Living Abroad Q&A | American Expats Living in Germany!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ก.ค. 2024
- We answered all YOUR questions about what life is REALLY like living abroad!
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As a family that lived 5 years in Germany I would recommend meeting a german family of closely equivalent age. It was an overwhelming blessing when we were able to connect when we were stationed in Bavaria. We were able to get out of our Americanized comfort zone and become a world citizen. Christmas is coming and the different Christmas markets are amazing. We come back regularly during Christmas to experience the season that we hold so dearly. We will be back again this year for the Christmas. Remember there is no bad weather! Just bad clothing choices! Peace.
Love that perspective and attitude! You are getting us so excited for Christmas!! Ahh all of the markets look incredible! :) :)
That! It's a pitty that you don't have local german friends. Please check my merry messy life about german Kindergarten. You Talkessel about having container about nine "schools", so you have no idea...
Thanks, Rissa and Tanner, for your open answers to quite private questions.
Your general open-mindedness shines like the sun; I love it.
There is little that is so disturbing as people living in a closed mindset all of their lives, not even considering new options as a possibility, not a challenge to their world view.
Keep your positivity alive; life can be good.
Thank you so much for the kind comment! :) We appreciate you being here!
You can get cash at most supermarkets when you pay by card without any fees, you maybe have to spend a certain amount first, 10 € or so. No need for ATMs or banks.
OKAY WHAT! Why haven't we thought of this! You can do this in America too, but we never put it together here in Germany! Thanks for bringing it to our attention. :)
As a couple who moved abroad to Spain 6 months ago, we're happy we found your channel! Plus, Germany might be in our future...Looking forward to following along on your journey!
Ah so fun you guys moved to Spain! Where are you originally from?? We might have to swing over to your side of Europe too 😊
@@OurStorytoTell We’re originally from Wisconsin! Let us know if you’re ever over this way!
Y'all are amazing! People asked some personal questions... But y'all handled it all very well. Traveling on a budget sometimes makes it even better! The channel allows you to share your life with your family back home. Thank you for sharing. I really enjoy your adventures 😀!
You're exactly right! Our family loves watching our videos from home! It's so great for us to share this part of our life with them too! :) It's fun sharing it with everyone else too! We appreciate comments like yours-Thanks for being here! :)
This video can be recommended to anyone who plan to move to Germany! Never see and hear any more open and honest answers to (in part) privat questions! Thanks to give such an open view into your situation!
I'm really deeply impressed how you are reflecting yourself, your position and your way in life! Hope your thoughts can be the seed for many others. A valuable contribution to make the world a little better!
Thanks for another great video. 👏🏼
People like you are really giving me hope for the future.
Greetings from Franconia! 🖖🏼🥰
Thanks so much for sharing all that with us. This makes it easier to fully understand and get to know you.
We are glad it helps you understand! Thank you for watching and your comment. :)
Thank you for sharing your experience and your perspective on living in abroad
You’re welcome! We are happy you enjoyed the video!
Many thanks for your weekend waving. I dont like questioning how people can afford such and such, I am just happy for them as long as they dont ask for butter on their bread by end of a month or in your case Willa has to starve(just joking cos I know this will never happen) Living abroad or long time travelling is challenging but at the end it enriches your personality, it widen your views to all sorts of problems/challenges and you will be able to understand how other people may think cos
you will be able to view from their perspective. All in all its a great advantage for your future life. Keep us updated and cross
fingers for Willas first kindergarden experiences and your future travel experiences.
We agree! Traveling to new places is so important to understanding others! :) We have an ever changing perspective when traveling!
Thanks for another great video. Told you before how much guys like you are welcome whereever they go. It might be interesting if you answered some of those questions again in 1 or 2 years. (Probably all in German by then) and see how things have changed. Enjoy autumn and the holiday season coming!
Holiday seasons?
What the hell is that!
You mean Christmas time.
It's Christmas Time!
Thank you so much for this video!!!! I believe one has to live once in their lifetime abroad to widen your horizon!
We are glad you enjoyed it! :) We agree it really does widen perspective!
Having been based in Germany for a number of years with the British Army, I agree that you made an excellent choice in choosing Bavaria as your duty post. Beautiful surroundings and friendly locals, you could not be better situated to travel throughout Europe with many countries just a few hours by road and good air connections from Munich. I'm sure you will also take the opportunity to visit both Britain and Ireland, and might also get to speak fluently to their locals - whether you understand their responses is another matter.
