Jorn

This month my wife and I will be celebrating two years in Germany. Germany is not perfect and immigrating to another country is rough but we are much happier, healthier, and secure here. We never want to go back to the US. We are working on permanent residence (visa) and then citizenship.

Doesn't that mostly come down to where you live and what enforcement looks like there?

Recently moved to an area with hard water. Wife and I were noticing more hair loss while showering. Turns out an ingredient "EDTA" can help remove buildup from hard water that damages hair. This is a common ingredient in expensive shampoos but it's also in Head and Shoulders. Wife started using expensive shampoos to help and I switched to Head and Shoulders. She just ended up using my shampoo(much cheaper) and it's been working well for us. Hope this helps others.

Luckily there is a rule for that. You just add an "e". Germans will know when they read Kaese that it means Käse(cheese).

ä=ae ö=oe ü=ue

And bonus ß=ss

Knowing the German pronunciation makes it not as funny. But seeing "extra dick burgers" at the store still gives me a chuckle.

My galaxy will let me install but then I get this when I try to run the app:

Someone misspoke in a press conference. I edited my post with the corrected info.

Both National Guards had been sworn in just 24 hours prior.

Edit: Looks like it was corrected.

"During the press conference on Thursday, Pirro said the two Guardsmen were sworn in 24 hours prior to being shot. A joint task force spokesperson later said the two Guard members were deputized less than 24 hours before the shooting to "maintain their status to conduct presence patrols," according to a joint task force spokesperson."

https://abcnews.go.com/US/2-national-guard-members-shot-white-house/story?id=127909642

She gave birth in a very nice but very small facility so it is plausible that they put pressure on her for billing purposes.

That was not the case with my sister. She has pretty good insurance and had really good care. She ended up making a phone call an hour or two after her premature baby was born to add her to the policy because her now uninsured baby was in the NICU.

There was an art museum that I went to, I think in Cologne that had prints of basically all the paintings. If you really liked one, you could get a high quality print, photo, postcard, etc.

I love not having to drive anymore. Public transit is sometimes a little longer than driving but it's so low stress and if you do have to drive, the massive public transit infrastructure helps alleviate traffic on the roads and thus speeds things up. Win/win. I realize it's not for everyone but for me it's a huge reduction in stress, anxiety, and the extra walking was a contributing factor to losing 25 lbs in my first year here.

I hate that government stuff is painfully slow here. I lived in one of the big cities before I got a job. I booked an appointment with the immigration office in the middle of January and the earliest they could see me was mid July. 2 Months after my visa expired. It took 2 months to get an appointment for my german driver's license. We're in a smaller city now and it seems a lot faster but I haven't been here long enough to get a good idea of how much faster it is for everything.

Something that I really miss is mexican food. If you are from an area of the US with good mexican food, you'll be missing out on that here. There are some decent taco places around but otherwise I think most "mexican restaurants" here have just seen pictures of mexican food and guessed how to make it. But Döner is awesome and everywhere, so I suppose I traded Burritos for Döner.