What the Blog?

2 haikus 9 am Sunday morning in downtown Austin: Cyclists in spandex spin by Amidst the stench of vomit and homelessness Empty streets save for a motorcycle parade. 9 am Sunday morning, Alstadt, Mainz: The sun is shining A giant farmer's market fills the plaza Pedestrians, bikers, families smiling together.

We're coming up to our 6th month here. It feels especially poignant because our kindergartener finished his first semester in an American school. And boy was that first day full of tears. That day, that week, I think the whole month - every dropoff for every kid, every whatsapp text from a friend back home - anything set me off with this horrible guilty feeling that we had made a terrible mistake. (Full disclosure: I still feel like this nearly every day, but at least I'm not in daily tears about it...?) I'll never forget that first day of kindergarten. Staying at a dumpy (yet somehow $120/night) hotel with a free breakfast (truly, free breakfast at American hotels is the saddest breakfast), our son asked us to pack him a lunch. How? I asked him to please buy, it would be warm, he could eat well, and ... I didn't have a kitchen. He said, how about an egg sandwich? I put together the saddest egg sandwich I'd ever seen: 2 dry pieces of toast (no matter how much I ad

About ten years ago, development began on a 'forward-looking', 'sustainable', 'transit-oriented' planned residential development that would be near the city, called  Mueller in Austin. Today, it's wildly popular, with higher-than-average per-square-foot housing costs, high HOA fees, and homes selling quickly. However, I believe it is a total failure. Austin had a chance to start from a clean slate, where a truly people-centered community could be built. One with dedicated bike lanes, infrastructure for transit growth plans (extra lanes for bus rapid transit lines... tracks for a tram... anything, really). One with businesses sprinkled throughout the community in a way that would offer true walkability. More options like the garden court homes (which sold super quickly, by the way, but are unfortunately VERY limited in quantity) which have protected and shared backyard space for multiple homes in the same way a German baugruppe of housing might. Things th

Chatting with another mom the other day, we were discussing how hard the transition has been to middle school for her son. And a different mom recently shared that they were trying to transfer to a non-neighborhood school, to allow her daughter to be in the same school as many of her friends from pre-school. With so many options for 'school choice' - are we ruining our ability to get to know our neighbors? Comparison time. In Germany, home-schooling is forbidden. It's possible to transfer from your zoned school to a different one, but you must have a good reason. It either needs to be based on the proximity to a parents' work, or be safer for your child to walk or cycle to without parental supervision. So, all kids go to school and most kids go to the schools for which they are zoned or one within walking distance. Some kids go to private schools, but this is pretty uncommon as well. Generally, kids get to know each other and grow up together. The same was true in Ind

Growing up in Texas, I heard 'my car' a lot. Often said together, as if it was one word. People loved driving "my car". Going for long rides, in "my car". You get the idea. Fast forward to living for 7 years in a city with fantastic infrastructure for transportation and bike riding: Mainz. There, I barely drove "my car" (very gladly giving up the long drives in favor of being driven long distance by a train operator)... returning to the land of "my car" feels starkly different. When I'm in "my car", suddenly only my priorities matter. I'm in a rush, late for school pickup, need to finish listening to this one bit of the podcast, have to get that parking spot. Me, me, I. Having my own vehicle seems to foster this belief that I come first. I can usually count on TWO hands the number of cars that run red lights, in any given 15 minute car ride. The worst offenders seem the least obvious. I've been cut off repeatedly

We're in the second month of returning stateside. What an evolution it's been. We relied heavily on family to get us through the first few weeks, spending nearly every weekend with cousins. It was nice, but they have their own routine, and we needed to establish our own. Finally, with the house painted, new floors installed, furniture delivered (hallelujah!), assembled, and boxes (mostly) cleared out, it looks like a house we can live in. Camping had become exhausting and wore the kids out. On the other hand, suddenly having a full house somewhat overwhelmed them - they would start massive fights over a single toy, ignoring the fact that there were now quite a lot of options to choose from. Given our long-term exhaustion over the past several months, this has been an annoying challenge. We have started to establish more of a routine though, and I already feel my mood lifted because of it. I hope it's the same for the kids. The early morning school routine hurts (whyyyyy

Walking around the corner to my hair place, to the bank, to the small store for just a quick pop-in, and no problems with parking (because I didn't have to drive). Filling up gas once a MONTH. Not driving for days. More than 5 days in a row, sometimes. Bakeries. The bread. The zimtschleife, and butterzopf for the perfect french toast. The small-ness. Why does everything have to be so big here? It takes so much longer! The community. Where are all the people? I don't see any elderly people getting fresh air and walking around. Oh right, because it isn't safe to. I don't see kids running around freely in groups. Same reason. I infrequently see moms pushing strollers but there may be 3 on a good day, vs around 100 where we used to live. My heated floors made of real wood, and heated bathroom tiles. They felt so good on my feet. Tilt-turn windows which let in the exact right amount of fresh air. Also, the non-draftiness in general of high-quality windows, no m

Somehow, here we are. Full circle. Nearly 7 years later, with 2 kids and (still) a cat in tow, the time has come to go back the the US. I won't say home, because home has become a completely fluid concept. Home, for now, is transit. Home, for the last 6.5 years, has been Mainz. For the last 4, Bretzenheim, a place I will remember as the best little neighborhood there ever was. And for the future, Austin, TX, USA. We are excited but anxious to make our new home in central Austin, finding new friends and rediscovering old, and somehow, some way, maintaining friendships we've made across different places over the many years we've lived away from Texas. Re-learning how to live near family (hey, it sounds weird, but I feel like there is a skill to learning how to live in a place with close proximity to the people who raised you - especially after nearly 18 years of living nearly entirely on your own) will be a challenge unto itself as well. These last few months, I've po