New Here
Grounded Traveler is the tale of an American that moved out to become an expat in Germany. Putting down roots and still seeing the world is my aim.
Putting down roots: Stories of living as an expat as well as a bunch of cultural observations about living in Germany. If you are interested in Germany or in what it is like to be an expat, there is plenty to read here.
Seeing the world: Stories and phototours of the travels that I have made. As much as I like being at home, I still want to see and experience things.
Overcoming Fear is also a common theme among many of my posts. Fear of flying being the most dramatic.
The About page and Contact page are there for more detail about me and how to get a hold of me. Here are a number of posts to give you an idea of what to expect at Grounded Traveler going forward.
Facing the Flights Again
Two transatlantic flights, two trans continental and two short flights completed in the past 4 weeks. For most people that is a lot, for someone with a fear of flying that is even more. I have gone from no flying at all for nearly 10 years to all of that in a month. Facing fears, baby. Note: just because I faced the fear and did the flights it doesn’t mean I now like flying.
Fun with Translation: Animals Edition
Here are some more insights into the oddity of the German Language. The last “Fun with Translation” was indeed so much fun that I decided to do some more. German is often quite descriptive in naming things. The idea of smushing words together to describe something quite exactly is a germanlanguagetrait. This gives some interesting translations of animal names when you go directly into English.
German Obsession with Fresh Air
It seems that Germanic society has an obsession with fresh air. This in general isn’t such a bad thing. I grew up in a place where opening the windows meant either car fumes or air conditioner machine noise or simply tons of bugs. So it is nice to be able to air out the house in the summer. However it doesn’t end there, the windows are opened even in the winter.
Ode to the Pretzel
Pretzels are certainly one of the most widely known German foods and for very good reason. They are everywhere here. But pretzel is a shape, not a type of bread. Laugen (lye in English) is the bread type. Join me in an exploration of pretzels and laugen bread.
Traveling vs. Living as an Expat
Guest Post by Italylogue: Jessica Spiegel.
“My plan is to move to Italy,” I tell my new Italian friend over coffee in Milan. He looks back at me blankly and for a moment I wonder if I’ve used the wrong verb tense or accidentally said something about his mother. It’s not until he replies that the blank look becomes clear and I get a strong sense of déjà vu.
“But – why would you want to do that?” he asks. And I sigh. Again.
Meteora Phototour – Monks above the sky
I had seen pictures of Meteora while planning the Greece trip. I thought it was too far out to get to reasonably. Despite this, I sprung and went up to see the site. It was really awesome, and the highlight of the mainland half of my Greece trip.
Searching for Greener Grass
A friend posed me the question recently of whether her desire to move was a form of “grass is always greener” syndrome. That being a desire to move away from problems to an apparently better place, just to find the same problems there. The worry being it might be a waste to move.
I searched after the greener grass, many times. I tended to move every time I saw some brown patches in my life.. err lawn. I actually think there is a benefit to this. If you move around looking for greener grass, if nothing else you become a better judge of grass.
Of Language and Beer
Last Saturday a friend of mine and I drove to France, namely Strasbourg, for lunch. I love that we can do that, though still have “go to Paris just for breakfast” on my Bucket List. My inability to say Merci in French made me start thinking about language and beer.
