All Things German In California
PIT STOP IN MALTA
Those of you who had the chance to listen to my journey on audio on my friend’s podcast know that I had a pit stop before my final destination Germany. When I made the decision at the beginning of 2018 to leave the US, I already had a destination in mind: the Mediterranean island of Malta. [Read more…] about Pit Stop in Malta
This month’s XPAT Spotlight Interview features multitalented artist Maria Loewenstein, who was born into the household of two music and art lovers in Vienna, Austria. After her parents built a house on a property they had bought in Klosterneuburg, the family of six exchanged busy city life for a quieter one in the outskirts of Vienna. Appreciation for art in all its forms and variations established then has remained an integral part of her life since childhood. Little did she know then, that she would become a multimedia artist in a city that’s full of inspiration: Los Angeles.
Maria, how has your childhood in Austria impacted your life, now far away from your original home?
Being raised in a suburb always left me wanting more, even though there was no lack of culture and diversity in our lives. Every weekend our parents bribed us with a promised McDonalds happy meal, which included a toy, to join them for Sunday mass followed by an art exhibit in Vienna and the occasional classical concert or play for children. It goes without saying that this might have
been the main reason that turned the four of us into artists/musicians and awakened our adventurous side. [Read more…] about Finding Her Muse in the City of Angels – Maria Loewenstein, Austrian born Artist & Author (Interview)
XPAT Spotlight interview with Carina and David Mohr, owners of the German butcher shop YouBite in Camarillo. Their traditional German Bratwursts and a variety of smoked products are all handcrafted and made according to German family recipes. Produced with the help of German machinery, which they imported to the USA – it can’t get more German than that!
Carina and David, both settled in California after having traveled the world. For Carina, life abroad is nothing new. Born and mostly raised in Cologne, she got already an early taste of living abroad when she was ten years old. Her parents moved the family for 5 years to Pune in India, where they opened a Turkey Farm. For David, however, who was born in Bonn and later lived between Cologne and Bonn, settling abroad is a new, exciting adventure.
What made you decide to leave Germany and move to California? [Read more…] about Bringing the Purity of German Sausage Making to California – Carina & David of YouBite (Interview)
XPAT Spotlight – Interview with Tania Stappard, who has been living the expat-life since childhood. Born to expat parents she learned early on to juggle two cultures and different ways of life.
Tania Stappard was born to German parents, who raised her in Paris, France . Her mom was from Hamburg and her dad was from Munich (North meets South, this was a cultural experience in itself). Tania’s father, a diplomat, saw her mother, an actress, on stage in Munich and fell in love with her and “kidnapped” her to Paris. Growing up in Paris, Tania attended a German school in Paris (DSP) and spent the last four years in boarding school at the Pädagogium in Baden-Baden. After the Abitur, she moved to L.A. with her sister and spent her twenties in West Hollywood. Later, when she started a family of her own she moved to Santa Monica and now lives in Ventura County, about 37 miles from L.A.
Tania, what made you decide to move to California? [Read more…] about Born an Expat. Always an Expat. – Tania Stappard, Voice Over Talent & Future Life Coach (Interview)
HOW TO STAY FIT ON A BUDGET IN CALIFRONIA
I think we can all agree that California is home to some of the fittest people on earth. Especially during summer time I am constantly reminded of how great in shape many Southern California residents are. Strutting their stuff on beach boardwalks all around the regions constantly inspires and motivates me to live healthier in regards to my nutrition and fitness.
By no means am I intending to become the female version of a young Arnold Schwarzenegger during his Mr. Universe days, but I am striving to become leaner and healthier all around. While there is definitely no shortage of exercise possibilities thanks to hundreds and hundreds of gyms, Yoga Studios, Cycle Bars etc., it can get costly as some memberships have high fees. [Read more…] about How to Stay Fit On a Budget in California
WHAT I LEARNED FROM LIVING SEVEN YEARS IN CALIFORNIA
Last month, I celebrated my seven year anniversary of living in Huntington Beach. It has been quite a journey composed of a lot of learning and self development. Today, I am a much happier and self-accepting person than I was when I arrived in Southern California.
I believe that life is a continuous ‘work in progress’ with never ending life lessons that challenge us. In the end, it all depends on what we make out of and take away from them. I had a really hard time in the beginning when I moved out here, not really knowing anyone and trying to adapt to a new culture. [Read more…] about What I Learned From Living Seven Years in California
My Internship with CBS – Part One
I have always been a fan of television and movies since I was a little girl. Watching Saturday morning cartoons while my parents were preparing breakfast belonged to my childhood ritual. Throughout my teenage years, I went to the movies with friends almost every weekend. During the week, I kept up with my go-to soap operas before ending the day. Back then it didn’t really occur to me to pursue a career in entertainment, it was more leisure for me after a long day of school, homework, and activities.
