Wha...??? Germany had hit the weird button.

So I know it has been a while since I have blogged but it has been for a very good reason... studying.

Anyways, Germany had just hit the weird button. So I am talking to my friend from America who has lived here in Germany almost 8 years now and she somehow proceeds to tell me a little "secret" of German men.
Secret... maybe more like a cultural secret kept within the cellar of the German race.

It all started out with the argument on who should keep my host mother. Which I won by the way... she is forever mine. You can read the comments on Facebook. And eventually our conversation ended up on the messaging portion of Facebook... well as she was admitting to her loss, the told me she needed to go because the handymen were coming really early in the morning to do something.... I don't know what. And I asked if they were cute and masculine... like every women do we comment on other men. Sorry guys. She proceeded to say how polite the were and how even one asked if he could go pee pee. ( Exact words I swear). And I am thinking to myself okay well that is a nice way to put it. And she goes on to tell me (the secret of all German men) that German men pee sitting down.... and I am like Wha...???

No way Nikkie must be pushing my naive American buttons. How can this be? Men urinating sitting down?
 I am  flabbergasted, down right freaked out... and I am thinking "And I thought I was weird." But apparently there is some logic to it... It is messy... of course it is men. But people even have signs in their bathrooms indicating to "Please Sit".  I live with two men and while I will say I have heard of a man sitting to pee... for reasons of laziness,  thought it was a rather uncommon thing.

A weird thing to blog about, I know,... But you can see the cultural difference in how we raise our kids. I remembering potty training my nephew instilling the idea that boys peed standing up and girls sitting down. In a minor and not usually discussed thing but a basis for our children and in our daily lives. It is the concept of what is socially accepted in both cultures. To study a culture is not just to try new foods and what beers do they drink but rather observing the for the lack of a better word  the absolute "basic things" that make up that particular culture. It is not just about the obvious things you see but rather the ones that are behind the scenes and kept secret. Because after all isn't our secrets who define how we think?