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Happy New Year

Season’s Greetings

December 25, 2022 by Cornelia Leave a Comment

We wish all our friends, supporters, and followers a Happy Holiday Season!

May these days be filled with moments of peace and joy and laughter. We are excited to see you back in the new year.

Thank you for being part of our CaliforniaGermans community!

Have a fabulous start into 2023!

Happy Holidays – Frohe Weihnachten & Happy New Year – Guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr!

CaliforniaGermans

Filed Under: Life in California, News Tagged With: Christmas, Christmas and holiday season, German Traditions, Happy New Year, Holidays

Happy New Year! Happy 2019!

December 31, 2018 by Cornelia 1 Comment

fireworks-235813_1920.jpgDear CaliforniaGermans Community!

As we ringing in the new year we wanted to take a moment and thank you , our reader, for your loyalty throughout the year 2018.

We hope you found our articles interesting and entertaining, and ​hope that you ​will be part of our CaliforniaGermans community also in 2019.

What A Year!
​2018 was an exciting year for us. Early in the year, we adopted a new look for our website. ​Hopefully, you’ve enjoy​ed our new layout ​as much as we have and you find it ​much easier now to navigate​​ our site.

In 2018 we​ also​ started our new XPAT ​S​potlight ​I​nterview ​Series, in which we bring you a new interview with a fellow German​-​speaking expat every last Friday of the month. You can read up on the past ones right here.

If you know someone​,​ who you think ​would be a great fit for our XPAT Spotlight, ​please ​let us know! 

​On this last day of 2018, we also want to acknowledge and thank all our sponsors.

Thank you, ​PhoenixClub Anaheim, GASA-German American School Association, ​German Pacific School San Diego, and German School Campus Newport Beach for supporting CaliforniaGermans by advertising with us!

A special thank you goes to ​PKorn Law – GermanAmericanLawyer​, o​ur new special leaderboard advertiser.

Please check out our ​cool ​sponsors, if you look for help with ​either ​your legal matters here in California​, or want to learn German, or would like to hang out with fellow German speakers and enjoy some good old German food! 

​Did You Know about our CaliforniaGermans Job Board​?

​As we leave 2018 behind we wanted to remind you that you can post your job openings for free on the Job Board on our website. You are good-to-go if the job is in any way related to ‘Anything German’, like involving the German language, German speakers, German/Austrian/Swiss businesses in California, etc.  

​Let us Showcase You! Write for us in 2019!​

​Lastly, we are always looking for people, who love to write and who would like to share their expat experience, expertise and California adventures with us ​and CaliforniaGermans. If you feel that’s you, please contact us! 

We look forward to seeing you in 2019!

Happy New Year!

Your CaliforniaGermans Team

Filed Under: Editorial, News Tagged With: Happy New Year, New Year

My Wagging Year in Review

January 10, 2018 by Anne-Kathrin 1 Comment

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MY WAGGING YEAR IN REVIEW

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you had wonderful Holidays, no matter how you celebrated. In this past week of the new year, I have seen a lot of posts about people reviewing the past year on social media.  This inspired me to do a specific “year in review” post.

I have been working as a dog walker for over a year now, and let me tell you, there have been some situations that caused me to consider quitting. Luckily though, the positive experiences outweigh the negative ones, and my tremendous love for dogs keeps me going every day.

So today, I’d like to share with you my top five most memorable moments working as a dog walker in Orange County and Los Angeles.  Let’s dive right into it, shall we?

1)  I once accepted an on-demand walk in the Playa Del Rey area, and when I arrived at the house to get the dogs, an older man opened the door. I know this doesn’t sound very exciting yet, but did I mention that he was topless? I am by far no prude, and he could definitely afford to walk around without a shirt- he was in great shape.  I just didn’t expect it and was a little taken aback.

I tried to stay cool and to not glance at his chest, but I definitely got distracted. I couldn’t wait to leave with the dogs, and when we returned from our walk, he was fully clothed. I have only had one other walk booked with these two dogs, and the second time, his wife was home. The inside of me just thought “Thank God” when a completely dressed woman opened the door for me.

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2) I had this one regular client who was usually never home when I picked up his dogs. At one point back last year, he requested a walk for Sunday morning. As usual, I expected for him not to be home.  Once I had opened the front door to his house, I noticed a weird, unusual smell- it can be best described as a mixture of pot and alcohol, all throughout the house.