That changed though when I was about to transfer from Community College to California State University, Fullerton a couple years ago. One of the assignments in my English Writing course required us students to write a compare and contrast essay, in which we were supposed to compare two potential transfer universities with each other. I decided to look more into the Cal State schools in my surrounding neighborhoods and wrote about Long Beach and Fullerton.
Back then, I was still a Business Administration major and, therefore, looked into the specific programs this major had to offer. One thing that caught my attention was the fact that Fullerton offered the concentration Entertainment and Tourism. Since I experienced the business studies so far as pretty dry, I had the impression that this concentration could put a fun twist on the profession. But during the following semester I realized that this area was not supposed to be my path, and I changed my major to Communications with a concentration in Public Relations.
For a little while, I put the thought of working in entertainment to rest, solemnly focusing on getting good grades. But my time to shine finally came during my last semester. The last course I needed to be able to graduate was the Internship course. Not exactly knowing which particular field of PR I desired to approach, I applied to several positions in different fields such as nonprofit, entertainment, tourism and fashion. After applying for more than a month with not much success, I just prayed to get something just to be able to fulfill my graduation requirements.
Finally, in early December, I received a call from my school for an event planning internship with one of the university’s professors who was looking for a German-speaking intern. The informational interview went really well, and I was just happy to have an outlook for something. The professor told me she would get back to me the next couple days after conducting additional interviews.
That same night, I received an email from CBS, which I had applied to a while ago and totally forgotten about it. The email stated that I had been chosen for a phone interview. Needless to say, I was majorly excited about the possible opportunity to land a position with one of the most successful networks in the United States.
The phone interview was scheduled for Thursday. On Wednesday, I received an email from the lady that I interviewed with the day before, telling me that I got the job offer. But in that moment, I didn’t want to settle with that just so that I had something. I wanted to see if I could get my foot into the entertainment door, so I told her that I wouldn’t be able to commit until the end of the following week. She understood, but made it clear that she wanted me on board.
The next day, I was a nervous wreck, highly anticipating the phone call from CBS. At 11:30 in the morning, my phone rang, and I told myself to keep it together. And I did. In fact, after a short conversation during which I had to answer a couple of questions about my PR experiences and why I want to work in publicity, I was being invited to an actual in-house interview. I was beyond enthusiastic, being one step closer to a possible internship with a renowned company. But that is a story I will continue to tell next time…
Anne-Kathrin Schulte, is a contributor for CaliforniaGermans.com. She writes on 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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After I received the “green light” for being accepted to start Community College in the fall of 2011, I was beyond thrilled and eager to get all additional necessary documentation together so that I could move back to the United States. The next big step, as with the au pair application, was to apply for a visa. This time for the F-1 student visa. So I had to head back to Frankfurt to pay the U.S. Consulate another visit, this time however with a little more apprehension than the last time since I just had lived in the United States for an extensive amount of time.
But that wasn’t the actual problem during the interview with the agent. He was more concerned about the fact that I had a male friend in Huntington Beach, the city I was planning on moving to after I paid it a wonderful visit in the summer of 2010. I should have said “no” when the agent asked me if I knew anyone in Orange County… Unfortunately, this thought didn’t cross my mind when I was being asked that question, instantly regretting it. Oh boy, did I have to pay the price for this. I can’t even start explaining through how many different emotions I went at once: from excitement to complete terror, anxiety, nervousness, breaking out in a sweat, but trying to keep a cool face throughout the investigation. I was being bombarded with accusations that the guy I knew was my boyfriend. When I answered the question with an honest “no,” I was accused of wanting to marry the guy. Another straight “no” from my side for that one.
Next was the question if it would be a family member of mine. Again, “no.” The tip of the iceberg was when he asked me if I was perhaps pretending for the guy to be my father, but secretly being a guy I was about to marry. It was beyond strange, and all I intuitively wanted to do was to yell at the officer, which would have definitely cost me my visa. Therefore, I answered all questions in a calm manner, even though my hopes of receiving a visa at that certain time and day vanished more and more by the minute. Inside of me I saw my dream of moving back to the U.S. fall apart, until I heard the male voice saying:”Your visa got approved, Ma’am.” I was in shock. “Really, are you sure?” I wanted to reply, but instead I just said “Thank you!” and left the building with my documents as fast as I could.
