6 months ago
3 Things I Learned from My German Sister
I believe you can learn something from everyone, every belief and every culture. With my sister and two nephews here from Germany for a month, I have already found three things interesting:
1. Germans like to eat fresh foods (even their gummy bears are all natural). So when my sister wants to prepare lunch for the boys, she cuts up a big bowl of fruit and/or vegetables and places the bowl on the table. She gives each child a plate and let's them grab what they want. The leftovers are then left on the table to snack on the remainder of the day.
I love this idea so much that I want to keep doing it. The kids love the variety and choosing what they want to eat. Plus, the food is fresh and healthy. And it wasn't hard to put together. And another thing: I can snack on this and not anything bad or sugary. This is our new lunch!
2. Germans don't like to waste things. My sister says in Germany you can recycle double the amount of items we can recycle here. She barely throws anything away (and thinks our garbage cans are enormous). She also can't get over how big our shopping carts are (especially the ones at Costco). We buy too much, she says. Most Germans shop briefly each morning and just buy the food they need for that day.
3. Germans like to conserve. She thinks it's ridiculous that we use the dryer to dry our clothes on a hot summer day. In Germany, everyone has a clothes liner to dry your clothes. My sister refused to use the dryer and was aghast that I didn't own a clothes liner. So she improvised and used our play dome in the back to dry her clothes. I don't know that I could do this on a regular basis, but I'm not scared if my dryer breaks down. I'll know exactly what to do!
My sister also thinks we use the air conditioning way too much. She doesn't even have air conditioning in her house. If it gets hot, it gets hot. You just live with it. You accept it and carry on. We turned our AC down or off and you know, it hasn't been so bad. It's kind of nice not running it all day.
All of this just got me thinking that perhaps we live a little too conveniently in an attempt to make our lives easier. We buy processed foods because it's easier to make, big garbage cans so we can easily throw everything away and have nice appliances to dry our clothes easier. Everything is about easy, easy, easy. Somehow we've gotten lost in that. Our food is polluted with chemicals, our landfills are overflowing and our energy use is messing with the world. Why do we try so hard to be comfortable? Why not just be?
1. Germans like to eat fresh foods (even their gummy bears are all natural). So when my sister wants to prepare lunch for the boys, she cuts up a big bowl of fruit and/or vegetables and places the bowl on the table. She gives each child a plate and let's them grab what they want. The leftovers are then left on the table to snack on the remainder of the day.
I love this idea so much that I want to keep doing it. The kids love the variety and choosing what they want to eat. Plus, the food is fresh and healthy. And it wasn't hard to put together. And another thing: I can snack on this and not anything bad or sugary. This is our new lunch!
2. Germans don't like to waste things. My sister says in Germany you can recycle double the amount of items we can recycle here. She barely throws anything away (and thinks our garbage cans are enormous). She also can't get over how big our shopping carts are (especially the ones at Costco). We buy too much, she says. Most Germans shop briefly each morning and just buy the food they need for that day.
3. Germans like to conserve. She thinks it's ridiculous that we use the dryer to dry our clothes on a hot summer day. In Germany, everyone has a clothes liner to dry your clothes. My sister refused to use the dryer and was aghast that I didn't own a clothes liner. So she improvised and used our play dome in the back to dry her clothes. I don't know that I could do this on a regular basis, but I'm not scared if my dryer breaks down. I'll know exactly what to do!
My sister also thinks we use the air conditioning way too much. She doesn't even have air conditioning in her house. If it gets hot, it gets hot. You just live with it. You accept it and carry on. We turned our AC down or off and you know, it hasn't been so bad. It's kind of nice not running it all day.
All of this just got me thinking that perhaps we live a little too conveniently in an attempt to make our lives easier. We buy processed foods because it's easier to make, big garbage cans so we can easily throw everything away and have nice appliances to dry our clothes easier. Everything is about easy, easy, easy. Somehow we've gotten lost in that. Our food is polluted with chemicals, our landfills are overflowing and our energy use is messing with the world. Why do we try so hard to be comfortable? Why not just be?
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