All of the blog posts, from those on life as a student in Germany, to photography collections, to posts about everyday life as an American living and working in Germany, are listed here! Check out the latest posts!
If you're biking in Germany, following the rules of the road while biking will save you a lot of trouble dealing with everyone from the traffic police to the occasional civically engaged German grandmother. Unlike in most parts of the U.S., traffic laws for bikes are actively enforced in Germany, with the risk of getting ticketed being much higher than you might think. What do you have to look out for?
Read MoreWhen considering what to pack prior to moving to Germany, one of the more practical considerations is how many adapters to bring with you. Germany, and the rest of Europe, runs 220 volts through their power outlets, as well as has a different outlet prong shape (and yet another for the U.K.), meaning that as a rule, you can't use your original power adapters from the U.S.. But does that mean you should pack half a dozen bulky adapters in your already stuffed to the brim suitcase? Should you buy a bunch of European power adapters when you arrive?
Read MoreI studied German in school for 7 years before I, in a massive rush to get some bit of paperwork sorted out for the university as a student abroad, ran down to the library computer lab, sat down, and misspelled my email password about half a dozen times due to the German keyboard I was working with inverting the positions of the z and y keys. It turned out that in all that time, despite knowing intuitively that German keyboards had a different layout, using the German language settings in my computer’s word processor, and turning on the German keyboard option on my phone, I’d never actually tried using a full size German computer keyboard. And it took another couple of years to actually get good at using one.
Read MoreSo you've heard a thing or two about how Europeans ride their bikes more than Americans do, from exercising to a daily mode of transportation. After arriving in Germany and settling in, one of the first questions that comes up is whether or not it's worth investing in a bike for the time that you're over here. So should you? Well, that depends!
Read MoreFor someone who's a first time renter in Germany, it might surprise you to know that a majority of German apartments include basement storage in the lease, often including a communal laundry/drier room and bike storage room as well. While there is no legal guarantee to be granted access to basement storage when you rent an apartment, it is a common practice.
Read MoreIf you live in a German apartment building you may have already received a letter some time after moving in, "shaking you down" for 17.50 Euro a month from the Rundfunkbeitrag Beitragsservice. In Germany, public access TV and radio stations are funded by the Rundfunkbeitrag, or public broadcasting contribution, resulting in substantially more programming being made available over public access TV than is typical in the U.S.. But if you're only living here for a short time, or don't have a TV or radio, do you still have to pay the fee? ....Yes, yes you do.
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