Today is another public holiday here in Germany, Pentecost Monday, or Whitsuntide. May and June are good months for public holidays, what with May Day, Ascension Day, and Pentecost. Unlike public holidays in the US, where sometimes it seems that only the post office...
The GW Expat Blog
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History and culture
Saturday afternoons with my eleven friends
Another annual finale has come and gone, and a big question dragging out over the course of months has finally been answered. As tempting as it is to share my thoughts on a finale which ended this past Thursday night answering if Marie, Mandy or Sara would become...
Where My House is My Home
Germany, like many expats, is seemingly caught between two worlds. Globalization and the new capitalism on one side with tradition and democratic socialism on the other. I am not going to write about capitalism vs. socialism, particularly... this is about how Germans...
The Expat Trap
As I write this, I've been living in Germany for about two years. From time to time I meet up with other English-speakers in cafes or restaurants just to get that "fix" of speaking my native tongue at full speed complete with cultural references and a chance to drop...
Expatriate Eating Adventures: Volume 1
Food, food culture and cooking has always been important to me. All three of those things are hobbies of mine. By extension I am also interested in matters of health when related directly to food and cooking. So my move to Germany a few years ago was, in part, an...
You Can Du Me: The Du/Sie Question
The question of du or Sie, informal versus formal "you," is a perennial one for expats in a place like Germany. Many European languages make a linguistic distinction based on interpersonal relationships. These distinctions have fallen out of use in modern English....
Airing Out a German Phobia: The Killer Draft
One definition of a split second: the time it takes between opening a window on a hot train and hearing a German say the two most dreaded words in the German language: "Es zieht!" ("There's a draft!") In the summer on German trains, in the days before most were air...
Tatort
One of my favorite German-made TV shows is "Tatort". In general, I am not a TV kind of person. Most of the time I would just prefer to read a book while my husband zaps through the channels. But Sunday nights at 8:15 (which is when prime-time shows come on here), you...
Homeschooling verboten
I recently wrote about the German School System, but a German court decision on homeschooling put that unique aspect of German education in the spotlight. A Bremen couple who have been trying to get permission to homeschool their two young sons had all their legal...
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