It's true. Even after years of living in Munich, Germany, I find funny stuff to talk about. Language gaffes, cultural confrontations, and life abroad. It's an ongoing adventure!
We train dogs, but they have much to teach us. Babies are fluent in body language but over time it is sacrificed to verbal communication. Anyone with a pet pooch will confirm that our fluffy friends not only manage to express a myriad of emotions – but they can read ours, too. Time we learned a trick or two from them!Support the showwww.expatchatter.net Brenda Arnold
2/2/25 • 07:26
People’s identities are tied up closely with their names. But even when you are careful to pronounce it correctly you can still get into trouble. In Germany, some people with doctoral degrees have two “doctors” in front of their names—a doctor to the second power, perhaps. And then some people have “baron” in their name but aren’t royalty, while other royals are six years old and wear sweatpants. But it was the guy with the perfect Italian name that did me in—it turned out to be German. Very German, in fact.Photo by Ayo Ogunseinde on Unsplash Support the showwww.expatchatter.net Brenda Arnold
1/26/25 • 09:12
The Krapfen is the best thing since sliced bread - or in Bavaria, since the monks began brewing beer. During Carnival season or Fasching, the bakeries explode with these delicious pastries. But there's an interesting history behind them, too.Support the showwww.expatchatter.net Brenda Arnold
1/19/25 • 08:33
Germans are so careful about maintaining their cars and they build their houses so well that they are practically airtight. But on New Year’s Eve, their sense of caution quite literally vanishes into thin air.Support the showwww.expatchatter.net Brenda Arnold
12/29/24 • 06:48
On a trip to the Christmas market in Munich, I was inspired by the holiday cheer and the number of foreign tourists and was especially impressed by their boisterous enthusiasm for holiday wares.Support the showwww.expatchatter.net Brenda Arnold
12/22/24 • 04:46
I loved Christmas cookies growing up and thought they were pretty good, but have since discovered that German holiday confectionary is in a league of its own – the premier league.Support the showwww.expatchatter.net Brenda Arnold
12/15/24 • 08:45
Germans don’t celebrate Thanksgiving but they celebrate Christmas half the winter. Starting at the end of November with the first of Advent, it culminates on January 6th, Heilige Drei Könige, Three Kings’ Day, or Epiphany, which is the Eastern Orthodox Christmas, but Germans figured it’s another holiday—we’ll take it. Support the showwww.expatchatter.net Brenda Arnold
12/8/24 • 06:47
I have cherished memories of holiday meals from my childhood. Certain foods were always on the table for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and it just wasn’t a festive spread without them. Pumpkin pie for dessert was a must. But that was many years ago and 8,000 kilometers across the Atlantic Ocean and the pie I bake today is quite different from the one my mother made. Pumpkins originally come from America. Although first imported to Europe centuries ago, they were not always as popular as they are now, particularly in Germany. Also, Germany was not nearly as Americanized several decades ago as it is today. There were virtually no breakfast cereals on the shelves, hardly any American candy, fewer processed foods, and the basic ingredient for pumpkin pie was missing, too. You might think that ingredient would be pumpkin, which is very wholesome of you and I encourage you to keep up your unprocessed diet principle of “no trash.” But when I was growing up, processed foods were all the rage. So in my family, we used what most people did to make pumpkin pie, lovingly referred to as “pumpkin stuff,” which was canned pumpkin. You just had to open the can (which we did with our automatic can opener, of course; wouldn’t want to exert too much effort for something we’re putting in our bodies), add spices, eggs, and condensed milk, pour it into a pie shell and bake it. Welcome to 1970s American cuisine. It was a culinary Wild West of pre-packaged food, ready-made ingredients and unresearched chemicals. Yee-hah!But not only did Germany have no pumpkin mix, they didn’t even have pumpkins. This is hard to fathom today, looking at the roadside tables here piled high with the giant orange fruit, just like in the U.S. It’s easy for me to wax nostalgic while standing at one of these tables, remembering the pumpkin patches at home—right up until a BMW or Mercedes roars up beside me, interrupting my reverie. This is Germany after all.The large-scale cultivation of pumpkins became noticeable here at some point in the 1990s. But this was not to satisfy my craving for pumpkin pie but rather to bolster a growing Halloween tradition. There was money to be made. I quickly learned how to bake a pumpkin for a pie—and was embarrassed to discover how easy it was.Feeling smug about this new expertise, during an October visit to my sister one year, I encouraged her to bake her Halloween pumpkin, too, instead of letting it rot on the front porch as usual. She thought I was out of my mind and told me so, inviting me with a sneer to do it myself. “I’ll show her,” I thought. Not only did I bake it, I pureed it, divided it up into the cups of a muffin tin for freezing, then removed the frozen portions and stored them in a plastic bag. These would be perfect for use in pie or soup. Martha Stewart would have been proud. My 1970s-style-cooking mother would have been perplexed at all the effort. But what I did not consider was my father, who was living with my sister at the time. Alone during the day, he would fix meals by scrounging around in the kitchen to see if there were any leftovers. After all, it’s a dad’s job to eat these leftovers—God forbid they learn how to cook mere decades after separating from their wives—and my father took that duty very seriously. Now, what you must understand is that this was a man who insisted on eating burnt toast, which was fine, once you scraped off the ashes, even if what remained was only a third of the toast. He also made jumbo-sized bowls of popcorn that he would feed off of for a week, right down to the last stale kernel. In short, he was not the kind of person who questions food. When my sister came home fromSupport the showwww.expatchatter.net Brenda Arnold
