Before I moved to Germany in May 2002, I was a lifelong Republican.  I came from a family of political conservatives.  I participated in Young Republican activities in high school and college.  As soon as I turned 18, I registered as a member of the Republican Party of Virginia.  I voted for Bob Dole over Clinton in the 1996 US Presidential election.  I voted for George Bush over Al Gore in the 2000 election.  But by 2004, I had left the Republican party, registered as independent, and began my journey towards becoming an extreme left wing liberal (at least by US standards), or as one Facebook quiz put my political views, “Practically in Marx’s backyard.”  How did this happen?

First, I should probably start by saying I wasn’t the “stereotypical” Republican, many Republicans are, in fact, not “stereotypical”, to be fair.  My beliefs mainly boiled down to “Less Federal Government is Better.”  I thought most government belonged on a local level and the federal government should only be responsible for things that absolutely had to be done on a national level, like safety standards and the military.

I thought local jurisdictions could better decide how money needed to be distributed and would have better insight into the unique problems they faced.  I felt taxes should mostly be local.  As a resident of rich northern Virginia, I resented seeing the beautiful, wide roads in Richmond paid for by my parent’s and neighbors taxes, while the northern Virginia roads were (and still are) woefully inadequate.

However, I was also socially liberal.  I believed in gay rights, gay marriage, and was pro-choice.  I was also pro-gun rights.  If you wanted to have a gun, as long as you didn’t use it to commit crimes, you should be allowed to.  I thought the government had no business interfering in the private lives of its citizens.  This was part of the whole, smaller, less intrusive federal government idea.

I disagreed with government-sponsored social programs to support the poor, mainly because I thought they just threw money at the issue without looking at the root problems.   While I wanted to end welfare and medicaid type programs, I also thought every American had a personal responsibility to look after the less fortunate.  I felt Americans should donate what they could (not just what they wanted to) to well-run local, national, and international charities.  This included donating time.  I participated in countless fundraisers in high school and tutored underprivileged children.  I helped collect food and deliver Thanksgiving meals and Christmas presents to poor families in the area.  In college, I joined a service fraternity, APO, where I regularly volunteered around 300 hours a year of community service.

I had plenty of liberal friends in college, but I stood firm in my beliefs, I was not to be swayed.  So what happened?  How did Germany change all that?

When I moved to Germany, I found a job with a company located in one of the poorer, predominantly Turkish sections of Berlin.  I wanted to get an apartment in the neighborhood, since rents were super low and we could get a nice apartment then, but my husband refused to even consider it.  He thought it wasn’t safe.  By American standards, it was not in any way a dangerous neighborhood.

In Richmond, while in my freshman year in college, a corner a block from my dorm was said to be the spot with the most drive-by shootings in the United States the previous year.  We’d dare each other to stand on the corner for five minutes at a time.  Later, I lived in the nearby Oregon Hill neighborhood, where unemployment was sky high and alcoholism and social problems were rampant.  Hearing gun shots wasn’t unusual and we had homeless living behind our house.  If I left the math department after dark, I would call campus security to drive me the five blocks home.  Berlin-Wedding seemed like a paradise in comparison.

We lived in Berlin-Mitte, the center of Berlin, and I felt completely safe walking around Berlin, alone, at 3am.

I think that’s how it all started.  I realized the strict gun control and social programs of Germany were the reason for the safe streets.  I also, from the beginning, saw through all the WMD crap the Bush administration was feeding the public to get Americans to support the invasion of Iraq.  I knew they just wanted to invade Iraq, and out of the three “Axis of Evil” countries, Iraq would be the easiest to invade and was, in fact, the least likely of the three to actually be a threat.  This soured me to the Bush administration and helped me choose to vote for Kerry in 2004.

In Potsdam, we lived in a neighborhood located next to a large government housing complex.  I ended up joining a large dog walking group made up entirely of unemployed, welfare recipients.  They were the ones who had the time to take their dogs on a two hour walk every day through the local woods.  While the upper-middle class Germans in our neighborhood looked down on me (for being foreign) and occasionally gave me a hard time, my dog walking buddies and their friends were completely accepting.

I saw they weren’t just sitting on their butts collecting a check.  Their children were studying hard, in college, some were doctors, another an engineer.  They just had the bad luck of having been residents of the former East Germany and didn’t have up-to-date skills to allow them to find a job in the new Germany.  The social system was working for their families.  Their children were or would soon be highly contributing members of society.  Sure, there were families where the children were not doing as well, but I didn’t see that as a failure of the system, more just the nature of human beings.  I saw that the hard-working, down-on-their-luck people should not be penalized because of a few people who were happy to take advantage of the system.

