(Conversation at the coffee machine)

‚So, how long are you here for?’
‚Till October 20th’
‚You’ve got awhile, then.’
(affirmative grunt)
‚So what part of the States are you from?’ (I love this question)
‚Colorado’ (blank stare) ‚It’s in the middle. In the mountains’ (this is my standard answer... perhaps one in five Germans know where that is. Perhaps one in 10 Americans could put both Munich and Berlin on a map, and perhaps 1 in 5 German majors could tell you where Rheinland Pfalz is in Germany).
,My stepfather was just in the US. Illinois, I think. That’s not too far from you, right?’
,Em, about a day and a half...’ (eyes widen)
,I guess the distances over there are a bit different...’ (perspective)
,Yes, but in Europe, if you drive the same difference you go through three countries.’ (that’s what I love about it.... drive for a day and a half and you could have gone through Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, France, and Switzerland, probably into Italy. In the US—14 hours of cornfields. I don’t mean to knock Nebraskans, but there is really not much there.)

Many Americans have a lederhosen-oktoberfest-beer-wurst-lack of vocal sound th-sauerkraut-type stereotype of Germans (in case this includes you, this stereotype most closely fits Sound of Music, Austria, and Bavaria in the 1930s. You’ll more likely find a trilingual environmentalist or a radical student anarchist). Many Germans have a hollywood-McDonald’s-cheerleaders-rap music-President Bush-flag waving-bible thumping impression of the US. I’ll take the sauerkraut, thanks.

To get a better picture of life in Germany, I have helpfully collected the following information: (Source: CIA Factbook)

US Germany
Size: 9,631,420 sq km 357,021 sq km
Population: 298,444,215 (July 2006 est.) 82,422,299 (2006 est)
Median age: 36.5 years 42.6 years
Population growth: 0.91% 0.02%
Life expectancy: total population: 77.85 years total population: 78.8 years
male: 75.02 years male: 75.81 years
female: 80.82 years (2006 est.) female: 81.96 years
GDP Per Capita (PPP) $41,800 (2005 est.) $30,400 (2005 est.)
Unemployment: 5.1% (2005 est.) 11.7% (2005 est.)
Public debt: 64.7% of GDP (2005 est.) 67.3% of GDP
Railways: 226,605 km 46,948 km
Roadways: 6,407,637 km 231,581 km
Military expenditures (%GDP) 4.06% 1.5%

So, those were the meaningless numbers. Now for the more important, somewhat more arbitrary numbers:

US Germany
Vacation time 2 – 3 weeks 6 weeks
Price of chocolate (Lindt) $2.50 €1.20
Price of chocolate (Ritter Sport)$2.25 €0.60
Price of wine (drinkable) $7 €3
Price of hamburger or equiv. $4 €2.50 for Döner
Price of Starbucks $4 €4
Price of scoop of ice cream $2.07 €0.60