Christmas with my second boyfriend

Each year around Christmas we get to spend time with our friends Christoph and Patrizia and their little boy Alessandro (who we call my other boyfriend) ;) . Christoph was with Alex the night Alex and I met, so he is a special friend to us. The first year we had dinner together just after Christmas and they had just found out they were pregnant with Alessandro. The next year was Alessandro’s first Christmas and he was still a newborn baby. This year, we got the three of them, with Alessandro being a toddler now, and Patrizia is expecting a new baby again in June of 2008. These are the sweetest people I have met here in Germany (outside of Alex of course!) and I just love spending time with them. It would not be a complete holiday season if we did not get to see them and their ever growing family!

Christmas in Germany

Christmas time this year ended up being a bit different than planned. Originally we had decided to go to the southeast region of Germany, called ‘Schwarzwald’ (Black Forrest) and do the holiday with Alex’s dad and grandmother. Sadly, while I was in Manchester on business, Alex’s grandmother passed away. So we changed our plans to go to Alex’s dad’s house and have a quiet holiday there.

The day after I arrived home from Manchester for the Christmas holiday, I was not feeling well. The next day, I had the flu with a rather high fever. Alex was a great nurse and took very good care of me. Still, not at all a fun way to start the holiday. Not to mention, because I was in Manchester all during the work weeks, we had been running around like crazy people getting presents and packing and shipping them. Remember how everything is closed on Sundays here? This was what we were doing on our Saturdays, so needless to say; I was ready for a vacation and did not want to spend it sick in bed. Also, Alex’s dad came down with a cold so when we arrived on Christmas Eve, his dad and I were a lovely sight!

We did our Christmas dinner and gift exchange on Christmas Eve. His dad had bought a beautiful tree that they decorated. We spent the afternoon just relaxing (me sleeping off my flu bug) and enjoying the lovely cookies his dad made. Seriously, no holiday is complete without his dad’s cookies! That night we dressed up for dinner and did our gift exchange. I can’t even list all the things I got because the two of them spoiled me! I did receive some great books to read. His dad made a great dinner and we enjoyed some nice champagne and wine. It really was a lovely holiday and I enjoyed spending my first Christmas with Alex in person!

Christmas Markets

One thing I love most in Germany are the Christmas Markets. The Germans really know how to do Christmas right. You go around to all these booths that are filled with arts & crafts, wonderful foods and the best booths have Gluhwein (which is a hot spiced red wine). My favorite food that they had were roasted chestnuts. I am starting to gather that this is the country where all Christmas carols were born – “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…”

We went to the Rathaus area (which is German for “Town Square”) first. As you can see from the pictures, the crowds were all there to enjoy the treats.


One of the honors bestowed from this market is the “Snow Queen”. This is the 2007 Snow Queen riding in her snow cloud above the crowds. (How’s that for Miss America??)
From there we went to the waterfront and watched the new ice skating rink and other booths.

We could not pass up the opportunity to ride the Ferris wheel!

Last, but not least, we ran into a grocery store and happened to find an American food aisle! I don’t know who was more excited… me finding Mac & Cheese (though it’s not Kraft) or Alex finding Reese’s peanut butter cups!

When do you want me in the UK?

Until the end of November, my job has been uneventful. I have mostly been proofreading English translations and took my German course. One of the senior managers came to me and asked if my passport would allow me to travel outside of Germany, say to the UK. After I told him that it would, he said I might be going there to Manchester. It goes for a few days and I don’t hear anything. One day I am bored and without work, so I go to another senior manager to see if he has anything I can help him with. He says that I can help him by being in Manchester the next day! How crazy is that?? (I have to preface this story with Alex’s business required him to be in Hamburg this week and we were staying at his hotel together which is next door to my office – so I would not have to take the train and endure the long commute that week. All I had to do was to go to the hotel and get my already packed suitcase and head to the airport!)

I flew to Manchester that night and was “forced” to sit in business class because that was the only seat on the plane available. I then found out that we always travel business class when traveling for a client, so I have to say I like this German philosophy!