All my arguments against social programs were defeated.  I saw that government programs could be successful on a federal level.  Maybe they aren’t all successful in the US, but that doesn’t mean we should just give up on them.  I hear Americans say all the time, “Well, the idea is great, but our government is too corrupt to implement it.”  Okay, so we should just give up and not try?  What about trying to have the social systems and fighting the corruption instead of just accepting it as an inevitable  part of the system?

I also felt that the free market would correct problems, so deregulation of industries was needed.  However, as I got older and time went by, I realized that leaving problems to be solved by the free market assumes that consumers force corporations to comply to certain ethical standards or that the stockholders and board members make choices based not solely on profits, but on moral values as well.  Unfortunately, the bottom line seems to win out most of the time.  The majority of consumers want the best products and services for the cheapest prices, so of course jobs need to leave the US to find a cheaper workforce elsewhere.  Stockholders want high profits.  It’s not enough to make A profit every year, a company needs to make larger and larger profits.  In order to achieve lower prices and higher profits, corners need to be cut somewhere.  This has proven, to me, over time to not usually be in favor of the American public.  I guess this part wasn’t affected by move to Germany, however.

Taxes are higher here, but I don’t see anyone suffering under too high taxes.  Plus I don’t think taxes are really that much higher when you factor in the cost of health insurance in the US and the cost of college tuition there (college tuition is paid for by taxes here, students only pay fees).

So that’s where I stand now.  I am fully behind implementing a strong social system in the US, and I think it can be done.  We just need to cut a LOT of the fat in government.  I like the idea of candidates getting tax money for campaigning and cutting out donations by corporations, interest groups, and individuals completely.  I want earmark reform.  I think these things would clean up a lot of unneeded spending and give America the ability to pay down the debt AND have strong social programs that support the needy.

Has living or traveling abroad changed any of your political beliefs?  (I’m a little curious to see if any of my German or European readers have become more conservative upon traveling to the US too!)

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I just added a new page to this site, a guide with tours, restaurants and shopping tips in Regensburg.  I plan to expand on what’s there, but I think it’s a good start for now.  Do you have any tips on Regensburg?  Head on over and add them to the comments on the page!

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Expats, immigrants, and even people who have travelled internationally often get asked some odd, awful, and humorous questions about what life is like abroad.  I thought it would be amusing to answer some of the questions I’ve been asked, sometimes even by close family members, during my almost eight years of living in Germany.  I hope you’ll share some of the questions you’ve been asked in the comments.

Do Germans have refrigerators?

Yes, Germans do have refrigerators.  They tend to be smaller than American refrigerators, often because German kitchens tend to be smaller than American kitchens.  People in expensive cities (say, like Munich) are often most limited in space and may have what an American would call a large dorm-size fridge.  We had one of these in Berlin. It was about three feet high and had a tiny freezer compartment.  But we also bought a large refrigerator in addition to this one, because we had space for one.  Here in our village, everyone I know of has a large (say, 5-6 foot tall) fridge, and most have a freezer in the basement or garage in addition.

Another reason for the smaller fridges is that Germans go shopping more often and that there are less preservatives in food here.  Stuff goes bad much more quickly, so you don’t stock up here as much as the average person in the US.

But I thought Germans don’t have fridges because they never put ice in the drinks over there?

No, trust me, they do have fridges, they just don’t like ice in their drinks in general.  It’s a cultural thing.  There are some American places here that put ice in drinks, and occasionally, if someone recognizes my accent as American, I get a big glass full of ice cubes.  Seriously bugs me because even before moving here, I didn’t like ice in my drinks.

Do Germans have cars?

Yes, Germans have cars.  A German, Karl Benz, is generally considered the inventor of the modern automobile.  You may have heard of some German-made brands, like BMW, Mercedes Benz, Audi, Porsche, and Volkswagen.  Not all Germans own cars, because the public transportation system here allows one to get about without a car, but Germany is a country that loves cars and driving, you know, Fahrvergnügen.

Are the roads paved in Germany?

Yes, they are paved.  It goes along with the whole love of driving thing.  The roads tend to be in pretty good condition because Germans like to drive fast.  You might have heard of the Autobahn?  That is the German highway system and some parts have no speed limit.  You can feel the joy of passing a semi truck going 80kph (50mph) while you go 150kph (93mph) and a suped up BMW is crawling up your tailpipe with lights flashing because they want to go 200kph (124mph) and you are ruining their Fahrvergnügen. 

Do all Germans wear Lederhosen?

No, it’s traditional wear (that means for formal occasions or festivals) mostly for southern Germans (like Bavarians).  Most northern Germans wouldn’t be caught dead in a pair of Lederhosen.

Is it true that utilities are so expensive that Germans can’t afford to have clothes dryers and take hot showers every day?

Electricity and water do cost more here, but I don’t think it affects most peoples’ decisions to have a dryer or affects their bathing length or frequency.  You can buy clothes dryers here (we have one) and we know Germans who have them.  I think it’s more about Germans being more environmentally conscious, in general.  Many people here just don’t see a need for a dryer, they can dry their clothes on a line for free and it’s a much better choice for the environment.  They also don’ t tend to take long showers because Germans are very conscious about water conservation.  Around the world, especially in industrialized countries, bathing frequency is a cultural thing rather than a cost issue. I find most Germans do shower plenty, they just don’t always use deodorant (it is getting more and more popular as time goes on, but deodorant use is also a cultural thing). 

Is there bread in Germany?

Boy, oh boy, is there.  Bread is an art form in Germany.  Germans are bread connoisseurs who often don’t consider the stuff sold in the US to actually qualify as bread (same as with beer).  After almost eight years of living here, I kind of have to agree.  (Yes of course you can find good bread in the US, but it’s not available in anywhere near the same quantity or variety).

Is the water safe to drink in Germany?

Yes, the water is safe to drink.  Germans tend to prefer sparkling water though, which they buy bottled, but many people drink straight tap water or use a Brita-style filter at home.  If you order water in a restaurant and don’t specify if you want still or sparkling, you may very well get sparkling.  You can order tap water in a restaurant (Leitungswasser), but most places don’t really like giving it out.  German restaurants often have the bulk of their profits coming from the drinks.  I usually only ask for tap water if I want it alongside a fancy cocktail or something.

I’m sure I’ve been asked other similar questions by my fellow Americans, but that’s all I can think of at the moment.  Just to be fair, I thought I’d throw in a question that my husband Rainer was asked by a hairdresser here in Germany after she found out he’d lived in the US for a time:

How could Americans elect someone who is illiterate to be president? (this was during the Bush administration)

Try as he might, he couldn’t convince her that Bush could actually read and had graduated college.  So you see, these kinds of questions come from all sides.

What questions have you been asked about life abroad?

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January 1 - February 11, 2010

So, unlike I’d been hoping, things have not improved greatly healthwise.  Nausea is under control with medication, but it’s still there, so it seems I’m one of those lucky few ladies who suffers from HG through their whole pregnancy.  This sucks.

The nausea and exhaustion have left me with little enthusiasm for picture taking (or anything else, unfortunately), but here are a few shots I’ve taken since getting my new camera (yay!) for Christmas.

The aftermath of a small snowfall that hit the DC area just after New Years — Nothing like what DC looks like now.  I had wanted to stay an extra month, but wasn’t able to get through to the airline on the day of my flight since there was a major snowstorm and apparently everyone had the idea of re-booking their flights (I spent 1.5 hours on hold).  Not sure whether leaving mattered or not, Snomageddon-wise , since I hardly ever leave the house anyway and there’s over two feet of snow here at our house at the moment and it’s not always easy to get the car out.

My mom’s dog.  She’s fifteen.  Every time one of us kids went away to college, we were replaced by a dog.  This is the last surviving one, my middle brother’s replacement.

Yep, self-portrait, taken with a DSLR.  That took some effort.

Checking out my zoom lens.  It was slightly annoying that my childhood home is now right under the flight path of airplanes (it didn’t used to be).   Actually, it was a little cool to sit outside in the afternoon and watch the planes fly over.  Oliver loved it.  It was just annoying at 4am.

Baby bump, around New Years. Haven’t got a better bump picture in the meantime.  Should do that.

Here we are, back in Germany now.  This is Sheriff Ollie dressed up for the Fasching party (Carnival) of our Eltern-Kind-Gruppe (playgroup).  I sadly missed out.  I really wanted to go, but didn’t feel up to it, so no pictures from the actual party, although I hear Oliver was quite the “Lustiger Typ.”

Not taken by me, but I’m including it anyway.  Today we found out we’re having another boy.  I’m surrounded by testosterone!  But actually, I’m quite practical about these things. We’ll save money this way since we won’t have to shell out on girl’s clothes and toys and whatever.

If you haven’t had a chance yet, there’s only 3 more days left to vote for this blog in the Lexiophiles Top 100 International Exchange and Experience Blogs 2010 contest.  I don’t appear to be doing well, but there are apparently “voting irregularities” and the organizers are going to be manually counting the votes at the end, so who knows where I could end up.  GO VOTE!  (I’m about #12 on the list).  And if you already voted, THANK YOU!!!! for your support!

To see more of my photos, visit my FlickR page

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After a long, arduous odyssey, Oliver and I have made it back to Germany.  Our flight boarding was delayed in Washington an hour, then we sat on the tarmac for 2 hours waiting to get deiced because of the snowstorm.  We missed our connection in Amsterdam and had to wait 6 hours for the next flight.  However, unlike Iberia, KLM took very good care of us, giving food certificates, phone cards, and money off our next booking through KLM and it’s partners. Plus, they drove Oliver and I everywhere we needed on one of those little carts you see tooling around the airport.  Oliver thought this was awesome.

Today, I feel bad.  I feel really bad.  Everything hurts.  My back, legs, arms, wrists, neck, everything.  And I was already feeling homesick driving back from the airport.  I’m going to miss having my family around to help out.  That’s probably the worst part of being an expat.  When you really need your family, they are far, far away.

In my absence from the blogging world, someone has nominated me for the Lexiophiles IX10 Top 100 International Exchange and Experience Blogs.  Thank you whoever did that!  The voting runs from February 1 through 14, so go vote for me!  (I think I’m around number 12 or 13 on the list).

I managed to take a few photos during my trip with my awesome new camera (thanks family!!!).  I’ll post the best as soon as I manage to get them off the camera and uploaded.  But that’s not going to be right now because I’m going back to bed.  Later folks!

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Last year, among the blog highlights, were posts on German cuisine, universal health care, and WWII.  It won some awards and it’s author had to take a break for health reasons.

It’s a new year, and so far I haven’t thrown up! I’m still weak and suffering from nausea, but I’m keeping food down and gaining weight. I spent a couple hours at the mall on Wednesday, thoroughly enjoying a Ben & Jerry’s milkshake while Oliver played on the indoor playground and went on the carousel in the food court. I’m still recovering from that outing, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be up to going out again tomorrow. Better news: I’ve been feeling the baby move since January 1, and that very much helps to lift my spirits.

Now on to the review. Here’s the blog highlights from An American Expat in Deutschland in 2009:

• I wrote about my experiences with how Germans I’ve known have dealt with Germany’s actions during WWII

• This blog got third place in the 2008 Weblog Awards: Best European Blog category

• I wrote about Germany’s reaction to Holocaust denial and Germany’s far right wing parties

• I started doing the Real German Cuisine Challenge by making Semmelknoedel mit Pilzen (Bread dumplings with mushrooms)

• I continued my mostly weekly posting (except for recently due to personal illness and lack of camera) of my favorite photos of the week, Weekly Winners.

• I made my two favorite recipes so far in the Real German Cuisine Challenge, Kalbshaxn (Veal knuckle) and Harzer Lamb in Buttermilk.  They’re both semi-expensive cuts of meat, but so worth it.  I had wanted to make one of these two for my family for Christmas dinner (I’d just see which cut of meat was easier to obtain), but unfortunately didn’t have the energy for this.

• For my 7th anniversary of living in Germany, I wrote about how my expat journey began, discussing how tough it was for me to adjust to life here.

• I wrote a series on health care beginning with a description of health care in Germany, detailing my own experiences, giving reader submitted experiences with German health care and with universal health care around the world, and ending with a mythbusting post on universal health care.

• I participated in one of the national radio morning news show The Takeaway’s Healthcare Roundtables

• This blog was awarded 7th place in Tripbase’s 2009 Travel Blog Awards for the Best Expat Travel Blog.

• I attended the Whiney Expat Blogger Meet Up 2009 in Munich

• Then I got pregnant and life and blogging had to slow down a lot because I have been dealing with hyperemesis gravidarum

Here’s hoping 2010 is as eventful!

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Returning to the US has been a little different this time around.  Because of my illness (hyperemesis gravidarum), I was incredibly homesick, something I haven’t been since moving to the Regensburg area three years ago.  Despite the doctors in the hospital thinking I should stay longer, I needed to come home (my ob/gyn agreed to the trip, and so did the doctors in the hospital after I told them my feelings on it).  If you want to read more about my experience with excessive nausea in pregnancy, you can read about it in my latest post on Mamas Worldwide.

The first thing I noticed upon emerging into the open air at Washington Dulles, was the large number of humongous SUVs filling the parking lot (an SUV is what Germans refer to as Jeeps).  I guess I’d thought things would be different now that SUVs were “out” and being green was “in”, but they were everywhere and they were even bigger than I remembered.  But in the half month since I got here, well, in the two times I’ve managed to leave the house since arriving, I didn’t have the same feeling.  The roads are full of mid-size cars.  Thinking about it, it makes sense.  My family has 6 sedans and 1 SUV for transporting food and equipment for my mom’s restaurant.  What did they pick us up from the airport with?  The SUV, so they could fit all our luggage in.

It’s also incredible the amount of prescription drug commercials TV viewers here are subjected to in a day.  As someone who worked in the pharmaceutical industry, you might think I’d be happy about drug companies trying to increase their profits, but it’s the opposite.  These commercials promote unnecessary drug use and hypochondria in my opinion, and I completely disagree with letting drug companies advertise.  I always had problems with the marketing departments of pharmaceutical companies.  I see that research and development is expensive (that’s the area I worked in), but I feel that drugs should not be marketed so aggressively.  For me, there is a point where morality outweighs profits.

I’m not feeling much better, although I’m keeping more food down and have managed to gain back 8 of the 20 pounds I lost in the first trimester.  I haven’t been out much, just visiting the supermarket on Christmas Eve and Target yesterday.  I’ve canceled my New Years trip to New York, which I was really looking forward to.  I was hoping to feel better already, but I guess posting will still be rare in the next few weeks.

Good news, I got a Nikon D5000 for Christmas and hope to be back to posting Weekly Winners as soon as I can.  Unfortunately, HG makes working on the computer difficult.  It’s hard to look at a computer screen for too long, I get nauseous.

Happy New Year!  Hopefully 2010 will be a good year all around.

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Just a small announcement…

Yep, that’s right, I’m 14 weeks pregnant.  This is the little troublemaker that has been keeping me from blogging as of late.

I wanted to make it through the first trimester before saying anything.  The illness I’ve been suffering from is hyperemesis gravidarum, a.k.a. excessive nausea and vomiting in pregnancy.  The baby is perfectly fine and healthy, but I’m very weak and about 20 pounds under where I should be at this point.

I’ve been in the hospital since Friday.  I just got discharged this morning so that I can fly home to see my family for Christmas tomorrow.  Tomorrow is going to be tough, but it’ll be nice to be surrounded by family.

My symptoms should ease up sometime between now and the 20th week.  I’m hoping for sooner rather than later.  Once I’m feeling better, I hope to get back to regular blogging.  Till then, I’ll post when I can.

Happy Holidays everyone!

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I wasn’t able to complete this week’s Real German Cuisine Challenge, Mussel Salad, so I owe you guys that post sometime in the future.  Unfortunately, it probably won’t be in the near future.  I have to cancel the Challenge for the rest of this year at least, so also no Stollen making, but the recipe is up if you want to make it (I’ll link to your post if you write it up).

I haven’t been doing too well recently, in fact, basically the only reason I’ve left the house in the last month has been to visit a doctor.  It sucks being housebound, it sucks even more being pretty much bed- or sofa-bound, while having to watch a toddler, but my neighbors have been really good about helping out, knowing that we don’t have family nearby.  At least I have the internet, I can’t imagine how people stuck at home ill got along pre-internet.  It’s still very lonely and socially isolating with that outlet.

I’ll try to post when I can, but it will probably be infrequently.  But hopefully I’ll be back in blogging form and ready to continue with more Real German Cuisine Challenges in January.  Till then, enjoy your holidays and Happy Thanksgiving.

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This week’s recipe Zwiebelmarktkuchen (Onion Festival Cake) is a specialty from Weimar in the German state of Thüringen.  The Weimar Onion Festival, or Zweibelmarkt, takes place in October and has been going on for 365 years.  This dish is a specialty of the festival.

The dish reminded me somewhat of Flammkuchen, except with more onions and a less rich sauce.  Rainer tells me that onion cake that he’s familiar with is smaller and thicker.

It ends up I was not quite fully recovered enough to make this recipe.  After sticking it in the oven, I promptly laid down and took a two hour nap.  Kneading and rolling out dough takes a lot out of you!  (I found the dough pretty difficult to roll out, and it didn’t really make it up the sides of the pan).

I’m not the biggest fan of big piles of onions, but I’ll admit it was tasty.  Rainer loved it.

Unfortunately, my camera has died, so I had to take a picture of the dish with my webcam.  Maybe this means I’ll be getting a DSLR for Christmas?  Rainer says he has so many more things higher on his priority list than buying me a DSLR, but I need to take photos for the blog somehow, right? *wink, wink*

Other participants:

• Stephanie at A Greenville Life

Upcoming challenges!

• November 23 - Muschelsalat (Mussel salad)
• Sächsischer Weihnachtsstollen (Saxon Christmas Stollen) - To be made the week of Thanksgiving and publish around Christmas time.

Feel free to join in anytime. Want more Real German Cuisine? Check out the full recipe list organized by German state.

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