I’ve written about the German obsession at New Year’s with pyrotechnics for this blog before. This year Berlin was the same as always - air thick with smoke, sky alight with brilliant explosions of colour, and our ears filled with the constant cracking of bangers....
The GW Expat Blog
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holidays
Baedeker, German Reiselust, and vacation days
Kings and governments may err, but never Mr. Baedeker. - A.P. Herbert, in his 1929 English libretto for J. Offenbach's operetta La Vie Parisienne[1] In both German and English, the term "Baedeker" (BAY-day-ker) is synonymous with "travel guidebook" (Reiseführer)....
My First Karneval: On the Verge
Before Hyde sends me a message to “gently” remind me that my blog post is due today, I figured that I should get something up here. It isn’t my preferred style to just throw something up here, half-baked or half-thought through, but I realised that I'm on the "verge"...
Newbies Guide to German Christmas Markets
My parents are coming to Germany for Christmas for the very first time. Sure, they've been to Germany before. They've climbed the 111 steps up to our beloved Dachgeschoss in Berlin; they've driven all over the Romantic Road, they've fallen in love with its small towns...
An Expat Thanksgiving in Germany
It's that time of year again. If you were in the United States right now, you wouldn't miss a beat in knowing what I was talking about. Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Although this great American tradition is not celebrated in Germany, expats and their...
Eggs on trees – 5 favourite German Easter traditions
I love Easter in Germany. It's full of decorations, rituals and get togethers - almost like a mini Christmas but with better weather promising the arrival of spring. It is a bigger celebration than anything I experienced in the UK. This could be because in my...
How to Survive a Berlin New Year’s
New Year's Eve in Berlin Can Be Dangerous (gefährlich) For the first time ever, I have returned to my childhood home in the Pacific Northwest to celebrate Christmas. Partly due to our new arrival and our desire for her to meet her American fam, it was also just time....
Tag der Deutschen Einheit: a view of Berlin 24 years on
As I sat looking out over the tourist boats on the Spree, drinking up the soft autumn sunshine, I had a flickering insight that this moment encapsulated much of modern Berlin. How fitting, I thought, for the occasion, and returned my mind to the conversation. This was...
Green Sauce
The origins of Frankfurter Grüne Sosse (green sauce) are not entirely clear. It is largely believed that the Romans brought it from the Near East. But the route the recipe followed from Italy to Hessen (where it is today a celebrated local speciality) is disputed....
And the sky became a sea of light – Silvester in the Hauptstadt
A Scary New Year's Eve in Berlin We were lucky this year that the Berlin snow waited long enough for Silvester's detritus to be cleared away from the streets. In 2009/10 - the winter of the big freeze, when the pavements stayed covered in thick layers of ice and snow...
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,...
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...
Laternenfest – Lantern Festival
It was during our second winter in Berlin that I first became aware of Laternenfeste (lantern festivals). We had little twin babies and, despite early heavy snows, I spent much of my time traipsing icy streets pushing the pram whilst they slept. There was a period in...
How being an Expat has made me a Better Canadian
It seems that every year, as I am doing the last minute prepping for our upcoming move back to Europe (Hamburg, Germany this time around), I get that same sad, longing feeling. Over the years of my on-again-off-again expat life, I have grown ever more fond of my home...
Do You go to Church?
Happy Easter! This blog post is slightly late this week, because I have been busy doing what we all should be doing this holiday: spending time with friends and family. And because I live in the religious South of Germany, it is a nice long four-day weekend, with Good...
Multi-Kulti Christmas
This past year, our international family became even more international when my husband's sister married a man from Colombia. When we moved to Ireland in September, the family decided that we would all celebrate Christmas together in Galway this year. The flight was...
Flavors of Christmas
Spending the Thanksgiving holiday with friends who have recently moved to Germany, I found myself thinking – yet again – "I am becoming sooo German". The topic of conversation was the abundance of deliciousness available at German bakeries; under contention was...
Feiertage: What are we celebrating today?
With Halloween drawing close, I've been thinking about holidays for expats. Which holidays are observed and how they are celebrated varies a lot around the world. In the English-speaking countries alone there are great variations. (Canada's Thanksgiving is the second...
Goodbye Deutschland
The title of this post is not meant to be in reference to Germany and its standing at the World Cup. Rather, it is in reference to the fact that this will be my last post on this blog while living in Germany. One prominent aspect of expatriate life is a higher...
Vacationing on the Cheap in Germany
Since our family is still affected by the dreaded Kurzarbeit (Germany's solution to the recession provides an alternative to laying people off. They cut down on the amount of hours employees are supposed to be working and the Arbeitsamt makes up 2/3 of the difference...
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