@@lisawhitmire7408 Thanks 😊 I wouldn’t have thought that was a secret message if I had noticed it because she starts every video saying that and shirts with commonly used phrases is common in the USA
I myself am from Europe (Romania). Just want to mention something about the air conditioning thing. I noticed that in some US states the weather can be quite extreme. As a truck driver I traveled all over the US in New England and the northeast states Summers might be more bearable without an AC. But then you try to live a summer in Texas without AC that is more challenging
In some places like northern Minnesota or the UP of Michigan (that little part above Wisconsin), people typically will not have A/C units because summers hit above 70F/20C only for a week or two.
@@D3nn1s 30 "centigrade" = 86 degrees? That would be a nice cool snap. You don't know what you are talking about. For example, the predicted high in a nearby town for the next 10 days - 99, 104, 109, 112, 108, 109, 109, 103, 105, 103. That is common for this time of year.
... A man by the name of Steve Henson, who was from the state of Nebraska, and got a job as a plumber in Alaska in 1949 and was also in charge of feeding the crew he worked with... He came up with the concept of ranch dressing by experimenting with some ingredients and the crew loved it... Years later him and his wife moved to California and had a motel that they called Hidden Valley Ranch even though it really wasn't a ranch. He served the salad dressing He had developed in Alaska years ago at the motel and the people at his motel raved about it ....and the rest is history
I’m American and have lived here all my life, but I have never seen a screen that slides out of the way like the one on your window. Believe it or not Ranch wasn’t a thing here either until sometime in the 1980’s, but when it started it took over, because it’s awesome! I love Ranch!
Same for me. I can remember when Ranch dressing started becoming popular. I remember wait staff in restaurants recommending it. My parents had heard about it somewhere and bought it to try. If not for that, I wouldn't have gambled on trying it in a restaurant and stuck to my favorite blue cheese dressing, or French dressing if they didn't have blue cheese. I remember the special sauce in Big Macs, long before hearing about Ranch dressing..
I'm old enough to remember when ranch dressing wasn't ubiquitous in the US. When I was a kid in the 1960s, the only way to get it was by mail-order from the original Hidden Valley (dude) Ranch in California. It came as a seasoning packet that you mixed with your own buttermilk and mayonnaise. My grandmother used to make it, I think she found out about it from an ad in the Good Housekeeping magazine or something like that.
It didn't really become ubiquitous until the valley girl / surfer dude culture took over teen life everywhere. At that time, pre-internet, it took time for trends to diffuse across the country. In Minnesota it was by the mid 90s at the latest.
Yes. Growing up in the '60's the common salad dressings in restaurants were 1000 Island (my mother would never buy that for us; we only had it a grandma's!), French, Italian and Roquefort. I never heard of Ranch until years after I had moved out of my parents house.
It's funny to me to hear you say, "There's even ranch flavored seasoning in powder form." Historically, that came first and you added milk and mayonnaise to it to make the dressing, and only later could you buy ranch dressing in a bottle already made.
@@david5544g I'm tickled by your phrasing here, "take care" as if knowledge of the deliciousness of ranch made with buttermilk could pose danger- which, to our arteries, maybe! 😂
@@garycamara9955 For the last 50 years the second most prominent ingredient in the mix is powdered buttermilk... The bottle even has a buttermilk version... Two things... One you're wrong and two the fact that you even care so much is a bit disturbing. I'm going to go make some wings...
- beans, rice, flour, sugar in a bag bigger than 1 kg (~2 lb). Everything looked so tiny when I first moved to Europe but now I'm used to it and have my cupboards set up for the small bags and just buy them more frequently. - graham crackers. I use butter cookies, one with chocolate and one without, to make a smore. Also American marshmallows have a coating on the outside to keep it from turning into napalm when you toast it. If Americans have noticed that after removing the crust and retoasting the marshmallow, the inside is different...that's what the entire marshmallow is like with the kind you can buy in Europe (which is probably a recent phenomenon). - Tapatío hot sauce (but you can get Cholula) - chocolate chips...you can find chocolate squares, and I've actually found that taking the extra time to break up chocolate bars for chocolate "chip" cookies is tastier than chips, since the chips need extra stabilizers to hold that shape. - macaroni and cheese powder. That's something a lot of Americans bring back to Switzerland. Fortunately for me, I don't miss it. - hose on the sink. You can buy one that fits the faucet, but it isn't retractable. - Mint candy canes. Almost every candy cane you see in Switzerland is strawberry flavor. I never thought I'd miss that, because I took it for granted in the US and am not a huge candy-cane fan, but I bought some at a Christmas market that were supposedly mint flavor and turned out to be bubble gum flavor and that ended up being the reason I made an order from a website specializing in American foods I mostly don't miss. - Dill pickles.
Dill pickles are fairly easy to make yourself, though. :) As for chocolate, most U.S. chocolate is vasty inferior. Super waxy and full of emulsifiers and artificial additives. The best place to get cheap and decent chocolate in the U.S. is at Trader Joes if you have one near you. They are owned by Aldi (North) and so have a lot of European goods that are re-branded and shipped over under their label. Also Aldi if you have one near you. :)
@@plektosgaming Dill pickles are 100% not easy to make for yourself. I live in Portugal, and finding the smaller cucumbers used for pickles isn't possible, and I've never seen dill in the store, either. Then, you'd need to source the jars, and finally wait 4-6 weeks for the result. How is that easy? Maybe if one had space for a garden to grow the right type of cucumbers and dill? Nothing about that is easy.
@@grizfan93throughout Germany, Poland, Hungary, Serbia it’s quite easy to find these cucumbers as well as dill. Also on room temp. it usually doesn’t take 4-6 weeks.
