Plätzchen It would appear that Christmas has been very well covered here on The German Way. Check out the A-Z Guide to Christmas Traditions and the interactive Advent calendar of Christmas facts if you don’t believe me. So between you and me, I was a little stumped...
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How to Dress your Kid for Winter in Germany
How to Avoid Getting a Lecture from the Kita Teacher When writing my post on "How to Dress for Winter in Germany", I felt like I could complete another full post on "How to Dress your Kid for Winter in Germany". Germans take winter clothing seriously and double down...
Keeping it clean
As a Brit I was brought up with many cultural stereotypes about Germany and its people. Germans are ‘lederhosen wearing, straight talking, rule following, tidy people’ and since I initially landed in Bavaria, I can definitely agree that stereotypes are born out of...
How to Dress for Winter in Germany
It's hard to tell what the weather will be like day-to-day in Berlin. You can wake up to bright sunshine, leave your Wohnung (apartment) amidst deep fog and return home to an epic downpour. Other places like Freiburg may boast more sunshine than anywhere else in the...
Housewarming Traditions in Germany
After all my complaining about finding an apartment in Berlin, it seems like everyone is moving into their home. We moved into our new place - complete with a room for our girl - almost exactly a year ago. While we were away in the States we missed two of our friend's...
What to Do if you Get Pregnant in Germany
When I first found out I was pregnant in Germany, I freaked out. I was married and happy, we were kinda trying but I was still terrified. I suspect I would have been apprehensive no matter where I was, but there were so many questions about how this would go in...
How to Prep Your German Home for Long-Term Vacation
I am nearing 30-days away on my latest vacation. Well, Elternzeit (parental leave) is more accurate. We have almost 2 full months re-connecting with family in the big 'ole US of A. My American counterparts are in awe that people in Germany can take so much time off...
Lost Pets in Germany
Losing a pet is an experience I don't like to relive, but I am sharing my trauma in the hopes it will relieve your drama if you ever find yourself in a similar situation. Here's the story of how we lost our cat in Berlin - and got her back. At first, we were puzzled....
3 Ways I Embarrassed Myself at the German Sauna
Don't worry guys, I brought a towel to sit (and sweat) on in the sauna, and didn't try to wear my swimsuit into the nude areas. I'm not a German sauna newbie. I've been once before. That one time was at touristy Tropical Island. I highly recommend it if you are also a...
Baedeker, German Reiselust, and vacation days
Kings and governments may err, but never Mr. Baedeker. - A.P. Herbert, in his 1929 English libretto for J. Offenbach's operetta La Vie Parisienne[1] In both German and English, the term "Baedeker" (BAY-day-ker) is synonymous with "travel guidebook" (Reiseführer)....
Dressing your Kid for German KiTa
When my baby started Krippe last fall I thought I was ready. I was distracted with moving apartments, loads of typical German paperwork and internet disasters. We had steeled ourselves for our baby spending time away from us for the first time. We thought we had this....
The Complex Issue of Integration
I've written before about how I have been planning on becoming a mentor to a newly arrived refugee in my local community. The journey has been slow at getting started in terms of actually connecting with my mentee despite numerous thwarted efforts. Meanwhile I have...
German TV Options for North Americans
Watching German-Language Television in the US and Canada When I wrote about the loss of most of NEXTV's German channels in November 2015, I promised to review the quality and channel lineup of the German TV Company. You'll find that review below – but I also cover...
Food at German Schools
Every morning I scramble around our kitchen, looking for appropriate snacks for a 15-month-old. Cucumber? I think she is eating that lately. German roll, or rice cake? Blueberries are always a yes. Is Würstchen trying too hard? Blearily, I stash these goods in her...
From Smoke Detectors to Electric Cars: New and Revised Laws in Germany for 2016
Sometimes it's surprising how a modern nation like Germany can lag behind in certain areas. A good example from the past is smoking. While the US and many other countries long ago banned smoking in restaurants, the workplace, and other public areas, Germany was slow...
My First Karneval: On the Verge
Before Hyde sends me a message to “gently” remind me that my blog post is due today, I figured that I should get something up here. It isn’t my preferred style to just throw something up here, half-baked or half-thought through, but I realised that I'm on the "verge"...
Landeskunde for Expats
What is "Germany"? When most English-speaking people think of Germany, images of lederhosen, the Alps, Neuschwanstein Castle (the "Disney castle"), and Oktoberfest are probably the first things that pop into their heads. Of course all of those things are Bavarian, not...
Bilingual Nagging
I continue to navigate my way as a parent of bilingual children. We extol the joys and merits of having children grow up speaking two languages -- the cognitive agility, the tendency towards more open-mindedness, and the acquisition of the language itself. The nuts...
Newbies Guide to German Christmas Markets
My parents are coming to Germany for Christmas for the very first time. Sure, they've been to Germany before. They've climbed the 111 steps up to our beloved Dachgeschoss in Berlin; they've driven all over the Romantic Road, they've fallen in love with its small towns...
Krampus, the Christmas Devil of Alpine Europe
Much of Europe has a venerable Christmas or December tradition that pairs the good bishop-like St. Nicholas with a demonic, nasty character known as Krampus (and various other regional names; see our glossary below). In Alpine Austria and southern Bavaria, this...
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