Mark Twain, whose passport bore the name Samuel Langhorne Clemens, crossed the Atlantic Ocean 49 times. In Europe the American writer visited many German-speaking cities, from Berlin to Vienna, and many points in-between. The future globetrotter's first foreign trip...
The GW Expat Blog
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Swiss Family Robinson: From Johann Wyss to Walt Disney
Some facts about The Swiss Family Robinson and Robinson Crusoe: The "Swiss Family Robinson" was not named Robinson. Robinson Crusoe was of German heritage. Daniel Dafoe, the man who started it all, published a sequel called The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe,...
7 books which will help you get to know Berlin
Alongside relishing delicious tapas, sunbathing, and swimming in the sea, I spent our two-week summer holiday in Andalusia last year reading “Tales of the Alhambra” by Washington Irving. Reading relevant books for the location is something I like to do - Henry James...
How I Became Fluent in German Fast
NOTE: Updated for 2022. I've been meeting many more expats now that I am living in the heavily populated Rhineland/Ruhr region of Germany. These expats range from old timers/lifers to newbie/temporary assignees. As any expat can relate to, the newbies are grappling...
Is Santa Chinese? On the Trail of Santa Claus and der Weihnachtsmann
I've written about it before, but this Christmastide I'm delving a little deeper into the traditions of the season of giving and its central figure: Santa Claus, Weihnachtsmann, Ded Moroz (Grandfather Frost), Père Noël, Sinterklaas, Father Christmas, Babbo Natale,...
Don’t Mention the War. Read About It.
One facet of German culture that continues to impress me is how they have dealt with their WWII history. German authors have written extensively about it from the "inside" of German perspective, although I have yet to delve into their works. As an outsider, it is...
A German Epic
Of the many cultural highlights I enjoyed while living in Germany, an Abo (subscription) to the local Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra was definitely one of my favorites. We regularly attended concerts featuring world-class musicians at the Liederhalle in Stuttgart,...
Expat Tip: Buy an E-Reader
I am a self-confessed bookworm. Books are a significant part of my life, and no day is complete unless I have spent part of it reading. Moving to Germany in 2000, I spent years on the hunt for books I could read. At first, devoted as I was to achieving fluency in the...
Before Amazon, there was…
I'm an avid reader, and always have been. But as an expat in Germany, it wasn't always easy to feed my fervent need for reading material. When I was a kid, I sat between my brother and sister in the back of the car for every vacation with a pile of books at my feet....
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