Germany Ja!

If you are contemplating living off-base/post one of the most important questions is “where?” Caitlyn Cordova has told us about her house, and now she will tell us a little bit about her town away from hometown. If you would like to share your German town with us, please write to submissions@germanyja.com Take it away [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY BREA  The way a German home looks, feels and even operates is much different from an American home. I love our German row house (townhouse) but every so often I find my thoughts wandering back to our home in the U.S. and thinking of some of the conveniences I miss. In Germany, though, [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY SARAH FORTE Tick, tock, tick, tock… Do you have a house yet? That seems to be the first question asked of newcomers. As if you need a reminder! It seems to be all-consuming. Where will we live? Upon arrival in Germany most military members will have 30 days of Temporary Living Allowance (TLA). [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY MERIL CHICKINI Meril has led us through the land of pregnancy, labor and delivery, and maternity clothes shopping, all while being stationed in Germany. Today she’ll guide us back to German baby-land, this time decorating the nursery. Most moms-to-be start thinking about nursery and baby gear quite early in their pregnancy. Once in [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY SARAH FORTE Trash – who would have thought it could be so complex? Gone are the days when you simply threw everything in the garbage, set it out on the curb and forgot about it. Germany had “Germanized” its trash system. Like other German things, there is a pretty firm set of rules [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY SARAH FORTE Seriously?!? Can an oven give you culture shock?!? It was the first time I went to put a pizza in our German TLA oven. Two knobs. I need translation for both! The first one was expected. I know that the USA is one of the last holdouts still using Fahrenheit instead [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY LIFE LESSONS OF A MILITARY WIFE In her last article Life Lessons of a Military Wife told us about how to initiate your internet and phone service. Now she walks us through setting up the router. Here is now you set up your DSL router: • You will be given a small white [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY LIFE LESSONS OF A MILITARY WIFE Yippee, my one “holdout” neighbor finally got internet after many hours on the phone, two trips to the Telekom store, two visits from a technician and one from the engineer!  It seems that pretty much wherever I have lived in Germany, there have been issues with getting [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY SARAH FORTE Outlets, Volts, Transformers, Adapters… Oh My! Voltage: Electricity is not all the same! American appliances run on 110-120 voltage, but the electricity coming from Germany plugs is 220-240. Not quite the same! Here is some information and some tips that hopefully will save you and some of your appliances. Outlets and [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY SARAH FORTE Aha moment – it’s that little flash of understanding. It is simple, but maybe habit changing. It makes you feel a little smarter for knowing it, but you wonder why it took you so long to figure it out. There are two extra symbols on most indoor heating radiators. The first [...]

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