@@agnesmeszaros-matwiejuk8783 You can easily make "refrigerator pickles" in a few days. Canning to make ones like you see in the store is indeed another issue as sterilizing the jars requires more steps, but I do recommend getting a good setup if you can as it will pay for itself fairly quickly. Especially if you like homemade preserves. :)
I was in advertising in 1970 when I was asked to take on a new client, Hidden Valley Ranch. They were producing a package of herbs & spices which you bought and mixed with buttermilk. You had to find the buttermilk sparately in the store which was sometimes iffy. It was tasty when mixed and it was also good on meats. They called it Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing, and it sold well (probably due to the great advertising I did). It was interesting to watch it go from a boutique food item to completely mixed and bottled dressing. The new stuff is OK, but the original was much better.
I'm still trying to figure out what the stuff is supposed to taste like. There is nothing like that here. The closest are maybe remoulade or cesar's dressing, but those don't come really close either.
Here in southern California, there are a number of fast food restaurants that make their own ranch with the powder packets, mayo, and buttermilk. It is lightyears more tasty than the pre-made crap that is full of vinegar.
As a foreigner in the US, I can say that cops are generally friendlier and more lenient to us because they understand that we may not fully understand everything in the American road system.
yeah maybe if you’re a male white-passing/caucasian cis dude they’ll be nice to you:) sure there are lots of cool and open-minded cops out there :) but also from my experience here in southern germany I have to say there’s a valid reason why people don’t have trust in authorities anymore
Based on my experience with border control, I'm a little sceptical but of course they're not the same as cops. One time I was in the passenger seat though and this was before I ever had an American driver's license or ID and they weren't particularly friendly.
American in Stuttgart here. The most baffling thing to most of us are tiny German washers and dryers that are supposed to be “greener” but run for hours. With our American family of 4, the laundry machines almost never stop in our flat, where as it was a twice a week thing with our big bougie American HE machines.
Yup, you can wash most stuff at 40°C just fine. Except underwear and socks, those can go at 60 °C, and if stuff is really, really dirty, 95°C is still an option.
@@HappyBeezerStudios A lot of Americans wash in cold water to save energy, but usually bedding is recommended to be washed hot, to kill mites, as cold water doesn't them or their eggs.
My husband who is from Japan and didn’t grow up with a garbage disposal got hit right below the eye with a cherry pit! He heard a noise and looked straight down into the running garbage disposal and the cherry pit shot out like a bullet and hit him. He was so ticked off on the unsafe nature of that machine. He won’t use it anymore. He was attacked and that’s that. lol
On your next trip to Germany, how are grade/elemetary school classrooms decorated? Seating arrangements. Discipline. Whatever you can point out that is different than here in America. I know our education is different. I'm interested in the environment.
A lot of older people in the US call it a “Disposall” (as in “all”), which is actually a brand name of garbage disposal that’s still made by General Electric.
The Eastern US is very humid as well as the Southeast and Mid Atlantic, or even the Midwest being hot, especially in the summer. This means that the heat can get intolerable very quickly. The Eastern US is famous for being humid as well as hot in the summer.
The Ranch dressing was funny. I went out to eat with a German friend who lives here and her mother who was visiting from Germany. They both ordered ranch dressing because they said same thing you did. I’m leaving for Cologne next Wednesday.
I dont know if you've done a video about the wine regions of Germany but I'd like to see it. Germany is not as famous for its wines as France is but German wines are excellent and they have a different way that they are classified and produced than in any other country that I've heard about.
It should be....best White Wine in the world!!!..And virtual unknown in US except for the garbage Liefermilch and Black Kat that is the cheap garbage mixed together. Best German Wine if from Rheingau...Johannesburg or Rudesheim Eltville etc
My father is a wine connoisseur, he attends seminars, etc. He is open to all wine regions in Europe or worldwide, but also really appreciates German wine. I prefer to drink good sparkling wine. But it doesn't have to be champagne. Sparkling wines from small wineries in Germany in champagne quality are one of my favorites.
I disagree about german wine being less famous. German white wines are very famous. Germany also has the oldest continuously operating winery in the world, Schloss Vollrads.
It is absolutely amazing! The different varieties of wines that are created from the Riesling grape, which by the way, we had to resupply to them from California after the great grape blight!
😅I have had the great pleasure of traveling to Germany several times and really love it. My most recent trip was to your hometown Munich. I was wandering the Englisher garden and stumbled upon SURFERS walking along in wetsuits and carrying boards. I followed them to their surf spot on the Eisbach (?) and watched with fascination for hours! A real local curiosity!
You put out a short asking about window screens. I grew up in northern MN in a house that was built in the 1950s. On that house, we had window screens that covered the entire window, but in the fall, they were removed and replaced by a window for the winter time. There was no double pane glass at that time. In fact, they were numbered, so they would go on a specific window.
About the Ranch dressing-My maternal grandparents were good friends with the inventors of the salad dressing.Steve and Gayle Henson of Reno Nevada were serving this at dinner parties to thier friends long before they sold the recipe commercially. When I was 10 years old (Im 56 now) my grandfather flew my sister and I up from Vacaville California to Reno. We met Mr and Mrs Henson who entertained us at The Hidden Valley Ranch for the day.My sister and I were in awe of the legend of the Ranch which is a story of facination in its own right. So I can understand why its not really a thing overseas as its about as Americana as it gets.
When my son and I visited Iow last summer we passed a lot of farms with large silos outside and we came up with a theory that they contained the ranch dressing that were enten by the family in the coming weekend. The friends we visited in Iowa ate ranch on everything.
