Posts

Sommer

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Hallo noch einmal! Hello again! It's hard to believe that we're already half way through Summer ( Sommer ). It's been challenging for us here in northern Europe where most homes and many businesses don't have air conditioning. I see a lot of Americans questioning why we don't have AC here. The reasons vary, but it's mostly due to the fact that historically it just never got that hot for a long enough time each year to justify the expense. There's also a lot of pushback against AC for environmental reasons as well. One of the other reasons is that many of the buildings in Europe are older than America, so retrofitting them to use AC would be extremely cost prohibitive. So for the few days that it gets up into the 30s or higher (90+ in Fahrenheit), Clarke and I try to cool down our apartment by opening the windows at night, and then closing them in the morning before it gets too warm, and closing the blinds to keep the sun from heating up the rooms. A couple o...
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Neun Monate

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Grüße! Greetings! It's been just over 9 months since I arrived in Hamburg, and it's been a whirlwind adventure adjusting to a new country, city, culture, and language. As I reported in my last post, I now have legal residence for the next three years, and last week I received my German Führerschein (Driver's License). The only thing left on the way to becoming fully German is citizenship, but that's several years down the road. One of the adjustments we've had to make is getting used to all the religious holidays here in Germany, which is quite different from the US, where religious holidays are not legal observances (other than Christmas). In addition to Easter and Christmas, we have Boxing Day (the day after Christmas), Good Friday, Easter Monday, Ascension Day (the commemoration of Christ's ascension), Whit Monday (the day after Pentecost), and Reformation Day. These are all public holidays in Germany, in addition to the secular holidays - New Year's, May...
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Gute Nachrichten

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Hallo Zusammen! Hello everyone!  It's been a busy month, and the final steps of our immigration are falling into place. I have been granted an Exception Visa which allows me to stay here for the next three years, and Clarke has been offered a job as a substitute teacher at a private school in the neighborhood (only a 10-minute walk from our apartment). This buys us both the time we need to cement our residency here in Germany, as our current visas were about to expire in the beginning of June. Good news ( Gute Nachrichten ) indeed! Over this past month, Spring has exploded here and the trees are now covered in lush green leaves and there are flowers everywhere. Rhododendrons are very popular here in Hamburg, with their huge clusters of red, pink, and white flowers. Sadly, they aren't very fragrant. We love walking down to the City Park, about 500 meters (546 yards) from our apartment. You can walk for hours along multiple trails and enjoy all the trees, flowers, and critters. I...
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Frühling

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Hallo Fruende! Hello Friends! It's been too long since I last wrote. I suppose I was in mental hibernation during the long winter season. When Clarke and I were doing our research on German cities, we learned that the winters in Hamburg are relatively mild compared to other major cities like Berlin, Munich, or Frankfort. So naturally we had the worst winter in 15 years with record snowfall. Go figure! But we survived, and now that Spring ( Frühling ) has arrived, the city is awash in flowers and budding trees. This is my favorite season as it signals the rebirth of nature and the promise of new life. Other than continuing my German classes and Clarke looking for work, we've had a fairly quiet winter. We spent New Year's Eve at home, which was always our tradition when we had dogs in order keep them calm during the loud fireworks. But as we get older, we prefer a quiet night in rather than staying out late partying. On January 17, we visited the Emigrant Museum Hamburg ( Aus...
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