by PapaScott on 01 September 2010
On this day in 1990 we arrived in Germany, with all the suitcases we could carry plus 3 cats, the rest of our belongings in a half-container on a slow boat, for what we thought would be a 3 to 5 year stint. Saddam had just invaded Kuwait, Germany had just won the World Cup, and we still didn’t know who had killed Laura Palmer. Germany was still in two pieces, but the marriage papers had just been signed the day before and the party would be in a month.
Coming to Germany was an impulse decision, and it was better to be lucky than good. We were in the right place at the right time, reunified Germany was where the action was. Change was happening before our eyes and history was being made at our feet. We had left the US during that decade’s banking crisis and the beginning of a war. The US was slow and broken down; Germany was exciting.
We landed first in a run-down top-floor apartment in Kiel with a 4 month lease. We thought we’d be heading to Berlin, but it became clear we’d be staying in Hamburg. Housing was tight, the whole country was on the move, and 50 people would show up for an apartment showing. I think in the end someone pulled a string for us, and we moved into a 3 room apartment in Barmbek just as the slow boat with our belongings pulled up.
My introduction to German life was total immersion. There was no internet, and I knew no other expats. I was naive and optimistic enough to believe that my American degree and determination would be enough to get a job. In the end it worked, but it took 3 years.
I wonder sometimes if today, we were 20 years younger and the same opportunity came up again, we would make the same decision. Times have changed. I somehow doubt it.
by PapaScott on 15 August 2010
Next weekend we are finally celebrating our silver wedding anniversary. As you may recall, the actual anniversary was in September 2008. So in the spirit of procrastination, the event is entitled “Twenty-Five Plus”.
We both have memories of stiff and boring anniversaries that we were forced to endure as children, so we are trying to do the opposite. We’ll be at one of our favorite restaurants, the Treibhaus in Marxen, which as the name implies is very green and casual. We’re serving “American Barbeque”, outside if the weather allows. We’re celebrating in the afternoon and will be done by sunset, not partying into the wee hours of the night morning.
We have two special visitors from the States, my mother and my cousin. My cousin has never been to Germany, so we will also be conducting a whirlwind “German essentials in 6 days” tour concluding with a cruise on the Rhine (special request from my mother). Our son has a class trip all next weeks, so that fits.
We’ve also been able bring our “Basement Project 2009″ to a belated tentative conclusion. We had hoped to have business storage space and a guest room with bath done last winter, but the bad weather put us back and, well, the painter just finished up last week. The business space still needs some electrical work and shelving, but we made a trip to Ikea yesterday, and Voila! The guest room is now livable!
So now my project is to create a “25+ Playlist” of early ’80s music for our Sonos S5 with which to entertain (or possibly torment) our guests. Can you sing along to “Like A Virgin”?
by PapaScott on 12 July 2010
For those of you who don’t follow us on the Twitters, we spent the last two weeks on our annual US trip, which this time included stops in Phoenix and San Francisco before visiting my family in Minnesota.
I suspected when booking that flying outbound through both Paris and Atlanta would be a mistake. Air France departed 3 hours late from Paris on a cramped an aging 747 (the only thing good was the food), and the last place on earth you want to miss a connection is Atlanta. Delta managed to find room for us on the last flight of the evening, so we got into Phoenix 6 hours late, with moods to match.
Arizona was our last US station (1989-90) before coming to Germany, and is always a nostalgic what-would-have-been-if-we-had-never-left experience. We love the heat and the desert, but the politics and economy leave a lot to be desired. We caught up with an old friend and soaked up some 115°F heat,
San Francisco is a station from my childhood (we lived in San Jose from 1st to 6th grade until 1974), and my wife’s running joke was that I never took her there. It’s not quite like I remember it. We stayed 3 days, time enough for the touristy things (stayed at Fisherman’s Wharf, biked the Golden Gate Bridge, rode the cable cars, visited Alcatraz and the Exploratorium) but leaving much to explore should we ever return.
Then in Minnesota we paid a visit to Target Field (stadium is nice, Twins suck at the moment) then spent a beautiful and quiet week at the lake. Christopher had a blast, and we could tell that he’s now old enough and competent enough at English that we could send him alone to Grandma and Grandpa for some upcoming school vacation.
Technically we connected an old unlocked iPhone to AT&T pay-as-you-go to stay in touch. We forwarded our business calls via Skype to ignore most of them and return the important ones, and a 100MB data package handled our email when we were out of WLAN range (for iPhone use unlockit.co.nz to set the APN). My wife succumbed to the lure of the iPad, and we were able to manipulate the waiting list at the Apple Store to get her one in Minneapolis on her departure date.
Our Delta flight home via Amsterdam was the opposite of our Air France experience (bad food, everything else OK), and if it weren’t for the jet lag, we’d be ready and raring to go. But who left the heat on outside in Germany? Shut it off!
