Germany through the eyes of an American

Berlin,Germany- I feel the sweat dripping down my pants and humidity begins to glue my nice t-shirt to my skin while I tour the great city of Berlin. Amidst the famous churches, monuments, and statues, I desperately need water. No, not the carbonated-mineral water that burns your throat with every swallow but instead the nice, cool water with a few chips of ice. Being in Germany for over three weeks now, I still haven't found the right kind of water without buying and even then the mental aftertaste of paying for water turns it bitter in my mouth. As an American I take comfort in the idea that every resturant in the U.S provides tap water to its customers, but this isn't the case in Germany, as most resturants in Europe make their money with expensive, fancy looking bottle drinks. One resturant owner says he can't just offer free water, since none of the other resturants offer free water, but with all of Germany's social rights-the right to have a apartment,food, television, and education I wonder why water in Germany isn't more accessible? Why don't Germans fight for the healthy benefit of drinking tap water at resturants? I've heard different answers, all the way from them thinking its unhealthy to drink normal tap-water during meals to why drink water when you can drink a nicely brewed German beer. Others have said that many Germans, like Americans, don't know the health benefits of water reducing headaches, constipation (Although I think most people know this), lack of concentration, increasing skin nourishment, and even chronic depression.

Companies in America have started to offer free, purified water to their employees to their workers, because its been proven to increase work production and keep them more aware on the job, but I have found the opposite in Germany. As I took a tour with several Americans and others at a television rating company (don't ask me why)I became really thirsty. I asked the front desk if they had a drinking fountain. She answered no, but one of the ladies said I could buy some mineral water in the cafertia. My tour guide happened to overhear my dilemma, and she told me to reach out my hand. She pulled out her water bottle and told me to cup my hands as she poured warm water into my hands. I felt it a little strange, like a little puppy lapping water from my doggy, hand bowl. She dumped more into the hand, and I drank as much as I could before it slipped through the cracks of my fingers. She asked me if I was better, almost as if I were her own child. All of this could have been prevented if the company had had a simple drinking fountain.

Last week in Nuremberg, sitting at a restaurant with some American Friends, the waitress refused to give any of us normal tap water for free. The price for soda was actually cheaper than a bottle of Avian Mineral Water, and I wonder even still how soda, with its high sugar volume, its chemicals, its preservitives can be cheaper than water? How can a company charge for something that should be given to all humans and animals naturally? Maybe I'm blowing up the idea to spark a revolution, where everything that's natural, fabricated by earth itself-fruit,vegetables, water, the sun, and as the famous philosopher John Locke writes "Property," should be given freely to every person. No, I'm not trying to create such a revolution: not yet anyway. No, I'm just frustrated with the German System.

Using 2.50 Euro water to dig into the fundamental rights of all living beings is not my aim, today. However, I do admit that Germany's progression in social, worker, and women's rights surpasses us in everyway, but I must confess that Americans have the German's number in the water evolution, until of course they discover a drinking fountain.

The waitress finally brought me out my 2.50 Euro Water, and I drank it within a matter of seconds, three large American gulps. Instead of paying for a refill, I walked into the bathroom, made sure I was alone, and nervously turned the knob on the bathroom sink. As the water brimmed to the top, I secretly enjoyed the fact I outsmarted the German system, but then I tasted it. If I were German, I'd settle for a beer too. Too bad I don't drink.