Graffiti and tagging are a phenomenon seen all over the world, but how they are regarded and dealt with varies widely, depending on the location. A stroll through the streets of Berlin quickly reveals why it is sometimes referred to as "the graffiti capital of...
The GW Expat Blog
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German vocabulary
What, you work full time?
Both Jane and I have mentioned the concept of the Rabenmutter, which is defined in the Wikidictionary as "A raven mother, a loveless, heartless, cruel, unnatural, or uncaring mother; a bad mother who does not take good care of her children." Now no one has dared ever...
Au Pair in Germany – the Hosting How to Guide
Like Sarah did several years ago, I mentioned our foray in having an au pair. We had had one from South Korea last summer, a relationship which ended pretty miserably. Despite our efforts to have fair and adjusted expectations of a young woman, age 20, from a 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...
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...
The German health care jungle
Since becoming self-employed, which was not so much of a choice for me, but more a forced path, I have had to become privately insured when it comes to health insurance. I had very much hoped to avoid doing so, but it turns out that public health insurance gets very...
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...
Return to Freelancing
I've been away from the blog for a while because we moved to Ireland in 2010 for a new job for me. For years I have been working as a technical writer and editor at large corporations (SAP and IBM, to be exact), but as of April, I have returned to my roots in more...
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,...
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...
Happy Advent
I am not homesick for Germany*. There must have been something in my eyes this weekend, when I attended the Toronto Christmas Market. Something strange happened as we walked past the huts selling ornaments and decorations from the Black Forest. These waves of...
German Grocery Stores Are No Visual Feast
One aspect that I have always loved about living in Europe compared to the US is the overall higher quality of food. Tomatoes taste like sweet sunshine and smaller Old World apples are crispier and sweeter than their mammoth American cousins. Then there are those...
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (final)
Today we'll finish my list of expat likes (the good), dislikes (the bad) and major gripes (the ugly). We are now in Part 2 of the "good" things. In Part 1 I began with "the bad," but my "good" list turned out to be even longer! So long in fact, that I needed to split...
Expat children
I am struck, watching my two small children grow up in Berlin, how different their childhood is from mine in England's industrial north in the 1980s. We are very integrated here - most of our friends are German. the nursery the children go to is German, and the places...
Re-expatriating
We've returned to the Fatherland after the grueling process of packing up and moving a household of a family of five. We drove six hours from San Diego to Las Vegas listening to Die Zaueberfloete non-stop. We saturated in ueber-Americana for three days on The Strip....
A German Education
I am going to attempt to explain the German education system in the simplest terms possible. For those with further education who can handle the exceptions, I have listed them at the end. When a child is born in Germany, it has the right to a place in a daycare from...
German efficiency and Berlin’s new airport
There is a German term for "German efficiency" – several in fact: deutsche Gründlichkeit, Effizienz, Fähigkeit, Leistungsfähigkeit, Tüchtigeit. German efficiency can be found gloriously in German doors and windows, in energy use (hall lights that only turn on if...
Spargelzeit
The first whiff of anticipation comes in early April when you notice the odd crate in the supermarket, labelled "from Spain" and extortionately priced. You keep your eye on the incrementally falling price over the following fortnight. And when it hits seven euros a...
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