Culture shock no matter where I go!

In a week's time, I will be setting off for America for a whole six weeks packed with wedding festivities, family time, visits with friends, and sight-seeing with one German lesbian. It will be the longest single stretch of time I will have spent in the homeland since wandering out to Germany in September, 2011. This seemed as good an occasion as any to reflect, not too seriously, on what's grown on me about Germany, and what I still can't quit missing about America. So, two lists, each with the aspects of life I miss about one country when in the other. Family and friends go without saying.

What I miss about America when I'm in Germany

• A broad scattering of things I'll lump together under "the taken-for-granted trappings of everyday multiculturalism"
• Being able to go to the supermarket and getting ingredients for a wide range of "international" foods, without paying through the nose. Ricotta cheese should not be cheaper in America (far from Italy) than it is in Germany (just a skip north over Switzerland!). The things that German grocers seem to deem "exotic" can sometimes be baffling.
• Ditto for non-German beers. Belgian beer is cheaper in America (not in the EU), than in Germany (neighbors!). Por que? 
• People not having some weird prejudice against garlic. Garlic ≠ spicy.
• People generally having internalized what is politically correct, and what not, to say. Even when you mean something nice by it, calling little black children you see on the street "chocolate sprinkles" is not really ok. (Here's looking at you, Gudi.)  
• General acceptance of the name Kevin as being totally OK. 
• Jews. Love you, guys!
• The ability to watch TV series as soon as they air, on TV, legally, instead of illegally streaming them the next day on one's computer. 
• Cursing. For having such a.. history.., Germans just can't curse. Drop the f-bomb more often, Germans, you'd loosen up a lot! 
• There only being one word for "you". Ditto with everyone just being on a first-name basis.
• Being able to cross the street on a "don't walk" sign without an old lady yelling at you about setting a bad example. 
• Smalltalk and, relatedly, people generally being more willing to strike up conversation with people they don't know in public/social settings. There are more topics than work/insurance and regional stereotypes! (Poor people from Ost-Friesland, Sachsen, Westfalen, etc. You all get such a bad rap! The Sachsonian accent is totally easier to understand than the southern ones.)
• Warm breakfast.

Things I miss/would miss about Germany when I'm in America

• A healthy belief in the democratic state, as the highest form of democratic social organization, to address the needs of society. Not leaving it up to charities to maybe eventually help poor people. Etc. I mean, people really expect this shit to just work!
• Relatedly: a general sense of entitlement to things like a decent place to live, time and money for long vacations (twice a year), high quality education, health care, etc. 
• A healthy wariness of the security and surveillance state. Asylum for Snowden now!
• Not debating scientific findings as if they are matters of political opinion. Understanding the scientific consensus on global warming, evolution, etc., are not left-wing positions, nor are they matters of opinion. They are observations about the physical world, supported by data! Rebutting them requires more than saying, "well, that's your opinion. I'm entitled to my own." No, you're not.
• Consistency. Germans will tut at you if you use paper plates at a party but still want to call yourself environmentally conscious. 
• Public drinking.
• Relatedly, a general lack of moralizing about alcohol, smoking, sex, and other things that people really enjoy. So have a schnapps, light up a cigarette, and get ready for your next fetish related event. Schlager Nacktparty, anyone? 
• Relatedly, a half liter of beer, in a bar, for less than what you'd pay for a tiny American bottle of beer. Drinkable wines for 2-3 Euro a bottle from the supermarket.
• People recognizing that work is a part of one's life, but not the purpose of one's life.
• Pflaumenmus. 
• The word "doch". Best. Word. Ever.
• The division of the year into Zeiten devoted to the eating of a specific, seasonal foodstuff. Spargelzeit, Erdbeerzeit, Grünkohlzeit, etc. Relatedly, Adventzeit (aka Glühwein-Marzipan-und-Lebkuchen-Zeit).
• The capacity to both be corny, and to tolerate an astonishing level of corniness in others. Because, if everyone's that corny, then it's ok. Everyone in the club dancing like a bunch of old white people at a christening party? I'm down with that.
• Not having to massively tip everyone for everything just because they are so shittily paid otherwise.

Things I miss about the UK when I'm in both countries

• Everyone being so goddamn witty all the fucking time. The average British nine-year-old has mastered a fluency in irony and wit even the most adept German or American adult could not even dream of achieving.
• False self-deprecation. Like when I was at an academic event in Berlin last year, and a young British academic introduced her work, peppering her presentation with phrases like "Oh, my whole theoretical grounding is probably complete rubbish" and "Oh, my findings are probably completely meaningless, just really, bollocks really, I should have spent another year in the field.." etc. The Germans' facial expressions were just priceless. 
• Ale. (Though America is better on the "beers that taste like something" front than Germany. Ironically.)
• The phrase "for fuck's sake".