As long as I can remember, winter and snow have almost been synonymous for me. I grew up in Southern Germany, and we always experienced the white load sooner or later. We built snowmen and igloos, went tobogganing down any slope we could find, had snowball fights, ate icicles, and simply enjoyed the sight of […]
Home from Home: Old World Chimes
The other day, my husband and I happened across a Russian food and crafts bazaar in an orthodox Cathedral in Seattle. Over a bowl of delicious borshch and a steaming pirogue filled with spicy beef I suddenly choked. There was distinct chiming overhead, not of one, no, of various church bells. To a European like […]
Home from Home: German October Fests
October and Fest make for a pretty cool union in everybody’s mind, don’t they? They go with German beer, bratwurst, pretzels, Dirndl, Lederhosen, and oom-pah music. You might think of the Munich Octoberfest. Import it to the Pacific Northwest, and you have it authentically right here. Only … you wish, but you don’t.
A Paradise for Apple Lovers
Washington State is known for its abundance of delicious apple varieties. To its first incorporated city, Steilacoom, apples mean even more. After all, it was pioneer Nathaniel Orr who brought along the knowledge about orchards and the idea of commercializing them. The Steilacoom Apple Squeeze has been celebrating these facts – and, above all, apples […]
Home from Home: Mission Irma
My husband and I had planned to fly out to Florida to help set up hurricane protection for a family member of ours in September. We didn’t make it in time. Hurricane Irma beat us by half a week. It didn’t change our will to go. It made us even more adamant about our mission.
Home from Home: Homesickness
“Aren’t you homesick? What about Germany do you miss most?” These are probably the questions I’ve been asked most often after coming over here. And I almost feel like a traitor when I reply “No” and “Nothing”. In the age of lightfast communication and worldwide import/exports, with a bit of imagination and improvisation, you can […]
Home from Home: Traveling
“I would love to travel there!” How often do I hear this after I have just let somebody know that I am from Germany?! Believe me: almost weekly and mostly from people of working age. I never ask why they don’t simply do it. I have long realized that there is quite a difference in […]
Home from Home: Crabbing
It’s over. For most areas in Western Washington, crabbing season this year ended on September 4. And though it has its smelly challenges at times, I’ll really miss doing it until next year’s crabbing marks the summer season again. Which means a lot to come from a city girl who learned how to crab only […]
Home from Home: Friends
Emigration means cutting off a lot of roots. It disrupts your job and deeply affects your family and friends. The change from having a social life in your old surroundings to having none at all in your new ones, at first, is a natural given. But it also is a chance to shed people who […]