thoughts...

[beige_alert]

• While waiting for the train that would carry aryana_filker away (*sniff*), a freight train was passing through the station, loaded with coiled sheet steel. Another fascinating thing to the American, since I have some interest in trains even though I'm not really one of those fanatics. The cars looked tiny and the couplings between them were utterly unlike the American kind. We have zilch passenger rail over here, but the freight trains are huge. We run kilometer-and-a-half long trains with shipping containers stacked two high. Hundred-plus car unit coal trains. Three or four or five 4000+ horsepower diesel-electric locomotives. Just seeing the wires above the rails seemed odd, since we have so very little electrified rail here.
  
  Passenger service, though.... We think 79MPH (127km/h) is fast, and 125MPH (200km/h) 150MPH (240km/h) is super special high-speed rail, just on the one special route out east. The seven trains a day between the minor city of Milwaukee, the 25th-most populous in the US with a half million people in the city and another million in the region, and Chicago, is very unusual, super-frequent service.
  



• It was interesting to see in each flat a meter for cold water, one for hot water, and the little units on each radiator that record heating usage. The building I live in has no individual meters other than for electricity. The heating, air conditioning, water both hot and cold, are all unmetered. If we all use less, the rent will tend to rise more slowly, if we all use more, it will rise more quickly, but the feedback is rather slow that way, and merged with everyone else in the building. The other system here would be for each unit to have its own water heater and its own boiler/furnace, and its own gas connection and meter. I've never seen here the sort of fancy heating thermostats with radio links to the radiators and sensors on the windows to turn the heat off in a room if the window is open. I saw dual-flush or otherwise controllable-flush toilets all over, which are still very rare (though not unheard of) in the USA.
  
  Subjectively, I saw a lot more concern than I'm used to here for controlling heating costs and water usage. My personal impression was that attention to electricity waste didn't seem very high, but I'm biased on that by being something of a fanatic about it.
  
  Since I was being a tourist, I spent a lot of time being driven all over the place (Driving all day! Just like the USA!), so I don't have any impression of what real-life is like. And of course, that famous high-speed driving. On the other hand, small cars with teensy-weensy engines (though clearly big enough for that high-speed driving). Overall, of course, they use a lot less motor fuel per person over there than we in the US do, one way or another.



• Something I keep being reminded of now every time I order a drink of any kind here is how huge our serving sizes are. If you ever wonder why Americans are big, it might possibly have something to do with what we consider one serving of sugar-water to be. And the reuseable cups, with a deposit! Watching lisande ordering some colas for our group the first time, I was confused to see the price didn't match what I was expecting. The deposit on the cups! Never saw that before. Here you either be inside a restaurant where you're not going to be walking off with the tableware or else everything would be disposable. And, of course, three times bigger.
  
  I also saw restaurants working on the order, get food, eat, then pay system that I would have expected to be using the order, pay, then eat system. Again, befuddling for the foreigner.

Comments

[aunty_marion]

It's pretty uncommon in the UK for each individual flat in a block NOT to have its own meters for gas and electricity. And they normally all have their own boiler = water/space heating system. These days, water meters are becoming more common too, and I think they're now probably standard on new build homes.

I've not seen that sort of fancy thermostat either; my flat now has a room thermostat in the living room, which will turn the boiler off if the room temperature exceeds that set; also individual control knobs on the radiator. There is a thermostat on the boiler, too, to ensure that the hot water doesn't come out of the tap scalding!

The dual-flush toilets are fairly rare here - more commonly seen in public places (theatres, etc) and some office blocks; less common, but not unheard of, in private homes.

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

European freight trains are soooo CUUUUUUTE. The last time I went to Toronto on a non-FKO expedition, I found a hobby shop that specialized in european-prototype model trains, and picked up a set. I keep the train itself on my knicknack shelf because it's so CUUUUUUUTE.

[bardling.livejournal.com]

European freight trains frequently have to fit through/under the same tunnels/bridges/stations/signals/power supply lines that the passenger trains go through (obviously depending on from/to where they go), so all trains are roughtly similar widths and heights.
Extrawide/-high loads have to be routed so as to avoid potential obstacles.

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

In the US, passenger and freight trains also share common bridges and tunnels. It's not the height and width of European train cars that grabs an American's attention, but the length.

These model train cars are all N scale--1:160 (though I've shrunk the image some). On top is an English freight car, in the middle is an American freight car, and at the bottom is an American passenger car.


http://members.aol.com/petealway/Trains.jpg

Often in the US, toy trains are simplified and kidified by giving them four wheels and making them shorter--more like the English freight car. Which is why I percieve European freight trains as "cute." They look like toy trains to me.

[bardling.livejournal.com]

Length of freight carriage depends on what it's for, there's quite a variation of general and specialised carriers for all sorts of stuff, varying in lenght, too.

