It’s funny the things that stick in your craw when you learn a new language. For some its pronunciations. For others its words in the new language that sound like swear words in their mother tongue (Irish had some real humdingers!). For me, one of the hardest things to adjust to with German is the use of formal and informal …
Vienna, Personified
Someone once said that Paris is a woman, London is a man, and New York City is a transvestite. Granted, I haven’t been to New York outside the airport, but after my visits to Paris and London, I must say I find that statement to be shockingly true. It always amazes – and delights – me how each major European …
You Say Potato, I Say…Zulassungsbescheinigung
We get a lot of comments from people about how lucky we are to live where we do, how exotic our lives must be, and one question we get asked all.the.time: What’s it like living in a foreign country?? Let me tell you a story… Today, I needed to run some errands. I needed a winter coat – like, a …
7 Ways Learning a Language is Like Being the Parent of a Newborn
We are currently in the middle of learning our third language (not counting the snippets of Spanish and American Sign Language we both picked up growing up). As I’m going through this process again, it struck me once again how humbling it is to start learning to communicate from scratch. A friend recently asked me what language learning is like. …
10 People You See Everyday on Public Transport
A huge portion of the world utilizes public transport as their primary mode of transportation. After spending a few months doing just that, I have decided that there are 10 People you will see everyday, without fail, when utilizing public transport. Let me know if you’ve seen them, too. Here we go: 1. The Prideful Regular He knows the system inside …
In A Courtyard of Stone
We enter the empty courtyard on a brisk Sunday morning. The sky, a cloudless azure, is a stark and beautiful backdrop to the towering stone spires and turrets hovering above. We are stopped in our tracks by the beauty. The stature. The solitude. The silence. We stood there for an eternity – though really only a moment or two – …
From Sea to Shining Sea: Tips for Helping Ex-Pats’ American Re-Entry
So you have family or friends living overseas, and they’re coming back to America! Whether they are coming for a short vacation, a few months, or moving back permanently, you’re ecstatic and can’t wait to see them. Right? If they’re anything like me and my family, they can’t wait either! We have been back in the States for almost six …
If You Came to My Village
If you came to my wee village in the west of Ireland on Saint Patrick’s Day, it might look a little bit different than you expect. It might be more subdued. There might be less green. There certainly wouldn’t be any pinching. But it would no doubt be an experience that you would take with you and think of fondly …