Where do you live? A city close to Cologne, North-Rhine- Westfalia ( I belief that's the official English name), Germany or as I would say: Köln, Nordrheinwestfalen, Deutschland.


If you want to know how to pronounce Köln right and since their is no such letter as ö in English, please check this link: Pronounciation of Köln


Prominent language spoken? German Other languages/dialects? There are many dialects in Germany, the local dialect would be Kölsch or something pretty similiar to that one.

Is this rural or urban? Rough size? Cologne is pretty urban and has about a million inhabitants. If you chose the right direction you can go from one city to another without seeing rural environment. I live at the more rural side of Cologne, but that doesn't mean much. This western part of Germany is densely settled and there is no place you could actually call rural. At least not compared to the USA. After all Germany is pretty small.

What do you like most/least about where you live? The history is something I both like and dislike. I don't think I need to say something about Germany's role in history. But I love how much history is visible throughout Cologne. The Romans, the Middleage, whatever you like. The oldest parts of the church I was christianed in were build in 800 AD.

Most historically significant points about your town/country? The most famous place in Cologne is certainly the cathedrale or as we call it the "Kölner Dom".

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But there are also parts of roman buildings and many other interesting things.

Climate? Hard to tell. You could say it's pretty wet, at least where I live. But I guess that's not what you want to know. In most parts of my country we have pretty mild winters- seldom below 0°C, hardly ever snow. The summers are warm, about 30°C. We don't usually deal with tornados, though lately we had a few. In the eastern and southern parts of the country the winters are less mild and the climate is more like continental.

Type of government? Name of current leader?

Federal Republic. We have a chancellor, her name is Angela Merkel - she is the head of government at the moment. People can only elect the parliament for the whole federation - called Bundestag, and the parliaments of the federal state they live in. The Bundestag elects the chancellor. There is also a formal head of state, a president. His name is Horst Köhler.

What are the major industries? Well, the most famous are automobiles I belief. VW, BMW, Mercedes... Other than this - Pharmaceutics (Bayer), steel

Major religion? Christian, one half catholic, the other half protestant. After all, it's our fault they're seperated wink

Diversity of education? Do most people graduate high school? College? School's a strange thing around here. You go to primary school at the age of 7 until you're ten. After this you need to choose. If you're not that well at school you can go to the "Hauptschule". Better pupils can go to "Realschule". They both are from fith grade to tenth. The graduation basically is the same, but people who come from "Realschule" can get more different types of jobs. The third possibility is "Gymnasium". It used to be from fith grade to 13th, but lately that changed and now it's 12th grade. The graduation from "Gymnasium" enables you to go to University. We call that graduation "Abitur".

As far as I know about 50% of the German students finish school with an Abitur. But the major problem around here is that children with better financial, educational background have better chances to get a good education. Mostly children of immigrants have problems at school. Since Germany has a relatively high rate of unemployed people, children with low educational level easily end up unemployed. That's a great topic of the politicians these days.

Most popular sport? Without a doubt - football, or as some call it: soccer. There is little else people here pay any attention to.

Most popular trend at the moment?I can't think of anything right now.

Most popular food?Definitely not sourkraut wink I guess that "Currywurst" is very popular at least when it comes to fastfood. I'm not sure certain fastfood restaurants really stand a chance. Other than that... I guess most German meals consist of potatos, vegetables and meat.

What do you feel is the most interesting/exciting thing about where you live? I'm pretty interested in history, so... Cologne became a city in 51 AD. I still think that's almost unbelievable. Before that it was a little village, called Oppidum Ubiorum. When Agrippina became the wife of a Roman emperor (I think it was Claudius. And they were Nero's parents) the village had to become a city, because someone that famous couldn't be born in a village. The new name of Cologne was - Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium. That's why Cologne is called Cologne.

Oh and there is also something I find pretty funny. Throughout the whole Middleage nobody thought about street numbers. It wasn't before Napoleon occupied the city (and the French almost went crazy because they didn't find anything in the city) that the houses got numbers. Maybe you know the most famous: 4711. Eau de Cologne

Are there any urban legends associated with your town/state/country? (My son's enquiring mind wants to know!)The most famous legend is about the "Heinzelmännchen" They are some kind of dwarfs who used to come each night to do all the work the people hadn't finished. They made bread, they sewed coats - and the people of Cologne had a nice and lazy life. But the tailor's wife was curious and she wanted to know who did all the work. One night she put peas all over the stairs and waited for the "Heinzelmännchen" to come. When they came they stumbled over the peas and fell down the staircase. They fled and were never seen again ever since that night. Thus we need to do our work all on our own.

It's never too dark to be cool. cool