On chain/fast food restaurants in foreign countries

                When I went to a foreign country (Japan) for a short amount of time, many people told me to avoid eating at Mcdonald's, or the Japanese KFC. This was so that I could experience the local food more. But I have my own view. First off as my rule for around the world (off of Japan now), YES eat at foreign restaurants and cafes. It is very beneficial in learning about the culture and also in the eating customs as every country usually eats a little differently. Generally the differences center around utensils and table manners.

               On the other hand, you can also learn just as much from fast food or chain restaurants. If the food tastes significantly less salty, then you know they don't eat that much salt in their food in general. Another major difference to be observed is the portion sizes. If you see that the small for a drink is drastically smaller then the one from your home country, an important fact becomes apparent about their culture. They may avoid over-indulging at most meals and probably value health because of the small sizes of soft drinks, which I found to be in Japan (and through research Australia) compared to the United States.


            950ml : 650ml             675ml : 500ml            500ml : 300ml           375ml

https://www.flickr.com/photos/okinawa-soba/6004485662/
                   
                If the portion sizes are smaller in general then you know you may need to keep a stash of snacks if you are usually very hungry. If people make a group by the cash register or if they make tidy lines this can help with boarding trains or subways or anything in the future that has to do with organization or ways of doing general activities. In  other words, orderly society vs. chaotic society.

                 By noticing the way people eat their food (but not in a creepy way), you can learn the basics of what is appropriate and what isn't such as burping, blowing your nose, or other basic manners which are still observed in fast food restaurants. So if you know those, you won't make those mistakes that can be considered very rude and even worse if done in a formal restaurant, and that a foreigner should learn to avoid before going there (but many do not.) Along with having a crash course in another countries' culture and eating habits, it is also fun to just try the food and compare it to the food from your home country.

                 In conclusion, most of the time, go to local restaurants because you can also experience the culture, the best food, and have a much more friendly language-learning  environment. Don't just shove fast food aside, make it a scarce occurrence, but it can be a very helpful introduction to a foreign society.

Exploring Berlin: Day 1

I went to Berlin for three days and visited a lot of WWII areas, and also a lot of government buildings. One of the buildings was the Reichstag, and now also known Bundestag which is the building where parliament meets. It was damaged by a fire in 1933 and not fully restored and used again as a meeting place until 1999.

This is how it looks on the inside, lots of mirrors, and if you look hard at the bottom you can see the parliament meeting room. The mirrors are in an upside down cone shape because at the top there so that water gathers but I tried to research and could not find specifically what the gathered water does. 

An interesting thing I experienced while I was there in the ceiling was the tour. If you've ever gone to
 museums such as in Washington D.C. or in other big cities all around the world, they may give you a little box and earbuds or headphones so you can easily listen to the tour guide who may be far ahead of you.  Or there are also prerecorded tours, which once again use an mp3-like device but there is not a live tour guide there with you. What this one was, was that it was pre-recorded, but there were sensors in the carpet on the ramp around the mirrors, that whenever you stepped or walked over them it would start the next part of the tour, and say," Now if you look to your left at the left-corner of the building you will see...." If you didn't keep on walking it would stop and the next part wouldn't start until you reach that point. I walked on a metal border of the bottom of the railing to see if I could skip over the sensor, and it was successful. 

(sorry about the kind of off-angle)

Here is the central park of Berlin called Tiergarten. It was originally a hunting ground established in the 1830's. The white building is the Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt which translates to "house of world cultures."

This is the Brandenburg Tur or the Brandenburg gate, and during WWII it was part of a dividing sector dividing Germany into parts, and the area after was kind of no man's land, but it was not a good idea to go through the gate. 

                                         

                                         http://images.travelpod.com/users/patngrace/1.1216241100.1-pat-and-grace-at-brandenburg-gate.jpg

For dinner I went to a little pizza place right next to our five star hotel( if only) Holiday Inn Express, which had good pizza. Not the best because the crust was a little hard to cut through, but it was still pretty tasty. Their omelettes are also very good. 

Germany Food Post #2 (I'm sorry about the 3 boats, it's not letting me remove them)

When I was in Hamburg, Barghteheide, and later on in Berlin, there was one food that striked me as the most interesting and delicious foods I encountered there. It is called the pomm döner. It is based on a gyro but instead of pita bread, they replaced it with french fries and stuff it in a cone or a box. (If you don't know what a gyro is, it is shaved meat with tomatoes and onions and tzatziki sauce served on pita bread, and is of Greek descent.) Pomm is short for pommes, which is french fries in German. The döner is actually of Turkish descent and it means "turn", and is a variation of the gyro. It can also be served with creamy spicy sauce. If you ever go to Germany this is a must have (try it with the french fries!) and it is very filling.

http://www.xo-forum.de/showthread.php/10072-Neues-Fastfood-der-Pommd%C3%B6nner-erobert-Deutschland

Trip to Hamburg

I went to Hamburg, about a 45 minute train ride, and spent a day shopping. Also I saw the Queen Mary II. It is the world's largest passenger ship, and it actually is a cruise ship. Just to give a perspective, the Queen Mary II is twice as long as the Washington monument is tall. 

Just so you can see the size comparison:

courtesy of http://www.titanic-titanic.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2568&start=90

This is the picture I took: (It couldn't fit in the whole camera frame)

Bargteheide

courtesy of
 https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSUmg_xlqc47-2hF1ZVaXsBcynlGpRAgDfCrhxYuI7QwU5vdUwV

While I was there I didn't actually take any pictures of the town so this is the train station at least. Anyway, the houses there aren't necessarily small but they are more cramped next to each other with a lot smaller backyards compared to the United States.

I love pizza, and here was the first German pizza I had. It was delicious. (Sorry about the blurriness, it was raining when I took the picture.)

I am going to begin with my trip to Germany! I lived with my aunt, uncle, and two cousins for about 4 and 1/2 months in a small city called Barghteheide. I took frequent visits to Hamburg (a large-ish city about 45 minutes out by train) and went once to Berlin. This happened about 2 years ago in the beginning of eight grade before I started this blog so it will not be as recent.