Germany has a new government, and it's arrived just in time for Christmas. CDU, CSU and SPD will govern under Angela Merkel (CDU) in a Grosse Koalition (Grand Coalition). That Koalitionsvertrag I wrote about in my last post has been approved. The SPD party members...
The GW Expat Blog
Category
History and culture
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...
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...
German – from Berlin to rural Hessen
Being a Yorkshire lass at heart who, despite many years in the south of England, has never managed to say a 'barth' instead of 'bath' or 'grarss' instead of 'grass', I am sympathetic to local dialects. In London, I loved hearing true cockneys with their staccato...
German Weddings
Having spent my formative adult years in Germany, I have been to more German weddings than American weddings. There are some striking differences in how each culture approaches the celebration (and paperwork) that accompanies two people committing their lives to each...
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...
House Hunters in Germany
Flipping through the myriad of cable channels the other evening, I landed upon House Hunters International, a staged-reality show where buyers are shown three homes and have to pick one of them to buy or rent. I say “staged-reality” because this isn’t a true reality...
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...
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...
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,...
Culture shocks go both ways
As I write this, I am two weeks into a holiday with the children in my hometown of Hull, in Yorkshire, North England. Beyond it being wonderful to catch up with family and old friends, it has provided interesting opportunity to reflect on a few cultural and social...
Gone Fishin’
Recently we spent a long weekend on the shores of one of the thousands of lakes that dot Ontario. The weather was fantastic, so we spent lots of time paddling, in canoes and in the pool. Most of the time, however, we spent fishing. The kids had a fantastic time trying...
Inverse Customs: When Germans Do Precisely the Opposite
Expats in Germany and the other German-speaking countries are often surprised by a type of culture shock I call "inverse customs." These are practices that are either the exact opposite of, or extremely different from the same custom in the US. Expats quickly learn...
Incorporating a New Worldview, Into Your Old Life
It’s fairly common to feel like an alien at times, while living in a foreign country. But now, when I come home to Canada for my regular summer visits, I often feel like a bit of an alien here too. In recent conversations with family and friends at home, I am finding...
50 Years of the Korean Diaspora in Germany
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...
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...
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...
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...
Recent Comments