European culture

There have been a lot of cultural observations done throughout our whole stay in Europe, but I have picked out a few that I think are interesting or important for us to think about.

Something that I am super passionate about is the decrease in tobacco products, so this trip has been extremely hard for me. I did my research and it says that 19% of people in the United States smoke, as where in Europe it says 29% of people smoke tobacco products. This is weird to me because as we have been walking around, it seems like every single person is smoking a cigarette, no matter which country we were in. It’s a social thing, at every restaurant with outdoor sitting, and especially when people are walking down the street. I am the president of a club called colleges against cancer, so I am very passionate about ending the use of cigarettes. In the United States I see a lot of e-cigarettes or vapes, but here in Europe I have only seen three vapes. So the United States may be see as the less healthy country because of all the junk food and fast food we eat, but Europe is worse when it comes to health dealing with tobacco. This is Europe’s most preventable cause of death, and I hope in the future they switch to another form of smoking, or quit all together.

Something that has REALLY bugged me is the lack of ice in every single drink we get. I haven’t really figured out why Europeans don’t love ice, because I grew up with my mom filling the whole cup with ice and barely any soda. Even when we go to sit down restaurants and ask for ice, they give us one ice cube per person, so that lasts about two minutes until completely melted. I might also be spoiled because I never drink just water, it’s always filled up ice. Perhaps people that like room temperature water (aka my brother) would do just fine in Europe. I on the other hand will use more ice once I get back to the United States.

The last thing I wanted to write about is the biking. I live in Madison, Wisconsin, which I think is really bike friendly. There are paths most places, and it’s really popular downtown. Here in Amsterdam, I’ve noticed that literally everyone bikes. People bike in heals, suits, they bike with their kids, their partner, or their parents; literally everyone bikes here. The bike lanes are way more popular  here, and they are busier than the car lanes. I love it, because that means it’s great for the environment, and you can also tell the people here are skinner than the average American. I hope that one day biking will become really popular in the United States, but maybe not to the extreme as we see in Amsterdam!!