Kultur 3

The "Optimists are Idiots" article seemed quite ridiculous to me; I'm not sure whether the author is serious about pessimism being an overwhelming characteristic of Germans today. It seems more just a (satirical) exaggeration of a stereotype. Pessimism is based on an individual, not an ethnicity or even the history of a culture. I mean, stereotypes are exaggerations themselves, so I guess it's not too surprising. I've met many optimistic Germans, and I have pessimistic American friends.

A more satisfying (and useful) article was the one regarding German Fast Food. In my trip to Austria and Germany this past Spring, I saw a lot of Schnellimbiss, especially in Salzburg. My group and I usually stopped by the little stands and got "hot dogs"; I thought I had a picture of that, but I don't. I do have a picture from Munich, and in the background you can see a little cafe/shop where they had all sorts of prepared food. I'd put other food pictures here, but they're more or less embarrassing. We also had a LOT of Schnitzel, probably because it was the easiest meal to serve to 80+ hungry musicians. Wiener Schnitzel (with pork)was definitely in there, and we had another type of meat as well, maybe the veal? I think my favorite experience with "new" cultures is the food and I thought the article did a decent job describing the "Fast Food" of Germany. It seems pretty consistent with what I experienced!