Celebrating 6 Months: 6 Highlights & Things We Love about Germany

Six months. Can you believe it? Life can sure fly by! Our time thus far has included many highs and also some lows (like missing home and waiting for our residency permits to arrive so we can really start ministry). In honor of this milestone, we thought we’d take the opportunity to share six highlights from our time thus far and six things we love about Germany.

Highlights:

1. Singing “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart” with our summer team at Wyldlife camp. A wide mix of ages and varying levels of English proficiency made for an interesting week but we had so much fun talking about what joy is and how to cultivate it. They even taught us the German version of the song, “Ich habe Freude, Freude, Freude, Freude in meinem Herzen.” Truth knows no language barrier.

2. Friday night date nights in the city. Once we moved to Starnberg (about 25 minutes south of the city center), we realized we needed to make sure we got into Munich regularly (to be around people and to have some fun). We love to eat and enjoy exploring what food the city has to offer. Our favorites so far? Deliciously spicy bulgogi at a hip Korean restaurant, juicy sausage and a pile of sauerkraut at a riverside Biergarten, and unbelievable crispy duck (Germans seem to like duck) at one of those unassuming Chinese restaurants. We also accidentally saw Dune (a new sci-fi movie) dubbed in German (going to the movies is tricky! You have to be careful to find English showings).

3. E-biking with the Guchee’s through the Dolomites. Ever been on an E-bike? We hadn’t! But it sure made going uphill much more enjoyable. We enjoyed a several-hour tour, including a leisurely stop at the mountain hut...complete with a camel! It was certainly one of those “What is our life?” moments.

4. Playing “The Family Game” with Young Life kids and having to explain who Huckleberry Finn is. Coming up with relatable characters for this simple game (which involves guessing what famous person each person wrote down) is always stress-inducing for Meg, this was especially true with non-American kids! Turns out Mark Twain was not a good choice, it was an educational moment for us all. Just one of the many cultural blunders we’ve made we just have to laugh about!

5. Meg’s midnight graduation from seminary. Writing final papers in quarantine and graduating in the middle of the night over Zoom is certainly one of those funny life moments we will tell our grandchildren. It was an odd collision of pandemic life and moving across the world all in one week. Fortunately, she did it! #mastermeg

6. Time by the Lake/River. While we had a pretty mild and dismal summer, we took every opportunity to enjoy the German pastime of lounging by the water. In Munich, that was on the banks of the Isar River. In Starnberg, on the grassy shores of the frigid Starnberger See. Whenever the sun did come out, we’d hop on our bikes, ride five minutes to the lake, and enjoy a few hours hanging out as the Germans do. We even got to use our new inflatable SUP a few times! Can't wait for next summer.

What we love about Germany:

1. The bakeries. In Seattle, you are never more than a few blocks away from a coffee shop. In Munich, you don’t need to walk far to find a bakery full of pastries, delicious ready-made sandwiches, thinly layered cakes, and of course… pretzels! Germans love their afternoon “coffee and cake” and are prideful over their fresh and hearty bread...which is pretty delicious with a dollop of Nutella. The best part is, baked goods are cheap, making bakeries the ideal snack stop.

2. Bike paths. If you’ve ever been to Issaquah, you know only the committed ride their bikes around. By contrast, Munich is mostly flat and the city has invested not only in bike lanes but in distinct bike paths off the main road. This makes getting around fast, easy, cheap, and safe. Parents have special “bucket bikes” that haul their children...and sometimes their dogs. But it’s also not uncommon to see a little tike without training wheels riding to school.

3. History. Germany is the only country that we know of that not only acknowledges its traumatic past but has taken pretty drastic steps in order to “never forget”. Every school-aged German is taken to a concentration camp to learn about the atrocities of WWII and there are many free museums to educate the public. Instead of sweeping their history under the rug, we find beauty in the corporate grief and admire the German conviction to learn and change from their past. There's also lots of local history with the famous Wittelsbach family (you might have heard of Mad King Ludwig and his castles).

4. Sustainability. Even though recycling into 6 different bins has a bit of a learning curve, we have enjoyed the German conscientiousness of living with the planet in mind. From conserving water to not wasting food, Germans take care to be eco-conscious. At a recent meeting, we were eating pizza with Germans and they were a little anxious that I wasn’t eating my pizza crust, so much so that they offered multiple times if THEY could eat it for me. As Christians, we believe in good stewardship of the Earth and the German way challenges us to think more deeply about how to do this.

5. The German sense of humor. Obviously, we don’t want to generalize a whole country's sense of humor but from our experience, the people we have met have a great sense of humor, it’s just very, very dry. German’s are often stereotyped as overly direct/borderline rude, we are of the opinion that it’s because of their dry, sarcastic-like humor. We have found that sometimes the best way to connect with the waiters who come across this way is to return the favor and give the sass right back to them. They seem to light up with a big smile if you tell them that everything is perfect except for the lousy service LOL.

6. Biergartens. Every culture has a third space. In Washington, the best option to meet up with someone outside of the home is to go to an overly crowded coffee shop. Here in Germany (and Europe in general) there are so many venues to meet up with people! From cafes, bakeries, and of course beer gardens/halls. These places become just an extension of one’s living room. There is a lot more of a community feel when places are crowded, it seems like all of Munich is always out having a beer with someone. The German’s even have a word for this cozy feeling one can get in this social setting: Gemütlichkeit!