The town I was to work in for the next few weeks is called Bradford. It used to be the richest town in the world during the days when oil was plentiful. Since the recession in the UK, it has become rather “dodgy”. However, it is also the first town that the Southeast Asians (India population) immigrated to and therefore hosts the best curry restaurants I have ever been to! Also, Bradford is where the Bronte family is from and you can see the church they grew up in and a museum of their belongings. Their father was a vicar so that is why they lived in a church. Because the town our client’s office is in is dodgy, we were staying at a Marriott in another town. I love England because everything is so historic looking and unique. Here is a picture of our hotel, it was so beautiful!

After spending a few weeks in England I came to the following conclusions: I now know what to order at Indian food restaurants, I have tasted every Cadbury chocolate candy there is on the planet, I love the British dry sense of humor, but I really cannot be around the Manchester accents for a long period of time. I had to call for a taxi once and when I said I needed a taxi, the man on the phone said “wash your face”. Obviously, this was confusing to me, so I asked him to repeat himself a few times. I then handed the phone to one of my British colleagues and he started laughing. Apparently the man on the phone was saying “what’s your name?” And they say Americans have funny accents!!

Thanksgiving is just another day in Germany

This is my first time not being home for Thanksgiving, or being somewhere where NOBODY celebrates it either. I found this holiday to be quite difficult to not be home watching football, eating Mom’s turkey, yummy sides and purple stuff. I decided that the least I could do was make us a traditional dinner and we could watch football. The only problem is that since Thanksgiving Thursday was not a holiday here, we just ordered pizza and watched the games. However, I did decide to cook a full dinner for that weekend.

I have to preface this with the fact that I have never cooked a turkey before, but I was not afraid of the challenge. Fortunately, I had my InStyle and Real Simple magazines that my mom sent over in a care package. They had some great recipes for doing a proper dinner. So here is the menu I came up with:

Turkey with honey/fig glaze
Cranberry orange dressing
Mashed potatoes with caramelized shallots with white wine gravy
Taditional bread stuffing
Green bean casserole

I made my list of things I needed at the store, translated them to German, and went off to the markets. One of the things I love most here are the Farmers markets on Saturday mornings. You get really good organic produce and have a great selection. I was able to get everything I needed except for the meat and chicken stock. Not a problem though because Alex took me to a grocery store for that. I also had to use a converter to figure out oven settings and measurements since the recipes were for the US and everything we have in the kitchen is German.

As I was cooking our friend Sebastian called and I told Alex to invite him over to join us. I figured the more around the table the better! (Except we have a very small table!) Here are some pictures of how it came out. I have to say, it was all very delicious and I impressed myself with my ability to put it together.

Where does one find JCrew in Germany?

Ok, so I have figured out that Germany is where fashion comes to die! I am sorry, but seriously, one cannot be expected to be fashionable in this town given the selection of stores available. It looks like a polyester bomb went off and landed on the racks of every clothing store here. Not to mention, all the suits and “professional” clothes remind of things I see in bad 80’s videos. I won’t even start on the shoes, except to say that there was a Nine West here at one point and it did not last long. I imagine it’s because the shoes were scared and walked out of Germany and went to Paris.

Given this fashion quandary, I have resorted to ordering online with JCrew and the Gap. I found a company that has a mailbox system where they give me a U.S. address and I can order things in the states to have them sent there. Then they send me my things to Germany. It’s a bit more expensive, but given that the Euro is stronger than the dollar (like a 45% off sale) I think overall I spend the same amount as I would if I were able to find decent clothes here.

The other thing I miss from my girlie schedule are my magazines - The Bible (a.k.a. InStyle), Real Simple, Glamour and People. Seriously these should be here too!

Please, if someone can, send a JCrew, Gap, Ann Taylor Loft, Nine West, DSW, and Pottery Barn asap!

No speak German – kind of a problem

Ok, this is where I was not too happy… I accepted my offer with New Firm in June and started November 1. One would think that since they knew I spoke only a little German, that they would have had been more organized for my first day. When I showed up at my new office, they were about to put me in a large room for orientation. The problem – the orientation was all in German. So they sent me upstairs to my department to start. Well, my department wasn’t ready for me because they thought I would be sitting through the orientation. Not too much of a welcome feeling. So, I got a much abbreviated version of everything (sort of) and was sent to 2 weeks of German classes. The classes were good, but it was about a week of review and then a week of learning new things. It only advanced me to more conversation and food/survival things (which are important) however, not really that helpful in doing a job in German. I am learning and so far it hasn’t been a major issue with my job, it’s just more annoying than anything.

