I'm in the midst of my first practical experience in international banking. So far it's going pretty well though I'm going to set up an account with a bank that has offices in the U.S. and Frankfurt.
The only problem so far was that I needed to give my new employer my bank's information, the routing and account numbers were easy but I also had to give them the international routing number. Finding out the international routing number was a bit of a trick. My bank's local branch wasn't familair with international routing numbers and referred me to their customer service number with instructions to just keep pressing 0 until I got to a human. The person I spoke with there referred me to the international wire transfers line where the person I spoke with gave me the number (actually a combination of letters and numbers) apparently from memory.
Bottom line: if you are keeping your U.S. bank account, make certain you get the International Routing Number and the best way to do that is to call your bank's International Wire Transfer department.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Monday, August 20, 2007
New Links
I'm adding some more useful links.
Here goes:
Travel Blog which includes pages for information specific to Europe and Germany is mostly a collection of blogs for people to communicate with their friends and family while they travel. While this site appears to be focused more on traveling abroad than living abroad, what I found most useful was the TravelBlog Travel Guide, even though once again it really was focused on short term adventure/backpacking travel.
Realtravel's page for Frankfurt has some interesting information on sights to see and also includes photos, local stores and blogs.
An American Expat in Deutschland a blog about an American's experiences living in Germany. Her popular posts include information on American foodstuff substitutes and TV in Deutschland. She also has a great list of links including other expat blogs.
The Frankfurt Files is a newish blog that includes posts on an another new resident of Frankfurt. He includes a description of his visit to the German Foreigner's Office.
Here goes:
Travel Blog which includes pages for information specific to Europe and Germany is mostly a collection of blogs for people to communicate with their friends and family while they travel. While this site appears to be focused more on traveling abroad than living abroad, what I found most useful was the TravelBlog Travel Guide, even though once again it really was focused on short term adventure/backpacking travel.
Realtravel's page for Frankfurt has some interesting information on sights to see and also includes photos, local stores and blogs.
An American Expat in Deutschland a blog about an American's experiences living in Germany. Her popular posts include information on American foodstuff substitutes and TV in Deutschland. She also has a great list of links including other expat blogs.
The Frankfurt Files is a newish blog that includes posts on an another new resident of Frankfurt. He includes a description of his visit to the German Foreigner's Office.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Differences in cooking here and there
My grandmother, who has had experience living abroad has given me some excellent advice that I am going to pass on here.
As far as the metric system goes one kilogram is a smidgen over 2.2 pounds, but according to my grandmother, most of the time it is close enough to say that one kilo is about two pounds and half a kilo (500 grams) is about one pound.
She also recommended that I take measuring cups, measuring spoons and a cookbook or two with me since I am accustomed to cooking with American measurements. Fortunately, this same grandmother has also given me an excellent cookbook that focuses on recipes in portions for one or two people. I'll probably use that supplemented with some other recipes typed into my computer (someday I might count how many books I am not taking with me because of my computer and the Internet).
Some people might think that if you are going to live in a new country you should just immerse yourself in the whole experience including the food. I think I am going to prioritize. Learning German and how to interact with Germans = high priority. Learning how to cook German foods, not so much. It will be a nice thing to do, and eventually I will probably purchase metric measuring cups and a German cookbook but for the present, the foods that I am comfortable with appear to be fairly inexpensive and it will be one less thing to worry about while I am settling in.
As far as the metric system goes one kilogram is a smidgen over 2.2 pounds, but according to my grandmother, most of the time it is close enough to say that one kilo is about two pounds and half a kilo (500 grams) is about one pound.
She also recommended that I take measuring cups, measuring spoons and a cookbook or two with me since I am accustomed to cooking with American measurements. Fortunately, this same grandmother has also given me an excellent cookbook that focuses on recipes in portions for one or two people. I'll probably use that supplemented with some other recipes typed into my computer (someday I might count how many books I am not taking with me because of my computer and the Internet).
Some people might think that if you are going to live in a new country you should just immerse yourself in the whole experience including the food. I think I am going to prioritize. Learning German and how to interact with Germans = high priority. Learning how to cook German foods, not so much. It will be a nice thing to do, and eventually I will probably purchase metric measuring cups and a German cookbook but for the present, the foods that I am comfortable with appear to be fairly inexpensive and it will be one less thing to worry about while I am settling in.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Trying to work out a budget: Groceries
I like to know what I'm getting into with just about everything, so I've been trying to set up a budget based on my projected salary.
I have been using German websites to get a rough idea of how much my personal staples will cost. The sites that have been most useful in this are: aldi-sued.de/index.htm and www.real.de. Both sell things besides groceries, giving me the impression that they might be a bit like a SuperTarget or Wal-mart in the United States, but having never been there I can't say for sure.
What I've learned so far is that food in Frankfurt does look a bit more expensive than is typical in Wisconsin, but most of it is organic which is a plus, I've been meaning to go more organic with my food anyways. I haven't noticed a whole lot of frozen food, which I think is due to the fact that from the pictures I've seen, German refrigerators are really small and don't have a lot of freezer room.
