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On a train to everywhere – Germany’s €9 ticket and its surprising consequences
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Bombs away! The WWII gift that keeps on giving
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If this is punctuality, my watch is broken
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Trainin’ the Ukrainians – Refugees in the classroom
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Emotional baggage: why I pack too much on trips home
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The Great Resignation is leading to great consternation
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My cowboy boots didn’t fool the cowboy
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In awe of Colorado’s awfully good athletes
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On The (Same) Road Again
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The travails of travel, from Mozart to the moon
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Follow the Narrow Brick Road – and hope for the best
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Think digital technology is a cure-all? Don’t bet your life on it
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What’s that schmuck doing in the jewelry store?
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Give us our daily bread, but please let it be German
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Vaccination Fascination
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The Prussian Rock Star in my Wardrobe
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Grave Thoughts Indeed – Part 4 – The Oktoberfest
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Grave Thoughts Indeed – Part 3 – Royal rollicking and frolicking
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How war shaped the Alter Südfriedhof
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Grave Thoughts Indeed
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Stand down, parler, this word is too good to debauch
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From Munich to Philadelphia with love
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Italiano – no problemo for meo
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Spectators turned spectacle
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Mail-in ballots are sometimes the only way to vote
Expat Life
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Kraut and about – what are all those Germans doing abroad?
German immigrants used to flock to the U.S. They still go there in droves, but now they go back home again, as I discovered during my trip to New York.
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Karl Marx’s penguin and Richard Wagner’s design for Madonna’s corset
1 May 2022 Karl Marx and Richard Wagner are featured in joint exhibits at the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin. But why, I wondered. The first man was a flaming revolutionary, forced to flee the country and live much of his life in exile. His name became synonymous with disastrous attempts to implement his philosophy. […]
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Ukraine on the train – from a military to a cultural conflict
Taking the train home from Berlin, some Ukrainians boarded the train. Watching their interactions with the conductor reminded me of my first experience taking German trains
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Juggling work and family, German minister drops the ball
German minister for the family Anne Spiegel recently resigned after major errors of judgment. Did her family responsibilities overwhelm her, like they do so many women – still?
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Bring out the Easter eggs – the kids are coming home
Just as I was getting used to not being a mother, my COVID-harassed daughters came home – left – and came home – repeatedly. Now I’m trying to remember, what was it again that I always did for Easter?
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The ladies, the rest home and the bombs
The oldest residents of a rest home suddenly developed mild illnesses. They all shared a trauma from the distant past that had suddenly been revived overnight.
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Aren’t you glad you got the orange car after all?
The sky was suddenly a muddy orange, but what was causing it. I had an idea, but the thought was too scary to consider
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That map might just quash your travel plans – so focus on fun instead
Germans are usually so logical, it’s hard to believe how that can make such planning errors when they visit the U.S. Kind of gratifying, though.
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The distant agony of past wars is suddenly revived by the attack on Ukraine
The five German cities I visited on a college tour with my daughter were all steeped in the history from WWII or the Cold War – or both. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has triggered the largest influx of refugees in Europe since WWII into these same cities.
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The two dots that will make or break you
Speaking a foreign language can be tricky. Sometimes it can also get you into trouble – serious trouble. German umlauts – those two dots on some vowels. are often the culprit
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Think your vacation was spectacular? Don’t make me yawn
Germans take vacations every year without fail. If you need to know something about your own country, just ask a German.
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Canada, oh Canada, what have you done?
Canada and New Zealand have been bastions of rationality until the trucker protests broke out. Should we turn to bonobo monkeys for better behavior advice?
What’s the chatter?
About Me
Hi, I’m Brenda, founder of Expat CHatter
My visit to Bavaria has now stretched out for decades. But even though I’m well-integrated, I remain a visitor of sorts. I still swoon every time I drive through a small village with quaint houses, a market square and a stone church with an onion dome.
“What a cute little town!” I say, triggering dramatic eye-rolling from my teenage daughters. “Stop saying that,” they plead. “We’re from here!”
But since I’m not from here, I see things with different, foreign eyes. That’s what this blog is all about: seeing Bavaria through Midwestern American tinted glasses. It’s an adventure that never stops!
TRAVEL & FUN:
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On a train to everywhere – Germany’s €9 ticket and its surprising consequences
The next best thing to free is Germany’s €9 ticket. Apart from motivating even motorheads to hop on the train, it has inspired a few surprising insights and may even have a permanent impact on Germany’s urban transport.
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Bombs away! The WWII gift that keeps on giving
30 July 2022 One of the punctuality challenges to the Munich train system, as noted in last week’s post, is unexploded bombs buried in the ground. Yes, you read that correctly. There are so many bombs in the ground that when one is found, rather than panicking, passengers simply groan, “Oh no, not another one!” […]
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If this is punctuality, my watch is broken
Germany has the reputation of being punctual and reliable. But recent snafus in city planning are putting a big dent into that image.
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Trainin’ the Ukrainians – Refugees in the classroom
There are millions of Ukrainian refugees in Germany, and I decide to help out by teaching a German class. It was nothing like teaching English and demanded more of my creativity than I had imagined.
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Emotional baggage: why I pack too much on trips home
I used to feel sheepish whenever I took an overpacked suitcase home on a trip to the U.S. But when I thought about it more closely, I realized there was a very good reason for doing this.
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The Great Resignation is leading to great consternation
The staffing shortage in the U.S. and Europe was visible everywhere during my recent trip and culminated in an arduous trip home with an unintentionally long stay at Heathrow Airport. But it also afforded the opportunity to observe some colorful aspects of human behavior.
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My cowboy boots didn’t fool the cowboy
I thought cowboy boots would help me develop my rodeo skills. An evening at the Grizzly Rose bar in Denver was enough to teach me otherwise.
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In awe of Colorado’s awfully good athletes
Hiking and biking regularly might lead you to believe you’re in good shape. If you wish to test that hypothesis, just come and pit yourself against the Coloradans who tackle fourteeners every weekend.
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On The (Same) Road Again
I used to get lost all the time, but that all changed when GPS technology came along. At least, that was the expectation. Reality proved to be a different story.
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The travails of travel, from Mozart to the moon
I was tempted to feel sorry for myself when my plane was delayed by a storm. And then I remembered the travails of the Mozart family during their European travels.
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Follow the Narrow Brick Road – and hope for the best
A man was recently caught on camera driving a Maserati down the famous Spanish steps in Rome. It seemed so silly to me that someone would drive a car down an old cobblestone street, until I remembered a recent escapade of my own in an old Spanish town.
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Think digital technology is a cure-all? Don’t bet your life on it
A WWII air raid siren startled me once while I waited for a train. Such an old technology could certainly be replaced with something better. At least that’s what I thought until a real emergency cropped up.
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What’s that schmuck doing in the jewelry store?
8 May 2022 The war in Ukraine has catapulted yet another German word into English vocabulary in just two months. The word is Zeitenwende, turning point. It takes its place next to venerable old-timers such as zeitgeist, angst and doppelgänger. I’m going to indulge in the luxury of ignoring the war itself. Instead, let’s take […]
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Aren’t you glad you got the orange car after all?
The sky was suddenly a muddy orange, but what was causing it. I had an idea, but the thought was too scary to consider
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Berlin, lost and sometimes found
Berlin’s history spans three eras and each one has some surprises in store