Update 2021: Katja Frixe zu Besuch im Pop-Up Cast!
Heute möchte ich Euch meine langjährige Freundin und Kinderbuchautorin Katja Frixe vorstellen. Schon seit unseren gemeinsamen Kindertagen bewundere ich Katja und ihre kreativen Geistesblitze. Ich freue mich jedes Mal mit ihr, wenn ein neues Buch von ihr erscheint. Ein eigenes Buch – das ist schon was ganz Besonderes, oder?
Have you started planning your summer vacation? We have been browsing French travel sites and realized pretty quickly that we should have started the whole planning process a lot earlier. Many vacation homes are already fully booked! When I think back to last year though, we didn’t start the planning process that much earlier. And we still had the best trip ever!
Last summer (July 2016) we did an epic 3-week-family trip to California and Maui, Hawaii. At that time we were technically still living in Chattanooga, Tennessee, though our entire household was already stuffed in a shipping container and on the way to Germany. We didn’t have a home anymore and were in the transitional period of being neither here nor there. At that time – and even more now – I believe that this was the perfect time for THE trip. The once-in-a-lifetime, multiple locations, saving-money-is-for-later, keeping-my-mind-off-the-future-trip. We visited San Francisco – twice, traveled the California Coast on Highway 1, and jumped on a plane to paradise – to Maui, Hawaii. An epic trip with our kids (who were 6 and 3 at that time), the camera, and the address of a good coffee shop saved in my phone.
Two months back in my home country Germany and I’m still surprised that there are so many German habits and approaches to daily life that I need to re-learn and get used to again. They range from very simple and mundane things like traffic rules, recycling and tissue usage to more abstract and less-straightforward aspects of daily life such as personal space, small talk and how to raise your kids. Plus the colder temperatures, of course.
What were the most memorable moments of your 5 years as an expat in the United States? This is what Nancy from the blog Fuzzy Facts asked me when we talked about a topic for a guest post I was about to write for her readers. A really good question, right? And really good timing, too, because now really is the perfect time to look back! What happened during our 5 years in Chattanooga, Tennessee? Life-changing moments, for sure. We had a baby, moved houses, went on epic trips, transitioned from day-care to school, got used to tornado warnings and snow days, started listening to country music, learned the art of small talk (or not) and created our version of the American way of life! So please continue reading for the English version or head over to Nancy’s blog to read the German version of the 10 expat moments that I’ll never forget.