Really looking forward every week to watching your new adventures! 😊
And when it comes to travelling, I think that it's pretty common (at least in my country, Poland) to set up trips around public holidays (and we have many of them), so like extending a long weekend in May (1st, 2nd and 3rd of May) by one or two days, or even the upcoming long weekend in November (the 11th, which is on Thursday - a lot of people take the Friday off and travel to some place in Poland or abroad). Working remote nowadays also helps! And the fact that living in Europe you can take a few hours trip and be in a completely different country, spend the weekend there and not miss any day of work. So just as you said, it's all about squeezing the most out of the time off! 😊
Hello to you in Poland! We cannot wait to visit your country! :) Give us your top suggestions on what to do there! It sounds like a lot of people are traveling the way we are then. We love how everything is so close!
@@OurStorytoTell oh my gosh, there's just so many beautiful places to see in Poland! Definitely the whole Baltic coast, the beaches are really pretty! Beside the must-sees like Warsaw and Cracow (both have amazing history behind them) I would recommend visiting Podlaskie province (especially Biebrzański National Park), it's a very peaceful and beautiful region! 😊
Very open about everything. Thanks for that. Hope you will enjoy autumn and winter down there in Bavaria or where ever your travels will bring you…
Thank you so much! We are looking forward to Christmas in Germany that's for sure!
Really enjoyed the video. To hear you talk about missing family and especially them missing Willa grow up breaks my heart since it hits so close to home. My husband and I moved to Germany two months ago and I'm 8 month pregnant with our first child. I am so sad that my family won't meet our child until he is about 7 or 8 months old when we go back home to visit. Luckily both our moms are coming over for a visit.
Oh we feel for you. 💛 That is for sure the hardest part! I’m sure they are so sad to not have you closer as well. Wishing a safe delivery!
Another advice how to make German friends in a farming village: Try to shop locally! Maybe there's a farmer selling eggs or potatoes or other produce right from the farm. You'll sometimes see that they put up "Zu Verkaufen" signs. Or if you see that someone keeps more chickens than you actually need for a family's daily consumption of eggs (more than five chickens, I would say), just ring their doorbell and ask if they are willing to sell eggs. It might be a bit difficult at first, especially when you German's not great yet, but you can make really good friends over time like that, especially when there are kids around and you take Willa with you! My mom sold eggs to all our neighbours and she had the longest talks with everyone who was just stopping by to get some eggs. She even kind of became the agony aunt of the neighborhood, and she knew people I didn't even know existed :)
That is such a great idea! We haven't seen any signs yet but we really want to & love to shop locally!
Have you ever been to Ireland? I want to recommend that to you because it is the most amazing place I have ever seen. Beautiful landscape and the friendliest people ever.
Risa has on a girls trip with her family, but that was before TH-cam! She LOVED it so we hope to go together someday! :)
Hey guys, if you ever feel like exploring the Black Forest region, starting at my hometown in the very north of it, feel free to contact me :) I've lived in Germany my whole life, but my Dad's from the states. I'd show you around if you want. Love your channel!
Thanks! We know we want to visit there again, so we'll keep that in mind the next time we make it over there.
One possibility to learn a language or to deepen your knowledge of it is to buy a book in your language and get a translated version, too.
I had English in school but didn't have the best understanding of it. Some years after, I bought the first 5 books of Harry Potter in its German translation (the other two weren't out yet). After reading them, I was curious and bought the 5 books in their original English. Reading them first in German helped tremendously to understand the English version, as I could go back to the German version if I didn't understand some English sentences.
So maybe you could do the same and buy some easy to understand books in German and in English. :-)
I started with books for children. Simple vocabulary, short sentences ..
Save money by transferring money from your salary account to your German bank and using the EC-/Giro card from that bank to get ATM money for zilch.
Thanks! We have a card that has zero ATM fees, but this is great to know!
When you say that, I think you are an expert in saving money.😁
Loved it 👍👍
Your thumbs up and comments always mean a lot to us!! We notice them all!
