After the uncertainty of applying for a Grundschule (elementary school) outside of our district, we have successfully waited it out. Our daughter got into our first choice! Considering how competitive finding a KiTa (preschool) can be, we had no idea if there was any...
The GW Expat Blog
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shopping
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...
Shopping for women’s clothes in Germany
In a few weeks, I'll be heading to a friends wedding in the UK, which means I am in search of a new outfit to wear. The prospect of this might be exciting for some people but I am not a fan of clothes shopping. In recent years I have grown tired of wandering around...
Shopping for Furniture in Germany
It feels like yesterday that I was writing about moving furniture via the U-Bahn. But that was 5 years ago (!) and a lot of growing up has happened, including having a baby. A baby who has wrecked havoc on our furniture. Like the adults we apparently are, we are now...
Turkish Markets in Germany
Berlin’s grocery stores can be a chaotic introduction to life in Germany. Discounters like Aldi and Lidl skimp on presentation for bargain-basement prices. Fancier chains like Rewe and Edeka have recently upped their games with fancy salad bars, fresh sushi, and even...
Don’t throw away your cash: How the Pfand system works
When a group of foreigners get together in Germany there are a few topics of conversation that you can practically guarantee will come up. The top ten frustrations and annoyances will almost always include the topic of recycling. The systems can be overwhelming and...
German Salad
When you think of German cuisine, you usually think of Wurst (sausage), mountains of Kartoffeln (potatoes), and liters of Bier (I mean, c'mon. "beer"). Rightfully so. Those things are delicious and make up a good portion of the German diet. But that's not all... The...
Guide to German Nutcrackers
I had a nutcracker or two growing up, gaily dressed as soldiers and watching over me as I slept. Once I moved out, my mom pulled them out for the holidays and added a few new friends. Then a few more..til there was a horde of nutcrackers to accompany our tree for the...
What to Do if you Get Pregnant in Germany
When I first found out I was pregnant in Germany, I freaked out. I was married and happy, we were kinda trying but I was still terrified. I suspect I would have been apprehensive no matter where I was, but there were so many questions about how this would go in...
Dressing your Kid for German KiTa
When my baby started Krippe last fall I thought I was ready. I was distracted with moving apartments, loads of typical German paperwork and internet disasters. We had steeled ourselves for our baby spending time away from us for the first time. We thought we had this....
Germany’s Cash Culture: “Geld stinkt nicht”
In Germany, Cash is King North Americans are often frustrated by the lack of credit card acceptance in Germany. Americans and Canadians, so used to paying with plastic, are dismayed to discover that once they stray from the tourist circuit, their AmEx, MasterCard, or...
Cell Phone Tips for International Travelers and Road Warriors: Dual SIMs, Unlocked Phones, and Free Roaming
The German Way already offers informational pages on what expats should know about using an iPhone or other mobile phones in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Europe in general. But in this blog post I want to explore another aspect of "Handys" (the German word for...
Electrical Appliances: That Old Chestnut
Facing an overseas move? If you are moving from North America to Europe or from Europe to North America, you will definitely face the question of what to do about your appliances. Because of the difference in voltage, every expat has to go through this process of...
When a Brötchen is a Bömmel …
The definite preference in Germany may be for dense, dark bread made with various combinations of wholewheat, spelt, rye, seeds and nuts (it accounts for over 90% of bread consumption), but the small, white, crusty bread roll does maintain an iconic status - whether...
Expat Tip: Buy an E-Reader
I am a self-confessed bookworm. Books are a significant part of my life, and no day is complete unless I have spent part of it reading. Moving to Germany in 2000, I spent years on the hunt for books I could read. At first, devoted as I was to achieving fluency in the...
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...
Winning the Recycling Game
You'll have to accept my apology for the delay in this post, but I have been busy sorting my rubbish. As those of you know, thanks to previous posts by Hyde and Ruth, this is serious business here in Germany. I am reacquainting myself with what goes in the Gelber...
Something from home
"Can we bring you anything that you can't get there?" is a common question our visitors from the UK ask. We usually spend a good ten minutes, both of us running through supermarket shelves in our minds' eye, but almost always to no avail. Aside from the odd big pack...
An Expensive Lesson in the Laws of the Land
For most of my first year in Germany I didn’t drive. I come from a small Canadian city with no major highways, and so the thought of the autobahn seriously freaked me out. I was, and remain, very surprised at how easy it was for my husband to simply turn in his...
Grocery Culture
There I was on Saturday morning at the grocery store, my cart full, hastily putting my items on the checkout band. I sent two parties ahead of me to the cashier, knowing I would need a little extra time; my weekly groceries still filled the cart and my attempts to...
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