An American in... Berlin

Weekly dispatches from the City by the Spree

In August, 2011, I relocated to Germany for work. It's been my experience that, frequently, people who move to another country sometimes try to make everything seem magnificent — as though their new home is so incomparably superior to their old that it defies belief, and the residents of their erstwhile home country are completely missing out. Or, they do the opposite, locking themselves in their hotel room, seeking out reruns of Friends and stalking the local McDonald's like a vagrant.

I'm going to try to avoid this. Every Saturday, when I am in my apartment (that is, not travelling for work), I will write a short piece that talks about what it's like to have moved to Germany, a foreign language and culture that has both its ups and downs. Then, I will post these things here. You are free to ask me questions, which I will answer in an upcoming diary. Yeah.

Diary of an Expat, Part 23 — February 18, 2012 - 4:13pm
(Statelessness, streetcars)
Diary of an Expat, Part 22 — February 11, 2012 - 3:34pm
(Zollamt! )
Diary of an Expat, Part 21 — February 04, 2012 - 5:14pm
(Cold, language, restaurants)
Diary of an Expat, Part 20 — January 28, 2012 - 1:49pm
(Shipping, snow, sushi. )
Diary of an Expat, Part 19 — January 21, 2012 - 3:15pm
(Weather again, encounters with interesting people, Burgeramt)
Diary of an Expat, Part 18 — January 14, 2012 - 1:35pm
(The difference a city block makes; reviews of Restaurant Sauvage and Pergamon Panorama)
Diary of an Expat, Part 17 — January 07, 2012 - 6:04pm
(Travel. Friggin' travel.)
Diary of an Ex-Expat, Part 2 — January 01, 2012 - 1:28am
(Reflections in brief)
Diary of an Ex-Expat, Part 1 — December 24, 2011 - 10:48pm
(Planes, tranes, automobiles: returning to the United States after 4 months abroad)
Diary of an Expat, Part 16 — December 17, 2011 - 9:03pm
(Rain. Rain, and how Berlin can sometimes be godawful.)
Diary of an Expat, Part 15 — December 10, 2011 - 4:42pm
(Christmas and the Christmas market, irony not included)
Diary of an Expat, Part 14 — December 03, 2011 - 3:59pm
(Flughafen Tegel)
Diary of an Expat, Part 13 — November 26, 2011 - 4:27pm
(Things I miss about the United States)
Diary of an Expat, Part 12 — November 19, 2011 - 11:00am
(A city divided, 20 years on...)
Diary of an Expat, Part 11 — November 12, 2011 - 12:54pm
(Shopping, neighborhoods, and the long night)
Diary of an Expat, Part 10 — November 05, 2011 - 4:37pm
(Coins! Creativity! Croissants!)
Diary of an Expat, Part 9 — October 29, 2011 - 4:43pm
(Stranger in an even stranger land)
Diary of an Expat, Part 8 — October 22, 2011 - 2:36pm
(Customer service and a Deutsche Telekom story.)
Diary of an Expat, Part 7 — October 15, 2011 - 1:06pm
(Weather, Deutsche Post, Hot)
Diary of an Expat, Part 6 — October 08, 2011 - 3:03pm
(IKEA, taxis, and that omnipresent language barrier)
Diary of an Expat, Part 5 — October 01, 2011 - 2:33pm
(Shopping again, furniture, the downside of electronic translators.)
Diary of an Expat, Part 4 — September 24, 2011 - 12:44pm
(Apartments redux, a plethora of stores, living in the moment.)
Diary of an Expat, Part 3 — September 17, 2011 - 12:06pm
(Pillows, the Schufa, and the lingua franca)
Diary of an Expat, Part 2 — September 10, 2011 - 11:58am
(Apartments, and things that are nobody's business but the Turks)
Diary of an Expat, Part 1 — September 03, 2011 - 8:42am
(Planes, Trains, Shopping)