Bella Magazine September 2013 | Page 57

“we must TRAVEL in the direction of our fear” Do you have many local friends or mostly expats? Thankfully making friends hasn’t been too hard. When you move around with the military, friends are basically built into the move for you. What I mean by that is, we have a network of Americans who are also living here and dealing with the same lifestyle of being expats in a foreign country. That makes it easy to connect and build relationships off of our common ground. We also have a close set of foreign friends who we attend an international English-speaking bible study with. I’d say we’ve got a good balance of both foreign and expat friends, which makes living here even more of a dream! What about Germany surprised you? You’ve got to pay for water at restaurants in Germany. Tap water is a big no-no here because Germans consider it to be ‘bathing water’ and you get strange looks if you ask for it! Make sure you carry around lots of Euro change if sight-seeing here...you’ll also have to pay to use the bathroom out in public! The biggest myth? That Germans are unfriendly, abrasive people. NOT TRUE! Germans are very kind and a lot of fun to be around... Although they do take a bit of loosening up. What do you miss the most from your home? Without a doubt my family and friends. Chick-Fil-A and Target are very close seconds :-). I also miss the ease of communicating and getting around. It’s hard to live in a country where their language and customs aren’t your own. As much as you work hard to acclimate, I don’t think you’re ever 100% comfortable living so far from your own home. What do you li