Post Titled: ACH! Wie Schööön!
Post Subtitled: By the way, blogspace is not rantspace... usually.

I don't ever DELETE things from this blog, what goes in goes in and maybe I add to it but I never delete or take back things I said. Having said that, the other day's post (most recent big crtitcism of Germany) well- that day was one of those days when I was upset and started ranting, one of those days indeed... yesterday and today I feel much better. I walked through the Gendarmenmarkt Weinachtszauber Christmasmarket and thought "Oh, glad the Eintritt booth isn't up yet because it just seems wrong to pay to enter a shopping area... You goofballs, I can't believe they had that many mistakes in their website..." (I did some freelance weeding-out all the Denglischisms from the Germish and removing all the unwitting brutalisims and offensivisms. Some mistakes are still there but I don't really care anymore, they didn't add all my corrections, -their fault.)
But seriously, the Weinachtsmarkt is really nice, and I have been to dozens over the years, this one stood out... or maybe I am just extra hungry and have no super quality of life so it seemed like wonderland full of crazy consumer items: wood swords for the kids, thick handmade wool sweaters and all that stuff. The aesthetic stuff...

BUT, as I said, I am not alwaaays so charmed with Germany. The main detail missing from my rant regarding Robert's description of Spießigkeit in Stuttgart is the Saturday morning street sweeping - which also happens all over Germany, I believe- (or does it?)
"Dude, it is like- atound here- if you don't get up Saturday morning and spend an fucking hour sweeping the street and the sidewalk in front of your house then you are a public disgrace."
"Duuuude, I knooow, same thing back in Katzenbach, -who started that anyhow, WHO declared 'OK, every Saturday morning EVERYONE must go out to sweep their part of the street and sidewalk, or ELSE!' Or else you are looked down upon for not being a conformist and a neat-freak."

I always felt that this socially-forced labor was in some way insulting to the human spirit... and just creepy.
When we first moved to Germany in 1993, we pretty much thought: "Oh, how nice, the Germans are so neat and tidy and they actually CARE about how clean their neighborhoods are..." but now, although it very well may be all of those things, I just see the activity as an extreme of social programming... do we do similar things? Hmm... I return bottles for money... but that is because I get money back... I recycle... out of guilt... hm. There must be a comparison to the street sweeping thing...

SO, I wouldn't say I have a love-hate relationship with Germany, more like: joyed-annoyed-