culture Archives - Page 3 of 3

June 20, 2009November 21, 2019

The Berlin Learning Curve

It’s hard to understand how many little things go into successfully navigating life, until you’re forced to learn them over again. Take the supermarket for example. Over the years, one learns more or less the fair price for an item, where items are likely placed, and how to avoid collisions with other shoppers. It’s just a matter of experience–when one does something for so long, the procedure becomes self-evident.

But when that experience has to be amended to fit into another culture, often we feel like fish in a new flavor of water.

June 9, 2009November 21, 2019

Zu Hause in Berlin

It’s nice to begin to settle–settling is an often underappreciated activity. It’s nice to settle into your favorite chair; it’s nice to settle in to a soft, warm bed before a well-deserved rest; and it’s certainly wonderful to settle into a new home, albeit thousands of miles from your last one.

So far, Schmargendorf has treated us fine with its captivating views and convenient shopping layout. With our ever improving German, we’ve navigated the worlds of finance, electronics, retail, postal services and public transportation with little trouble and few casualties. And today brought my first full day of life in German.

October 4, 2008January 20, 2017

Recrudescing in the Desert

It was clear when the wall-o-warmth hit me in the jetway, and again by the friendly faces of disdain in the terminal, that I had returned to America, and to the desert, after a short 13.75 hours in the air, not counting a glorious layover in the Newark airport. My ink-stained fingers could not deny it: the chapter of 2 months in Germany had ended.

Continue reading “Recrudescing in the Desert”

February 21, 2008November 11, 2019

Constellation Road: Germans in Wickenburg

Horseback is the best way to travel through Arizona ‘s wilderness, north of the state’s capital, Phoenix . Down the Constellation Road , past King Solomon’s wash, and the Gold Bar mine, travelers find themselves at the Williams Family Ranch, surrounded by undeveloped Hassayampa wilderness.

But as reporter Tony Ganzer explains from station KJZZ, many of the visitors to this wilderness are a long way from their European homes.

{For PRI’s The World}

February 3, 2008October 2, 2021

“And Jesus wept…”

Die-hard football fans already know this, I’m sure, but the New England Patriots failed to reach “Perfection,” as color commentators had labeled it, instead falling to the New York Giants in the Super Bowl tonight.

For this post, I’ll resist the temptation to focus on the use of “perfection” to describe richly/over-paid athletes. I have many problems with professional sports, notably among those problems is hero-worship, and the mind-boggling amounts of money thrown at a game in salaries, advertising, etc.

Today, however, being the biggest game of the season, takes this show of capitalistic prowess to a new level. This level happened to be above the call of God, according to one Phoenix-area church.