Outside of the consulate I took a deep breath of relief, having just survived the most terrifying investigation. On my way back to Düsseldorf from Frankfurt I kept recalling the conversation and couldn’t believe I received the approval. Never in a million years would I ever again tell an immigration officer that I know a male friend in the United States, even if it is totally harmless.
After I recovered from this scenario, I realized that I just hit another major personal milestone in my life: I was really going to move back to the United States, this time Southern California. Once I booked my flight for July 21, 2011, it became even more real. During the last months in Germany I tried to spend as much time as I could with family and friends, especially because this time, my stay in the U.S. would be much longer. But I was ready to get out of Europe and live in a culture that I believe is much more suited for me.
Forwarding to spring 2016 I can say that I am living my personal dream. It wasn’t always easy, I have to be honest, because coming to the United States as an international student is a whole different experience than being here as an au pair. It took me a while to make good friendships with genuine people. Don’t get me wrong, many people were super friendly right from the beginning, but not many of those people I met at first were really standing up to their word of helping me out. I became more careful of whom to trust, but in the end it all paid off. I cannot imagine to ever move back to Europe. I am in love with my life by the beach and being active. I picked up paddleboarding last year, and it has become one of my greatest passions.
As for my professional career, things are looking pretty good. I will be graduating from one of the best schools with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications in May. I am currently working for a television network in Los Angeles, doing a publicity internship and getting to know more about the work world. My work permit is in process, and I am looking for a job after college. Life has treated me pretty well, and I am beyond appreciative that I had the chance to come back to America to live my own personal American Dream. And so far, I refuse to wake up…
Anne-Kathrin Schulte, is a contributor for CaliforniaGermans.com. She writes on 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 lives 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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My au pair time was officially over. The realization hit me every day I was living back in Germany. Even though I had started a new job as a kindergarten teacher that kept me pretty busy, I found myself reminiscing at least once a day about my life in California. I missed it so much!
I felt bad about it because I was finally close to my best friends and family again, but then again my au pair stay had changed me and my life forever. I had fallen in love with traveling the world, and even though I hadn’t been really good with settling in other places before my cultural exchange, my desire to leave Europe and immigrate somewhere far away grew ever bigger after my U.S. stay. I am not the only person that felt like that; many of my au pair friends experienced this kind of travel fever. Some of them eventually became flight attendants for long distance flights, just to get out of Germany every so often. Even I applied for a position as a flight attendant once while being back in Europe.
It happened in late 2010 when I had worked for more than a year in the kindergarten institution where I had been responsible for taking care of children between the ages of 7 months and 6 years. Even though no one day was the same at work, I felt like I needed a break from my routine. I was so very hungry for traveling on a consistent basis, specifically long distance, but it was just too costly to do so only for leisure. Therefore, I looked up long distance flight attendant positions one night and found an opening for a well-known German airline. With no hesitations, I instantly applied, hoping to hear back from the company anytime soon. My prayers were heard; I received an email with an invitation to a telephone interview. I was beyond thrilled, imagining myself being up in the clouds already. But, as life usually goes, all came different.
One night in December 2010, my dad approached me. In general this wasn’t really surprising since he usually liked to lecture me every once in a while about my life and the choices I made, but this time it was different. I had been living with my parents since I had moved back from the United States due to the fact that I was unsure of where my future would take me. So until I had figured that out I could stay with them. On this particular night then, my father came all the way up to my room, mentioning he wanted to talk to me. All I thought at that moment was ‘Oh great, not another lecture I don’t want to hear at the moment.’ But he actually was about to nail it this time. Without hesitation, he told me that he had noticed my being so unhappy for most of the time, and he wanted to know why. So I told him straight to his face that I hated being back and I didn’t feel at home in Europe anymore! I know those were harsh words that I threw at my father’s face, but I had been frustrated for a while with living back in Germany, with no clue how I could make my way back to the U.S..
To my surprise, my dad was very understanding, and we had a really good conversation. I told him that I knew that one of the ways of going back to the United States was to attend college there, which I had thought of for a while since I wasn’t very happy in my profession as a kindergarten teacher. My father told me that if that was what I really wanted, he would help me make my dream a reality. But he had one condition: I had to find a college major that would guarantee me a good career. I cannot describe how relieved I was, first about having opened up to my dad and second of course about his response. I instantly started researching schools in the Orange County area, specifically around Huntington Beach since I had been there on vacation in 2010 and had fallen in love with the laid-back lifestyle.