The other times I run into trouble is on the trains I take to and from work. Sometimes they have announcements of delays or mechanical trouble and I don’t know what they are saying. One night I was going home (of course when Alex was out of town) when an announcement came on (in German) stating there had been an electrical outage in a large part of the city. I was fortunately sitting next to a nice girl who told me what they had said. The plan was that the train was going to stop at a station and then bus us back to my home town of Lüneburg. If you can imagine how many people there are in a rush hour train all trying to get out and on a bus, it was really manic. However, the nice girl sitting with me had called her mother to arrange for her to pick her up at the station, rather than taking the bus. She offered me a ride. I was very thankful for that because the mayhem caused by the buses was a bit crazy. They also had used all the buses in Lüneburg to go to the train station, so even if I had taken the bus back to the station, I would not have had a bus to take me on to my house. So this was a time that I was thankful that I did not know German!

The Great Transition

The first couple of weeks were filled with bureaucracy in making my life in Germany legal. I am quite grateful that Alex was with me through all of this, because not everyone I encountered knew English. Now I would think that people who work in foreign affairs offices and help people from other countries with their permits and visas might know more than only the German language. Apparently, this was not the case here.

It was nice having a couple of weeks to adjust to actually living here (which is quite different than just vacationing here). We got together with Christoph, Patrizia and Alessandro for lunch one day and enjoyed seeing other friends and just enjoying our time together.

Not to mention the lovely task of unpacking and figuring out how to get all of my clothes into our closets!

Alex did all the homework necessary to figure out how to get to work from our apartment. I love the public transportation system here because you really do not need a car that often. We did a test run the week before my starting date so we could get a feel for which train time was best and so on.

When it came to my first day at work, Alex could not have been sweeter. He made me a “Back to School/Work” supply bag. He got me cute pencils and snacks and papers and hand ream for my desk. It was just the cutest thing ever! He also rode the train and subway with me to work on my first day and then met me at my office at the end of the day to ride home with me. (What a gentleman!!) We live about 45 minutes driving time away from my office and Alex works in the town we live, so he went back and forth that day just for me!

One way ticket to Germany

Goodbye to Dallas....

Hello to Germany...

You would think after a year and a half of trying to find a job there and all the excitement of finally being with him I would be thinking of him and the lovely romantic time we were going to have together… well sort of… as you can guess from an overseas move, I was rather stressed and exhausted. So much so that when I finally arrived in Germany, I got my terminal wrong and went to the wrong baggage claim… more on that in a moment.

Normally I go through customs with my traditional Q&A session with the patrol officers. They always ask how long I plan to be in Germany. Then they ask the nature of my visit. Sometimes they will look at the other stamps in my passport and ask me questions about my other travels just to confirm it is my passport. This day I was a bit nervous. I had my offer letter from New Firm in hand all set to handle the “issue” I was going to cause with my answers being out of the ordinary. However, when they asked how long I plan to be in Germany, and I answered “permanently”, the man just smiled, stamped my passport and set me on my way. It was lovely just going through the line past all the other people who were actual “issues”.

Normally going to the wrong terminal and baggage claim would not be a big deal. I asked where I should go and they told me if I walked outside I could get to the guarded doors of baggage claim and someone would let me in. Let me preface this by saying that in Germany, you go into baggage claim and only passengers are allowed in there. The area is surrounded by painted glass so you can’t see out into the waiting area (and they can’t see in either). So here I am, after a 12 hour flight (via Frankfurt), ready to see Alex, and I walk outside to the other terminal. As I walk through the waiting area I see my sweet boyfriend and notice that he is talking to other people. As I get closer, I think that the other people look familiar. It turns out that Alex has brought his father and our best friends Christoph and Patrizia and their adorable baby boy Alessandro (who just turned a year old)! They have balloons, flowers and a banner that says “Willkommen” (Welcome)! How lovely could that be?? Except here I am on the outside of where my entrance is supposed to be and botching the plans of a grand surprise they had in mind. Not a problem though, as it was just a great suprise to see them there and seeing little Alessandro and how big he is!

