When I lived in Germany, I noticed that Germans are weird swimmers. They learn to swim in school (like we all should) but they all learn to swim without getting their hair wet. My mother does this sort of modified breast stroke and, to her great credit, she can swim for a really long time that way. Survival swimming. She does 30 laps in the pool....with a hat and sunglasses on.... I had to take a picture because it was so amazing. By the way, my mother calls those her Princess Di laps because she read somewhere that Princess Di used to swim 30 laps a day. I think she got her hair wet though....
Of course, we Americans splash around like idiots when we swim. I went to a lake near Frankfurt, Germany one time with a bunch of Americans and we were very conspicuous because we didn't float around with our heads above the water. Instead, we jumped in head first (as if...) and even had a cannon ball contest. The Germans weren't too impressed. Yes....I'm American and I can do an amazing belly flop! Germans stayed far away from me because they knew that the book and cup of coffee they were holding (while swimming ) would definitely get water on them. Global terror.
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