what I learned in Crailsheim

So the picture in the post before this is of Elena and myself at the fountain decorated with Eater eggs in Crailsheim in front of the Church.





This post contains a photo of Dieter and myself in the same spot.

Aside from learning SO many new German words, thanks to a thousand questions I posed to Dieter, I got some cultural experiences as well.

My two new German words, both which represent a good part of the culture
1) Reinheitsgebot- German purity law for Beer; and
2) Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung- Speed Limit

for #1- they can ONLY use 4 ingredients, the purest water from the deepest wells, hopps, malt, and yeast. Anything else is ILLEGAL. yeah, it's serious stuff here. (Budweiser the sponsor of the FIFA world cup in Germany-ha!)
#2-this doesn't exist on the Autobahn for most places, only where there is high traffic. Otherwise there is no speed limit. With that I learned the next part,

• Dieter drives fast in the "Dietermobile" Since Dieter loves his PT Cruiser so much, we appropriately named it the Dietermobile.
• Germans wash clean cars (They have NO concept of what dirty is. Minnesotans get it. When you can't see your lights at night becuase they're too covered with dirt, when you forget what color car you have, when it's a struggle to see out your windsheild when light hits it...that's dirty. Germans see specks by their tires and drive through the auto wash
• Germans don't have smooth driveways. They must wear out their schocks on their cars so fast because they have raised driveways and often they park on the curb. Not by it, ON it.
• Mountain Dew is not the same in Germany. It does not burn your throat like in America, it's an actual drink. When the heck did this occur. I missed the burning sensation of that first carbonation hitting my tonsils and making me cringe because of the bubbles and the cold. Yeah. That's the stuff.
• German beds are SO easy to make. They have their fitted sheet on bottom then a comforter. Fluff your pillow , straigten the sheet and you're done.
• The window shades are actually useful. It's like a metal plate that rolls down to keep out any and all possible sunlight. Not like american venetian blinds--those suck. With these i feel that I'll be able to sleep in, and survive a nuclear blast.
• I met a 5 year old whose German is better than mine. That was embarrassing.

For Dieter- A Golden Cadillac consists of:

1 oz Galliano

2 oz White Creme de Cacao

1 oz creme

1/2 cup of Ice (or you could substitue the creme and ice for ice cream)

Til tomorrow.

Spaeter Tagen,

Rick