Kultur 6

As soon as I saw the picture with the article "Division Hell: Worshipping the Garbage Gods" I had a war flashback to this past summer in Germany.  We had landed at the Frankfurt airport and had an hour or so before our ride was supposed to pick up.  I had just finished a bag of Cheese-Its and was ready to throw it away.  Except, it was easier said than done.  Unlike American airports, there isn't a trash can every five feet.  I had to walk to a different part of the airport just to locate one trashcan.  Prepared to finally dispose my waste, I was startled to find a puzzle of a bin, like the Swedish tourist who had written in with her experience.  First, I had to absorb the colors: red, blue, yellow, green--it was all so much.  Then, I had to read through different languages before I finally found "waste."  It was quite the culture shock.  Don't get me wrong, I'm all for recycling, but the Germans take it to a whole new level.  For the rest of my stay in Germany and Austria, my family and I just held onto our trash until we got back to our hotel rooms, where there was only one trash can dedicated solely for waste.