Tag Archives: expat in Germany

Loving and Living: The Berlin Episode

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Just another beautiful moment in a Berlin park. Photo copyright dpa/picture alliance

Just another beautiful moment in a Berlin park. Photo copyright dpa/picture alliance

Today L of Cup of tea anyone? is joining us for another guest post about why she loves Berlin.  Enjoy!  You can find her here talking about her life in Germany every Monday.

I don’t like to pigeonhole my blog, though I guess I could become famous in the internets, like my friends Working Berlin Mum and Expat Mummy, if only I would stick to a theme. Since I mostly bitch and moan, hopefully along the way making valid points and intelligent arguments, I thought I would post something positive today for a change…Hold on to your hats!

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Expat Life: Getting Settled

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Photo copyright dpa / picture alliance

Photo copyright dpa / picture alliance

Everyone settles into life in a new country at a different rate.  Some are immediately at home, while others never feel completely comfortable.  Homesickness, awkwardness, loneliness: they all are parts of the expat experience to a greater or lesser degree.  But fitting in is too.  You might surprise yourself.

I have been in Germany for eight years now, but it has only been in the last few years that I have been noticing the telltale signs of “German-ification.”  Though I have felt at home in Germany for many years more, it seems my transition into this culture is now complete.  How did I know?  Well…

You know you’ve been in Germany too long when

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One Year in Germany: What I’ve Learned

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One of my favourite spots back in Vancouver was UBC's Nitobe Japanese gardens. When I discovered this Japanese garden at Klein-Flottbeck in Hamburg I immediately felt at home. You just gotta have slices of home when you're living abroad. Photo copyright Kristi Fuoco

One of my favourite spots back in Vancouver was UBC’s Nitobe Japanese gardens. When I discovered this Japanese garden at Klein-Flottbeck in Hamburg I immediately felt at home. You just gotta have slices of home when you’re living abroad. Photo copyright Kristi Fuoco

“It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves–in finding themselves.” -Andre Gide

It’s hard to believe that a year ago today I walked off the plane in the Hamburg airport with a mind buzzing with anticipation, a stomach full of butterflies and not nearly enough winter clothing. My cousin and his girlfriend greeted me with giant German welcome signs, much to the delight of the rest of the crowd, and it immediately made me feel right at home. I remember so clearly a moment later that day, when they took me out for my first Kumpir (delicious Turkish stuffed baked potatoes) in Hamburg’s funky Schanze neighborhood.

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There and Back Again: An Expat’s Tale

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A brief moment of sun on my beautiful west coast at Christmas. My friend and I took a stroll on the famous Stanley Park Seawall so I could soak up my beautiful BC. Photo Kristi Fuoco

A brief moment of sun on my beautiful west coast at Christmas. My friend and I took a stroll on the famous Stanley Park Seawall so I could soak up my beautiful BC. Photo Kristi Fuoco

Happy be-lated New Year from Hamburg! It’s been a while since I’ve blogged, and it’s partly because I feel like I’m going through a processing phase of my time abroad. Enjoying the fruits of my culture shock labor from the first nine months and processing you could say! It takes a lot of work to settle into a new country and when a new place finally starts to feel like home, then it becomes just that…home.

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Hamburg, Germany: Top Ten Reasons I Love Living Here

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Despite my fear of heights I climbed around 500 steps up to the top of St. Petri’s Church and it was worth it to get this gorgeous view of this beautiful city! Photo Kristi Fuoco

How do I love thee Hamburg? Let me count the ways! As an expat it’s really easy after a while to just focus on the negative aspects of your new culture or country. And the thing is, we really do need to get things off our chest sometimes and we need other expats to complain to—this life ain’t easy folks! Every little day to day activity is more difficult in a foreign country, and even though many of us Canadians are descended from Europeans, there is still a rather elephant-sized cultural mountain between us at times. So, since Thanksgiving just passed (well the US one anyway) and Christmas is coming, I thought I would do my best to put on my hat of positivity and focus some of my favorite things about living in Hamburg, Germany.

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Expat Life: A Seven-Year Anniversary

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The Frankfurt skyline. Photo (cc) flickr user salomon10

When we are small time seems to pass so slowly.  There are days that feel like weeks, hours that feel like days.  As we get older the chorus begins: time seems to be speeding up and at every birthday, anniversary, and holiday we find ourselves marveling over how another year could have passed so quickly.  Time seems to be moving so quickly that I didn’t even notice my seven-year anniversary coming.  Seven years in Germany!  Wasn’t I just writing about crossing the six-year marker yesterday?

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Expat Life: Bilingual Babies

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Raising a bilingual baby brings along a new set of parenting challenges. Photo (cc) flickr user xopherlance

So we live in Germany. I am American. My husband is German. Watching a little person learn two languages at once is one of the things I have looked most forward to when it comes to baby making and raising. And here we are.

From the very beginning, from Baby Pickles’ very first minute outside of my belly, I spoke English with (to) her. My husband speaks German with (to) her. This is what linguists call the one parent, one language style of bilingualism. Some people do one language at home, one language outside. Some people do one language in one country, one language in another. There are about as many styles to bilingual parenting as there is sugar in Willy Wonka’s candy landscape.

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