The Great American Indoors

Me, in a restaurant in California during the summer, pic: http://foodtrainers.blogspot.com/2010/12/shiver-yourself-skinny.html

There is something very strange about the American indoors for a European such as myself and here is what it is:  on a random hot Silicon Valley summer day my family might decide to have dinner in a nearby restaurant.  I am in shorts and sleeveless T-shirt so I go to my closet and get a pair of long pants, a T-shirt with sleeves and a cardigan.  I also pack a jacket for my son and ask him to put on socks.

I am not crazy, I am just going to a restaurant with air-conditioning which will be keeping the room at a nice and steady 60 degrees Fahrenheit which for me, especially when sitting instead of moving, is right around the temperature where my toes start to lose any feeling and any uncovered spot of skin shows a serious case of goose-bumps.

Fast forward to winter – not that dramatic in lovely California – so let’s fast forward to winter in Boston, where I used to live.  It is cold, so you layer: underwear, t-shirt, sweater, maybe cardigan and a down jacket, hat, gloves, two pairs of socks and lined boots.  Then you walk, let’s say to the next T station (subway), enter and proceed more than 10 steps form the entrance where you start ripping the down jacket off.  By the time you get to the platform and then into the train you will have ripped off pretty much every piece of clothing that can be ripped off without getting the police involved and sweat is running down your back.   As you leave the subway the process reverses itself at a frantic pace;  sweater over the head, cardigan on, down jacket on top, sweat running down the back and then the onslaught of cold air.  Five minutes later you enter the office building and start peeling of again in a lovely 80 degree environment.

I have never quite understood why we have to have winter temperatures in summer and summer temperatures in winter.  If I have to sweat, I’d prefer to sweat in summer.  If I have to freeze, then winter would be the time to do so.  It would save a lot of energy and I wouldn’t have to have my entire wardrobe available year around.

Water and Refills

The more I think about it the more I realize how American I have become – or maybe just even more un-German.    I like my water with plenty ice, in fact drinking pretty much anything other than hot tea and red wine not ice cold is unpleasant, let alone the idea of a Diet Coke that isn’t almost frozen.  My German friends scrunch up their faces when having American style water and can barely keep it in their mouths because it is too cold for them.

Water, all cold and free. Pic: Dreamstime

Speaking of water: I love free water in American restaurants and have come to really resent the prices for teeny weeny little bottles of sparkling water in Europe.  I feel like I am being tricked and cheated if I go to a restaurant for lunch, order what seems to be a reasonably priced, sometimes even cheap meal and then end up paying twice as much overall because the beverage costs as much as the food.  If you don’t believe me try going to a restaurant in Germany or Austria (not even talking about Switzerland where everything is outrageously expensive) on a hot summer day with a boy who just finished playing in the sun and downs two large glasses of water/juice before lunch arrives.  He eats his 5 Euro Wienerschnitzel with Pommes (French Fries) but his two large Apfelsaftschorle (apple juice with sparkling water) set you back 7 Euro.

And, behold the beauty of the common soda refill.  What a relief to be able to get another if I am still thirsty and what a relief not to have to worry about ice in the glass (which you always have to worry about in Germany because the more ice, the less beverage – so ice is not a way to increase enjoyment but a way to cheat you).

The question I frequently hear in Germany is “aren’t people abusing that system terribly?” and my answer is – after some careful reflection – always the same “not really”.  Will people get a refill if they strictly speaking don’t need it anymore and leave some?  Sure, they will.  Does it bankrupt restaurants – haven’t heard about it.  Will people drink two gallons, just because they can?  Probably not on a regular basis, although there might be a time in a teenage boy’s life where this might be something they consider – just for the heck of it and because Jack over there does it, too.

But that is a different story and has more to do with teenage boy mentality than with free sodas.