Hi Fili! Garbage disposals actually chop up the scraps rather than shred them. You are only supposed to put small amounts of uneaten food, no meat, and maybe potato peels and the like in them. Generally, I put most of my scrap in the bin. I grew up in Texas and Louisiana and since the school year was from September through May we didn't really need air-conditioning. Generally one wall of the classroom had rows of windows which you opened when it was hot. I didn't go to an air-conditioned school until I was 14. I didn't live in an air conditioned house until I was 12, it was also the first one with central heat. The houses we lived in had gas heaters in each room, and the older houses had lots and lots of windows and high ceilings, which allowed the heat to rise. We also had window fans, and in one house an attic fan. Attic fans, sometimes called whole house fans, consist of a large, maybe 4 foot diameter fan mounted centrally in the ceiling parallel to the floor. They pull air in through the windows and up through the attic. In Louisiana in particular, especially without a/c, you NEED window screens. Otherwise the mosquitoes will eat you alive! We have a lot of radar cameras that snap your picture and mail you a ticket. I hate them! It's easier to spot the cops on the side of the road, especially if you know where the "speed traps" are. One place to look out for is on I-35 near Kileen, Texas, another is on highway 195 heading west over the bridge coming into Krotz Springs, Louisiana. The speed limit changes from 60mph at the base of the bridge, to 35mph at the bottom of the bridge, and there's always a cop waiting.
I live in Portland, OR, and we only got AC this year! (Thanks, climate change!). We still have a much lower rate of AC here in the PNW, more like 30%. And definitely not in schools!
So interesting to see how different things are between these 2 countries! I live a little bit outside of Columbus, Ohio and was hoping to go to Germany this year to see my friend who's stationed there with the Air Force. I will say that, as someone who regularly carries a firearm, getting pulled over by police is just something you have to rehearse and be mentally prepared for in case it does happen. Being respectful and calmly informing them right away that I'm armed and where the firearm is located within the vehicle tends to be much appreciated by them.
It's funny you bring up ranch! I had some German friends stay with me over the summer, and one of them ended up *loving* ranch, and of course, ended up taking home a bunch of those powder packs to make it with yogurt back in Germany. It's always one of those really obscure things that nobody thinks of.
I love the content of your videos! Thankfully, I got to stay in Germany for six weeks during the 90s and can't wait to get back there. I enjoy seeing you explain the differences in our cultures and lifestyles as it reminds me of the wonderful experiences I had in your home country. I hope that you are enjoying your time here and creating many fond memoreis yourself!
I suspect that the floor grate Feli pointed out in the first segment was originally part of a gravity flow heating system. Gravity systems used the fact that cold air is more dense than warm air to move heat from a coal fired stove in the basement to the living spaces. Cool air would drop through grates in the floor through ductwork to the outer part of the furnace (the inner part being where a coal fire was burning.) Hot air already in the furnace would rise through its own ducts to grates in the walls and into the rooms. Retrofit forced air furnaces would often reuse the same ductwork.
Hey Girl! In Texas (Houston), we have window screens to keep the flies and mosquitos out. They are removable, but we keep them in. We do not have screens that open and close though. Love your videos! Take care!
American here, who has lived in Munich for 30+ years. You are spot on! I was assuming at the end when you mived to the car at the end, that you were going to say right turn on red! Very rare here, but oh, so welcome when I drive back in the US.
In 2013 my wife and I were traveling through Germany. I got pulled over in Potsdam, ironically, for going too slow! The police (two of them) were very polite and spoke perfect English but complained I was holding up traffic. I didn't get a ticket but I got the message!
Then you were probably also in the middle or even left lane. If you're going slow, stay as far right as possible. Of course, if you're driving like 100km/h you can still overtake the trucks in the middle lane, but after that please get back to the right.
You HAVE to keep right at all times, unless you pass - please, americans - check the rules when you venture outside USA, you are a guest in a foreign nation where YOU are the foreigner :D
It depends on how slowly you were driving. It is not allowed to drive very slowly for no reason whatsoever. But if max speed is 80 km/h and you were driving 70 km/h, this would not be the case. In fact, there is no definition of "driving too slowly" ....
When I first travelled to America - my honeymoon trip in 1995 took me to Florida - I switched my mind on two topics that I immediately fell in love with when being there, and missed out when getting back to Germany - twin-door fridges with ice cube dispensers and cars that were fully loaded (e.g., electric seats, mirrors, power steering, a/c, the whole lot). Whilst the latter is now quite common on German cars, too, I think that only very few German households have these type of fridges. Luckily, since having renovated my kitchen four years ago, I am one of the happy few who enjoys ice cubes any time of day.
Ice cubes are nice. :) While I was staying in a little hotel in Boppard with some family, we asked the hostess for some ice to have with our drinks. The hostess gave us a confused look, and then ended up bringing us the frost scraped out from the freezer. Had a good laugh with her after explaining more clearly what we meant, and then asked the bartender for some drinking ice, and he was happy to oblige. Pro tip: If you want to ice for your beverage while in Germany, ask the bartender. They usually keep some on hand for drinks that are "on the rocks."
I haven't been to US but every time I see someone inside car in US, It always seems fully loaded. I remember when I was a kid (25 now), I saw bunch of American cars with leather seats and big screen and I was amazed. I live in Finland and cars are expensive here. So it's always special tier car with the lowest options that not some countries even get. So that it would be as cheap as possible. But we now import cars from across EU especially GER and SWE because they are cheaper and have better packages.
@@manuel0578 Gin Tonic in Winter, Lillet Wild Berry in spring, Caipirinha in Summer and Aperol Spritz in autumn. Oh, and for our party guests every now and then. Plus, besides ice cubes, our fridge serves iced & filtered tap water, which is delicious all year long.
I can remember being in Chile in 1980 and getting a bag of Hidden Valley ranch dressing mix. It made Chilean lettuce edible and thus was much appreciated.