I also forgot to mention, I landed in Germany on October 14, 2007. This was exactly 2 years from the day we met in Washington, D.C.! I chose to travel and arrive on this date due to the significance. Our friends and Alex's dad had such thoughtful gifts for us to celebrate that milestone.

When we got home to Lüneburg, Alex had decorated the place with flowers and a homemade banner saying “Welcome Home!” His dad made me a yummy dish of chicken curry and I am afraid that shortly after that I was fast asleep. I slept for so long that I missed my chance to say goodbye to his Dad. However, I was finally in one place with no plan of needing to move for quite a while. I did not have to worry that it was a matter of time before I had to leave Alex to go back to the States. I was at my home, our home, with Alex! And with that peace of mind, I slept some more!

Can I be a sheep herder in Germany?

Before I can start with my story of finally being in Germany, I thought I should give a bit of background on the efforts to get here. Due to the fact that this is a public blog, I am going to change a few things. Those of you who know me know the names of my companies. So I will refer to my company in the states (the one I worked for in DC, Dallas, and New York) as “G-Firm” and the one I am working for in Germany as “New Firm” (yes, in keeping with the authors Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus).

When I decided I wanted to move to Germany, I was quite tenacious in networking and asking as many questions and trying every option I could think of. I have to say that the number of people at G-Firm that tried to help me would be too many to list. It went from partners to people working for them in the US that were from Germany. I somehow, unknowingly, kept arriving to the same individual with G-Firm in Hamburg (we will call him “T-Man”). He was insistent that there was nothing I could do for a job in Hamburg with G-Firm due to the fact that I was not fluent in German.

So I decided to try other options and avenues. I called a colleague in our London office with the offer to work for him and his tax team but from a home office in Germany – that was not an option that worked. He referred me to another London colleague who thought he could help me. That person referred me to someone else who ended up working along side with T-Man! (why is the world really so small??). I quickly learned that all roads lead to T-Man, so my lack of German was not going to get me a job with G-Firm in Germany. I started giving up and looking into any other option imaginable – English teacher, au pair, even sheep herder (which apparently is a very common occupation in northern Germany!)

However, my colleague of a colleague of a colleague in London was successful in getting me an in person interview/meeting with T-Man of G-Firm in Hamburg, so I was finally getting my feet in the door (literally). I showed up for my meeting wearing my very cute Ann Taylor interview suit that had a 100% success rate in securing job offers. However, Ann’s luck was not going to help me with my lack of German. While the interview was devastating due to the “language block” that kept my brain and mouth from remembering every inch of German I had learned, it did have one positive result. T-Man said that he had a friend who was from the States and worked with New Firm. He said if I was ok with it, he would pass along my resume to him to see if there were any possibilities there.

As you can imagine after months and months, I had become quite good at keeping my hopes down until really given a reason to think otherwise. I truly did not expect to hear from Man’s American friend, so imagine my surprise when I had an email from him requesting a phone interview. After our conversation, he thought I might be successful with another group in his company and that he would refer me to them. I took this information with a grain of salt and carried on with my life. Quite a few months later, I received an email requesting a phone interview with two senior executives of New Firm. We had a great conversation asking about the job and them about me and why I wanted to be in Germany. At then end they said they needed to speak to the managing partner. Again, I figured this was going to be a “not interested in the American girl who is not fluent in German” and did not hold my breath.

Almost a month later, I got the email that the managing partner wanted to call me for another phone interview. The first available time was the next day, so I acted immediately. We had a good conversation as well and for quite a while. The conversation reached that familiar point - the point where you figure they are just going to say they have to check on things and if you’re ever in the area, pop by for a hello or some other brush off like that. I still remember his exact words as I thought he was about to say good-bye. He said “I would like to make you an offer…” It was literally an out of body experience. I floated above my head and watched as I said something in the way of “I accept” and hung up the phone. I had finally done it! I had gotten a job that allowed me to live in Germany and be with Alex; and not at the expense of being a sheep herder!