just waiting behind the 150ish Euro registration fee. I, for one, would never stop stockpiling degrees.