Michael Every shrink-wrapped food item for sale in the U.S., ranging from a box of serial to a candy bar, from a can of beans to a packed sliced salami, prominently displays its "Nutrition Facts" (Figure 2). The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been requiring this information since 1990, and it lists in detail, how many calories, how much fat, sugar, salt or vitamins are contained in a product. This way, the consumer can make an informed choice before buying or eating a product and knows if it will be contributing to their waistline or raise their cholesterol.

Angelika In June, the Supreme Court, the highest and final legal instance in the United States, ruled on two important issues regarding gay marriage. A private citizen named Edith Windsor had filed a lawsuit against the so-called "Defense of Marriage Act" (short: DOMA). DOMA was signed into law in 1996 by then-president Bill Clinton, and said that individual states were no longer required to acknowledge legally granted same-sex marriages (e.g. by other states). DOMA determined a marriage to be valid only between a man and a woman and explicitly did not recognize same-sex marriages in the same way.

Michael As you probably already know, we've gotten into the habit of watching the daily German news show "Tagesschau" by help of a small streaming device called Roku in our living room. It's really easy to do, since the sandwich-sized box supports not only Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, and about a dozen other content providers, but also this most famous German news show. Three clicks with the remote, and within 10 seconds, it starts running on our TV in San Francisco. Thanks to the time difference, on the weekends, we often watch the 8:00pm show already in the early afternoon.

Angelika By American standards, San Francisco and the Bay Area are exemplary when it comes to public transportation offerings. There's buses, street cars, and a subway. The subway system BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) features a single line within the limits of the city of San Francisco, extending all the way south to SFO airport, but also also connects the East Bay (Oakland, Richmond, Berkeley, Pleasanton) with San Francisco, crossing the Bay waters via an underwater tunnel.

Michael If you like reading on your iPad while sitting in your favorite recliner or lying in bed, you're familiar with how heavy the device gets all of a sudden. Wham-bam, and you're snoozing off, but you really wanted to keep reading! To combat this problem, I recently bought a pyramid-shaped pillow named Peeramid from Amazon, after getting curious by the raving reviews the item had received. It sits on your lap or on the blanket and keeps the iPad upright at an angle for reading without having to hold it upright.

Michael If I'm not mistaken, the obsession of climbing indoors on artificial walls must have originated in Germany, or how else would you explain that I've been doing that since the 90ies, back then at the Thalkirchen climbing center in Munich? In the U.S., the sport is called "indoor climbing" and there's a micro-chain gym called "Planet Granite" in San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area that offers several fitness clubs with rock climbing walls. After a hard day's work, it's quite common to meet fellow techies there, and ironically also often German-speaking immigrants. Almost every Wednesday, I've been hanging out there with our friends Bettina, Miguel, Chris and Tranquilla for quite some time.

Michael Whiskey, oder "whisky", as people from the UK say, is a distilled liquid, mostly made from malted grains. The basis for American Bourbon whiskeys is usually corn, whereas Scottish whiskeys ("Scotch") typically use malted barley. As you can find out by watching the unlisted Youtube video Whisky. The Islay Edition , it is first and foremost the small Scottish Island of Islay, which specializes in producing so-called "peat" whiskeys by malting barely over peat-fueled fire, which adds the typical marshy, smoky scent and flavor. Coincidentally, if you open up your desktop computer and hold your nose close to the motherboard, you'll likely pick up similar scents.

Angelika In the U.S., just like anywhere else, school kids are eagerly awaiting their summer vacation. With two to three months of school being closed during the summer, depending on the school district, school kids here have more time off than in Germany. In San Francisco, the last school day was May 31st, and children are returning to their classrooms on August 19th. Typical months for summer vacation are June, July, and August. Rumor has it that the reason for this choice is that formerly in rural areas, children had to help with the harvest. Others claim that it's due to the unbearable heat during the sommer months in major metropolitan areas that schools are closed during this time. Be it as it may, the fact is that long summer vacations enjoyed by U.S. school kids are here to stay.

Angelika In March, we once again packed our bags and went on a trip to the Hawaiian island of Oahu. We've given up on hotels for quite some time already, and nowadays always rent vacation homes, not only because there's no hotels in our favorite spot, Kailua. Since we know exactly what we want and have become pretty familiar with the neighborhood, I always get a place to stay via "vrbo.com" ("Vacational Rental by Owner"). On the site, owners offer their vacation homes from around the world for rent.

Angelika Even on Hawaii, not everything is like it should be in paradise. Cluttering the islands with new construction projects is an ongoing problem. The locals are understandably not happy that it's mostly wealthy individuals buying real estate that they then only use a few times a year as vacation homes. Those houses often have gigantic footprints and are located in close vicinity to the beach, but are uninhabited most of the time.