When I stepped further inside and looked into the living room to see if the dogs were there, I witnessed what looked like the aftermath of a pretty wild party. Pillows were scattered all over the floor; open and empty bottles of all sorts of alcohol were lying around and standing on tables; but no sign of either one of the dogs. I started to call out their names until I heard noises coming from upstairs.

I looked up but couldn’t see anything, until a male voice started speaking. He sounded very apologetic as well as a bit hung over. I figured that it was the owner, who was recovering from the previous night. I didn’t get to see him (Again, Thank God!), I just heard him gushing the dogs down the stairs, which then came walking towards me with wagging tails. I could swear they seemed relieved to get out of the marijuana infused house just as much as me.

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3)  The most serious incident that occurred during my dog walking days happened in November.  I was watching one of my private clients’ two dogs while she was on vacation.  As usual, I took the pups out on an afternoon stroll around the pretty quiet neighborhood.  Nothing out of the regular happened until we passed one particular house.

While the dogs were sniffing around, I suddenly heard a female voice from behind, calling “Excuse me.” I turned around and saw this older lady, holding a phone in her hand.  She looked at me desperately and asked if I could call 911 for her. I never had to dial these three digits before in my life, and I got very nervous and anxious when she asked me. Of course, I didn’t hesitate a second to call while the lady sat down in a chair on her porch.

The dispatcher on the other end of the line picked up in an instant. She asked me about the emergency, and since I didn’t know the situation, I turned to the lady and prayed that she would be able to answer. She told me that she had trouble breathing and that she was over 80 years old. My heart sank. While I was reporting this information through the phone to the dispatcher, a police car was already arriving.  I was astonished how quickly help came by.

The police officer looked after the lady while I was still on the phone.  The next moment, I could hear sirens from far. Again, I couldn’t believe how fast the first responders arrived. Once the dispatcher told me that everything was taken care of and I could hang up the phone, I quickly walked over to the police officer and the lady and asked him if he’d like me to stay.  He said that it was o.k. for me to leave.

I still kept looking back towards the house when I proceeded with the dogs just to see if the ambulance had arrived.  I felt really sad for this lady since she was living by herself and had to ask a complete stranger to help her out during such a scary situation. The following days, I kept being on the lookout for her whenever I passed this particular house. Luckily, one of these days she was standing on her porch together with another woman. I felt relieved to know that she seemed to be better.

IMG_5743

4) I had a “walk” once with a very energetic (this is an understatement) dog.  All I knew was that the dog was still a puppy, and so I was super excited before my arrival at the client’s house. I had no idea what I had gotten myself into until I got the dog.  It was a nice summer day, and the puppy was waiting for me in the backyard.  The owner, like so many of my clients, wasn’t home, but he had left notes of where to find the dog’s leash.

There were two pretty major problems that made it a little tricky to get the walk started. One, the dog was behaving totally out of control and kept jumping while playfully nipping me at the same time. Two, I couldn’t find the leash for God’s sake. I looked around and around but no sign of it anywhere.  I started texting the owner to ask him and he directed me to a couple spots where I should search.  Still no success.

After being at the house for about 30 minutes already and still not able to start the walk or find the leash, the owner suggested I should just take one of his belts from his closet and strap it around the dog’s harness.  I couldn’t believe what I read. The suggestion made me very uncomfortable, especially since the dog was so hyper and would probably break loose.

I told the owner my concerns and he was understanding. He then suggested I would just play with his dog and count it as walk time. Luckily shortly after, the owner’s roommate arrived and was able to find the leash for me in the garage.  The puppy and I quickly proceeded on our outing so that he could release some energy.

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5) One of my favorite memories from last year happened during the summer.  I was doing a house sitting up in LA and had a new walk client scheduled for one of the mornings I was up in the area.  All the information I received beforehand included the address and the breeds of the two dogs.

On the particular morning, I made sure to arrive at the client’s house a couple minutes before the scheduled time in case he would have any questions and so that the dogs could get used to me. I was standing in front of the owner’s apartment door and knocked.  I heard dogs barking and footsteps coming towards me.