I eventually found a college in Fountain Valley that I liked. Over the next couple of days I gathered the paperwork together that I needed for the application and started filling it out. I was super anxious when I did that because I was afraid that one piece of the wrong information would mess up all my chances of getting into college in the United States. But luckily, my story had a happy ending. In April 2011, when I was in Huntington Beach on vacation, I stopped by the college to ask them about my application process. When the lady at the counter told me that I had been accepted to start attending school in the fall of 2011, I was beyond happy. I was finally about to work my way back to the U.S., and this time, hopefully, without ever having to leave again…
Anne-Kathrin Schulte, is a contributor for CaliforniaGermans.com. She writes on 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 lives 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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It was bittersweet touching ground in Germany after an almost 12 hour flight. On the one hand, I was of course excited to see my family and friends again after more than a year away. But, on the other hand, I was already homesick for California. But for now I tried to keep a positive attitude and just enjoy seeing everybody. And boy, did I see everybody! I mean, I knew that my parents were going to be there to pick me up, but I didn’t expect quite the entourage they had in tow with them.
Before I was able to see everyone however I had one major challenge to face. A challenge, that every au pair I talked to had: going through German customs after a year of living in the United States. Man, was I nervous once I had my four pieces of luggage loaded onto my cart! I for sure believed that the customs officers would pull me over after seeing what I came back home with. “Stay cool, they might not even notice you,” I kept telling myself. But, yeah, how would they not notice me pushing a cart with all these suitcases piled up. I reminded myself not to look at their faces when passing the officers. I kept looking straight ahead and just smiled, and “tadaa”!, I made it successfully through the customs without anyone going through my luggage.
I instantly relaxed after this burden fell of my shoulders and marched ahead towards the sliding doors that would open up to the arrival area. Well, what can I say…, before I was able to spot anyone I just heard loud yelling from a crowd of people that came from the area I was supposed to go to. I heard familiar voices especially my dad’s, who always loved to sing the loudest back in the days when we all went to church together, so it wasn’t hard to identify his voice throughout all the yelling, and when I eventually turned my head toward the loud crowd’s direction, I spotted a whole bunch of familiar faces.
I can barely remember how many of my closest friends and family actually made the effort to show up at the airport to welcome me, but I was positively overwhelmed with such an amazing turnout. These people all just had come out because of me, me ‘little’ Kathrin who just got back from a longer trip to the U.S. I am not going to lie though; it felt really good to be the center of such attention once, just as if I had landed from a successful exploration trip to the moon or something like it. Once I pushed the luggage cart towards where all the yelling and cheering came from, I finally realized that actually over sixteen people of my family and friends had gathered at the airport and waited for me to come through those sliding doors. I was so happy to see all those faces and couldn’t wait to tell them about my adventures at my “Welcome home” party my parents threw for me that afternoon.
On the 15 minute car ride to my parents’ home I was excited to see what might have changed in my hometown since I had left more than a year ago. But, to my honest surprise, not much had actually changed. It dawned on me that while I had certainly grown up more throughout my au pair experience it didn’t mean that everything else in life had gone through changes as well. The streets of Düsseldorf still mainly looked the same, and so did the house I grew up in. This wasn’t a bad thing, I just kind of expected or rather had waited for things to be different since my own life had changed so drastically.
Once we arrived at the house I had grown up in, I let go of those thoughts and just enjoyed having good German cake while catching up with friends and family. Despite the jet lag I made it through the day until the evening before I fell into bed and was fast asleep. The next couple of days went by pretty quickly. I met with all my friends who couldn’t be at the airport when I arrived and just had a great time catching up. But soon I realized that this wasn’t California anymore, and I had to get back on my feet. Deep in my heart I was so homesick for the United States that I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it for long here in Europe. But at that moment, I had no idea of how I would be able to move back to the United States.
Once I started to fully understand that , I fell into a big hole. I started being miserable and couldn’t find the motivation to apply for jobs. I kept complaining to my friends until one of them gave me the kick in the butt I needed at that time. She was the one telling me to start applying now and that she wouldn’t want me to come up with any more excuses. At that same moment, she brought out her computer and told me: “Here you go; you won’t leave my house until you drafted an application and a resume.” And boy, did she mean that! She was sitting with me all afternoon and night, helping me to get back on my feet. And thanks to her and her support, I was able to find a job as a kindergarten teacher in less than a week. I knew that this wasn’t supposed to be my “last chapter in life” yet , but for now I had to settle until I was able to continue living my American Dream.
Anne-Kathrin Schulte, is a contributor for CaliforniaGermans.com. She writes on 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 lives 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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