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  • Berlins and Outs

    Spring in Berlin: A Video and A Love Letter

    June 12, 2018

    I try to take a couple seconds of video footage on my phone every day. I’ve been doing this on and off for a few years. My intention is always to compile the footage on the 1 Second Everyday app, but I don’t get around to it consistently. Last week though, I was feeling inspired to do something a little more complicated with all the snippets of life in Berlin that I’ve filmed since March. The result is this short video, which I hope will appeal to the visual learners among you. There are several shots in and around our apartment, but there are also snippets we filmed in other places…

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    Emma 2 Comments

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    Do other people’s life decisions ever make you question your own?

    November 21, 2019

    Thoughts on One Month of Living Abroad

    May 1, 2018

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    July 3, 2018
  • Berlins and Outs

    4 Ways We’re Learning German

    June 5, 2018

    It looks like I’ll be signing up for another German class sooner rather than later because… I’m applying for a year-long residence permit to learn German! That’s right, we’ve found a solution to our residence permit problems! The Ausländerbehörde (foreigner’s office) will let me live here on my savings if it’s in the interest of learning German – I just have to study German 20 hours per week for 3 months, and they’ll give me a residence permit for the next year. This gives E and me plenty of time to find a cheaper place to live; and it gives me plenty of time to establish myself as a freelance…

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    Emma 3 Comments

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    Traveling During the Pandemic

    December 1, 2021

    Berlin, Revisited

    September 18, 2018

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    May 15, 2018
  • Berlins and Outs

    Bikes, Beers, and Beautiful Sunsets

    May 29, 2018

    We’ve been in Berlin for two months now, but I find myself unsure what to say about it to friends and family back home. There’s no news on our residence permits except I find it embarrassing that my husband’s boss wants me to get a job. I’m happier here than I was in Boston, but I think that’s more about me and less about Berlin. This city is not immediately beautiful. It is concrete and graffiti and parks filled with garbage after the weekend’s revelry. A lot of the graffiti is artfully done and what drew my attention to the garbage is the teams of people cleaning it up every…

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    Emma 8 Comments

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    Have Fun and Be Safe

    March 20, 2020

    Everything is Different Now

    April 22, 2018

    Wrocław, or Emma Tries to Convince You to Visit Poland

    July 2, 2019
  • Berlins and Outs

    I Never Expected to Learn German

    May 22, 2018

    I studied Spanish for seven years and my favorite city in the world is Barcelona. While my Spanish is far from fluent these days, it’s still enough to get me through service interactions and daily life: ordering food, checking out at the grocery store, asking for directions. I kinda thought that if I was going to live abroad it would be in one of the dozens of countries where I already speak at least some of the official language (be it English or Spanish). And, before you say it, yes, many people in Berlin speak English. Earlier this month, I finished a 4-week beginners German class, and one of my…

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    Emma 2 Comments

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    How to Write a Book and Celebrate Your Accomplishments

    August 6, 2019

    What makes a new city feel like home?

    August 1, 2018

    “Maybe We’ll Spend Christmas in Berlin”

    January 9, 2019
  • Berlins and Outs

    Residence Permit Problems

    May 15, 2018

    German efficiency might be a myth. German bureaucracy, however, is alive and well, and doesn’t want me to stay in the country. Here’s the deal: our residence permit applications are on hold until we change our financial situation. We have until June 20th. What’s wrong with our financial situation, you ask? Our apartment is very expensive, E’s salary isn’t very high, and mine is nonexistent. But didn’t we know that when we made the decision to move? Didn’t we put ourselves in this situation? Yeah, absolutely. We decided we could afford this move and I could spend some time focusing on my book because we have significant savings (my inheritance).…

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    Emma 5 Comments

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    “Maybe We’ll Spend Christmas in Berlin”