11/24/24 • 08:17
My experience with mushrooms was confined to cans as a kid. In Germany, collecting them is a cherished hobby – but don’t bother asking anybody where to find them because they aren’t telling.Support the showwww.expatchatter.net Brenda Arnold
11/17/24 • 08:04
Americans celebrate fall with Halloween, but Germans have St. Martin. Children carry lit lanterns in processions through the dark, singing. It sounds so lovely, until you’re the one out there battling the cold wind to keep the lantern lit. This is a festival best enjoyed indoors.Support the showwww.expatchatter.net Brenda Arnold
11/10/24 • 08:32
Halloween used to be unknown in Germany. That has changed and there are now pumpkins for sale on every street corner and sometimes kids go trick-or-treating too.Support the showwww.expatchatter.net Brenda Arnold
10/30/24 • 09:07
The English language has its downsides. But when you compare it to German, French and Spanish it suddenly looks surprisingly efficient and user-friendly.Support the showwww.expatchatter.net Brenda Arnold
10/20/24 • 09:12
It’s that time of year again: The leaf blowers are back! They add to an increasingly noisy world, but it’s also possible to create pleasant sounds or eliminate them altogether.Support the showwww.expatchatter.net Brenda Arnold
10/6/24 • 07:21
I thought my French was good enough to get me around southern France. But language skills were not enough.Support the showwww.expatchatter.net Brenda Arnold
9/15/24 • 08:15
Those of us who predate GPS know how to get around without using technology. Knowing the points of the compass is helpful for navigating in an American city, but in Europe, the streets often date from the days of footpaths and donkey carts. These willy-nilly labyrinths can dead end, disappear or lead you in a circle. So how does a North American get around a European city?Support the showwww.expatchatter.net Brenda Arnold
9/8/24 • 06:48
I used to feel sheepish whenever I took an overpacked suitcase home on a trip to the U.S. But when I thought about it more closely, I realized there was a very good reason for doing this.Support the showwww.expatchatter.net Brenda Arnold
8/21/24 • 00:30
I fantasize about taking my kids back to where I grew up to show them the real America. Except when I arrive, it’s often to discover that many things have changed. Shops have disappeared, new restaurants have sprouted up. I may wax nostalgic, but were the old ways really better? Support the showwww.expatchatter.net Brenda Arnold
8/4/24 • 07:46
The real founding fatherI just recently overcame my amazement that Alexander Hamilton was not Anglo-American but from the Caribbean island of Nevis, contrary to the lore of America’s Founding Fathers. Thanks to the musical, this has become common knowledge,. But now I learn that Chicago was not founded by French fur traders but by Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, a black man from Haiti. Not until 2009 was a memorial erected for this pioneer, sponsored by another Haitian. Contemplating the bust of this man made me aware of how few memorials there are of non-whites. I was glad to see this one.Windy CityMuttering at the cold wind while dragging a suitcase to my hotel, I kept telling myself not to be surprised. After all, Chicago is nicknamed “the Windy City.” But other cities in the U.S. are even breezier. “Windy” was an insult leveled at the city by its late 19th -century rival, Cincinnati, Ohio, particularly in reference to Chicago’s baseball team, the White Stockings, founded with the express purpose of defeating Cincinnati’s team, the Red Stockings. These names were later shortened to what we now know as the White Sox and Red Sox, to fit better into newspaper headlines. The Great Chicago FireEvery American schoolchild knows about the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and what caused it: Mrs. O’Leary’s cow. This popular children’s song tells the story:Late one night, when we were all in bedOld Lady Leary lit a lantern in the shedAnd when the cow kicked it over She turned around and saidIt’ll be a hot time in the old town tonightFIRE! FIRE! FIRE!Such a lovely little ditty. And so much fun to sing at summer camp, as I can attest to from personal experience. The only problem is that it is pure fiction, invented by a journalist desperate to deliver an interesting article, a tactic which has recently gained in popularity. But seriously – all he could come up with was a cow? If you’re going to make something up, you should plumb the depths of your creative well. I’d like to propose a few alternatives: Two teenagers dared each other to torch the house of the local oddball neighbor. Or: a train was running late and sped up so fast that its wheels caught on fire. Chicago was a rail hub then as