Christmas has passed and we are entering the truly dark days of winter between Weihnachten and Silvester, waiting for the weather to finally warm again in …. May? I was on a call with a new colleague from Turkey and she visibly blanched at the news that we have months...
The GW Expat Blog
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Berlin
Donations in Berlin
Germany is officially in the fourth wave of the pandemic. After a summer of poking our head out of our shell, feeling like maybe - maybe! - things were a little closer to normal, another lockdown looms. The new coalition government is doing their best to avoid this,...
Traveling to Germany in Covid Times: What You Need to Know
Before You Go If you, like me, have been champing at the bit, eager to once again fly to Germany from the USA, it is now possible. While we don't currently have truly ideal conditions, US-Americans are now taking long-haul flights across the Atlantic and landing in...
Germany in the USA and Canada: Part 2
A Preview of German Place Names and Connections: From Leipsic to Winesburg When I first wrote about German Place Names in the USA and Canada more than five months ago, I realized that the topic was far more vast than I had originally thought. Since then, as I have...
Why Does Berlin (BER) Have So Few International Long-Haul Flights?
Why is Berlin such an international flight provincial backwater? For a major European capital city, Berlin has very few international nonstop flights. Long-haul flights to and from other continents are a rarity in Berlin, Germany's largest city by far. (The Berlin...
Getting Tested for COVID-19 in Germany
Perhaps this post will be a bit of a time capsule, a reminder of a time when you needed to get a swab shoved up your nose to enter a store, but I still thought it would be interesting to share. In these strange times of a world-wide pandemic, my kids have looked to me...
Exiles and Expats in Switzerland: From Albert Einstein to Tina Turner
Switzerland as a Refuge US-born Tina Turner lived in Switzerland with her German-born husband from 1994 until her death at 83 in May 2023. Albert Einstein did the same with his wife in Bern and Zurich about a century earlier. Both Albert Einstein and Tina Turner also...
Food Delivery in Berlin
In the USA, food delivery has always been an option. Whether it was pizza or the local Chinese, the American demand for convenience dictated you could get hot food delivered to your home almost 24/7. Even in my childhood home out in the wilds of Washington State, we...
Startups in Berlin
Recently I was conducting one of my first interviews, showcasing my new company and covering what it means to work in a startup. It struck me as a little surreal. This was a real "fake it til you make it" moment as I had just started in my first startup the month...
Sledding in Germany
Several years ago, we experienced our first white Christmas with our daughter. She was a toddler - a near perfect cherubic age - and we were staying in my husband's hometown. As the flakes began to fall and softly cover and quiet the landscape, we felt the wonder of...
Germany in the United States and Canada
North American Communities with German Namesakes This was originally intended as a normal brief blog post about German (and Austria/Swiss) place names in the USA. However, as I was researching and writing this post, I began to realize that the topic was far more...
Day Trips from Berlin that Deserve More Love
COVID-19 has changed a lot of things. Some things suddenly and drastically, while more changes are sure to continue happening for the foreseeable future. Life is different than it used to be just a few months ago. I am doing my best - like so many of us - to embrace...
Oh the Animals You Can See in Berlin
If you missed the story about the wild boar who took a man's bag at the lake, only to have the nude bather pursue, you missed out. (Just kidding: a link to the original post or just google "Berlin", "nude", "boar" and it will come up). The man had been peacefully...
Park Life in Germany
We are fresh off our third weekend straight spent relaxing and socializing in the park. We have steadily shifted to life outside here in Germany as the number of Covid infections hovers and mostly holds steady and the weather warms. After months indoors, Germans are...
What Protests are like in Germany and the USA
Sometimes it feels like every day of 2020 can't get any worse...and then it does. Caught in the standstill of Covid-19 malaise, I find myself paying rapt attention to everything happening in the USA. Seattle, where I hale from, is one of the places at the epicenter of...
How the Pandemic Has Changed Germany (Forever?)
Looking at my last few blog posts, it is no surprise that there is little else on my mind than the ongoing pandemic. Even as restrictions begin to ease, there is an uneasy expectation that life may never be the same. It is worth debating whether this is actually a...
What to Do While Quarantined in Germany
When we first heard the rumblings about quarantine due to the COVID-19, there was a rush of information on how to fill your days. Facebook groups touted their favorite resources, memes were prevalent, and many people looked at the long days of isolation as an...
Stories from the Front Lines: Berlin COVID-19 Edition
I have a cousin from Arkansas who recently moved to China with her family. I admire their adventurous spirit as I can't imagine a much more drastic change for them. Moving from Seattle to Berlin as two footloose and fancy-free twenty-year-olds is one thing. Moving as...
Berlin’s Rent Freeze
So, it happened. After much discussion and controversy, Berlin's Mietendeckel (rent cap) began on Sunday. Nebulous fears of gentrification and practical fears of being priced out of the city mean the government is taking decisive action to try to keep Berlin - well,...
Best Museums for Kids in Berlin
It is birthday party season for us in Berlin. After my little girl's 5th birthday (5th!), we had two other kids' parties at some of the city's best museums. Apparently we are running with a fashionable kiddie crowd. In this season of cold weather and celebrations, it...
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