NyQuil - I definitely miss NyQuil here in Sweden! And yes, while serving on the Technical Committee in my city here, I actually raised the question of garbage disposals and why we weren’t embracing them. The answer - IF there is a clogged pipe, it ends up being unclear whose responsibility it is to fix, the Water and Energy department or the Garbage and Sanitation department? 😮😅
Water is free at restaurants in the U.S (tap) and still water is the common type, you have to ask for sparkling (which usually had a cost) vs in Germany you pay for water! Some places have it free but most, I had to pay & on the water subject the U.S has 40ct water bottles packaged or Jugs of water vs in Germany, i didn’t often find that many in one package. It was usually tall singular litter bottles of water in the grocery stores Also, you pay for plastic bags at grocery stores in Germany vs the U.S you can mainly get them for free
Some things that weren’t common in Germany when I lived there in 1986-95 were free public toilets, doorknobs (instead of handles), plastic disposable tampons, tips in restaurants, ice in drinks, free refills, free condiments at places like McDonald’s, sales tax on top of the price already on the tag, stores open on Sundays, and it wasn’t common to hear loud vehicles, music blaring from cars, or people honking their car horns. I’m sure there are many more. 😂
Spent a week in Germany last month -- my first visit there since I was stationed in Germany 1989-91. My recollection is that public toilets cost 10 pfennigs back then. They cost one euro now! Quite the price inflation.
Germany has always had their sales Tax already added on top of the price tag, as do most nations on earth. It‘s Americans who are being the weirdos on that one. Also I‘m not sure what ‚plastic disposable Tampons‘ are even supposed to be? Tampons here tend to come wrapped in plastic individually, are made of cotton and have always been disposable, there aren‘t non-disposable tampons (the closest equivalent would be a period cup I guess, but there aren’t reusable Tampons). Tampons have been wildly common in Gremany since the 40s, so I‘m not sure if you have some other wierd tampon Product in the US that still hasn‘t made it‘s way over here, or if you‘re just talking about regular tampons, in wich case you must not have looked for them very hard, cause they were definitely widely available in the 80s/90s in Germany..
@@sweetasbloodredjamThe tampons I typically found were disposable (use once) cotton with a cardboard applicator, not a plastic applicator to contain the cotton. There were some with plastic applicators around the cotton, but they were far less common at that time where I lived. 🤷♀️
@@brianpigott9950It must’ve been a very nice experience to return to Germany, especially after being stationed there during such an historic time. That’s quite a price increase, but I’d gladly pay it to use a cleaned bathroom. 😊
Tbf trailer parks are a thing all over europe as well. However theyre usually not occupied for the whole year, ik many italians live in trailers for months during summer
In North America, we didn't chop down all our trees and densely pack together in a few small city-states that eventually turned into countries on a tiny continent. Settlers came and found abundant natural resources on a vast almost-untouched continent, and made good use of the available materials as they prospered and had many children. And, quite frankly, Americans can afford to knock down old houses and build newer bigger better ones on the same lot a few decades later. We don't build things to last very often, because our kids are highly upwardly mobile, and when we parents move out to downsize to something more manageable in our elderly years, some other new family will buy the lot and build their own dream home on it instead.
You might discuss the federalist system in a video, in which only some laws are national, and most are set by states or smaller jurisdictions. The connection to this video is that the radar traps that you mention do exist in some states, like Colorado. In another recent video, you mentioned refundable deposits on bottles and cans, which has been the law in your next state to the north, Michigan, for over 30 years--10 cents per container. If you go back 50 years, this was practiced nationally, I think, not because of law, but because bottlers of soda, etc. found it financially advantageous.
Back in the day, the bottle deposits were in place because the bottlers wanted the bottles back. They would reuse them the bottles were washed, sanitized, and refiled. The bottle cases were either wood or super strong cardboard that got reused as well. Plastic bottles and thin cheap glass put an end to this practice. You can find some boutique bottlers that still use the old type bottles.
I agree. I am an American who lived in Esslingen am Neckar twice, when I was 18 and 50 years later, when I was 68. How would you describe the difference between Bavaria and Swabia?
Nope and PJAlpha explained that in one of his reaction videos. It was always a local thing and I doubt that it was state-wide in Michigan back then too
On that topic it would probably be even more interesting to compare the federal systems in the US and in Germany. Both are federal countries, both have things done on federal and things done on state level, but the balance of power and what exactly is delegated to states is different.
This discussion prompted me to look up information about Michigan's bottle law. I already knew that it had been in effect at least since I moved to Michigan in 1992, but learned that it has been since 1976. This would be about the same time that the bottlers were phasing out handling the bottle deposits themselves. Both the old and new style of pop vending machines are basically a refrigerator, but instead of dropping a can into a slot in the bottom, the old kind had a small glass door through which you could see the top of one bottle of each type of pop they had available. You could open the door without putting in money, but the proper amount of money would unlock the collars that held the bottles inside. Then there was a wooden crate on a stand next to it, and you were on the honor system to put your empty bottle in there. Many of these machines were outdoors, too, just on the sidewalk in a business district--different from today. A movie that springs to mind that shows one of these old-style machines for a comic gag is "Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned...", although I seriously doubt that one of these would squirt a heavy stream of pop out of it if you were to shoot a bullet into it. A major reason for the change, I think, was the development of technology to make aluminum cans practical. Before that, beer and pop were available in steel cans that were perhaps prone to burst if dropped even a small distance, but both were much more commonly in glass bottles. I think that Olympia Beer was the first beverage available in aluminum cans. Being a native of Minnesota and a transplant to Michigan, I almost always call that other beverage "pop", not "soda". During the few years that I lived in New Jersey, I mostly avoided this linguistic quandary by rarely drinking it.
Homemade Ranch dressing/dip: 1/4c mayo & sour cream. 1/8c milk. 1/4 tea. dry dill (2-3x this), parsley + garlic & onion powder. S&P to taste. 1-2 tea. lemon juice. Whisk, taste, adjust. This makes enough for 2 healthy salad toppings. If left overnight, add milk & whisk, if required, to thin. I don't buy ranch in shops anymore- I find this is much nicer.
