Adventures of an Expat in Deutschland

Hallo und willkommen zurück! Hello and welcome back! I had a busy week all the way through last night, thus the delayed post. The last thing I wanted to do when I got here was just sit around the apartment. We were both sick the previous week and went nowhere and did nothing, so we made up for it this week. On Monday we had the pleasure of attending a performance of "The Hunchback Variations" at The English Theater with our friend David. This absurdist play was an absolute delight. After the show, the two actors came on stage to discuss the play and answer questions from the audience. One of the things they noted was that the play resonates differently with British and German audiences (ours was a mix of both, along with a lot of Americans). The Brits/Americans tend to enjoy the absurd humor, while the Germans tend to read a lot more into the dialog and the existential questions posed by the characters. The English Theater  was founded in 1976 by two Americans, and is the old...

Hallo Freunde! Hello friends! It's been a month since I arrived in Hamburg, and what a month it's been! It feels like I've been here longer due to all the things we've crammed into these last 30 days. I've taken my first 4-week intensive German course. I learned how to navigate the grocery stores, how to recycle properly (the German way), how to order take-out, how to ride the trains by myself (I only got lost once for a brief moment), and how to properly eat a sandwich (open face, of course). 😁 Of course, this past month has also been spent reuniting with Clarke and helping to set up our apartment. It took over three weeks to finally receive the four boxes I shipped from Baltimore, after many frustrating conversations with German Customs. Once I was able to unpack those, it started to feel more like home as we were able to surround ourselves with some familiar keepsakes (and my winter coats, which I've already used multiple times). It is quite a change downsiz...