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

"Loading gauges," the maxium size of railcar/load that will fit through a given line, are a surprisingly complex subject, and there are many standards and complications. It is true, though, that American loading gauges are huge compared to anything in Europe. The UK, especially, has lots of tiny little tunnels from way back in the early days. European articles on rail loading gauges always seem to mention at some point the American toweringly-huge double-stack shipping container thing just for giggles.

[jaelle-n-gilla.livejournal.com]

I've never seen such a temperature control system that shuts down the heating when you open a window. Smart!

But... you do have regular restaurants where you order, eat, then pay, don't you? all but the fast food chains work that way, don't they?

Dining with Americans in Germany or Switzerland drove them crazy for another reason, though. They always complained that the minute they'd finished eating, the check wasn't automatically on the table.
Over here, it's considered impolite to deliver the check with the meal. It looks to us like they are trying to throw you out and want the table back for the next person in line. I often felt rushed in the US. We like to order a desert, take our time, have a coffee, have a Schnaps, and then, maybe, if we feel like it, pay and leave.
On the other hand the Americans felt neglected over here. As if no one cared about their time and schedule.

Did you see that difference too, or was ist just me and my colleagues?

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

It was a pretty fancy thermostat, indeed. Mine just has a clock and schedule of temperatures I can program.

I did eat at places in Germany that are very like the very common sort of restaurant in the US where you are seated, brought menus, order, the food is brought to you, and, at the end, you pay. (You would almost never be expected to pay in advance in such a place.) Very common, just slight differences. Like, in the US they would never make change for your payment right at the table, here they bring the money back to the cash register, enter the transaction into the system there, and bring change back. (I also saw same fairly large bills for the big group paid in cash when back home I'd have thought a credit card payment more likely, though cash would be fine, too.) I'm not really sure about Germany, but in the US normally you'd be greeted as you enter and led to a seat, unless the restaurant is not busy at all and they'd put up a "please seat yourself" sign.

Thinking about this a bit more, and trying to remember details that I didn't pay much attention to at the time, I think I can describe what surprised me in more detail. I'm fairly sure on several occasions we walked in, stood at the counter to order, brought our food to a table to eat, and only after went back up to pay. Thinking about the US, I don't think you could go wrong with the rule that if you order your food standing up at some sort of counter/order-taking spot, you will be expected to pay for it right then. Not only in a fast-food-type place where you'll be handed your food within a minute or two and then be expected to clear off your own table. Also in some nicer places (one of my local favorites serves very good and expensive pizza) you'll order up front, pay, be handed your drink (or an empty glass to fill with soda yourself from the machine) and a number card. You go to a table yourself, display the number card in the holder on the table, and when your food is ready they find you and take it to you. And when done, you just leave and they clean up. In that good pizza place one could even order a desert after the meal from one of the staff while seated, and pay them, without getting up to go back through the line at the front, but that initial order was paid for at the start.

I didn't eat out very much. I didn't really notice any obvious difference in how quickly we seemed to be moved along. It certainly varies in the US from restaurant to restaurant, too. Maybe if you eat out enough in both countries you'd notice a difference on average. There are times here at home we feel we can't get attention so we can pay and leave. In a busy place I think I feel more of an internal 'ought to move along' feeling (if only to go someplace quieter) rather than external pressure to move along. Maybe my expectations better match the management's. Maybe also feel more comfortable asserting that they can't make me leave, and I don't have to jump up the moment I get the bill if I don't want to.

[jaelle-n-gilla.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, I remember the "wait to be seated" signs :-) I had to physically hold my father back from striding to the next best table.
The wait feels awkward to us. Like... they could turn us away if they wouldn't like us.
In most nicer restaurants here you go in, glance at the waiter, and if they are not striding at you to guide you to a place, you pick your own. They do place you in the better restaurants, though. They do in all the Asian places for sure.

[bardling.livejournal.com]

That seating service is more common in the UK thanin Germany, too. I guess in Germany people prefer to make their own choice as to where they want to sit, and *like* that. Also, it avoids what is probably mostly perceived as an unneccessary/potentially annoying wait.
So for average restaurants (i.e. not the highly pricey/elegant type), walking in & seating oneself tends to be the default. At least then, if one has to wait for a menu or something, one is sitting down & getting settled.

[lisande.livejournal.com]

It was interesting to see in each flat a meter for cold water, one for hot water, and the little units on each radiator that record heating usage.

The cold and hot water meters aren't installed in every flat, but they get more common.
But that brings me to another questions: how are rents composed in the US? Here, we have a system that we pay a special rent for the flat and then additional charges for water, heating, electricity (mostly that one isn't collected by the landlord but by the energy company), and things like insurances for the house, garbage collection, street cleaning, taxes on the house and so on. The landlord usually takes a prepayment with the monthly rent and is obliged to draw up an account on the end of the year, either asking for more money or giving something back.
There are only few landlords who take an "all inclusive" rent.

