Category Archives: Daily life
Auf Wiedersehen in Rodenbach!
When I was a kid back in Texas, my brother Anthony used to call out, “Our feet are the same!” whenever he was leaving. This was, of course, a childish joke on the German phrase, “Auf Wiedersehen!” Being an ignorant …
How Many People Live There?
Germany is not like the Texas suburbs I grew up in, with their obsessive-compulsive zoning laws separating business, homeowner, and apartment dweller. Many houses in Germany contain built-in apartments, and many regular homeowners are also landlords. Given their population/landmass ratio, …
At Home
Consider this German home: thoroughly modern and downright adorable. This is what realtors mean by curb appeal. This German house probably dates from the 1800s. Still, it has a lot in common with the modern house above it, and several …
Not your Grandma’s Religion
One of my blog readers recently had a “culture shock” moment. He’s a nurse, and he was filling out a patient questionnaire with a German woman. When he asked her religion, she became upset. What went wrong? Religion and society …
Winter Begins
In one of my happiest childhood memories, it is nighttime in north Texas, and I am standing with my brother Anthony in the middle of the street in the thickest snowfall I have ever seen. Enormous, fluffy flakes, pink in …
An Easy German Cake
So you’re new to Germany, but you want to bake a real German cake. Or maybe you’ve wandered into the baking aisle at Globus, and you can’t figure out what half the ingredients are for. Here’s an easy coffee cake …
The Guest Who Wouldn’t Leave
When I arrived in Germany, I had a heart-to-heart with passport control at the airport. What if I needed to stay past ninety days? He told me, and our conversation ended with the friendly warning: “Take care of this, or …
The Kinder Egg
The Kinder Egg is a uniquely European treat. Made by the Italian company Ferrero since 1972, they’re a huge seller in Germany to kids and collectors alike. Collectors have been known to shake, weigh, and listen to their eggs before …
That’s Typical
When we hear of a food typically associated with a country, we often ask ourselves, “Yes, but do the locals eat that? Or do they just sell it to us?” Haggis and lutefisk come to mind immediately, but I remember …
The Month of the Dead
In Germany, November is the month of the dead, a special time to remember lost loved ones. German Catholics set aside the first two days for this purpose: Allerheiligen, the Feast of All Saints, and Allerseelen, the Feast of All …