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....
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San Diego
Moving Back to Germany
I have an announcement to make. We are moving back to Germany next month. The timing of the move was a bit of a surprise, but it was always in the realm of possibility. We were away for two years, and as I've started the arduous process of organizing another overseas...
Losing Language
It was inevitable. Our German was bound to get worse upon departure. The first year, mine seemed to remain intact. I was still feeling pretty German, and I spoke German almost daily with our German preschool teachers, with other German-speaking parents, and with our...
“Almanya” in San Diego
San Diego kicked off its first German Film Festival, German Currents in 2011. It seemed to be a long time coming considering that there are an estimated 100,000 Germans living in the San Diego metro area and Orange County. The festival opened with the screening of...
The First Twelve Months
I've been enjoying getting to know my new baby during these first three months of his life. I organized a Mommy & Me Yoga/Baby Massage class at our local yoga studio here in San Diego to give myself that regular undistracted one-on-one time with baby Lenny. During...
Living the German Way Part III
I was disappointed to read that my fellow blogger, Sarah Fürstenberger, was leaving our ranks as German Way Co-blogger for the time being. She and I had become friends while recording the same chapter in life as American expats living in Germany through this blog....
“Kölle Alaaf” in San Diego!
It's February. In our process of settling in as a Korean American German family here in San Diego, the next event on the calendar was Karneval. I mentioned the holiday to my daughter expecting her to recall some of it from her Kindi days in Aalen at least from...
An Adjusted Adventszeit
In the past week, I had to adjust to the fact that Christmas is OVER, a week earlier than I had become accustomed to. I was used to our southern German world being shut down not just from the week of Christmas to New Year's but also through the first week of January...
Pregnancy in a Post-DE World
One of the most challenging factors in my family's relocation from Germany to San Diego this year has been doing all of this during the first trimester of a pregnancy. For anyone who has close experience with this 3-month (often longer) phase, it can make life extra...
More German than the Germans
Slowly, we've found ourselves integrating into our non-German lives here in America. Instead of hearing the phantom ring of our default Siemens ring tone melody, I've gotten attuned to hearing our Uniden telephone gently playing the Star Spangled Banner. Something I...
Living the German Way in San Diego – Part 2
The sun is still shining here in San Diego. After 6.5 weeks of being homeless, living in hotels and staying with my parents in Pennsylvania, my family and I are finally installed in our own house, which we now call home in a neighborhood called Kensington. We are...
Living the German Way in San Diego – Part 1
I admit that I was probably a bit whingey in my last message. I've had some time to get over my homesickness for Germany and Europe and embrace San Diego. It's nothing like Deutschland, but the living is so easy and the weather is as perfect (always in the 20s C/70s F...
German Transplants in California
We're a long way away from our Swabian village. Here in sunny California, the roads are wide, parking is plentiful and you throw everything away in one place. Welcome to the land of plenty. We've been here for one week, and my mind has been in a big jumble sorting out...
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...
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