Home from Home: Auf Wiedersehen!

Another year is reaching its end. To this day, my Friday column “Home from Home” has reached the number of 74 short essays in almost one and a half years of contemplating differences between my native country and my new home country, writing, and sharing it with you. So many of you have reacted in such kind ways, visiting with me during book signings, taking the trouble to write in response to an article, or even looking up my Facebook site. The end of a year is a good time to thank all of you!

Photo by Snowy Vin on Unsplash

When I came over here about eight and a half years ago, I was often asked how the United States compare with my mother country. Over and over I found myself answering the same questions in the same way. Back then, I developed the idea of writing a column, but I hadn’t even lived here long enough to have gained enough experience for comparisons.

When in 2017 more and more people around me started becoming depressed about the growing hatred and decreasing manners and respect in this world, I found that it was time to start my project. Ever since you have been reading about topics such as holidays, customs, food, pastimes … whatever popped into my mind that might interest you without raising blood pressure for a negative reason.

Over the time, I have found again and again that Germany and the USA are not that very different, after all. We are western democracies, and German culture has had a lot of influence on the American way of life, but that is even truer the other way round.

As of the new year, my column will receive a new name and deal with a wider variety of different topics. So, watch out for it! Let’s just say “Auf Wiedersehen” (pronounce ouf ‘vee-duh-za-hen), which means “till we meet again”. With this in mind – see you in 2019. A Happy and Blessed New Year to all of you!