It doesn't get cold everywhere in the winter but it gets really hot everywhere in the summer. Even in the "colder" northern states like Minnesota, it still reaches 90°+ in the summer. AC is almost a necessity everywhere. Heatwaves can be almost as dangerous as blizzards
I've lived in the U.S. my entire life and I've never seen a sliding window screen. I've only ever seen press-fit ones that you push outward and have to go outside and press it back in. I need to get me some of these sliding screens. Haha
Concerning speeding tickets in Germany: You can rise an objection, and then they have to prove that the picture was properly taken with the radar trap correctly set up. This is interesting when it comes to points or licence suspension.
I wonder if the garbage disposal issues come from differences in how Germany deals with sewage treatment vs many US communities. In my Ohio community waste water is piped to a treatment facility where it goes through straining screens to catch all the objects people flush and then to a tank where microbes break down stuff. In the town I grew up in about 25 miles away from my current place they used septic systems (a treatment tank that is in the ground where waste water is treated and then leeches back into the water table) and street drains send run off to the towns treatment plant. Adding food waste via a disposal might create issues...
US cities and regions where garbage disposals are illegal have a higher rate of toilet disposal of kitchen waste according to studies. The municipalites don't want bioactive material and especially grease in city sewers but...humans always find a way.
Sadly, two of the older buildings at the community college I went to for my first years in college in the US didn't have AC. Nor did they have windows that could open. In summer it was absolutely unbearably hot.
As a former New Englander, we always had storm windows which slide up or down with glass or screens depending on the season. One of the reasons we have screens is because of mosquitos. Now living in Florida, the screens are a bit more fixed with clips, they will come out but it is a bit of a battle. Having lived in Venice with no screens, it is a joy to feel the great outside.
I hardly use my garbage disposal and my brother who lives in a mansion never uses his garbage disposal because its clogged the drain too many times. Its nice to grind up a few stray bits of fruits and veggies when I'm preparing celery or strawberries.
As an American living in Germany for 5 years, I really miss having a crockpot! I have never seen one here and my German friends don’t know what I’m talking about when I try to describe it. I’m surprised that’s not a thing here. Thermomix on the other hand is super common in Germany, but I’ve never seen it in the US.
I have one making butter chicken right now 😂 .I know quite a few people who have a slowcooker/ crockpot ( sometimes referred to as "Schongarer) but you are right the Thermomix is very popular in Germany.
Ask for slow cookers or pressure cookers. It would be hard to use a brand name that has become a generic term in one language to describe it in another. But I bet you don't have Zewas in your kitchen, Tempos in your coat or Inbusschlüssel in your garage either. (Zewa = a producer of kitchen rolls, Tempo = a producer of paper tissues, Inbus = a brand of hexhead screwdriver, analogue to allen keys)
As a Belgian carpenter we always sold (fixed but removable) bugscreens along with the windows, at least 1 per room. Also all new houses seem to get Airco now because new houses cool less during nights due to the high insulation requirements and to use the excess power generated from solar panels in the summer.
Can't people sell electricity back to the power provider? That's common in the US and summer months many people will be owed money by their electric companies.
@@harveythepooka Yes but its only a little amount of money and we also have to pay for the use of the power net up and downstrem now based on its highest peak in a month (wattpeak) so its better to use the generated power as much as possible.
Necessity is the mother of invention. As you said, Germany doesn't get as hot as many places in the USA. Even going back thousands of years, the invention of homes with fireplaces allowed humans to live farther north.
Eh, as someone living in the Upper Rhine valley, summers tend to become more hot and humid, especially in recent years. While not comparable to most US places, in extreme cases there can be highs of up to 40°C/104°F and lows of up to 26°C/79°F (also last year there was an unprecedented dew point maximum of 24°C/75°F). While those are single day extremes which could be buffered with thick stone wall insulation, there's still sometimes 35+ heatwaves lasting several days, making the inside air eventually become very muggy and uncomfortable. So hereabouts, most newly constructed (upper middle class) homes during the last ~10 years actually do have AC now, and I seriously consider installing one in our older house too, if only for the bedroom
@@rhbb8796yes I have found last 2 summers in Germany (& Spain) very warm & humid - used to aircon at home & In shops in Australia, & although it is not as hot in Germany, it was still pretty warm & muggy in shops..
It's so strange about the garbage disposals - we do not currently have one because we are on a septic system, but we have lived a number of different places and the attitudes towards them were so different depending on where we were. In one area we lived in, they said don't use the garbage disposal hardly at all--be judicious, use it very little, try not to use it! And another area we were in, they said, use that garbage disposal! Put stuff in it, we want to burn that garbage for energy! I only miss it a little; I hate clearing out the little strainer in the drain several times a day, but I don't miss having to worry about what can and can't go into the disposal.
I'd like to see you film any kind of Attractions that a Tourist would want to check out. Also, going to a Restaurant and showing us how it operates. The Servers, how long it takes to get your food, etc. Have a safe trip and a good time.
I used to think most people understood that Hidden Valley Ranch was a real place that invented ranch dressing, but it seems like many people don't know that
The original owners eventually sold it and moved on, making their fortune off of the whole Ranch dressing thing. The property was sold several times and is now Windermere Dude Ranch. But that's not the actual place where they had their restaurant that first served it - the building is still there but it really is a cabin in the mountains. By 1967 they had shut down the ranch and the other businesses to focus on mail order and retail operations for their seasoning packets. In 1972 they were bought out and retired to Reno, Nevada, quite wealthy. It wasn't until the 90s though, that bottled versions became readily available. I still remember my mom mixing those little packets. I think every American over 40 does :)
Dear Felicia, I would think it would be nice and helpful if there were a little explanation for some of the differences. If you consider that Germany has around 84 million inhabitants but only about half the area of Texas, then many Americans will certainly become more aware of why everything is significantly smaller, or "tiny" in comparison. ;) Kind regards and thank you for your great work!