I did not expect that I was about to be greeted by a particular person.  Once the front door was fully opened. I had to raise my head up to be able to see the guy’s face, he was that tall.  I don’t think I have ever seen such a tall person in my life before.  He measured at least 7 feet.

Right away I figured that he must be a Basketball player.  There was just no other way.  He was not the most talkative person, but he helped me get the dogs ready and gave me a key to the house since he was not going to be home upon our return.  I know it sounds silly, but I got a little star struck and became extra nervous to make a good impression.

The walk went fine, and throughout the entire hour I couldn’t stop thinking about my first “celebrity-walk-experience”.  As soon as I dropped the dogs back of at the house, I went to a coffee shop right across the street for Internet access.  I looked up the dog owner’s name and sure enough, he was an NBA player. Of course, I couldn’t hold back and had to share that experience with my friends, and it kept me smirking for days.

To many more wagging experiences to come in 2018 and to all of you a year full of happiness and health!

Images: Anne-Kathrin Schulte

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Anne-KathrinAnne-Kathrin Schulte is a contributor for CaliforniaGermans.com. She writes about her personal experience of the American Dream as well as on working as an au pair in CA. She was born and grew up in Düsseldorf, Germany, where she completed her degree as a state-approved Kindergarten teacher. After her au pair engagement in the US and a quick return to Germany, she decided to attend university in California and moved back to the United States. She has been living in Southern California since 2011.

If you would like to contact Anne-Kathrin, please send an email to californiagermans(at)gmail.com and place her name in the subject line.

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Filed Under: Expat Stories, Life in California Tagged With: Dog Walking, Germans in California, Germans in Los Angeles, Germans in Orange County, Happy New Year

Happy New Year – Frohes Neues Jahr!

December 31, 2016 by Cornelia Leave a Comment

We wish you an exciting New Year’s Eve and a functioning TV so you can watch the New Year’s Eve Ball Drop on time, in case you are not actually over there… 🙂 Here is a link for a live streaming of the annual New York City celebration!

But first enjoy a German classic – Loriot und der kaputte Fernseher!

………………………..

Filed Under: "Auf Gut Deutsch", Culture, Editorial Tagged With: CaliforniaGemans, Happy New Year, Loriot, Neujahr, New Years Eve, Silvester

Happy New Year – Frohes Neues Jahr

December 31, 2015 by Cornelia Leave a Comment

70a528531c8506bd6289584dc2356331

Another year is about to end and we are quickly approaching the final countdown. We wanted to thank all of our readers and fellow CaliforniaGermans for their loyalty and support throughout 2015!

We end the year with an excerpt of a poem by Erich Kästner. The following lines are from “Der Dreizehnte Monat” (The Thirteenth Month) the last poem out of the cycle of poems called “Die 13 Monate” (The 13 Months).

We wish you all a healthy, happy and peaceful 2016!

….

„Es tickt die Zeit. Das Jahr dreht sich im Kreise.
Und werden kann nur, was schon immer war.
Geduld, mein Herz. Im Kreise geht die Reise.
Und dem Dezember folgt der Januar.“

….

(Last stanza of “Der Dreizehnte Monat” part of “Die 13 Monate” by Erich Kästner)

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Filed Under: Culture, Editorial, Lese-Ecke Tagged With: deutsches Gedicht, Erich Kästner, German poem, Happy New Year, Neujahr, New Year

Impressions Of The Last Day Of The Year 2011

January 1, 2012 by Cornelia Leave a Comment

2011 is almost over. It was a beautiful sunny day down here in Southern California with the fog slowly coming in from the ocean in the afternoon creating some crisp winter atmosphere.

Have a great start into 2012!

Happy New Year !

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Filed Under: Life in California Tagged With: California, California beaches in the winter, Happy New Year, Holidays, Los Angeles, New Year, Southern California, United States

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

December 31, 2009 by Cornelia Leave a Comment

Happy New Year !! Welcome 2010!

CaliforniaGermans wishes everyone a healthy and prosperous 2010 filled with joy and happiness !!!

Ring in the new year with a traditional “Wiener Neujahr’s Konzert”. On Saturday, January 2, 2010 at 8pm:  “Salute to Vienna” is a concert inspired by Vienna’s world famous New Year’s Concert. Get your inspiration this year at the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. Tickets: 1-800-545-7807

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: German Community, Happy New Year, Southern California

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