Kultur 3

I've been to Germany once in my life, during my Senior year of high school. I knew that they liked their beer, but I was actually stunned at the amount of alcohol they produce in Germany. Three-quarters of the breweries in the European Union are located in Germany, and they have over 5,000 different kinds of beers. It's extraordinary. I also really liked how they broke down all the different types of beer they have in Germany, and they even included a hangover rating. Even just the idea of walking down the street with a drink seems so cool that it makes me want to visit Germany on my next vacation. This being the first blog assignment I've actually done, it's absolutely fascinating to read about the drinking, eating and even living habits of Germans. I really enjoyed the article about Germans being health-conscious and partial to organically grown food, not only because it was interesting and I could totally identify with it, but because up until that point I had always sort of thought of Germans as a gluttonous people. Not necessarily unhealthy, but most certainly large and constantly gorging on Fleisch and bier. Now I know that only one of those elements is true, or at least mostly true.
And to continue on the subject of beer, I also enjoyed reading the article on the "politics" of drinking. I always thought that when other countries allowed drinking to go on so unchecked they had fewer problems with drunks and general drunkenness than we did. A country with no drinking age wouldn't have rebellious teens going out and getting sloshed all the time just for giggles, because they can drink literally any time they want. But to hear that a country with an alcohol culture as rich as Germany's is having issues with public drunkenness, youth binge drinking and just general alcoholism is a little bit surprising to say the least. I wonder if this whole alcohol awareness is a recent thing, or if it's been an issue for a while.
My favorite quote out of all the articles was from the one on Germans and their organic food obsessions. "Organic has gone mainstream."