bikes rule

Lots of bikes at the S-bahn station

Berliners love their bikes. People every age ride em everywhere. Including Ian and I. Ian rides his to work, I ride mine to the market, to the park, to a friends house. It's great. Cars actually yield to bikes. And basically every road has some kind of bike lane. but with this convenience comes strict rules and regulations. (common theme in Germany: "rules") Like, every bike must have fenders and front and back lights. You have to know who has the right of way (German's are all about "right of ways") but every street is different, with a complex combination of signs, etc. Oddly enough, no one wears helmets. (except for us. don't worry mom!)

People do not hesitate to let you when you're not following the rules.
Case in point, the other day, i was riding my bike on the sidewalk (gasp) and an elderly woman angrily growled at me and i nearly fell off my bike. they don't like it when you ride on the sidewalk here (even though everyone does it). growling is a universal language, but how did she know i don't speak german?? Maybe it was the helmet.
--katie

Taking our bikes on a train ride to the country

Our haus

Many people have asked us, "What's it like in Germany?" So, the intention of this blog is to answer that question one posting at a time. I've given this question a lot of thought and It's really all in the little differences of daily life. These daily details make the difference between "just visiting" and calling somewhere "home".


Currently, our "home" is at Markelstraße 10. We don't have an apartment number or letter, our apartment is only identifed by our last name. This requires that you really get to know someone before you can show up at their house un-invited.
We're near the Feurbach Straße stop on the S-bahn or the Walter-Schreiber Platz stop on the U-bahn. Berlin has 2 train (bahn) lines. The S-bahn is above ground and the U-bahn is below. I like the U-bahn because the underground train reminds me of the subways in NYC and I like the way it's pronounced "ooo"-bahn.


We live in the neighborhood of Steglitz (Sh-teee-glitz) which is a residential area in South-west Berlin. You won't find it in the guidebooks. Probably because it's a small, quiet, tree lined neighborhood with mostly families and old people. It's most exciting attraction is the endless shopping on Schlostraße. (side note: 'straße' means 'street' and in english it's spelled, 'strasse' That strange looking letter is called an es-zett and as far as I know it's basically equivalent to a double "s", but i digreß). Schlostraße is lined with clothing stores, shoe stores, bakeries, markets, coffee shops (including starbucks) and restaurants (including burger king, mcdonald's and subway) and even a couple good old fashioned malls. Even though it's not featured in any guidebooks that I've seen, Steglitz is very conveniently located to all of the neighborhoods that are. And that's why we like it.

There are 6 other JFK school (Ian's school) teachers that live in our building. The apartments have been passed along from teacher to teacher. So, the neighbors and the landlords are used to Americans. They graciously hang signs in English instructing us on which garbage bin to put the brown glass and which to put the clear glass. (the recycling system is very complex and thorough!) And since the guy who lives below us is American, he doesn't mind if we run the vacuum after 10:00pm. (There are noise curfew laws in all of Germany. Berlin is very liberal with it's 10:00 pm cut off, but most places are 8:00 pm) .

This posting is starting to feel like a 5th grade report, so, I'm going to stop and will try to avoid this in the future. We have new pictures coming soon and many more amusing anecdotes and interesting facts in store. So, stay tuned!

PS- an expat or expatriate is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing or legal residence