    January 9, 2019

    Thoughts on One Month of Living Abroad

    May 1, 2018

    Everything is Different Now

    April 22, 2018
  • Berlins and Outs

    Thoughts on One Month of Living Abroad

    May 1, 2018

    When I backpacked Europe, almost six years ago now (yeesh), I wrote a post about my thoughts on one month of travel, so, when E and I realized we’d been in Berlin for a month, we decided to write this post as a bit of a callback. Here’s the good, the bad, and the ugly from one month of living abroad in Germany. Plus, if you scroll all the way down, a little video of what we’ve been up to. The Good The Weather: We arrived right at the tail end of winter and, while our friends and family back home suffered through April snowstorms, we enjoyed days in the…

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    Emma 6 Comments

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    I Never Expected to Learn German

    May 22, 2018

    Mundane Cultural Differences – Berlin vs. Boston (Part 1)

    July 24, 2018

    4 Ways We’re Learning German

    June 5, 2018
  • Berlins and Outs,  Feeeeelings,  Meta-Blogging

    Everything is Different Now

    April 22, 2018

    There are no screens in our windows now, so in the mornings we lean out and people watch while we drink our coffee. E imagines what it would be like to be a field mouse living on the supermarket’s green roof – he wants to make a video game about it. I mostly ogle other people’s dogs as they walk down the street. We watch the trains going in and out of Ostkreuz station. And if we look left we can see the TV Tower, but only when we’re leaning out the window. Hi. Hello. Welcome back. Everything is different now. E got a job as an educational video game…

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    Emma 7 Comments

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    Let’s talk about depression and bicycles

    September 1, 2018

    Righteous Fury: Thoughts on Politics and Religion

    October 30, 2018

    One Year in Berlin

    March 28, 2019
  • The Great European Adventure

    Krakow was a turning point

    February 25, 2013

    I didn’t want to leave Berlin. Berlin was big and interesting, and there was so much to see — this was why I had left my plans open, why my travel dates were all tentative, so I could stay longer in places I loved. But I didn’t love Berlin. It was beautiful, and historical, and tasty, and I hadn’t even gone to any art museums yet! But that wasn’t why I wanted to stay. I wanted to stay because Berlin was safe. There’s nothing wrong with feeling safe; in fact, I hope that you feel safe while traveling. But I didn’t go to Europe to hide. I went to see…

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    Emma 7 Comments

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    Get Off Your Butt and Do Something (in Bulgaria)

    November 12, 2013

    Tea Tuesday: Also Tech Tuesday

    September 4, 2012

    Amsterdam: Last Look

    January 10, 2013
  • The Great European Adventure

    Berlin: Teeming with History

    February 18, 2013

    Berlin teems with a lot of things — nightclubs, Turkish food, Communist architecture. For me, Berlin teemed with history. Every street seemed to hold information about the city’s often painful past. Much of this is conscious preservation in the form of public parks and landmarks, but there are a few subtle aspects of the city that speak volumes about, specifically, its 20th century history. The architecture changes when you move between the former West and East Berlins. In East Berlin, the buildings are pragmatic, functional, ugly in that classic Soviet style. The TV Tower, now the phallic symbol of all Berlin, was once a prominent expression of the power of…

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    Emma No Comments

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    Berlin, Revisited

    September 18, 2018

    I Know Nothing About Architecture

    November 30, 2016

    Art Museum-hopping in Vienna

    May 8, 2013
  • The Great European Adventure

    On having a friend in Berlin

    February 11, 2013

    Normally, when I start blogging about a new place, I write a post of my first impressions. However, my first impressions upon arriving in Berlin were colored by the fact that I was meeting up with a friend I hadn’t seen in four years. In my reflection on one month of travel I wrote about, among other things, feeling lonely traveling by myself and how seeing my friend Brittney was a welcome respite from solo travel. When I visited Berlin, I had a German-speaking local showing me around. She took me to her favorite restaurant, introduced me to her friends, and we spent hours walking around the city, good company…

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    Emma No Comments

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    Why Italy isn’t a part of the Great European Adventure

    July 31, 2012

    Iceland: Last Look

    October 6, 2012

    A Happy and Amusing Daytrip from Krakow

    March 15, 2013
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