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German banking (and credit cards) for beginners

by | Aug 3, 2009 | , , , , | 0 Comments

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When I was traveling in France recently, I rediscovered some of the differences among the European countries in the area of banking and credit card use. Credit cards are more common in France than in Germany (but not as common as in the US), and the French still write personal checks, just like in the US, but very unlike in Germany.

EC card

A German EC/Maestro bank card is like an American bank debit card.
PHOTO: Volksbank Raiffeisenbank Würzburg

Expats in Germany already know that Germans just don’t use checks. A check drawn on a US bank account is virtually useless in Germany. It takes a lot of effort, a German bank account, and some financial savy to cash or even just deposit a US check at a German bank. The German equivalent of a personal check is called eine Geldüberweisung (“money transfer”), but these days you rarely see the paper variety. Usually, you handle an Überweisung by computer, transferring funds from your German bank account to someone else’s account. read more…

Long-term Expats – Are My Kids Really American?

by | Jul 27, 2009 | , , | 1 Comment

Recently, with the economic crisis and the dreaded Kurzarbeit, we have been thinking about whether the US is an option for us again job-wise. There is nothing concrete happening, but the more I think about it, the more I wonder, how will it affect the kids?

I dragged my older girls, then 3 and 5, halfway across the world seven years ago, to a place where they neither spoke the language nor recognized the food. read more…

Starting them young: Germans and Nudity and PEKiP

by | Jul 20, 2009 | , , , | 2 Comments

<em>Baby Stella developing faster in the buff</em>

Baby Stella developing faster in the buff

One of the aspects of German culture which we Americans often find so shocking is the prevalent open attitude towards nudity, otherwise known as naturalism. One of my good German friends is a big sauna goer and explained once to a group of us that her whole family was into it. This raised alarm bells with the other Americans there. “Wait, even your father is naked?” “Where do you look when he’s naked?” “Don’t you feel uncomfortable at all that strangers can see you naked?”

In the spirit of exploring my new culture further, I think I have found a “naturalism for beginners” course for my baby daughter.

Many mothers and fathers throughout Germany have participated in a weekly activity for babies: the Prager-Eltern-Kind Programm or PEKiP for short. When telling my mother what my younger daughter Stella and I do every Thursday morning, I refer to PEKiP as “naked baby play group.” Basically, we meet weekly with a group of seven other mothers and their babies, born within a month of each other, with a trained instructor for 90 minutes. This group stays together from the beginning (first few months) till age one. read more…

Expatriate Eating Adventures 2

by | Jul 14, 2009 | , , | 1 Comment

I’m a little late with this post because I was on the road this week. I spent a few days in Osnabrück near Hannover. This region is quite unlike the agricultural region where I live. Osnabrück and the surrounding cities are much more modern and integrated into the international economy. As such, they have people from all over the world… if you count North Americans and British people as “all over the world.”

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What’s in a Name

by | Jun 23, 2009 | , | 0 Comments

As an American, it would never occur to me to make a distinction such as “German” vs. “German national,” but it’s one that I’ve encountered while living in Germany. Not only would I never think to draw such lines, I find them offensive. It’s a debate that hits close to home as my husband and I have lived seemingly parallel lives as second-generation Koreans. The difference though is that I was born and raised in the United States, and he in (then West) Germany. More than geographic though, the greater difference is that I grew up in a culture where I was eventually (in the ‘90s when multiculturalism discussions were de rigueur on college campuses) encouraged to embrace my American identity as both an American citizen and an ethnic Korean. Meanwhile my husband considered himself Korean rather than German for a long time, and he wasn’t the only one. It wasn’t until his late twenties, when he and his family were in fact allowed to become German citizens. While he has since resolved his internal debate comfortably calling himself German, it’s the external one that continues. read more…

Furry Love Part 2

by | Jun 15, 2009 | , , | 0 Comments

The big day had come. We were nervous. My wife was busy cleaning. The house was spotless, which is certainly not normal for us. Cleaning was something that we both hate doing. We had all the windows open to air out the place, even though it was only about 60 degrees (Fahrenheit) outside.

Frau X was sitting at our kitchen table. She was wearing a black sweater and faux pearl necklace to go along with her black rimmed glasses. Her perfume wafted through the kitchen. A big folder of papers sat in front of her, not unlike that big book that often sits in front of a preacher during a sermon. Our file was in that stack somewhere.

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Oh the many holidays

by | Jun 1, 2009 | , , , | 0 Comments

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 and bank are closed, in Germany pretty much everything is closed, just as it is on Sundays. There is usually one bakery in smaller towns that is open for 8-11 so no one is without their fresh bread, but other than that, you better break out your bicycle or go for a walk like everyone else if you don’t want to be cooped up in the house all day.

All of these days off is another one of those benefits of living here. Only a few months of the year have NO holidays whatsoever. December and January are packed with them, what with Christmas and Boxing Day and New Year’s and the one I like to call “We Three Kings” (January 6). February has none, March or April have Easter, which of course also includes Easter Monday and Good Friday (again in contrast to the US, where there is no such thing as Easter Monday). The list below is for the state of Baden-Württemberg, which, with 13, has more public holidays than some of the other states. Nordrhein-Westphalia, for example, only has nine. read more…

Saturday afternoons with my eleven friends

by | May 24, 2009 | , , | 0 Comments

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 Germany’s Next Top Model, I am in fact referring to who the 2009 Bundesliga (German national football or soccer league) champion is.

So the answer is: VfL Wolfsburg. And while I can certainly share my thoughts and facts about this news, that really isn’t the point of this post. Today, we’ll be looking further down the table. Way down. Keep going. And at number 15, stop! That’s right: Borussia Mönchengladbach. There’s a lot I know about this team, which you may not know. For example, they have the second largest fan base across Germany after Bayern Munich. They are the only Bundesliga team to have two gold stars on their uniform which symbolizes their five victories as Bundesliga champions. They hold the title for having the highest winning score in league history (12-0 against Borussia Dortmund in 1978). Their 1971 7-1 victory against Inter Milano is deemed by many as the most interesting game played by a German team on the European level, sadly annulled by a Coca-Cola can thrown onto a player during the game. Unsurprisingly, I know so much about this seemingly obscure football team from North Rhine-Westphalia, which had its heyday decades ago, because of my husband. Born and raised in ‘gladbach, my husband is a walking Wikipedia entry on the team. If I weren’t able to rattle off all of these facts to you today, it would indeed be shameful given how much they are lectured to me on a regular basis. read more…