Living abroad gives you a way better understanding for foreign cultures and more acceptance! We would be a better society if more people would do it! The situation in the world we are in right now wouldn’t be so negative and one-sided! I applaud you so much for being so brave and put yourself out there to dive into a different language and, by the way, one of the most difficult languages, and learn to adapt to a different culture and try even to embrace it! We did the same with our kids and they didn’t like it at some point, but embrace it now!
The time where you want to go home will come at a certain point, because home is where your heart is and where you have most in common! But, you will always defend German stereotypes as we do defend American stereotypes and misperceptions!
Maybe, your extended family is able to visit you soon and see why you are happy right now in Germany!
I really like that your content of your videos are always positive! That is very respectful! And, I fall in love with my home country even more and it makes me miss it so much (we moved abroad 22 years ago. First to Mexico and now we live in the US) to a point that we want to move back as soon as our kids are done with school here! And….you never can travel too much! Do what you enjoy the most! Always!
That is so awesome that you guys have experienced it for yourselves! It makes us happy to hear that your kids have embraced it now and are grateful for those memories! We hope Willa will feel the same when she is older. We agree that it provides such a good perspective about the world & humans-our differences and similarities! :)
I have (probably) a idea for watching german television: the public television stations (ARD and ZDF) broadcasts films with german subtitles for people who are deaf at birth. You must only activate the teletext function of your TV or receiver and then choose (normally) teletext page 150 and you can watch the film with german subtitles.
Or: you watch a german film on DVD or BluRay and activate the german subtitles (the advantage of this is that you can repeat scenes if you don't know exactly what they had said).
We should have mentioned that we will put German subtitles on sometimes, that is such a great way for us to learn!
@@OurStorytoTell
It's okay. Nobody in the whole world think on all! ;-)
I would say you guys did just all right..
In Austria and Germany people have 5 weeks of payed holidays per year. So if you work full time 5 days a week (40 or 38,5h) you get 25 days of plus all the "Feiertage" = public holidays Which are an additional 7-12 days off per year (depending on the weeksdays they fall on).
Und auch eventuell gearbeitete " Überstunden " werden je nach Arbeitgeber bar oder in "Freizeitausgleich" über den Arbeitsvertrag geregelt
5 weeks is the minimum, often it is more like 6.
That is seriously amazing that you guys have that many days!! We definitely are jealous of that.
@@OurStorytoTell I lived in the USa for a year (New Hampshire) abd the told me "US Americans live to work an Europeans work to live". It is for sure a generalization however I feel the mindset around work for sure is different. We Germans/Austrians are hard workers but I would say love our free time for family, friends, travelling, sports etc.
you are more rurally situated, which means it is harder to get good international food. also hard to get good takeout or delivery food.
It's true! We actually will be talking a bit more about this in a video that will be coming in a couple weeks so stay tuned!
Awesome😊🥰
You are such a nice and cool family, I love to watch your videos. I lived abroad for 3,5 years too when I was 20, in Australia, France and the US. I totally feel what you are feeling living in another country and I love traveling and meeting people from other cultures 😃🥰I'm always told that I don't have a typical Germany mentality, lol! I'm open minded for anything new, not reserved at all and I don't care about privacy, being filmed or taken on photos...I'd love to emigrate to a warmer place! I wish my husband would love travelling too...but he loves Germany 🇩🇪 and doesn't want to live elsewhere 😢 I'd love to meet up with you guys one day🧡Hugs from the North of Munich
Hi Petra! You’re so kind! It would be fun to make that happen one day! 💛 Thanks for your comment! We love learning more about you! 😘
@@OurStorytoTell oh thank you so much for your nice reply 😊 sure, anything, what would you like to know about me? Munich isn't so far away from your place I think. We also have very nice American friends who will be moving back to the States in December 😪so sad. Maybe I'll drop you a mail soon. Take care and have a nice Sunday
Rissa, your hair is SO beautiful!
Oh my gosh you're so nice!! Thank you Jerri!
English soaps taught me a lot (unplanned). German soaps are gonna teach you a lot (unplanned)!
Don't you think your walls need more colour? You made soooo many great pics this summer'
Haha YES! They do!
How far are you from the McCall's? - My Merry Messy Life - Do you know them? They pretty much went through what did but privately.
