There is an interesting anniversary being marked here in Germany right now that means something to me. It's one of those events that leads you to think about all of the parallel lives you could have led: "What would my life have been like if my parents had never moved...
The GW Expat Blog
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Expat issues
Drinking Kaffee in Germany
“You can tell when you have crossed the frontier into Germany because of the badness of the coffee.” - Edward VII (1841-1910, son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert)* I'm a devoted coffee drinker. I drink it wherever I am, especially in Europe. I've had coffee in...
A different type of renting
The friends we left behind in London all had one thing in common - their desire to get themselves on the property ladder. Had we stayed I suspect we would have started hunting around for somewhere to buy in just the same way. It is simply what you do when you're a...
For the Expat-Pet-People
It seems that I have blogged quite a bit about dogs, here at The German Way Expat Blog (There's a Dog in the Pub and Moving with Max). The reason for this is because my evolution as an expat in German-speaking Europe has coincided with my evolution as a dog owner....
Put Away Your Checkbook
Of all the things one can miss about a country after departure, the banking system probably shouldn't be at the top of the list. For this ex-expat, however, it is actually one of the things I miss about Germany. The banking system there has arrived in the digital age,...
Luisa Weiss’ Advice for the Expat in Germany
It's Monday, but I got to talk to the creator and author behind the popular food blog The Wednesday Chef, Luisa Weiss, last week. She's also the author of the best-selling memoir, My Berlin Kitchen which came out late last year, and as you may have guessed, she lives...
KiTa Kids
We toy sometimes with the idea of returning to the UK (by that we really mean London). For our careers and old friends and family, it can seem very tempting. Very tempting indeed, until we start talking about childcare. Berlin's plentiful offering of affordable places...
Germans, the notoriously direct
I pissed off a German today. Such an occurrence is not uncommon. Whether it's my barking dog, my driving skills, or how I maintain my yard, it seems that on a regular basis I am being told that I'm doing something wrong. In a blog post from years ago ("There's a dog...
Expat Life and Loneliness
One of the most poignant feelings I have experienced as an expat is loneliness. It was an emotion that I knew very little of before I moved abroad. In some sense, I was probably naive in my adventurousness; I wanted to experience things that were new and different, I...
German Workers’ Councils Demystified
I’m taking on a lofty goal by trying to spell out what German Workers’ Councils or Betriebsräte are in 500 words or less, a concept that is often abstract to those of us from countries without them. If you are employed somewhere with a Betriebsrat, you should know who...
Freezing days in Berlin
It is very cold in Berlin; that sort of startlingly cold that seeps into your bones immediately on being outside and stays there for hours. This being my fourth winter in Berlin, I half-expected on that first frost glistening morning to be acclimatised - not so. For...
The “Trailing Spouse”
It’s hard to believe that I have been living in Europe for nearly six hockey seasons. Though, when I think back to my first year in Germany, and how much I have changed since then, it feels like it could be much longer. Of course making the nearly-spontaneous decision...
Beware of the “Mexican” Restaurant
Originating from the west coast of the US, Mexican food has long been a staple in my diet. On my first forays into Europe, I made a few optimistic attempts to find suitable restaurants to satisfy my cravings for chips with salsa, fish tacos, over-sized greasy...
Gun Laws in Germany
I've shed a tear nearly every morning since the massacre took place at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut on the 14th of December. Any time I look at a newspaper or scroll through my Facebook feed or hear a clip on German or English language radio, there...
A bilingual Christmas
“It's the Christmas Man," my two-and-a-half-year-old son cheered, pointing to the large inflatable red-clad figure bobbing in the wind outside a men's clothes shop. In these first unseasonably barmy days of early December, we were yet to talk about the intricacies of...
Hookers . . . sorry, prostitutes, in Germany.
My first trip to Hamburg’s famous Reeperbahn was a bit of shock. I think I can more accurately call it culture shock now though, as I look back at my reaction to the “sinful mile”. Having only been in Hamburg for a few days, after spending the summer in Canada and...
Happy Advent
I am not homesick for Germany*. There must have been something in my eyes this weekend, when I attended the Toronto Christmas Market. Something strange happened as we walked past the huts selling ornaments and decorations from the Black Forest. These waves of...
Expatriates and the cost of living in A, D, CH
Expatriates don't always have a choice of where they're assigned to work, but they definitely need to know the cost of living in their assignment location. If your salary is paid by a US company, for example, that salary might put you at a huge disadvantage if you are...
German Grocery Stores Are No Visual Feast
One aspect that I have always loved about living in Europe compared to the US is the overall higher quality of food. Tomatoes taste like sweet sunshine and smaller Old World apples are crispier and sweeter than their mammoth American cousins. Then there are those...
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (final)
Today we'll finish my list of expat likes (the good), dislikes (the bad) and major gripes (the ugly). We are now in Part 2 of the "good" things. In Part 1 I began with "the bad," but my "good" list turned out to be even longer! So long in fact, that I needed to split...
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