Ich bin ein Texaner

One of the questions one often gets when one moves is simply, "What do you miss about home?" Of course, this doesn't have to apply for a change of countries. A change of cities will generate the same question. It is, however, compounded when one changes countries (and continents)! So, without further ado... Well, OK. Here is the "further ado". The obvious thing we miss the most is all of our friends and family. It goes without saying that it is tough to be away from those nearest and dearest to you. The internet helps and being able to call makes a difference, but there is nothing like spending time in person with those close to you. This, in a weird convoluted way, leads to the first thing I miss: Being a native speaker of the primary language. This makes all kinds of everyday tasks more challenging (I got a dressing down at the driver's license office for knowing no German), but it also makes meeting people that much more difficult. We don't want t

This week has been hot. I can feel the Texan eye rolls from here, and I get it. It's much hotter in Texas than it is here. However, in Texas there is an abundance of air conditioning. Here there is virtually none. Not our apartment, not Robert's office, not most stores. There are a few mall-type places that have AC, but you have to go looking for it. Additionally, we spend a lot more time outside here than we ever did in Austin. We lived in a pretty walkable neighborhood in Austin, but I felt pretty virtuous if I walked to lunch or dinner a couple times a week. Here, it's near-daily. We walk to the train station (about 12 minutes). We walk to the grocery store (5 minutes now, but that'll be longer at the new place). If we take the train somewhere, there's walking on the other end. All of that means more time outside. Until this week, that was a wonderful thing. The summer weather was glorious, the trees are green, there's a lot of green space throughout Mu