This is the first post in the blog series One Year Without. See all of the posts here. Today marks one year since we arrived in Germany. It’s an appropriate time to reflect on something that has meant a lot to us over the past year and had an impact on shaping our future together, which is our desire to embrace a life of minimalism. In order to prepare for our move to Germany we put approximately 90% of our belongings into […]
The Wurstelprater amusement park is located in Wiener Prater, a large public park in Vienna (Wien), Austria. While there is a lot to see and do in the massive park, Wurstelprater is special because it is the oldest amusement park in the world. Publicly opened in 1766, it currently features the iconic Wiener Riesenrad (a Ferris wheel), 13 roller coasters, a Madame Tussauds, and plenty of other fun attractions. Prater is open 24/7 year round and some venues, such […]
I furiously made this list about four months ago, when we had been living in Germany for a total of six months. I saved it and then it went into the depths of my “potential blog posts” folder because I was afraid of it. I knew I couldn’t open it and finish editing it without having a meltdown about missing home. It was a rough time. But I’ve gradually become more stable and happier in Germany – despite all the […]
“A day in the life” posts have become really popular on Imgur (an online image sharing community); people all over the world have been taking photos throughout a normal day of their life and sharing them. The Imgur blog said the following about this idea: As we go about our daily routines, we rarely stop to consider how fascinating our lives may be to others. Our homes, the commute to work or school, what we have for dinner, and how we […]
We spent 226 days in Germany before we had our first visitor. And after the first one arrived we had a flood of them; our rotation of various Meena family members lasted for 29 out of 44 days from start to finish. After all this time by ourselves in a foreign country it was a bit startling to suddenly have family around again. There were all sorts of emotions to process as we prepared for the visits, spent time with […]
Unlike the Schweinfurt pigs, I didn’t need to work hard in order to find the Berlin bears. I saw four in my first ten minutes in the city after dropping off the car. In the end I photographed 24 of them, although I saw a few more than that. The Buddy Bear movement started in Berlin in 2001 during their Buddy Bear Berlin Show. The idea behind the bears was to welcome people to the city with raised arms, which are […]
Germans aren’t exactly known for being romantic, but all the love locks throughout the country would suggest that there is plenty of romance going on in the land of beer and sausage. The tradition of love locks has been around for a century or so but Europe didn’t start seeing them in large numbers until the early 2000’s. While they are meant to be a sweet gesture or symbol of lasting love, the locks have caused quite a controversy in some places. Fortunately we’ve […]
I was a bit overwhelmed the first time we went out to eat at a restaurant in Germany. The combination of having a language barrier, not being able to translate all the words on a non-English menu, and my lack of understanding about the process in general resulted in an intimidating situation. We still experience confusion sometimes when we go out for a meal, but we’ve definitely got a better idea of how to act and what to do after […]
We started purchasing products from Amazon.de pretty much immediately after we moved here. Amazon was all we knew – we had used the US site faithfully for several years before we moved and it was our go-to for just about everything. We’ve since learned how to shop in Schweinfurt and and use online sites other than Amazon, but there are times when it’s still our best option. Thankfully they have an English version so we can search for items and […]
I’ve been asked a few times how much it costs to live in Germany compared to America. That’s a hard question for me to answer completely because we don’t pay for housing or utilities in Germany nor did we pay for them in the USA after college. (Mr. Meena’s company has provided us with free housing for two and a half years.) But I have kept an extremely detailed budget since we’ve been married, so there are some comparisons that […]