Things which are different in America

Hi all,

Instead of continuing with my "normal" story, I decided to write every now and then a little bit about the small differences between Germany and America. I think it is very interesing to see and notice those tiny little things because normally you expect that America and Germany have many things in common. Here we go:

1. In America, you are allowed to buy a gun when you are very young (the age differs in every state) but you are not allowed to drink alcohol until you're 21!#
2. You are not allowed to drink alcohol in public
3. In many cities, you cant find a sidewalk to walk/or run- it is not common that there are "gehwege" for pedestrians (you can guess why...)
4. 
5. One stereotype about the Americans is that they eat fast food all the time, especially Mc Donalds&Burger King. This is not 100% true. Let me explain this: OF COURSE, there are way more fast food restaurants in America but the fact is that the quality of those fast food restaurants if often really good. For example, I went to a place called "zingermans" yesterday where you can buy sandwiches. My sandwich tasted so good and it had a real "German" bread.
6. Everything is bigger in America! Cars, shopping malls, food packages, just everything! I saw the Michigan Stadium yesterday which seats more than 110.00 people!!!
7. Generally, fast food is much cheaper than in Germany with the exception of pizza...somehow you always need to pay at least 10 dollars for a pizza
8. You can find the house number at the side of the sidewalk
9. The police is..hmm..more strict and frightening- you don't wanna fool around with them
   
10. Clubs close at 2 am in the morning-waaa
11. In America you have mpg (miles per gallon) whereas in Germany you use l/100km (litres per 100 km)
12. The traffic lights are on the right hand side of the street and you're allowed to turn right even if the traffic light is red
    

That's it for the beginning. I think I'll add, from time to time, more and more things to this list. Do not expect my list to be exhaustive or to be correct all the time because I just write down what I see and experience.

Flo