Everybody knows about Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, as it is celebrated here in the US. So, what is Jeudi Gras? Okay, I have to admit it, I just made up the term, but “Fat Thursday” is what a number of European countries celebrate as an equivalent. The origin is the same, though the weekday in […]
Across the Fence: A Stuttgart Hunting Lodge
Very recently, on Facebook, I came across photos of a German friend of mine, who had walked one of my favorite hikes in my former hometown of Stuttgart, Germany. During weekends it’s usually overcrowded. But choose a weekday morning, especially when it’s cold, and you will find it to be a magic place to refresh […]
Across the Fence: Cape Flattery
Submitted by Susanne Bacon. Have you ever been to the most Northwestern place in the US? I’m not talking as in Alaska, but here in Western Washington. It’s quite a trip to Cape Flattery, in the end takes a walk all in all a bit over one and a half mile’s distance, and culminates in […]
Across the Fence: Football
Why a game in which a ball is mostly carried and thrown is called football, obviously defies any European’s logic. Football over there is definitely always played by your feet respectively legs only, and any involvement of your hands, even involuntarily, earns you a penalty – unless you are the goalie, of course. Also, football […]
Across the Fence: Calendula
Gray January days are normal in Western Washington. And you could get depressed if it weren’t for Nature dealing with the gray in her own very subtle ways. Such as an incredible array of shades of green. Or … well, have a look into your garden or your neighbor’s. Because I’m pretty sure somewhere there […]
Across the Fence: Disneyland Is Somewhere Else
Only recently we traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada, to celebrate my husband’s round birthday. I have been there three times before within the past 12 years, always on business: as a trade show reporter, as the leader of my magazine’s reader’s trip group of 40 persons, and as a business consultant for a trade show […]
Across the Fence: The Carbon River Rain Forest Loop
The beginning of a new year usually seems a bit dreary. It always makes me wonder whether that is because it’s like a book filled with blank pages and a certain anticipation what they might fill with. Or whether it’s the contradiction of cabin fever and the doomed grayness outside. So, let me lure you […]
Across the Fence: The Wild Hunt
Today, I am starting this new column, and I will chat to you in a neighborly fashion across the fence. But I also would like to invite you to hop across your fence to discover and explore all kinds of things and places. Let’s start with something that is as current as it gets. You […]
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 […]