It's not only the case for Germany, but for whole Europe. I'm not sure, but I believe you have about 32 residents per square kilometer in the USofA while Germany has about 250 residents per square kilometer. The Netherlands have over 500, France about 100 and the average is about 130 for whole Europe.
You are using literally the internet abd dont compare a huge state that is more hot than Germany. Some more numbers Germany 230-250 per km2 US 32 per km2 Texas: 44 per km2 California ~100 per km2 Connecticut 250 per km2 Massachusetts 255 per km2 New Jersey 410 per km2 … So the best comparison would be to take california new Jersey and dome of the great lakes states together… but makes no sense to compare with texas
@@Lukeddd In my opinion it makes no sense to compare only Germany with the USA or single states with Germany. If you want to compare Germany with the USA just remember the USA is 27.5 the size of Germany, but has only 4 times the amount of people and that makes it easy to understand why German people have smaller homes. The regional density will always be different just because agrar states with big fields will always have less people per km² than industrial states in a country.
@@seanthiar This is exactly my point when someone took texas as reference example. But in my opinion it is not the density, but the historically grown cities with less focus on Car as essential transport medium. If xou would like to have homes downtown in US the homes are also small. You could have around german cities really big homes like 30-50 km away from city center (maybe not Munich ;) ) but this is considered as far away in germany and not so attractive due to the lack of public transportation opportunities and to far away for bike commuting…
I _love_ those bug screens that raise up like windows. I grew up in the US and have never seen that, but I'm in my sixties, maybe it's common with newer windows?
My old house had screens (along with storm windows) added to it in the 1980’s by the previous owner, that slide up and down in aluminum frames. It was done mainly to get storm windows that insulate better than whatever the house had before. I expect that in a really modern house with double-pane or triple-pane windows, they don’t need separate storm windows, so there’s no need for the screens to slide up/down in a track.
I am a first time viewer. I am amazed that you have been coming to America on and off for 7 years and speaks perfect American English. If I had met you and not seen this video, I would've had no idea you weren't an American.
As an American who lived in Stuttgart for three years, I miss Germany and honestly cannot wait to move back! Which I am doing really soon. . . I hope to become fluent in German someday, and thank you, Feli, for all your help and insight! Also, you should have mentioned Rolladen in the German windows... Or is that more local to one area, like Baden-Württemberg?
Rolladen are pretty much equally spread around the country. More common in newer houses than older ones. But it isn't uncommon to have curtains or venetian blinds.
One of the first things my exchange students showed their friends on FactTime was the garbage disposal - or as several of them referenced "trash shredder". They also commented on the air conditioning because invariably, they would get the sniffles due to the temperature variation from the outdoors to indoors.
Related to AC you also need to mention that climate is different in continental Europe vs US / Eastern. Meaning that it is dry in Europe and humid and very humid in the US and most of the time people use AC as a dehumidifier for the entire house at the expense of making it too cold from a temperature perspective.
@@FelifromGermany you are correct. I was mainly referring to Easter US where it's very humid during summer. From NY to Chicago and from Chicago via Atlanta and to Florida it's very humid during summer time. In AZ it's dry but temperatures are super high - with minimums of 35° C from April to October. Both require AC more than continental Europe where it's mainly dry with temperatures not exceeding 32° - 33° C during summer time
@@razz.dragomir Oh gotcha, yeah that's true. Cincinnati is extremely humid in the summer as well, almost as bad as Florida, it's pretty intense 😅 And yes, ACs do dehumidiy the air. We actually have a humidifier built into ours for that exact reason, so get some of that humidity back inside 😅
When I visited Cologne earlier this year, it was scorching hot. I looked around for a place that was air conditioned. Only place I found was a chocolate shop where I chilled by the freezer. Lol
The first time I went to Ireland, I was really mystified by the lack of screens on the window. As I sat in a room with a couple of houseflies buzzing around, I looked at the open window and wondered why _in the world_ anyone would tolerate windows like that, with no screens, that let bugs in, when windows with screens were available to keep the irritating pests outside where they belong.
@@desperadox7565 So? If I want to enjoy an unobstructed view of nature, I can always step out on my front porch. When I'm relaxing inside my home, I'd prefer not to have flies buzzing around in there with me. I _damn_ sure don't want them bothering me while I am trying to prepare and eat my meals. I'll take the hardly at all obstructed view of the outdoors through a screen any day over having to swat away from my food a housefly that has just flown into my kitchen after crawling around on a pile of dog shit outside.
One of the biggest thing that I think are a culture shock for Americans not only in Germany but throughout a lot of the world is hostels. We don't really have them here in the states, and many consider them to be very unsafe if they even know what a hostel is. When I was traveling the first time, I really had no idea what they were other than a cheaper alternative to a hotel. It took me over 2 weeks to realize there were kitchens for customer use (the staff all assumed I would just know, I guess, so nobody told me, I just discovered it wandering around the one I was in at the time), and that you could just buy groceries and leave them in fridges and generally people wouldn't steal your food, which was WILD to me.
There are thousands of hostels in the US lol. Have stayed in them all over the country. Most big cities in particular have a good selection, but they are in smaller areas too.
