Kultur 4 - Gabrielle Spickard

     I found the articles that we were required to read for the Kapitel 4 Kultur assignment very interesting and informative! They all seemed to have a central theme revolving around how order and logic are two key aspects of German society and culture. This was very interesting and surprising to me, as I never knew that those two traits were so prevalent and important in Germany. It was also interesting to think about the contrasts between German and American culture with respect to those two traits. For example, one of the articles went into detail about how frowned-upon jaywalking is in Germany, while in America (especially in Ann Arbor) it's so common and for the most part nobody really cares when somebody illegally crosses the street. It was also interesting to read about how prevalent cycling is in Germany, and also how seriously some people take it there. I feel like cycling could be more prevalent in America if there were more biker-accessible transportation routes (i.e. more bike lanes, etc.), although many larger cities and more progressive cities are already moving towards this. I'm also now much more paranoid about making a mistake with the public transportation in Germany after reading the article about being almost overly-logical and the article about there being no free rides - it seems pretty confusing for a non-native.