Diana Elle Blog

Saturday Our last full weekend in Hamburg and we needed to take advantage of it, forget going to Luneburg's weihnachtsmarkt, or to the one at the rathaus with some mommy friends. Instead, we go to the mall we usually frequent to look for sweets, something special for our nieces/nephews, and a movie for movie night. They have special events at the mall during the month of December and we got to see an all man's choir singing sailor (and Christmas) songs. We took a break during the shopping to go home and eat, I made us a delicious late lunch/early dinner.  Tortillas, shrimp, bacon, cream and chipotle is all you need, but I added a can of mushrooms to help stuff the tacos. Then we went back to the mall to continue shopping, When we came home we watched the movie we had just bought, avi had gone to bed right after since it was kind of late. I took advantage and took some pictures of the little layout she did for Nikolaus. She left him milk and cookies and a drawing sayi...

When I first arrived in Germany, I really disliked the fact that stores close on Sundays and early all the other days of the week. After a while I got used to it, and  it turned out to be better for us. Saturdays we go grocery shopping on Sunday is usually just a lazy day. There are actually strict regulations concerning opening and closing hours, the   “Ladenschlussgesetz” (Shop Closing Law) controls this.  Thus supermarkets close at 22.00 at the latest and open before 9/10 a.m.   Office hours can be good for you if you're working because you will have more paid holidays than other countries in Europe.you can choose to combine this with your vacation days and have a few extended weekends throughout the year. Germany has quite generous holidays in comparison to other European countries. During which banks, supermarkets and most shops will be closed.  Public transportation and other services are also available. ...

J was going to be job hunt, but looking for a job in Germany is like looking for a job anywhere else, you look online or in the newspaper then you apply and hope for the best. I've changed it because sometimes you just have to go for it. For example, take the weekend off, go explore. In hamburg we had our gesamtbereich (total area) card with the HVV and with it we could travel wherever we wanted within Hamburg, including Stade and Lüneburg. we didn't take advantage of it as much as we should have but it's still good to know you can just hop on the train and go. This was even better when we came to Kaiserslautern because Pablo qualified to get a "Job ticket" that covers 7 zones with SWK/VRN. With this card he can take up to three people everyday after 7 pm and on the weekends. So you can bet that since we have access to a good amount of little cities/towns we will be taking a bunch of day trips , visiting as much as we can before we return to hamburg at...

When moving to Germany you will need to choose your Health Insurance provider as soon as you get here, you will need proof of adequate health insurance to get your residency permit and you need the residency permit to open your  bank account .  Health insurance is mandatory for all employees and students in Germany, you will not be able to start working or studying without it. Students are offered a special rate, we paid around 70 Eur for all three of us when Pablo was doing his master's.  When you are insured through the government/state system you only have to pay a nominal fee for medicine (usually 5 Eur) the rest is paid for by the insurance company. the same goes for hospital stays and ambulance rides you don't pay it all, you pay a nominal fee (at least in our case). You will have the option to choose the expatriate health insurance that fits you best.  You get peace of mind knowing that your chosen health insurance provid...

Before moving to Germany we were living with our parents; so I was never worried about cooking, much less grocery shopping. My MIL spoiled us, whenever her and my FIL traveled for long periods she would pre-cook meals for us and leave them in the freezer (with a check list so we always knew what was available). Leaving us the option to choose something else if we wanted too. So learning to cook was seriously something new for me when I first moved to Germany. Going grocery shopping was complicated because when I had to buy certain ingredients I had to look for them in German!  But it doesn't stop there... The hours of operation of stores in Germany is usually 8:00 - 20:00, Monday to Saturday and closed on Sundays and on holidays. If you happen to go to a store a day before a bank holiday (more specifically on a Saturday before a Sunday & holiday Monday) there will be chaos, everybody taking a lot of everything and super long lines at the registers. In Germany...