Don't Mention the War

I'm in Germany for a while. I'm no stranger to Germany and I don't mind it, but at the danger of stereotyping they are a serious bunch. A German man told me on the first 2 days "we Germans do have a sense of humour" and he said it quite strictly.

I am over here "on business" and everything is very corporate, but it seems like that all the time to me in Germany. A German gave a presentation and asked the crowd to shout out all the things they thought about when they thought of Germans. Instantly I thought, "Charlie Chaplin moustaches, lederhosen, bad war winners, 1966, sausages, pointy helmets, goose stepping and porn", not one of these things was mentioned! Michael Baeron isn't out here, the other guy is and he has to behave himself.

Men say "hello" when they stand next to you at the urinal. It feels like they're saying that as a statement to ultimately say, "I'm not doing anything funny here, I have my penis out like you do but I not going to do anything funny". It makes me suspicious! I think they still feel a bit of guilt!