10 things I learned from my brother's visit

This summer my younger brother visited me here in the U.S. We were both born and raised in Germany and I moved here in 2006. During his visit I learned and realized a lot of things that I had either not noticed before or already forgotten. About the American culture and about myself.

 Here they are, in no particular order:

1. Americans (or shall I say the ones we interacted with during his visit) sometimes don't speak their mind out of fear of offending someone. They for example say 'that's so funny'  in response to a comment or action that was supposed to be funny, when clearly it wasn't. Otherwise they would have just laughed and the 'that's so funny' comment would have been redundant.
2. I tend to worry too much about others having a good time rather than just having a good time with them.
3. Eating typically American food for a week straight will make you feel nasty, tired and fat (we ate burgers, corn dogs, hot dogs, pizza for the first week or so).
4. I drive like a German, but have the parallel parking abilities of a 16 year old American girl living in the suburbs.
5. It is very tough for Germans (or foreigners in general) to understand all the slang, cultural references and nuances sometimes. My brother answered the immigration lady with 'yeah sure' when asked if he had a full-time job in Germany. He said she got very inquisitive and kind of mean after that and he didn't understand why. When he said 'sure' he meant 'of course' or 'you can be assured that I do'. I explained to him that she probably heard 'yeah sure… whatever you say, just let me go'. I might be wrong, but that is my assumption.
6. The US economy is losing ground (I know… duh..). The immigration lady also asked my brother if he was coming to the U.S. to pay my bills (i.e. get a job and help me out). He responded with 'I would pay her bills if I could, but she makes a lot more money than I do'. He told me later that he wishes he would have just said: 'Why would I come to the U.S. to work? Germany's economy is much better and the Euro is stronger than the dollar.' Touche.
7. My brother was amazed by all of the space we have here. Every time we went to a park, lake or trail he said that there are very few places around Frankfurt to enjoy nature and the ones that do exist are always packed with people and thus not very enjoyable. It made me appreciate the PNW and all of its outdoor activities even more.
8. GoogleMaps is fine in areas you kind of know with decent coverage. It is not great in areas with no coverage that you do not know. Functionality and UX has decreased from earlier versions. Getting a real GPS Navigation before my next trip into unknown territory.
9. Corn dogs are the only thing that you cannot get as a freshly prepared meal at a restaurant/stand/truck (please let me know if you know of a place). My brother loves corn dogs. He can get the frozen ones in Germany. He asked to go to a place to eat freshly made corn dogs. Me: crickets. No clue. The only time we saw corn dogs on a menu they were part of a kid's menu. And you know they weren't dipping hot dogs in batter and frying them in any of those places.
10. Your Twitter followers and your Klout score are not as valuable as time with your family. Not tweeting for 2 weeks will not kill you socially. I am pretty sure none of my followers will take offense to this since I am confident that you all agree. Go hug a loved one. You're lucky if you can just go do that without flying across the world.