The origins of Frankfurter Grüne Sosse (green sauce) are not entirely clear. It is largely believed that the Romans brought it from the Near East. But the route the recipe followed from Italy to Hessen (where it is today a celebrated local speciality) is disputed....
The GW Expat Blog
Category
Daily life
(In-) Convenient
A few years ago while chatting with a friend who, like me, has a German spouse, I had a mini-revelation: "There is no German word for convenient," I said. After a pause, my friend the English teacher says, "Well, that explains a hell of a lot." Both fluent German...
Birthdays at Work (or the Joys of Raw Meat)
My first job here in Germany was in a publishing house (Verlag) in Freiburg, and that job was actually my first real job after college. It was certainly a different way to be indoctrinated into the world of work. It was the early nineties and it was the Schwarzwald....
When a Brötchen is a Bömmel …
The definite preference in Germany may be for dense, dark bread made with various combinations of wholewheat, spelt, rye, seeds and nuts (it accounts for over 90% of bread consumption), but the small, white, crusty bread roll does maintain an iconic status - whether...
Confessions of an Expat TV Addict in Germany
This is the most honest way to introduce myself to German-Way readers, Hello, my name is ebe and I am an expat TV addict. It’s true. Despite living in Germany for several years, I still watch American TV every day. As a writer working from home, I have the freedom to...
The Famous Swabian Hausfrau
I was delighted to find an article in the February 1, 2014 edition of The Economist dedicated to the mindset of the Swabian Hausfrau. The article links the economic mindset of this stereotype from Germany's Southwest to the economic mindset of Germans within Europe....
Das Bombing: Graffiti in Germany and Europe
Graffiti and tagging are a phenomenon seen all over the world, but how they are regarded and dealt with varies widely, depending on the location. A stroll through the streets of Berlin quickly reveals why it is sometimes referred to as "the graffiti capital of...
White Knuckles
Galavanting about Europe in my early twenties, I spent a spring holiday in Italy. The journey began in Germany, meandering from Frankfurt down through the Black Forest, into Switzerland and through the Gotthard Tunnel (17 km!) to get to the Italian border. The entire...
Expat Tip: Buy an E-Reader
I am a self-confessed bookworm. Books are a significant part of my life, and no day is complete unless I have spent part of it reading. Moving to Germany in 2000, I spent years on the hunt for books I could read. At first, devoted as I was to achieving fluency in the...
The Cult of the warmes Mittagessen
I feel like mothers are enslaved here in these provincial parts of southern Germany by what I call the "cult of the warmes Mittagessen" or the cult of the hot lunch. (I'm not even going to try to stretch the truth by saying parents instead of mothers. It's pretty...
On the way to a Grand Coalition (election story continued)
As I have written before, Angela Merkel and her right-leaning Christian Democrats (CDU) won the most votes in Germany's election on 22nd September. 10 weeks have now passed, and still a new government is yet to be formed. From a British perspective, it seems to be...
Expat Life Advice: Fill Your Tank
I have written a few posts about homesickness here at German Way, not because I am constantly homesick, but because it is a major theme in an expat's life. The first wave of cultural euphoria keeps you riding high in your new surroundings for about 6 weeks, and then...
Einschulung
In one my last posts, I mentioned that our family was preparing for my oldest child to start school this year. I know it is a big deal in most countries, but in Germany, I think it is an even bigger deal, partly because the first day is wonderfully ritualized by such...
Without a voting card on Election Day
Yesterday - Election Day. I, as an expat, was merely a bystander. But that did not stop a familiar shiver of emotion running up my spine at the sight of people strolling to the local polling station, peacefully coming together to democratically express their hopes and...
Auf Wiedersehen, tschüß, Bis dann!
So goes the life of an expat hockey-wife, I am once again preparing to move to a new land. This move is one like no other as it is taking my husband and me to the most foreign place we will have ever lived: Russia. After six years in Germany and Switzerland, I really...
Don’t Get Too Comfortable: a cautionary tale
Admittedly, after six years I felt pretty savvy with the whole expat thing. I had lived in two major German cities (Dusseldorf, Hamburg), spent two years living near Zurich, Switzerland, and had travelled to ten other European countries. I even felt comfortable go at...
Election year – time to swat up on German politics
Before I became an expat I was well versed in politics. I read the broadsheets daily (usually at the top of a London bus on my way to work) and, when occasion called for it, I voiced a distinct opinion at dinner parties. So I find it embarrassing that after three...
Are Home Appliances Boring?
... if so, you must have the wrong brand. Moving from Germany back to North America, it has become painfully evident to me that the German obsession with perfection in engineering doesn’t translate across the Atlantic. In multiple rented spaces, I have made do with a...
How being an Expat has made me Weird
First off, I should probably give myself a break, “weird” may be a bit harsh. What I mean to say is that over these six years living in Germany and Switzerland, with intermittent summer visits home to Canada, I have realized that my social skills have become a little...
Schulkind
I've experienced several "American expat in Germany" rites of passage since I first moved to Germany, which was eight years ago: having a German wedding, learning to drive stick in the Swabian Alps, figuring out what goes in the Gelber Sack, pregnancy, giving birth,...
Recent Comments