Random Observations From Germany

After spending a week in Germany earlier this month, I have the following random observations:

• Trains and buses: Don't worry about the schedule, just go to the stop/station and the train or bus you need will come in 5 minutes.  A lot of people ride bikes.  No time wasted checking tickets - it is honor system, they assume you bought whatever ticket is required
• Very paper conscious.  Limited use of napkins, paper products.
• The food is good, but anything called "American Cheeseburger has very little resemblance to an American Cheeseburger.
• The computer keyboards are mostly normal, as long as you don't need the "y", "z", "@", or "\" keys
• If you would like a bag with your purchase, in some stores it will set you back an additional 0.25 Euro
• If you are taking pictures of food in the grocery store, and someone comes out yelling "nein photo", you need to stop taking pictures
• In Germany, it is illegal to deny the Holocaust
• Escalators start running as you get on them
• Arrows on signs point down to indicate "straight" (in the US, up indicates straight)
• Most people don't go to church anymore, but they still pay a National church tax
• In France and Germany, even if you speak to people in French/German, somehow they still figure out that you are a foreigner and start talking back to you in English

Don't Shoot the Puppy

I enjoyed playing the game Don't Shoot the Puppy.  On one level it seems stupid, but as a Buddhist I found it to be meaningful and also a good exercise in letting things go.

Warning: Best case scenario, it takes about 15 minutes to play all the way through.

QWOP

Sadly, this is the farthest I could get on QWOP: