4th of July with the expats

I can't remember the last time I observed the 4th of July, but who can resist a BBQ by the river with friends?



The banks of the Isar River are extremely popular in the summer, especially in the area near the Tierpark. There were multiple groups of Americans out celebrating their independence here yesterday, and finding our way to the right gathering wasn't so easy to do. But completely worth it, since I'm sure our group had the most fun.



The spread:


The beer fridge (Em got a better photo of the bar, before the sun went down):


The view:

Scenes from an early spring weekend in Bavaria

While Germany was busy swooning over our new president, we were out enjoying Germany.



We squeezed in one last sledding trip with the Rendenii (which is where we spotted this guy);



rang in the beginning of asparagus season in a beer garden on the lake;




and then got the balcony garden started.

Ask the Expat: temporary or permanent?

Hey Jul: I see that you have lived in some of the most difficult countries in Europe to obtain citizenship (Switzerland and Germany). Are you planning on making your stay permanent or are you planning on coming back States side?

- TomD

I really don't know if we'll ever move back to the US. We have no plans either way. Certainly if we do stay in Europe for a longer amount of time, EU (or Swiss) citizenship would make parts of our lives easier (and allow us to vote in local elections), but it's not essential to staying here long-term. So far I haven't lived in a single country long enough to become eligible (the number of years required for eligibility varies from country to country - from a few years in Ireland to over a decade in Switzerland).

If we did live in Germany long enough to become eligible for citizenship, I doubt I would apply for it. Germany would require me to give up my American passport, and I don't think I'd ever want to do that. Permanent residency will just have to do.

The main reason I don't want to to return to the States just yet? I'd have to find a new name for this blog.

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Ask the Expat is a new feature I'm trying out here at the blog. If you have a question for me, go to this post to find out how to submit it.

Celebrating the new president, expat-style

Oh happy day! While I decided against attending the Munich Inaugural Ball, I definitely felt the need to celebrate yesterday. So I threw a little party of my own, and soaked up the inauguration with some American and European friends. Obama's swearing-in was at 6:00 pm our time, perfect for some champagne prosecco toasting.



We also enjoyed some American-themed foods, such as this patriotic cake made by Heza. Had I had access to an American party-supply store, I might have had fun going over the top with the decoration; as it was we made do with American flag napkins and toothpicks, and some patriotic balloons.



The party is over but my heart is still filled with joy at the direction my country is taking. As an American abroad, today I feel I can hold my head a little bit higher.

Expat Thanksgiving rock'n'roll!

Over the years, I've been to every type of expat Thanksgiving imaginable. The potluck with other expats. The 'American' restaurant. The Italian-restaurant-tries-to-make-turkey. The expat housewife extravaganza. The potluck-with-mostly-Europeans-who-bring-shit-like-cole-slaw. But never did I expect to see the day where I'd spend Thanksgiving at the Hard Rock Cafe.

The venue was chosen because of its promises of 1) Thanksgiving-like food and 2) American football shown live on eleventy-billion screens. Personally I would have rather watched the Macy's parade. I hear there was a Smurf balloon... But I digress.

I skipped the dinner part (I had an art class, and restaurants tend to have no idea what to do with a vegetarian for Thanksgiving), but the reviews of the meal ranged from "at least the turkey wasn't dry" to "the cornbread had less texture than the pumpkin pie". Ah, the pumpkin pie, the one part of the meal I actually did sample. This pumpkin pie was amazing... in all the wrong ways. While it managed to look somewhat like pumpkin pie, at least from the top, it had the texture of rice pudding and the flavor of key lime pie. I don't believe it contained any pumpkin at all. How gloriously fucked up is that?



How was your Thanksgiving?

Partying with the Dems Abroad

Another first for me today: I took the first subway of the morning home, at around 4am. We got home in plenty of time to watch CNN call the election for Obama at 5am. I knew it was coming, but still I was surprised how emotional it made me to actually hear it.

I barely made it through McCain’s concession speech before I fell asleep. Still, this was the closest thing to an all-nighter I've pulled in quite a while.

It was a long evening. We arrived at the Democrats Anonymous Abroad party around 7pm to have dinner with friends. There was an, um, interesting program of live music on offer, but by around 10pm or so we were all itching to re-glue ourselves to a TV, even though we knew it would still be hours before any news came in. We moved upstairs to the bar area and found some prime seats in front of the big projection screen showing CNN. Thanks to my new toy (which I will tell you more about later) I was even able to get online and chat with friends and family back in the US, to find out what they were hearing on their end.



In the hours before the polls started closing, we entertained ourselves by watching a little Nailin Paylin and making up election night drinking games.

The crowd cheered each state as it was called for Obama, and for Democratic House and Senate members who were declared winners. It was especially satisfying to see Elizabeth Dole go down, after having seen this. Unfortunately Al Franken’s race was still too close to call.


Not everyone managed to stay up as long as we did.

Bring on the hugging*

A funny thing happened to me today. For the first time in eight years of living in Europe, I walked around wishing that everyone around me knew I was American.

Thank you America. Well done.



* The title is in reference to this fab video

are we done yet?

It's almost 3am here in Old Europe, and CNN (our main source of news) just called Pennsylvania for Obama.

Can I go home to bed now?

It's here!

I was starting to think election day would never come.

If you need me, I'll be here flipping between N24, N-TV, and CNN. And this evening, I'll be here, partying with Democrats Abroad Munich. Hopefully we'll get some meaningful news starting around 1am (and hopefully I'll still be away by then).

Have you voted yet? How were the lines?

Now where was I?

Whew, that was fun! I feel like I've been on vacation for the past two weeks. I think I managed to attend Oktoberfest 8 or 9 times - so at least half of the days. Impressive that I'm still standing, no?

The major thing I learned from my marathon of festing is this: if you don't have a reservation, go during the week, and go early! There was a huge difference in crowd level between weekends (including Fridays) and weekdays. On a weekday one can get a seat in pretty much any tent for lunch and some afternoon drinking, without waiting in line or getting shoved around by too many drunken frat boys. The music is a little more low-key and traditional during the day, but it picks up in the early evening, which is about the same time that the dancing on the benches starts. Speaking of Oktoberfest music, how long until I get these songs out of my head? (The playlists at the tents are very repetitive, to say the least.)

Now I've got about four days of 'normal life' before visitors and travel descend upon me again. So, if I've owed you an email for the past month or so, expect to finally get a reply this week. Right after I hose down the apartment. And figure out what to do with 50 green tomatoes...

7 internet resources to help you find a job in Germany

As a follow-up to my post about how to find a job in Europe, here are some of the specific websites out there that can help with your job search if you're hoping to end up in Germany. Happy hunting.

Xing.* In addition to LinkedIn and Plaxo, a popular networking site in Germany in particular is Xing. The only problem with Xing is that if you don’t already know many people in Germany, you might not find many people to connect with at first. But filling in your complete profile may still be a good idea, as I hear that recruiters and headhunters use the site a lot. There is a free level of membership and also a paid 'premium' membership available, and there are searchable job listings with plenty of Germany-based stuff.

LinkedIn* is a networking site similar to Xing, but with a more international membership base (so if your contacts are mostly outside of Germany, you may have a better chance of finding people to link to here). It also has job listings searchable by city or postal code. One cool feature is that it will help you figure out if you have any contacts or contacts-of-contacts who work at a particular company you may be looking to work for.

JobsinMunich.com. This site claims to list jobs targeted at 'English-speaking professionals'. All in English.

JobScout24. This site is in German, but is probably navigable with just some basic knowledge and educated guessing. Use 'English' as a search term (Suchbegriff) to pull up many listings in English.

Monster.de. Just like Monster.com, except for Germany-based. Lots of job listings. Also in German.

Toytown Germany. This big community site for expats in Germany has smaller message boards dedicated to employment offered and employment sought. It also contains various wiki pages that list companies in Germany by industry or area (for example, here's a page on international companies in Munich).

And don't forget to check out the websites of individual companies that interest you. Some of Germany's largest employers include DaimlerChrysler, BMW and Siemens, but even smaller players such as AutoDesk and Infineon are big into hiring expats.
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* If you happen to know me in real life, feel free to add me as a contact on Xing or LinkedIn.

Have you found any other websites to be useful for a job search in Germany? What about for other European countries?

Adventures in cross-cultural gynecology

Two short stories for you from my recent trip to the gynecologist in Munich:

Story #1: The waiting room was quite full, and the women were getting restless. Glimpsing the crowd, the doctor came out to loosen us up with a joke (here translated by me from the German): “What’s the difference between an Ossi* and a Turk?.... The Turk has a job and speaks German.”

I wondered if there were any Ossis in the crowd.


Story #2: My name finally gets called, and I go in to see the doctor. Upon hearing my accent (or perhaps from reading my name off the chart), he asks where I’m from. “New York” I say. His response: “The pretzels in New York City are awful! So soft! Horrible!”

At least he didn’t try to blame me for it.

* Ossi is slang for a person from East Germany.

7 tips for finding a job in Europe

(The tips in this post are aimed at Americans wanting to work in Europe, but most of the information is valid for those of other nationalities, as well.)

So you want to get a job in Europe, but you have no idea how to go about such a thing? It might be easier than you think. First of all, it helps a lot to have some sort of special skills, since an employer will probably need to be able to justify why you, a foreigner, were the best applicant for the job. Luck for you, fluent English can count as this needed special skill for a variety of positions. Obviously, specialized and advanced degrees can help too, as can relevant job experience. What you don’t necessarily need is a pre-existing work permit, company connections, or foreign language knowledge.

Got marketable skillz skills? Good. No more excuses - now polish up your resume and get searching. Here are some suggestions to get you going:

Open your mind wide. I know, this is the cheesiest job-searching tip ever, but I’m telling you the number one reason people fail to land fabulous jobs abroad is a closed mind. Sure, maybe you’ll be able to land job X at company Y in country Z, but the narrower your target, the narrower your chances. Instead, try to focus on all the different ways this could work out for you. Spend time brainstorming about the types of positions and companies that would interest you. Be willing to browse through job listings for things you aren’t sure about at first. Ask yourself whether your self-set criteria are necessary, and be open to considering changes. OK, now on to the more concrete stuff…

Online networking. Sign yourself up for LinkedIn, Plaxo Pulse, and whatever other sites you can stand. Link to as many folks as possible. Poke around to see who they know in the countries or companies you are interested in. You never know which long-lost high school friend may have ended up as a hiring manager in Paris...

Monster.countryofyourchoice. Monster.com has sites set up specifically for many different countries, including 20 in Europe. This can be a good starting point to browse the local offerings and get a feel for what companies are hiring. If you don’t know where to start your search, go with the keyword “English” (and/or the word for English in the local language, if you speak it).

Multinational corporations. In my experience, larger companies are less likely to balk at a foreign hire who will need a little paperwork filed for a work permit. Plus many of them use English as their official language even in non-English-speaking countries, so these are a good target if you don’t happen to speak other local languages. Check out company home pages, which these days usually offer a list of open positions searchable by location.

Universities, NGOs, and non-profits. Idealist.org does have some international job listings, but you are most likely to find these types of jobs on the websites of the entities themselves.

Internal transfers. Does your current company have any European offices? See if they’ll hook you up with an expat gig.

Expat websites. Many countries and major cities in Europe have one or more websites where expats gather virtually to share information and socialize. Employment is a topic that comes up often on these. Poke around for helpful information.

See also: 7 internet resources to help you find a job in Germany

If you have a job in Europe, how did you find it?

Where am I supposed to ride this again?

Gotta love superfluous English. Although at least the 'outdoor' on my new bike makes a little more sense than the 'street racer' written in big letters on my skis. (Or could it be that I've been using my skis in the completely wrong environment all these years?)

Not unlike skiing, I learned to ride a bike too late in life to be very good at it. But cycling seems to be such a fun and convenient way to get around in Munich that I figured I might as well give it a try - while investing as little money as possible in the actual bike in case I only end up using it once. Nice bikes supposedly get stolen quite regularly in Munich, so I'm probably better off with my no-name 'outdoor' bike, anyway. Now to figure out the rules of the bike path...

Chocolate chips for expats

As ubiquitous as they are in the US, chocolate chips are practically unheard-of in the rest of the world's supermarkets. Sometimes the clever expat must improvise:

1. Unwrap a bunch of dark chocolate bars (extra bonus step - freeze them first)
2. put them in a ziplock bag and seal it
3. break up the chocolate in the manner of your choosing (drop the bag on the floor several times, take a wooden mallet to it, etc. etc. Be creative!)

This little tip isn't new... in fact American expats have been making their own chocolate chips using this method for decades, if not centuries. But when a fresh-off-the-boat gal from Florida asked me about chocolate chips the other day, it reminded me that not everyone knows this ancient expat secret.

Here's a little bonus tip: in place of brown sugar, use white sugar plus a tablespoon or so of molasses. Now go forth and make cookies to dazzle your host countrymen!

Bonus tip #2: don't even think of using those vanilla-flavored sugar packets sold in Germany as a substitute for vanilla extract. In my experience, real vanilla extract is one of the very few food items still worth smuggling over from the US. Unless you live in Zurich and can buy it at El Maiz, that is. If someone has a source in Munich that isn't absurdly expensive, please share!

I made these cookies for our Eurovision party tomorrow night. I can hardly wait! I think so far Azerbaijan is my favorite, but I haven't finished watching part two of the semifinals yet. How can you not love this act?

Uncounted

Last night we attended a Democrats Anonymous Abroad meeting here is Munich, where we watched and discussed the documentary Uncounted. The film explores the ways in which the outcomes have been manipulated in recent US elections, how vast quantities of people were not allowed to vote, and how vast quantities of cast votes went uncounted. It is hard to watch, deeply disturbing, and important. I encourage every American to watch this documentary. Here's the trailer:


You can order a region-free DVD from the Uncounted website by following the instructions for a special request. I also encourage Americans living overseas to register to vote from abroad. It's easy!