now, so this version would track (heh- heh). Another theory proposes that the fire was caused by meteorites that fell that night in Chicago and in other towns in neighboring states, where fires also occurred. The area was also suffering from a prolonged drought. Since everything –buildings, sidewalks, and bridges – was made of wood, the fire and a strong wind quickly burned through it all.Who you callin’ Second City?Chicago is called the “Second City.” This does not mean second to New York, and at this juncture, I wish to extend my most sincere apologies to New Yorkers; you have a great city and we all love it, but truly, it’s not the only one, and the fact that you refer to it as “the city” won’t make it so. “Second City” refers to how Chicago rose from the ashes of the 1871 fire. Afterwards, Chicagoans did what German cities did after being bombed. They took out an old city map, gave it hard look, and said: “Eeehhh…we can do better.” The architect Dankmar Adler then redesigned the city with a more generous layout, moving buildings back from the street and creating breathing room between them. This explains why I felt like I was in New York while walking around, but without the need to keep my elbows pinched against my ribs to prevent me from colliding with someone.First a criminal, then a heroChicago’s architecture also profited from WWII in a surprising way. By banning the Bauhaus style of architecture, the Nazis sent tSupport the showwww.expatchatter.net Brenda Arnold
7/28/24 • 08:26
France’s national holiday is Bastille Day, July 14th, which sparked a revolution that sent shock waves across Europe. But French culture had already been impacting many countries’ architecture, language, cuisine - and even your backyard – for centuries.Support the showwww.expatchatter.net Brenda Arnold
7/12/24 • 09:20
Support the showwww.expatchatter.net Brenda Arnold
7/12/24 • 09:47
It’s been over 200 years since these two broods of cicadas hatched at the same time. Just by chance, I’ll be traveling right through the middle of the swarms. Support the showwww.expatchatter.net Brenda Arnold
5/9/24 • 06:26
If you are in Munich and see people jostling for a spot in line at a produce stand, you can bet they’re queuing for white asparagus. Don’t bother telling them that the green kind is better, because the white stuff has cult status here.Support the showwww.expatchatter.net Brenda Arnold
4/27/24 • 05:53
If you’re just settling in on the couch, then don’t let any Germans into the room. They’ll open up all the windows to let in fresh air – regardless of the outside temperature. Support the showwww.expatchatter.net Brenda Arnold
3/30/24 • 07:21
We are accustomed to seeing cemeteries full of tombstones honoring the dead from both world wars, but this cemetery stretches even farther back into the past. The French Revolution, the ensuing Napoleonic Wars, and even the 30 years’ war left their mark on this historic cemetery. French generals have French Republican dates on their tombstones, now illegible to non-historians, and the woman who warned of Hitler’s evil intents—who went unheeded—is buried here, too.Support the showwww.expatchatter.net Brenda Arnold
2/15/24 • 09:05
An almost nostalgic story, written during the pandemic. Remember all those strange projects we took upon ourselves for lack of anything better to do? I discovered the strange parallels between my wardrobe and the methods of the famous German scientist and explorer, Alexander von Humboldt.Support the showwww.expatchatter.net Brenda Arnold
2/14/24 • 10:07
You might think that Germans would mostly miss the beer when they go to the U.S. - but you'd be wrong. What they really pine after is German bread, which is so hearty you might want to refrain if you've just had dental work done. But foreigners living in German grow to love it, too, and woe to those who have to leave the country!Support the showwww.expatchatter.net Brenda Arnold
2/13/24 • 06:39
Germany is the land of soccer, especially in Munich, home of the world-famous FC Bayern. But American football has gain in popularity. Across the country, fans are gearing up for the Superbowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers. I spoke with two Munich football fans, Stefan and his son Ben, to hear how they fell in love with this sport, despite the huge success of the local soccer team. Support the showwww.expatchatter.net Brenda Arnold
2/10/24 • 09:24
Germans are now confronting the fact that Christmas is over but winter is just getting underway. They console themselves by getting an early start celebrating carnival, which involves consuming large quantities of a special pastry, called Krapfen, to prepare for a period of fasting for Lent. True, hardly anybody fasts anymore, but no matter – Krapfen are delicious. Not only are these pastries popular, but their numbers also keep growing and more varieties are created every year. Support the showwww.expatchatter.net Brenda Arnold
1/20/24 • 08:33
We train dogs, but they have much to teach us. Babies are fluent in body language but over time it is sacrificed to verbal communication. Studying the behavior of dogs gives clues to body language that will serve us well.Support the showwww.expatchatter.net Brenda Arnold
1/9/24 • 07:26
The New Year means more than resolutions. All of Germany sets off firecrackers at midnight on December 31st. This has a huge negative impact on animals, people, and the environment. Calls for restricting or banning fireworks entirely are getting louder every year. Support the showwww.expatchatter.net Brenda Arnold
12/31/23 • 06:04