Don't Guzzle!

People frequently ask me what is the most notable difference between life in Germany and life in the U.S. After some deliberation, I think I have come up with my answer.

Back in olden times, as a child growing up, soda was a somewhat precious commodity in our household. On those occasions when we'd have soda at dinner, we were only allowed to have a single glass. If you drank your soda too quickly, you would get the reprimand "Don't guzzle. When it's all gone, there is no more". So, we learned to self-ration our drink during dinner. Take a sip, eat 3 or 4 bites, take another sip, etc.

Now in the modern age, such rationing is completely unnecessary. In the U.S. soda flows like....well like water. If you go to a restaurant, they give you a tremendously huge glass of soda. As soon as your glass is empty, they immediately fill it up - for free! Even fast food places such as McDonald's almost always have free refills.

This is completely different in Germany. When you go to a restaurant, you order your glass of soda by volume - 200, 300, or 400 mL. When your glass of soda comes, the glasses actually have volume marks on them so that your glass is filled up to the appropriate volume, not a drop more. Also, free refills are absolutely unheard of, which is unfortunate, because drinks are incredibly expensive here. A glass of soda at a restaurant will easily be 3 Euros ($4). The net result it that you can't help feeling like you can't drink as much as you want. So, one of the things I am already looking forward to when we return is no longer having to drink out of a graduated cylinder at restaurants.