sharing is caring

Those who commute on public transit know that it is a world with rules of it’s own.  Luckily, public transit in Germany is of a higher class than most , but today I realized there is one aspect I miss from the US.  Where I come from, it is acceptable etiquette to leave your newspapers on the chair during the morning commute only, and in a tidy manner.  I completely agree, as nothing can be so terrifying as a 30 minute MUNI trip on the 38 with a dead iPod and no other option for avoiding eye-contact.

Of course, one must recognize that what we call sharing during the morning commute is called trash during the evening ride.  Here, however, the first time I left my neatly folded papers on the SBahn, I was scolded by some old lady.  I don’t mind tossing my trash, but it does break my heart to see people tossing away their unwanted NYT/SZ-English-language papers.  Or even worse, as witnessed this week, a shiny new People magazine.  As if the rest of the train is not interested in the most shocking Bachelor finale to date.  Or even more interested to know how such drivel can still be on TV in a society where MTV does not have a monopoly on all English-language programming.

Business idea of the day, 1: free daily paper.  Is this only an American thing, or are office drones in Berlin, Paris, and London happily whiling away their commute with two-column summaries of world events, equal ink to arts and entertainment, and pages of comics, crosswords, and sudoku?

Business idea of the day, 2: cupcake cafe.  According to the Sunday paper, these are now ‘in’ in Germany.  As they have already finished the entire coolness cycle in the US and been replaced by macarons about 6 months ago, I see great potential to use my superior market understanding to take over the pink-frosted world.

those crazy kids

May is such a good time of year in Germany. So many holidays I don’t even know what they’re about. Just that most of them require some thanks to the Catholic government tools. Although I think this week we have the Socialists to thank.

This weekend was augmented with a Friday off, which gave us lots of time to spend with the German’s friend visiting from Stuttgart. They have two small kids. As anyone who has spent time with kids knows, it’s hard enough communicating with a 3-year-old who speaks the same language as you. When they are speaking German Schwaebisch, it’s game over before you start. I made a valiant effort, but after I realized the kid had been saying “Fanta!” on repeat for the past five minutes, I gave up.

Also, kids think it’s funny to kick people under the table. I think it’s pretty funny to kick them right back while maintaining total dignity above the table, but you always run the risk that they’re going to open their big mouths and announce to the general audience what you’re up to. Sometimes you can pass that off as hyperactive kids making stuff up, but luckily this time it was not necessary.