I also find that one of the standard measurements for food containers is 100 grams, which isn't as much as it sounds. At first I was assuming that this would be about a cup or maybe even two. It isn't. Once I looked up the conversion online I discovered that instead this is more like 3.38 ounces otherwise known as less than half a cup (to be more exact it's something like .42 cup, using the U.S. measure).
I have been using German websites to get a rough idea of how much my personal staples will cost. The sites that have been most useful in this are: aldi-sued.de/index.htm and www.real.de. Both sell things besides groceries, giving me the impression that they might be a bit like a SuperTarget or Wal-mart in the United States, but having never been there I can't say for sure.
What I've learned so far is that food in Frankfurt does look a bit more expensive than is typical in Wisconsin, but most of it is organic which is a plus, I've been meaning to go more organic with my food anyways. I haven't noticed a whole lot of frozen food, which I think is due to the fact that from the pictures I've seen, German refrigerators are really small and don't have a lot of freezer room.
I also find that one of the standard measurements for food containers is 100 grams, which isn't as much as it sounds. At first I was assuming that this would be about a cup or maybe even two. It isn't. Once I looked up the conversion online I discovered that instead this is more like 3.38 ounces otherwise known as less than half a cup (to be more exact it's something like .42 cup, using the U.S. measure).
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Language Issues
I took a total of three years of German in high school and college, but the last one ended more than six years ago so I am fairly rusty with what German I know. I am however a big supporter of the idea of being bilingual (even if becoming bilingual is much more difficult) and think that it really would be very rude of me to not put in the effort to learn as much as I can in the weeks before I go to Germany and to become fluent as quickly as I can once I get there, particularly since I am young and could be there for a very long time. Hopefully the immersion will improve my decidedly spotty pronunciation.
In attempting to improve my German the things that I have found most helpful are using the Rosetta Stone German language software and attempting to read things written in German, such as websites and some of the correspondence I have had with my future employer (which has also forced me to do some writing in German). Fortunately, I know several people who have been kind enough to help me with translating and understanding translations when my own abilities have been inadequate.
At the risk of sounding like an advertisement, the Rosetta Stone software really does work well, my word retention is much better with it than it was in my previous German classes. The downside is that since it is a beginner's course I haven't gotten much on the mechanics of grammar (there may be more of that later on, I don't know yet) and while the vocabulary that I'm learning is important, there isn't a lot of business related words or terms, which would be helpful for my situation.
However, I have found that I have also picked up a fair amount by using German language websites. Some sites, such as for German stores (such as ikea.de or aldi-sued.de) are actually fairly easy to use untranslated since there isn't a whole lot of complex stuff, and that can be run through an on-line translater like AltaVista's Babel Fish which generally provides a decent translation, though not always a completely accurate one. Other websites, and information have required much more work and while the Babel Fish translator is a good start, I have found that my German-English Dictionary is invaluable, particularly when dealing with words that have more than one possible meaning. While I can't say that the result of working with German language websites has been that I am now fluent, it has helped me feel more comfortable with the language and I have picked up some new words this way. As a final suggestion, if you use Babel Fish to translate entire websites keep the website in the original language up, sometimes the links will work better that way and once again, you might pick up some words.
In attempting to improve my German the things that I have found most helpful are using the Rosetta Stone German language software and attempting to read things written in German, such as websites and some of the correspondence I have had with my future employer (which has also forced me to do some writing in German). Fortunately, I know several people who have been kind enough to help me with translating and understanding translations when my own abilities have been inadequate.
At the risk of sounding like an advertisement, the Rosetta Stone software really does work well, my word retention is much better with it than it was in my previous German classes. The downside is that since it is a beginner's course I haven't gotten much on the mechanics of grammar (there may be more of that later on, I don't know yet) and while the vocabulary that I'm learning is important, there isn't a lot of business related words or terms, which would be helpful for my situation.
However, I have found that I have also picked up a fair amount by using German language websites. Some sites, such as for German stores (such as ikea.de or aldi-sued.de) are actually fairly easy to use untranslated since there isn't a whole lot of complex stuff, and that can be run through an on-line translater like AltaVista's Babel Fish which generally provides a decent translation, though not always a completely accurate one. Other websites, and information have required much more work and while the Babel Fish translator is a good start, I have found that my German-English Dictionary is invaluable, particularly when dealing with words that have more than one possible meaning. While I can't say that the result of working with German language websites has been that I am now fluent, it has helped me feel more comfortable with the language and I have picked up some new words this way. As a final suggestion, if you use Babel Fish to translate entire websites keep the website in the original language up, sometimes the links will work better that way and once again, you might pick up some words.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Welcome!
Welcome to my blog! As a getting to know me, I'm a twenty-something attorney by training who is currently preparing to take a job that will have me move from the
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