Kultur 4 - Ben Oztalay

The more we read about German culture, the more I'm surprised. It's cool to learn that bicycling is so well supported in Germany, and that it's such a common mode of transportation, but the cold attitude that bikers and drivers take to pedestrians was unexpected. There's quite a difference between Ann Arbor and parts of Germany! Here, pedestrians rule the city every hour, on the hour. Having said that, it sound like Germans are very safety-conscious. That's why you obey the red hand, and why there are separate bike sidewalks in cities. It's also why you can't start driving at all until you're 18 (you can start driver's ed and be on the road with an instructor when you're 14 in Michigan), and why the driving test and course are so serious. It's almost a joke here, at least in Michigan, so I'm sure that new German drivers are much better than new American drivers.
The prevalence of nudity also caught me off guard. Naked people in public tanning and frolicking just never really came to mind when I thought of Germany before, to be honest. The fact that there was/is such an organized movement is interesting, but I can see why nudity is on the fall lately.