Don't start me in detail on the subject (I could get carried away), it's one of those I have to teach to my colleagues, because costs for rents and additional charges is a big theme in social welfare...

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

For a plain, ordinary rental (like where I live) there is a simple monthly rental amount and any taxes and fees the landlord is paying will all be part of that. Normally the tenants would have no idea what property taxes are being paid on the building or what insurance on the building itself costs---we just pay our rent have no idea how much of it goes to what. Details of other fees will vary. Sometimes people rent a single-family house, and would probably pay most of their own bills. In a multi-unit building, typically garbage collection would be included, and usually water is unmetered. Normally each tenant would have his own electrical meter and account with the power company and pays for his own usage. You have your own phone and cable TV accounts, of course. If you have any sense, you'd have insurance on the stuff you own, which you would arrange for on your own.

Often each unit has its own water heater and heating and air conditioning and you'd have your own meters and pay your own electricity and gas bills for that. In my building there is a central water heater and a central heating boiler, there are no individual meters, and the costs to run that are just part of the rent. If the price of natural gas goes up, bad year for the landlord. If it goes down, better year for him. (With gas prices up, I assume there will be an increase next time the rental contract comes up for renewal.) This is fairly common.

[lisande.livejournal.com]

I see. All those little differences in daily life... :))

next time the rental contract comes up for renewal

Ha, next interesting thing: are rental contracts usually limited in the US? And for what period?

Here, we have the possibility to do limited contracts, but they are not common (and I think the landlord needs a reason for not renewing them, like the wish to move in himself, but I'm not completely sure about that). But the usual thing are unlimited contracts with 3 month cancelation period for both parties - though the landlord needs a *very* good reason to cancel the contract while the lodger only needs to wish to move out.

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

Each state and even each city get to make their own laws, so that complicates things. I'm actually not too sure about the local details. The place I had one year in college we rented on a one-year contract. Here we at least used to be on a two-year cycle as far as rent increases went. I can terminate with some reasonable notice but I'd have to check exactly how much notice. Rules for forcing out a tenant vary widely from place to place. Since I'm the sort of tenant who always pays on time and fixes more things than I break, and the building is owned by a single person who greets me by name when he's here to work on something and knows I'm the dream tenant, I'm not really forced to know all my rights. :)

[lisande.livejournal.com]

Since I'm the sort of tenant who always pays on time and fixes more things than I break, and the building is owned by a single person who greets me by name when he's here to work on something and knows I'm the dream tenant, I'm not really forced to know all my rights. :)



*lol*

I wouldn't know as much as I do if it weren't for my job...

But one thing is for sure: the laws about renting rooms are the same all over Germany, because it's a federal law. :)

[bardling.livejournal.com]

Mmmm, agreed - a single water meter per flat was certainly more common when I still lived in Germany. Also, most people tended to pay utilities like water & electricity (& sometimes heat, esp. if gas) directly to the utility companies. But yes, there'd be a bill detailing the flat's usage of ressources.

Also, for the heating - thermostats on each radiator are pretty common, but they're not always the fancy self-regulating ones. I'm way more familiar with thermostats on each radiator, which you can set yourself to the setting that gives you the desired temperature (usually more like a gas mark setting, not a temperature) for that room. These do still measure energy used in heating in some way, though I do not recall quite how/what is measured & calculated.

But basically, there is a generally a fairly strong separation to put responsibility for ressource use & associated cost on the individual flats/tenants "by use". And the green movement encourages saving ressources, as does the individual accountability/cost.

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

The seven trains a day

The new cross London (crossrail) service will have
In the central part of the line between Paddington and Liverpool Street 24 trains an hour will run in each direction.

That's nearly one every two minutes! Given time to stop, drop people off, pick people up and move off, the next train must be pretty much coming up the tunnel immediately behind! (and one small incident will cause chaos!)

They are working on the basis of 78 THOUSAND passengers an hour during peak periods, on that one train line.

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

Well, and as I said, Manhatten is technically part of the US. I've had the joy, when visiting the densest central part the the city of Chicago, of waiting just minutes for a bus having showed up at a random time. I once just saw the train on the one subway line in Chicago leave as I entered the station, and my wait for the next train was, literally, equal to or a bit less than my usual wait outside for the bus in front of my home. That bus runs every 20 minutes at best, with quite some minutes scatter in the arrival time, so...better walk out early and wait lest I miss it. Milwaukee, with just a half million people inside the city and another half million in the suburbs, is much too small for any sort of rail in the city or for very frequent bus service or anything like that.

Seeing light rail systems and even subways in Germany in places that lacked the sort of vast size and density I associate with such things was very interesting.