Across the Fence

When I was planning my first Christmas dinner after my arrival over here in 2010, I found to my surprise that there are obviously just two options promoted by supermarkets all over the country – you either have turkey, or you have ham. Not like back home where different regions have different traditions. There’s Christmas […]

Now that the Christmas season is upon us once more, let’s see who has a mistletoe hanging somewhere from a door frame or ceiling. Do you? And would you know why? Sure, you might like to snatch a kiss from the lady or gentleman of your heart underneath it. But what is it all about? […]

The other day, I finally did something that I had wanted to do for a long time. And, actually, I think it’s one of the first things one should do if one’s hometown has one: visit the local historical museum. It was a sunny Thursday afternoon when I parked at the new Motor Avenue Plaza […]

Remember those days when you were little and you knew soon it would be Christmas? You had no clue when exactly, and every day was filled with wonder and worry whether Santa, in a German’s case the Christ child, would bring you gifts? Because you hadn’t been all that good as expected? But you were […]

When I grew up, meat was on the table only scarcely. Which made the Sunday roast my mother prepared for lunch ever so much more special. Besides she had quite a variety of recipes. It could be a sauerbraten or a beef roast, a larded beef roast, a pork roast, a crusted pork roast, a […]

Do you remember November 9, 1989? If you have a German background or were traveling there at the time, you will. Thirty years ago, the Wall in Berlin fell, the Iron Curtain was lifted, and apparently Communism as known in the Western world was defeated. This is what Germans will be celebrating this Saturday. But […]

The other day, at a book stall at a fair, a fellow author was appalled that I didn’t have a Square to my phone to have potential customers pay with a debit or credit card. Her face fell even more when I told her that I didn’t even have a smart phone. “But you have […]

Now that the weather is more and more iffy again, we tend to dress ourselves in layers. How convenient to discard one or to don another layer just at a second’s whim. In my mother country it has even received a specific name: Zwiebel-Look (pronounce ‘tsvee-bul-look). Meaning onion look. And indeed, the onion, though so […]

Remember that I still owe you an article about the Zoological and Botanical Gardens in my German hometown of Stuttgart? Because I had been raving about the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle a while ago, which reminded me of this marvelous institution that was such a great destination during my childhood and teenage years. It […]