I never considered Germany to be home in any way, shape or form. Ever. Unless you count the time before I knew we would move to the US for the first time. We’d gone before, but it always seemed like a vacation. Just another destination among the countless other destination we had been to. In…
Tag: ATCK
Home Is Where The Swearword(s) Live(s)
Except, how do you know which ones? They say that you revert to your native language when you count, which was a myth I believed in for a long time until I realized that – with my stronger languages at least – I’d just count in the language I was speaking in. And in a…
Impromptu Guidelines for Surviving Any Given Holiday (at any given point in time)
As the bells toll and the fireworks are popping off, some people might dread that which is to come in a few hours. Namely, the Relative Fight Fest.That occasion when everyone gathers together, tensions mount and you begin to understand within seconds why it is that you normally don’t hang out, unless a “family occasion”…
The Avon Lady Makes An Appearance, Albeit by Proxy
We’ve been back in the neighborhood for four days and so far we’ve been avoiding the Avon Lady just fine, though with the instinct of the truly calculating she must have sussed something out because she is sending her son over for Russian lessons from someone in the household who is truly qualified and should…
The People Watcher Revisits Some Principles on Mourning
It is that time leading up to All Saints and All Souls, which brings with it the customary cemetery visit to honor those passed before us. And like most people with enough freedom to do so (and with a desire to avoid crowds), we decide to go a few days in advance. Because while it…
The Author Contemplates a Childhood Friendship Lost
Meeting Ethnic Kin M. would kill me if she found out I was writing this. I can say this for sure because when I wrote a fun piece about our friendship and tracked her down to ok it, she took months to reply and then told me that the reason she did was she was…
I Made a Salesman Cry Today at the Cattle Market ahem Job Fair – for real this time
cntd from previous post But the best part was the Robotics Club Extra as I’ll call it. Think of your own religion or one adjacent to you. Now think of the holy centers where they study that scripture that defines their religion. Think of the men (it’s always the men) who study there, their smooth…
I Made a Salesman Cry Today at the Cattle Market ahem Job Fair
Disclaimer. I had to split this into two parts, so this part has no crying. Just so you know, because this is not a ploy to get you to read more or click to read more so I can rake in the big bucks 😀 Finns are usually a traditional bunch, who (would) much prefer…
Tales of the Polish Relatives: my grandfather (and a little bit of my mother’s mother too)
My grandfather was a deeply religious man, who had one final semester left at the seminary before he met my grandmother and decided that what God really wanted for him was to create a family and a life with the beautiful blonde peasant girl he saw. This is according to my mother and I will…
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