CFB.. nah, a lone wolf. Awwooo.
Seriously, I am trying to figure out what the big deal is and I guess it is the mention of body odor which has everyone wigged out.
The thing is, I don't mind 'light to medium' body odor and actually kind of like it in some cases. I also don't mind the smell of skunk, which I find similar.
If the guy had been American, it's very likely he wouldn't have had any noticeable odor, because it is the American habit to take frequent showers, especially among the economic class of people who are likely to spend thousands and thousands on European travel. So I pegged Mr. Creepy as "continental". What someone might categorize as "virulently stupid" to me is merely an objective observation.
I don't think the people taking offense here understand that other places have other behaviors. Italians think Americans, British and others have filthy habits because they don't use bidets after they poop. They're in every home here and often in offices and even public lavatories. In Germany bidets are quite rare, but instead one finds toilets with shelves so that one can examine what one has produced. Conversely, Italians in a lot of areas leave trash all over the roadsides and beaches, which is disgusting and which I doubt would be tolerated in Germany, where they have you separate your trash for recycling, not just paper/plastic/glass, etc. but into eleven different categories. Did I make the world this way? No, but I find it interesting. Europe is a patchwork quilt, not a melting pot; it's not all so homogenized as in the US.
Discussion Forum > Life in Germany:
I'm wearing sandals and white socks
Relax, take it easy and think how great it is that you live in Germany. They wear white socks with sandals to weddings here.
What makes you so damn sure that THE germans are the only one's doing it or this is supposed to be a typical cultural trait of a german? ... [etc.]
No doubt that some British people wear white socks and sandals - the point is that you look like a numpty, and people will ridicule you for it in England. In Germany, I've seen directors go to meetings wearing a suit, white socks, and sandals, and nobody bats an eyelid.
That noted.. the forum does record the spread of this phenomenon, but one also may distinguish between the TEVA-style sandal, the German-origin but now more global Birkenstock, and mandals that have a certain 'something':
Funny. I can live with dumb, we all say dumb things every now and then. It's the habitual and virulent stupid that set me off. Three made it to that list, two of which have stopped posting shortly after the ignore feature came into use. One lingers on.....
[-]Can I send you a name?[/-]
