Thinking of packing your suitcase and becoming an expat? Here are some tips on how to make it happen. Photo cc flickr user Jonas Design & Photography

Ever since I started blogging about my expat life in Germany, I’ve gotten questions from readers asking for help.  People wanted to know more about my decision to come here, about getting a job or a visa, and about learning the language.  As I often get the same questions again and again, I’ve put together a few of the most frequently asked so that it is easier for you to find answers.  If I haven’t touched upon something you’d love to know more about, leave your questions in the comments, and I will include them in future Q&A blog posts.

Welcome to our new YG blogger Jesse! Photo (c) Jesse Woods

According to Wikipedia, the term Military brat “describes people who spend their childhood or adolescence while a parent (or parents) serve full-time in the armed forces.”

I have lived in Germany for most of my life, but I feel like I have really only lived in Germany during the last two years working for a small German Internet company and hosting a weekly talent show at a local German night club.

Many foreigners think about living in Germany after studying an interesting university language course, visiting on a family vacation, discovering a foreign job opportunity,  or even after seeing a movie with scenes of Germany’s beautiful castles and countryside.

Language milestones become far more important when you take the language out of the classroom. Photo (cc) flickr user -Georg-

Foreign language milestones during school never seemed particularly important: you pass another vocabulary test, you manage to stumble through another book with a little less dictionary hopping.  Ho-hum, another day of school.  But when that language becomes the currency of your life, those milestones suddenly become monumental.

The first time you manage to order dinner at a restaurant completely in German is so exciting that you e-mail your friends to tell them about it.  The first time the woman behind the counter at the bakery asks you something and your reply doesn’t make her switch automatically over to English you buy an extra celebratory pastry.  And when you finally manage to make a telephone call without breaking into a cold sweat or causing an epic misunderstanding you’re ready to throw a party.

Arriving in Frankfurt by ICE train. Photo (cc) flckr user K_Gradinger

After finishing my studies, Germany was just a stepping stone for me to do internship and thereafter head to my destination USA for higher studies. At that moment, I was unaware of the fact that soon Germany was going to give me almost everything that I desired. It enriched every spectrum of my life—be it spiritual, physical, or financial. It would be like a fairy tale. Don’t get me wrong, I am not talking about the ecstasy of being successful, but instead of euphoria of enjoying a natural gift called LIFE thoroughly. Perhaps, I would have never been able to understand the balanced importance of life if I had never been to Germany.

Meet our newest YG blogger: Jen of Resident on Earth. Photo (c) Jen

At the end of 2009, Jen–American ex-pat bloggerette of  Resident on Earth–found herself moving to Germany from a small Midwestern town in the United States.  As is the case for many ex-pats, it was love that inspired her move, and in the time since, she’s found that her partner isn’t the only thing there is to love about Germany.

Before making the big move across the Atlantic, Jen was already smitten with the country she would soon come to call home.  “I fell in love with The Mann (as she refers to her partner in her blogs) and his country. I’ll confess; I’m a complete Germanophile. I think Germany is often under-appreciated and misunderstood. I’m curious to find out how my observations and perceptions from traveling there do or don’t line up with the reality of living there.”  And she’s been blogging about her experiences ever since.