Stories from my life and travels as an American expat in Germany!
If you’re preparing yourself for a move to Germany, or even just a visit, you may have come across complaints about customer service. Or, more accurately, the lack of customer service. I certainly did, which led me to dig a little deeper into the subject before our 2015 visit. Sure enough, googling “customer service in Germany” gets you a lot of results saying…Continue Reading
The CELTA has a reputation of being very difficult. While I was doing my research into the course, I read and watched blog posts and youtube videos from former students who all said the same thing: It’s really hard… and you won’t have time for anything else… but you will learn a lot. For me, all three points turned out to…Continue Reading
This post was originally supposed to be a counterpoint to last week’s Top 10 Things Germany Does Better than the USA. Was. After my husband asked me, “what will you put on there?” I realized I only had a list of four; a real problem when you need six more items to make a top 10 list.
AKA: The Top 10 Things Germany Does Better Than the USA
Restaurant service in Germany doesn’t have the best reputation. Is it as notoriously awful as French restaurant service? Of course not. Still, German restaurants aren’t exactly vying for the title of, “best service in Europe.” My husband and I are the couple that always talks about cooking at home more often. We succeed for a week or two, and then slowly…Continue Reading
Did you know that most apartment buildings in Germany doesn’t use apartment numbers? If you would have answered “yes” before reading the post heading, you’re either German, a current (or former) resident, a trivia enthusiast, or a liar. To everyone who answered “no,” I would have been right there with you, if I was still living in the USA. But,…Continue Reading
I’ve never been a car enthusiast. Unless it’s a sports car or several decades old, I have no idea what my husband finds so appealing when he points out a “cool” car. So it may come as a surprise to some people when they find out that my favorite place to go as a very young child was AutoWorld, the…Continue Reading
Every time a woman utters the phrase, “I’m not a feminist, I’m an egalitarian!” a suffragette spins in her grave. Don’t get me wrong; I believe egalitarianism is a noble trend of thought. In fact, I consider myself to be an egalitarian. However, I also consider myself to be a feminist.
If you ask most conservatives, they would say that safe spaces impede free speech and shield students from the realities of the real world. Advocates for safe spaces, however, argue that students are well aware of the harsh realities of the world, but that they still need to know that their campus is a safe environment, free from discrimination.
A “trigger,” as defined by psychologists, is any stimuli that causes a person to relive a traumatic event. Fireworks, for example, could causes a refugee to feel as though she is back in her war-torn home country, fleeing gunfire. A man in line for a coffee may be sent into a panic attack when a certain song comes on the cafe’s playlist,…Continue Reading