Kulture 4

Dinner For Who
It is quite interesting that the "Dinner for One" is so such an popular English short film in Germany while it is never shown in the UK or in the US.  It is also really surprising and interesting that "The Sound of Music" is not widely known in Germany, while it is usually considered a truly classic movie in many countries. These phenomena make me keep wondering how it happened.

Sorry, We're Closed
I have known for a while the fact that stores in Germany are usually closed when you have free time. However, it is still quite interesting and entertaining to read this article.
Being used to the open-till-midnight or the open-24-hour stores, I really want to try to live in Germany with a couple of friends for a while. It must be a lot of fun to run into the "Sunday starvation" situation together. And the fact that we may have to survive by finding Gas and Train stations seems to be a lot of fun too.
However, it is also surprising that the store will shut the door when people arrive at the closing time. Even considering the fact that people working in the store want to get home or get to somewhere, I still don't like it very much.

Booze Brothers
The most interesting facts I found are that men who are not fathers also celebrate the Father's Day in Germany, and that men get together and celebrate without women. It seems to be a different way to enjoy teh Father's Day, but personally my mom and I may prefer to spend the day with my dad together for a trip to a national park. Maybe it is a good idea to go to Germany to experience Männertag with the whole family. :)

A Visit to Germany's Christmas Markets
The fact that merchants stay in the small wooden huts in the ancient centers of cities and towns for the Christmas markets reminded me a lot of the White Christmas scenes in many fairy tales. It somehow also made me feel home and peaceful. However, at the same time the Christmas Markets also seem to be really crowded, as it is considered as a "mini Oktoberfest". The Christmas Markets may be really similar to the Lantern Festival in China, which always takes place on the 15th day of each lunar year.

Bern
Spending a day cycling surrounded by Swiss hills and sunshine seems to be so much fun! From meeting wired strangers at the Breakfast from Co-op, to enjoying the morning sunshine and fresh air when getting up in the tent,  everything seems so attractive!

Die Brüder Grimm
Their collection of fairy tales were my favorite books for a really long time when I was a kid. I feel that even though die Brüder Grimm only collected and compiled all the fairy tales, their fairy tales still have "die Brüder Grimm " style. Even when I was a kid, I was always able to somehow tell whether it was a story from Andersen or from die Brüder Grimm.

Karneval, Fasching, Fastnacht
I really like Karneval, even though I haven't experienced it myself. It will be so much fun to just have six days off and have fun with everyone. However for Halloween, we had a lot fun but without having days off, so we still had to keep in mind that midterms are somewhere close around. Karneval also seems to have a huge amount of delicious food, which is always my favorite.

Fest- und Feiertage
I feel that Germany has a lot of holidays, and a lot of them are really celebrated with parties, fireworks and delicious food. It's really nice to finishing the culture reading with this article, as all the holiday celebrations really bring up a cheerful holiday atmosphere. I'm also a little jealous, as people in Germany seem to have fun all the time.