Munich: the first quarterly report

Our first three months in Munich have flown by. Well, on one hand it has felt fast, and on the other it feels like we've been here forever. Since I've lived in Germany before and speak passable German, it was a pretty soft landing. It also helped that we were able to move into our permanent apartment right away, and for once there were no delays in receiving our belongings. The immigration process involved a couple of ridiculous hoops, but luckily we had company lawyers to assist us in jumping through them. And overall the process was much closer to the über-efficiency of Switzerland than the clusterfuck of Italy.

Although I feel quite at home in Munich already, there are still plenty of things I don't know about the city. When people try to describe where certain things are, I often stare blankly, not having a clue where the mentioned streets or landmarks are. I've never been particularly good at street names, anyway, and if you consider that my brain is already full of mental maps of about 20 previous cities of residence, it's a wonder I can even remember my own address (which I do, most of the time, except for the zip code, which sounds kind of lame, but can I impress you with the fact that I still know my zip code from when I lived in Bologna 12 years ago? No? I didn't think so.). I wonder how long I can get away with this before the "I'm new here" excuse wears off and I start to sound like a scary recluse who never leaves her house.

We still don't know very many people here, but we have met some great folks and started to make some friends. Meeting other expats is pretty easy (even though I tend to dread large happy-hour-type get-togethers), but I wish we had more social contact with locals. This is one of the perpetual challenges that foreigners seem to face all over the world, to varying degrees. (I have much more to say on this topic, but I think I'll leave that for a post of its own.)

Munich has a lot going for it in terms of livability: safety, cleanliness, good public transport, good & affordable restaurants, good beer, good pubs, green areas, nice architecture, and so on and so on. Not to mention the cheesy pretzels. So far I'm really liking it here. And with beer garden season around the corner, I'm thinking it can only get better.

Watch out Autobahn, here I come

[Headbang8, I recommend skipping this post...]

Woo hoo, let's hear it for efficient bureaucracy! (And you thought that was an oxymoron.) Although not quite as speedy as in Switzerland, we have managed to procure ourselves some German driver's licenses, and it was relatively pain-free.

Whereas in Switzerland all US licenses are equally and deliciously exchangeable for Swiss ones, in Germany some US licenses are more equal than others. Depending on which state issued your license, you may be subjected to a written exam, a practical exam, both, or neither (you can check out how your US license stacks up here).

Or you could just trade in your Swiss license and be done with it. That is, if you happen to be lucky enough to have one.

It took two trips out to the big old German DMV (or Fahrerlaubnisbehörde - how's that for a beautiful word?), each visit involving a token amount of waiting (less than half an hour in each case). Apparently the Germans don't trust their postal system as much as the Swiss do, because instead of mailing us the licenses when they were ready, they mailed us a piece of paper inviting us to come pick them up. And while Switzerland let us keep our US licenses, Germany held on to our Swiss ones. But still, the whole process was simple and not overly paperwork-laden, and our German licenses are the magical kind that never expire. Yippee!

In which I achieve Bavarian culinary genius with the aid of my freezer

Before we even moved here I had noticed the vast superiority of Bavarian cheesy pretzels to their Swiss counterparts. But never did I dream that a yet more delicious version of cheesy pretzels existed.

Let me back up a bit and tell you about our freezer situation. Unlike in the US, freezers do not seem to be considered an essential kitchen feature in much of Europe. In Zurich, our freezer was about the size of a shoe box, and could hold a couple ice cube trays and about one package of frozen food. The entire refrigerator was smaller than what you would find in a typical college dorm room in the US.

Here in Munich, the refrigerator that came with the apartment didn't have a freezer at all. Obviously this wouldn't do at all, as ice is a staple of my diet. So we bought a freezer. It's still small compared to what you would find in an American home, but it's freakin' huge compared to what we had in Switzerland. So to celebrate its arrival, I went for a long stroll through the freezer aisle at the grocery store, marveling at all the exciting stuff that was now available to me. Frozen berries, frozen veggies... what's this? Frozen pretzel dough? Into to the cart!

OK, now cheesy pretzels from the bakery are one thing, but cheesy pretzels fresh out of my own oven, with melting cheese oozing all over the place, are a little slice of heaven.

Munich: random thoughts for the day #3

• German raclette cheese is not the same as Swiss raclette cheese. The German version is much, much stinkier.

• We did a quick-and-dirty blind taste test of 3 locally-available Weissbiers the other day (why only 3? Because that's how many Weissbier glasses we have at home. Yes, we need more): both Paulaner and Franziskaner were deemed to be highly drinkable, while Erdinger disappointed. But I still love our Erdinger soccer ball glass.

• Interesting article about how the Holocaust is being taught in German schools these days: No Laughs, No Thrills, and Vilians All Too Real.

• I know it's from a McDonald's commercial, but I can't help but love the word Schmektakel.