Archive for September, 2011

Flo and I constantly get asked what about Germany and what kind of german things we miss over here. Our friends and family don’t want to go on our nerves with asking these questions over and over again. They basically just want to know what to bring or send us to do us a favor. But against every expectations we had, so far we don’t really miss anything. At least not things you can just bring or send over.

Before we moved here I actually thought there might be certain foods, groceries or beauty products that I might miss. Bread, a few of you might think of as an example. No, Flo and I don’t miss bread. We found bread we like over here and Whole Foods even sells german bread. Flo and I never were big fans of Maggi or other german stuff like that, so we don’t miss that. Flo actually misses german Mettwurst (a kind of Tartar you eat on breadrolls). But that’s basically everything we miss.

I didn’t want to make this post about the people we miss and our families, so please don’t think I don’t miss them just because I don’t mention it. But: Flo and I (so far) don’t really miss Germany at all. And that surprised me a lot! Maybe this is another proof of how right the decision was to move here!

Today I invented the new term of couple blind dating. I haven’t experienced this thing before I moved to a foreign country. But now it’s kind of a big trend to Flo and me. The easiest explanation to couple blind dating: You meet a couple that you have never met in person before. Either, because you met them via Internet through certain similarities or because mutual friends suggested to meet them.

Today Flo and I had our 4th couple blind date. My friend told me a few months ago that she just found a guy on Google, which she went to college with. And this guy has happened to move to Los Angeles like us. So I contacted him on Facebook and today we finally found time to meet. Flo and I happily do these couple blind dates, because – at least – for us it is kind of difficult to find couples to hang out with over here. Most of the girlfriends I found so far are single. And every married person knows, that besides some amazing girlfriends you also need some couples in your life to be friends with.

Our first couple blind date happened last year, when we met our friends T and H, which Flo got in contact with through our Greencard win. And this went so well and lead to a great friendship, so that we now always appreciate the chance to meet a new couple. To make it short, the couple we met to day is awesome, we had a great brunch and hopefully will see them again. Thanks to my friend K in germany for making that happen. And hurray to our social life finally hitting the fast lane!

After 7 months in the US I finally had the first girl’s night out with my new found friends. They are all-co-workers of mine and we wanted to go out for a while now. So on Friday after work, we all rushed home to get ready and met at arouns 10pm at a mexican restaurant to have some drinks. Having drinks at a mexican restaurant along with some chips is really an american thing to do the girls assured me, so I went along with it. As the typical german I am, I not only skipped the Margeritas for beer, but also the crazy High Heels for Converse. Everyone who has been out in the US or watched girls dressed up for a night out in the US, knows that Converse are not the typical party shoes girls wear over here.

After the mexican place we took a cab to a bar in West Hollywood. The cab driver let five girls in his compact car and didn’t mind us girls being all drunk and crazily loud. Another US thing I guess. When we arrived at the place I first was kind of confused, because there was nothing but a black door between shops on Beverly Blvd. Only the people smoking in front of it and the bouncer guys letting people in gave away that this was a bar. I first was a bit worried not to get in, but it wasn’t a problem at all. We had a nice hour at the club, before it closed at 2 am and Flo picked us up.

All in all my first girl’s night out was amazingly fun, it helped me a lot with the little homesickness I had lately and has to be repeated soon. I have to get used to some habits over here and it took me a while to really bond with the girls at my work. But once you really open your mind and just go with it, the US is even more fun than it was before!