Angelika America has awakened from its slumber, as suddenly climate change and environmental protection are on everyone's lips. When the black talk show queen Oprah Winfrey takes up a topic, you know that a general trend has begun. Last week, Oprah encouraged her TV viewers to go to the supermarket with cloth bags, replace regular light bulbs with energy-saving ones, use environmentally friendly cleaning products, recycle, and defy the American packaging craze.

Michael Silicon Valley companies provide their employees with various amenities to prevent them from going somewhere else. It is well known that software developers are most effective when their behinds are warming the office chair. IN Rundbrief 11/2004 , I have already reported about the traveling barber and the basketball courts on the Yahoo campus, as well as the washers and dryers at the Googleplex.

Michael Since quite a bit of waste is produced in America, it has to go somewhere. Although San Francisco is diligent about recycling ( Rundbrief 02/2006 ), the rest of the waste also has to disappear somewhere.

Michael Often a company or authority wants to transfer money to a private individual but cannot find the person's account number or address. It's not due to a lack of goodwill, and not making the payment would be illegal. What to do? In America, there is no citizen registration requirement, and no one knows who lives where. If someone moves once or multiple times, their trail often gets completely lost in the vastness of the country.

Michael When I once asked one of my colleagues about his somewhat unusual-looking signet ring on his ring finger during lunch, he replied that he would be happy to explain it to me, but it was a rather long story. "Well," I said, "I have plenty of time!"

Michael From American crime series, you surely know that American police cars don't go "nee-naw" but "wee-woo-wee-wooo." There is also a difference between police sirens and those of fire trucks or ambulances. Ambulances tend to make a long "weeeeeee," while fire trucks, at least in San Francisco, make a "weeeeeee-wahhhhhh," with the "wahhh" being produced by a horn-like instrument that creates such a low-frequency infernal noise that you voluntarily pull over.

Michael And as threatened last time, we made a video about how I fry Wiener Schnitzel in our kitchen. Angelika operated the camera, and I just chatted and cooked away without a script, rhyme, or reason. Considering that, the result is surprisingly structured! Since the edited piece is about 16 minutes long, it's not on YouTube but on... Google Video .

Michael Recently, a letter arrived in the mailbox, which, in its neutral white envelope with an address window, looked like an advertisement for a new credit card. However, inside were several densely written pages filled with legal jargon. As is often the case in America, the legalese was translated for the average person, and at the top of the letter it read: "You are *not* being sued."

Michael Services are relatively cheap in America. If you take your car to a budget workshop in the Mission District of San Francisco, the mechanics will take apart half the engine for a few hundred dollars. However, this does not apply to bicycle repairs. Although there are an unusually high number of cyclists in San Francisco by American standards, the few bicycle mechanics charge exorbitant prices.

Angelika The American postal service has to endure quite a bit of teasing because, even by US standards, it has a touch of bureaucracy about it. However, I swear by our post office location on 24th Street and our good soul, the mailman George, who has been delivering mail in our neighborhood since way back. He kindly leaves our packages from Germany at our apartment door when we're not home.

Angelika I am still, as is well known, reminiscing about the darkroom and the UC Berkeley Extension location on Laguna Street. I took quite a few courses there and spent hours developing my photos.

Angelika We have just switched our car and household insurance, and since this topic is of interest to many expatriates, I have compiled the most important facts. Changing insurance is always quite annoying, but Michael had been insisting for years that our insurance was ripping us off, because even though we never reported a claim or received a fine, the premiums kept cheerfully increasing every year.