AC: When I first moved to Austria 20 years ago I was SHOCKED to find out out that buildings here were not air-conditioned. The first thing I bought when I got my first paycheck was one of those portable air-conditioners. All my Austrian friends had a good belly laugh at my expense, but there was NO WAY I was going to be tossing and turning at night trying to sleep in hot, humid weather. Now EVERYONE's running out to buy air-conditioners. I guess I had the last laugh after all... Bug screens: Oh, how I miss those! Garbage disposals: I miss those too! I have yet to see a single garbage disposal in my travels all over Europe. Instead Europeans collect all their organic waste in special garbage cans at home and then dutifully walk or drive to one of those large containers to empty them. Seems very inconvenient to me, especially since we have the technology, i.e. garbage disposals, to take care of organic waste in just a few seconds. As to the popular argument here in Europe that ground up organic waste is bad for the sewer, this is just anti-technology nonsense. Undigested ground up organic matter (from a garbage disposal unit) or digested organic waste matter (from the toilet) makes no difference to a sewage treatment plant. Ranch dressing: I had to wipe the saliva from the corner of my mouth when Feli brought up ranch dressing. All they have here in Austria and Germany is this tasteless yogurt dressing, which is basically plain yogurt mixed with olive oil and vinegar. Blah! And there's one dressing that's even better than ranch, bleu cheese! Yum!! Some other things I miss from the U.S.: Soft toilet paper - I was just talking to an American friend an hour ago about how impossible it is to find soft toilet paper in Europe. Sand paper would be a better description for what passes for toilet paper here. Dryer sheets - Europeans are absolutely CLUELESS when it comes to dryer sheets or fabric softener. They do have something resembling fabric softener here, but all it does is give your clothes a fresh scent. It doesn't straighten wrinkles, it doesn't get rid of static electricity and it doesn't remove pet hair. Standard size refrigerators: The typical European fridge is small - VERY small. They're about 1/3 to 1/4 the size of a standard American refrigerator. You have to actually bend down to open them since they're typically located under the kitchen counter. They typically store a quart of milk, a quart of juice, some cheese and deli, a few tomatoes and head of lettuce and that's about it. Let's not even talk about the freezer space since it's tiny and only fits about two pounds of frozen meat at most. It's basically the type of small fridge you see on college campuses. How an entire continent runs on these tiny refrigerators is beyond me! News anchors: German-speaking news anchors are indistinguishable from talking robots. This is no joke! They have no personality, they do not smile, they do not laugh. They read the news in a serious, monosyllabic tone devoid of all human emotions. If you call a company or government office and get a menu, you guess it, the recording sounds exactly like a robot. The Austrians are far worse than the Germans in this respect. The voice you hear in the subway, busses and trams here in Austria is so austere and robotic, it's enough to bring you to tears! Once while on the subway in Stockholm I got to hear their automatic announcements - the female voice was so soft and pleasant to listen to, you almost didn't want to leave the subway. I wish the Austrians would take a cue from the Swedes!
I can understand that, never understood this insistence of not needing ACs anyway, I had my house retrofitted with ACS a few years ago, best decision ever. But people thaw up to ACs nowadays the summers have become hotter and are on the verge of unbearable without ACs!
In India, we do get Ranch Dressing Sauce in Supermarkets! Also, we have Air Conditioning and Window Screen as well. Plus, our cops remain hidden as well checking traffic.
You forgot the major thing you don't see in Germany but are nearly ubiquitous in the US, complimentary ice waters on restaurant tables. In the early 90s, I was in Germany for, at the time, rare nearly Continent wide extreme heatwave. No AC, no ice water, warm sodas, warm milk, and warm seltzer/tonic water. The American Club inside the Frankfurt American Consulate was never so crowded with American tourists trying to get cool.
What is really strange is when I was driving in Germany on the autobahn, suddenly there was an unmarked car that passed me and then slowed down, there was a sign in their back window asking me to follow them because they were police, Polizei: Bitte folgen! Police: Please follow! Fortunately I also speak German and they just gave me a warning, I live in Austria and almost each time I drive in Germany, I also get a letter by mail with my license plate and my picture with the amount I have to pay for speeding! 😛
Yup, they don't announce their presence until there is something. And if it's nothing big, you'll get a warning and they wish you a nice day. If everything is fine with your driving, the most likely reason to be stopped would be if a break light is broken or a belt from your bag is obscuring the license plate. And again with a nice greeting and the suggestion to fix it soon. We have a saying "Polizei dein Freund und Helfer" (Police, your friend and helper), they are seen as people who keep the streets safe and who can be asked for directions. Also not uncommon to see them in line next to you at McDonals. Just regular people and quite the opposite of a semi-military civil force. (We had some rather bad experience with that sort of stuff in the past)
Speaking of traffic fines, I got one a few weeks ago traveling to work and it arrived today in the mail. I'm in Australia and we mostly have these fixed radar cameras, either in black spots (ie high accident areas) or at intersections, or the pop-up style where they are in the back of a van or on a tripod, but we also have traffic cops from time to time, particularly on country roads. It was a $200 fine and 2 demerit points for doing 80kph in a 70 zone at 4:40 in the morning, not another car on the road at the time. 🤦♂
That is 10 kph over, in Germany that would give you roughly 60 € To get 200 € you would need at least 26 kph over, and get one point. For two points you'd need to go 31 kph over, but that costs ~290€ and also cost you your license for a month.
I’ve always hated Ranch, lol. With traffic stops you should always 1) turn on your blinkers/hazard lights. 2) always pull over some place safe. If you need to go to the next interstate exit do so, but drive slow so the cop doesn’t think you’re evading them. When pulled over explain why you kept going and apologize. 3) turn music off, fully roll down the window and put both hands at 10 o clock on the wheel so the cop can see them. 4) be polite and respectful. 5) you must show ID and your car registration, but if you can’t find it let the cop know and they will usually look it up themselves. 6) if you have a concealed carry permit tell the cop “I feel obligated to show you a 2nd form of ID”. Never say the word “gun”. 7) remember the cop just wants to go home to his/her family at the end of his/her shift so be mindful of their safety, and be polite. 8) remember you do have rights. If the cop wants to search your car say “respectfully, I do not consent to a search”. 9) limit what you say. You have the right to remain silent and not answer questions, but if the questions are basic like “what’s your name?” it’s fine. If they ask “do you know why I pulled you over?” Always always always say that you don’t know. Always say “I don’t know” for any question that inquires about a crime. Most cops aren’t interested in railroading anyone into prison, and if they have a sense that you don’t like crime like they do then they will typically leave you alone.