That’s about 300 kilometers, from the south of Bavaria to the Grafenwöhr area…
We haven't met them, but they seem awesome! :)
ماشاء الله.عليكم
I guess learning on a daily basis just by living here will give You better results than any language program.
From School I am used to languages being taught very literature based but completely useless for daily use.
This should be You priority using german for daily use which is far more practical than being able to read Goethe.
So all in all what You are doing makes sense to me, probably trying to speak a little bit more. People will probably laugh
but not in a bad way. Germans know (at least should know) how terribly complicated this language is to learn.
Speaking german with a hefty accent should probably work in Your favor, because most people see this as very charming.
Yes we are definitely trying to immerse ourselves as much as possible! We wish we were surrounded by more Germans, but we do the best with what we have! :)
Oh man :D Imagine the travel restrictions were still to the point you couldnt go to hotels or air bnbs and couldnt really leave the counrty either :D That would have been the worst start ever. PS: Iam sure there are Indian Restaurants even closer to you, but the Ganesha in Bayreuth is a good one thats also not so far away.
Thanks for the recommendation! We will check it out sometime soon.
Have you got help through your employer with getting Willa into Kindergarten?
We haven't as our employer is the US Government. They have a daycare on US base, but we don't want to use it. We look forward to having her go to a German Kindergarten & she hopefully will be in one soon! :) She is on the waitlist now. Thanks for the suggestion though!
Look at Rock N Learn German on YT for your daughter.
wow, Zero Dislikes ! Nice and realy good Quality
Please deaktivate the abo button on bottom bec its RED and its not good 4 OLED tvs!
Good luck on staying 3 years ... you got a kid. You better move to the US before she grows up in school ... you'll rather never leave Germany if she starts elementary school.
Hello Risa, Willa and Tanner- i really don't like you. You have to know:
I have take you to my heart; i looooove you! 😍❤.
Would give the world to be one of your personal tipsters 😄 for great places and all what is so called "ancient places" & really "traditional " ( art; habbits; food; living; communities )etc. Also children education here etc. and of course want to be a babysitter for your little starchild Willa 😉😍
Sending big hugs and a lot of " Hygge" 🥰 ( danish cosy living ) from the coast of Germany/ Denmark in Northern Germany. 😘
" Life is growing > behind< your comfortzone " 😘
Oh my gosh you are so kind!! What a nice comment! We would love any suggestions or tips you have! It sounds like you live in such an amazing place! Sending you a big hug too and lots of "Hygge" (it sounds amazing too)!
Americans are interesting like that when they go abroad they stick to their own circle and thinking. How do you exactly gain perspective? yes the environment is different but when not taking part in it by making friends there or speaking the language its just comes off as not being genuine. I keep seeing this same trend from American vloggers around Germany and Europe.
"Stick to their own circle" - I wish I had an American circle. Instead, I just have zero true friends, just people I see every few months and never fully, truly connect with.
We are definitely trying to make German friends...maybe we didn’t highlight that enough? Our past video was a weekend Tanner spent with 4 Germans (one of them who is a close friend to us), we have two videos with a local German friend, Kati (she’s the best!), and also in ourHamburg video we go out to lunch with a new German friend! Every other week (almost) Marisa goes out to lunch with a German friend too in our area. Its hard for us to meet tons of local Germans just due to living in a rural place, but we are trying. 💛
@@OurStorytoTell Das hört sich doch ganz gut an..!
@@yt-viewerfromger320 Danke!
@@OurStorytoTell Maybe I was being a bit too harsh with how I worded things. In general you guys make good quality videos. One of the reasons why I follow your channel is it kind of reminded me a little bit of my family when we moved to Germany with the early surprises in food and landscapes. But I def. encourage to branch out more since Germans are no different than Americans or any other people just got to work on a relationship and their are plenty of Germans who understand some English so that way you can cross communicate.
Hey you guys. I am an Atheist. But if belief makes you such a symphatic person then its ok for me. 😘
Hello Achim! :) Love that perspective! All are welcome here-thank YOU for your comment and being here! :)
expats no imigrants yes
"Even in Bavaria!" haha, especially in Bavaria.
Btw, do you not like curtains? :)
Lucky you chose Germany! Britain is now just....no.
american immigrants. There fixed it for ya.
Whatever you do, never, ever watch a 'Tatort'!
Why's that?