August 23rd, 2010
Being a foreigner once again here in Ireland, after finally not feeling very foreign in Germany, is a new adventure. I finally learned the little cultural tricks in Germany, like not putting my hand out for change at the bakery, but waiting for them to place it on the little tray on the counter, and even the big ones, like closing doors out of habit in every room in the house. And now it all begins again…
Warning: This blog may be a bit rambly; I’ve spent all day delving through moving boxes, directing people and lugging furniture.
I’ve managed the driving bit, at least as far as the smaller roads around our little country town are concerned, but I think I will never be able to employ my excellent Autobahn passing skills in this country. First of all, people just don’t drive that fast. Second, I would be (more…)
Categories: Expat issues, History and culture, Miscellaneous |
Tags: Aldi, Du and Sie, expat, foreign, formal, Germany, Ireland, LIdl, Sarah | No Comments
May 3rd, 2010
Long, long ago, in 1992, when I first came to Germany, I, at the tender age of 21, had no real idea of what “organic” even was. Who did back then, except a few hippies and tree huggers (ha, ha). I had a few older and wiser friends with small children who bought bio products from under the bridge at a vegetable market in Freiburg, but at the time, I hardly even cooked, so I certainly didn’t understand the need to buy groceries at twice the price, when the fruit and veg looked battered and worn, even from the beginning. I was used to shiny (waxed) American apples and giant onions, ramen noodles and frozen ravioli. After a couple of years in Freiburg, when I went back home, I felt like an immigrant from some far away country where there was nothing available but a sad looking parsnip at the grocery store in the dead of winter. All that selection, all that food, all those giant boxes!
The next step in my transition towards bio came in 2003, when I moved back to Germany after five years in Michigan. I had a colleague at my new workplace who raved about the joys of organic. She only bought organic eggs, and insisted they tasted better. I thought she was crazy! What difference could it possibly make, I thought? Why do you have to have organic peanut butter — that oily concoction that you have to stir before eating? Again, I was not ready to shell out extra for an organic egg or anything else organic. (more…)
Categories: Daily life, Expat issues, Miscellaneous, Tips, advice, suggestions |
Tags: bio, buying organic, expat, Germany, jamie oliver's food revolution | No Comments
April 5th, 2010
Nowadays, there are many cheap and easy ways to keep in touch with friends and family at home when you are an expat in Germany. When I first moved here in 1992, I was only really able to call my parents from a pay phone outside my dorm, and I could talk for about 5 minutes for 5 DM (€2.50 or so nowadays). There were fancy phone cards that you could buy from the Post Office so you could use the fancy pay phones that didn’t take coins, but that was it. No bargains to be had. And you are almost hard pressed to find a phone booth around here due to the fact that even the majority of 7-year-olds have mobile phones!
Nowadays, I can use Skype (free), call from my home phone (flatrate of €3.95 through Telekom, called Country Select), or call from my mobile with prepaid (€0.09/minute), and chatting on Facebook or Google Chat (both free, and both also work on my phone). It certainly makes things easy, and I do appreciate it, because with lots of kids in the house, I need to talk to my mom a lot for a number of reasons, including general moral support, advice on cooking recipes that she used to make, advice on unruly/rude teenagers, sympathy with the many illnesses this family seems to be getting and of course, bragging about the kids and letting them talk to her (and the rest of the family). (more…)
Categories: Daily life, Expat issues, Miscellaneous, Tips, advice, suggestions |
Tags: calling the US from Germany, expat, Facebook, Germany, keeping in touch, phone cards, Sarah, Skype | 1 Comment
March 29th, 2010
Sometimes I feel like we’re living in another decade in the past. The other day when I was looking at eltern.de, the website for Eltern (Parent) Magazine, there was an ad for the new Volkswagen Sharan model. The Sharan now has an electric sliding door. Although I’ve only recently submitted to the fact that minivans might be relevant to me, I seem to recall that this feature has been around in the minivans sold in the U.S. for a while now. This thought made me think about other aspects of our village life.
As I’ve blogged here before, my husband and I live in a small city in the southwest of Germany. I liken Aalen (population 66,503) more to a large village rather than a small city.
My family and I shop regularly, every Wednesday and Saturday, at the local market, where we buy our fresh vegetables, fruit and poultry. Often, we run into friends, acquaintances, and colleagues. We buy our meat at our favorite butcher, where we are greeted by name, and buy our bread, mostly at the excellent bakery closest to us. But if I need white bread to make stuffing, for example, or prefer the house specialty of walnut bread at another bakery, I’d go there or if I want to buy my kids organic soft pretzels and raisin rolls, then I’d go to yet another bakery. In this respect, we are spoiled for choice. And I think we are spoiled by the fact that these small shop establishments are still very much in operation. (more…)
Categories: Daily life, Expat issues, History and culture |
Tags: Aalen, expat, German village life, Germany, Jane | 2 Comments
February 9th, 2010
It seems every post I write has to do with kids, but that is how my life looks right now! At the moment, both of my little ones are in the midst of the Eingewöhnung process in their respective nursery schools (Kindergärten). My youngest is starting Krippe (loosely translated as daycare) and his sister is starting nursery school. When I signed them up, I was told to prepare to be available during the acclimitization process. Little did I know, they have it down to a science. (more…)
Categories: Daily life, Expat issues, Tips, advice, suggestions, Work and employment matters |
Tags: Berliner Modell, Daycare, Eingewöhnung, expat, Germany, kindergarten, Krippe, Sarah | 1 Comment
November 18th, 2009
I’m quite positive that no one wants to read anything else about the swine flu at the moment, but unfortunately, the swine flu is the reason my blog was two days late this week. It has been a hard week for our family, because all four of the kids have been sick, and the au pair as well!