When I was in the Army, I was stationed in Augsburg. Perhaps you could take the train up from Muenchen and visit the Christkindlmarkt in the Rathausplatz?
Insect screens are usually an added thing in New Zealand too. But a more interesting difference is that they're normally fitted on the inside. I don't think I've ever seen a screen on the outside of a window like that here.
Great observations! Some comments. The central HVAC is typically called central AC (the HV is implied). Yes, the main reason AC is common here is obvious: on average, we have much hotter climate than Europeans do. The construction materials often depend on the building code: in Florida, the first floor of newer homes is built with concrete blocks, due to the hurricane hazard. The window bug screens are again, often necessitated by climate and our tendency to live close to nature. The garbage disposals are common but not ubiquitous, their utility is indeed quite dubious. On the other hand, the road police and heavy speeding fines are essential for our national survival. We tend to have long commutes, like "happy hours", and often don't have "designated drivers".
I was headed to Switzerland way back in the 80s and stopped in Weil am Rhein to take care of business. As I was leaving town, I evidently sped up too early, and the Polizei pulled me over into a parking lot and made me pay DM 20,- right there. I don't know if they still do that or not.
I am an american living in Berlin, since 7 years. I always bring over the ranch seasoning packets and make my own ranch at home. I have introuced many Europeans to 'real', aka homemade Ranch, and they all like it! My last convert was my good polish friend, whom i made fried chicken livers and ranch dressing for.
Servus Feli,als in Süddeutschland wohnender,fahre ich viel in Österreich mit Auto und Motorrad und da wird du oft per Laser gemessen und wenn du zu schnell warst ein paar 100 meter später direkt angehalten ( mehr oder weniger freundlich) zur Kasse gebeten. Gutes neues Jahr und hoffentlich noch viele gute Videos.
You know that you can set the release time of your videos right. The video won't just be public as soon as you upload it. She probably chose this time because she has a bigger audience in the EU
I was in Wiesbaden inb the 70's and they had cameras behing speed limit sirns above your lane on the Autobahn. They also took Volkwagen vans and put fold out cameras in the left front headlight that were parked with the other cars on the side of the road to get your speed and picture as you sped by. Fines were all given by mail.
A thought I always have with garbage disposals is that the drains go to the same place as sewer drains… how are potato skins or lettuce any worse than literal crap. The one thing I understand is that sewer systems need to be built to handle food. In the US the pipes have been built to handle it since this is where garbage disposals are common, but in a lot of places in Europe the pipes are older and aren’t wide enough to process food scraps.
"Ranch" Dressing can be found in ALDI when they have "America weeks" - but actually, you can make it on yourself very easily. As we do like Ranchdressing very much, i looked for a recipe and tried a little bit - its super easy to make and tastes great, better than most bottles from the grocer: 200ml Mayonnaise, 200ml Joghurt, 200-300ml "Buttermilch" (i dont know the american word for "Buttermilch"), a teaspoon salt (or little more), lots of pepper freshly grinded, 1 clove of garlic (crushed) and stir well. Thats all. If its to thick, add some Buttermilch.
Things that don't (really) exist in Germany: LUCKY CHARMS! I know they're not the healthiest breakfast option, but I miss them dearly. You can order the occasional box for lots of euros online, but I really wish they were a staple here like most of the Kellogg's cereals.
12:19 Blitzer??? huh, funny thing: in Brazil (in some places, at least), whenever the police do temporary "checkouts", checking on drivers passing by on the streets for irregularities and stopping one or other "randomly" for inspection (and slowing down the trafic behind), we usually call that "blitz" (not a translation, exacly that word, B-L-I-T-Z)
Regarding Ranch Dressing I recall an early episode of MTV's Real World which took place in London. A young guy from the Midwest practically had a meltdown when he discovered that the stores didn't carry Ranch Dressing.
Personally, I'd rather have the police cars stopping you and handing out tickets than the speed cameras. Speed cameras are just another aspect of the growing surveillance society that characterizes modern life more and more. Yeah, I dont like the obligatory background checks the cops do for every traffic stop these days but I'm more concerned about the Orwellian dystopia that we seem to be headed towards than the cops pulling you over.
They just take a photo, when you have been measured "too fast" and will be read out only days or maybe weeks later, when they are taking the memory out (of course there was no other possibility when they used films) Actually not all are permanently armed, as the calibrated, court-proof measuring equipment is quite expensive and even a dis-armed one serves it's purpose of slowing down drivers, as they are (I think even by law) are mostly only placed at dangerous points or close to schools.
That's ridiculous. The german speed cameras are neither wired up for a live connection, nor they're taping 24/7. Nothing orwellian here. At least they're accurate and relyable and don't shoot you if your skin color is too dark ...
This is accurate. Will add that there’s no Diet Pepsi in Germany, pick up trucks and large SUV are rare, and for whatever reason my apartment didn’t come with a freezer because the landlord said we are supposed to buy fresh food every day or two at the supermarket or outdoor market.
I moved to Hungary and have been here since 2017, I am a huge fan of Ranch Dressing, since I could not find it here nor could I afford to import it from the USA I found the recipe and just make my own. Best part no preservatives and all my Hungarian neighbors and American expat friend here love it better than the actual Ranch Dressing from Hidden Valley.
I couldn't find a place to answer you question on window screens on the short that you just put out so here I am. I remember sliding window screens that my father had installed in our home in the 1960s. I think they went out of fashion later when central air conditioning became more common. I again live in that home and the screens are still there.
