My next post in the Reverb10 online initiative to reflect on your past year and manifest what’s next! Prompt: Community. Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011? In some ways, I think a major theme for me in [...]
Posts under ‘Germanophile’
Germany at Christmas: A Love Note
It’s the time of year when Germany is smothered in Christmas cuteness and I’m thinking of just smothering my blog this entire month with photographic love and the rest of you all will just have to suffer through it. The Christmas markets are up and glowing with light, ornaments, laughter, really crappy music, and steaming [...]
The German Sauna Survival Guide
Germans take their relaxation seriously, and the sauna is an important part of their culture. The sauna is more than sitting in the heat for 15 minutes and calling it a day; it’s an event that can take hours. I confess I’m a total convert to the German sauna experience. I wish travelers would put [...]
One Year in Germany
Today marks my first anniversary in Germany. I am seriously in awe of how fast this year has flown. In some ways, I feel like I was just on that airplane on the flight over here. I even keep the little Lufthansa ticket stub in my wallet as a reminder of the significance of this [...]
German Kitchen Toys
Two small appliances I adore from our kitchen and can’t live without: Our egg cooker thing that makes soft, medium, or hard boiled eggs in a snap. Our “electric kettle” that heats water to boiling so fast that it’s usually done by the time I decide on a mug and what kind of tea I [...]
German and Gender
This week I was contemplating how to say a sentence in German that involved the words German woman and American man when a German language concept dug in a little deeper. I knew this concept, but I was still thinking about it in English. I wanted to string together the language the way we do [...]
An Autumn Drive through the Odenwald
Yesterday was a sunny, warm, Indian summer day that could not be wasted. We invited a friend over and then drove through the Odenwald, a low mountain range in southern Hesse. Gorgeous! It was a fantastic day to be out, driving the winding roads through the thick forest and the open farm fields. It was [...]
Heimat
We recently spent several days helping some German friends move into a house they bought. The experience was fascinating and brought to light some interesting cultural differences. While I speak in generalities, I am aware that an individual’s experience from either culture can be quite different. In the U.S., we are good at moving. Our [...]
Back Inside the Border
It seems the longer I live in Germany and the more I become accustomed to German life, the stranger the U.S. seems when I come back for a visit. When you are absorbed in another culture and you leave your own behind, I think it makes you more aware of the nuances of your own [...]
The Rhythm of Life
I often despaired at the sterility of life in the U.S. At least how I witnessed my life there, from my perspective, and in the backwater Midwest town I lived in for six years before I moved here. I felt so bored by the routine of my year, my work schedule, feeling trapped in my [...]
I'm a Europhile living with my German boyfriend ("The Mann") and splitting my time between Cologne and the Frankfurt area, Germany.