Before it hit our house, I thought all the bluster about swine flu was just that, bluster. I do have to say now that part of it is just that, bluster, but that it can get scary pretty fast. Ever since the news started in about the swine flu, I have been talking to my parents about the differences in news coverage in the US and in Germany. I assumed that the US would blow things up pretty large and sensationalize it as well, but it isn’t too far behind that here in Germany either. In the US it is clear that more people are dying, but the US is a much bigger country and seems to have been hit first. Here I’ve noticed more news about preventing the flu, and especially about whether the vaccine was dangerous or necessary. People in general seem to be more sceptical about vaccines over here, so it doesn’t surprise me that this is the case. (more…)
Categories: Expat issues |
Tags: conflicting information, expat, flu, Germany, h1n1, press, Sarah, sick kids, swine flu, vaccine h1n1 | No Comments
October 19th, 2009
Because I have to go back to work earlier than anticipated thanks to the recession, we had to think about childcare for the little ones earlier than anticipated. With two kids under three, daycare (Kinderkrippe) was not an option due to the cost involved. Although an earlier attempt with an au pair didn’t work out very well, (too much partying and too little working) we decided to take the plunge and try again. Our au pair arrived from Canada last week, and it was interesting to see what kinds of questions he asked and what he finds intriguing (yes, he is a guy) about Germany. He’s 18 and has been to Europe before, but not to Germany. I had sent him Hyde’s book before he arrived, so expected some things, but others were a surprise.
The second night he was here, I took him with me to my expat meetup group here in Heidelberg. I had to explain to him beforehand what an expat was. If you have never been one, you most likely haven’t encountered the word! The first person he talked to wasn’t technically an expat either. He asked her where she was from and she said “Bavaria”. He said, “Where’s that?” To him, it sounded like a country, but of course he had never heard of it. She made him feel silly for not knowing that it was a state in Germany. Of course, we’ve all heard the stereotypes about Bavarians being like Texans, wanting to secede from the Union and all. I still felt bad for him. Not very welcoming. (more…)
Categories: Expat issues, History and culture, Miscellaneous, learning German |
Tags: au pair, Bavaria, childcare, expat, Germany, recession, Sarah | No Comments
May 3rd, 2009
Having spent the past week dealing with jet lag in small children, with my mind still fuzzy and my eyes still bleary from lack of sleep and too many espressos, I only have one thing to talk about this week: recovering from a cross-time-zone trip.
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Categories: Expat issues, Miscellaneous, Tips, advice, suggestions |
Tags: expat, Germany, heia, jet lag, melatonin, Sarah, sleep, traveling with babies | 1 Comment
November 10th, 2008
One of the more important items on the pre-departure checklist for expats or travelers headed to Germany concerns any prescription drugs they may require during an extended stay. Those who need certain medications can bring their own prescription drugs with them when they travel to Germany — in their carry-on or checked luggage. That’s not a problem. The hassles only begin when you want or need to “import” your own prescription drugs to Germany from the U.S. or some other country. I have some personal experience with the complications that can arise when you have your own medications sent to you in Germany by a friend, spouse, relative or anyone outside Germany. You may also want to do this, since your U.S. prescription plan may not cover you in Germany, but it is fraught with peril.
First, let’s talk about how you can avoid such complications and related hassles up front. (In other words, what I should have done, but didn’t.) Then I’ll tell you what happens if you don’t follow this advice! (more…)
Categories: Expat issues, Medical matters, Red tape and bureaucracy |
Tags: Apotheke, aspirin, Berlin, customs, doctors, drugs, expat, FedEx, Germany, Goethe, health insurance, laws, medical, medicine, pharmacy, prescriptions, red tape, regulations, shipping, Zoll | No Comments
October 25th, 2008
I will never understand international currency exchange rates. Hell, even Alan Greenspan says he doesn’t understand why the world economy has suddenly gone down the drain. How are we mere mortals supposed to grasp even the basics of economics, much less the finer points, if Greenspan is befuddled?
The one-euro coin (Münze) makes you wonder why Americans can't use a dollar coin.
But I do know one thing for sure about the exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the euro: If I go to Europe, the euro will climb and the dollar will fall. When I return to the good ol’ USA, the dollar will come back. I call it (modestly) the Flippo Factor. (more…)
Categories: Expat issues, The euro and money matters, Tips, advice, suggestions |
Tags: ATM, banks, currency, dollar, EU, euro, euro zone, Europe, exchange rate, expat, foreign exchange, Germany, money, Nevada | No Comments
