We've Immigrated…still working to integrate

TL;DR - We have legally immigrated to Berlin! Tyler does Ju-Jitzu now. Randi is learning German und sie koche jeden tag. We like the city, we enjoy biking around the city, the sun rarely shines and laundry takes forever to dry.

If you would like to check out pics of our first three months, including some hikes, Christmas Markets, and NYE insanity videos click this link.

Family and Friends!! We trust you all had a wonderful holiday season and you are starting 2024 healthy, happy, and with more sun than one would see in Berlin.

We are long-overdue for an update on Berlin life and how we are settling into our resettlement. We arrived in Berlin October 1st. Tyler seemed so happy to get in touch with coworkers for the first time in years. He had been working for the amarican part of the company remotely for a few months and was thoroughly excited to be IRL with some of his colleagues. Fast forward three months and he loves going to the office so much he occasionally goes there on the weekends (insert eye-roll emoji here).

Berlin is a very interesting and diverse city. With a population of 3.6 million, the city has something to offer everyone. We’ve learned that about 23% of the population is non-German. English seems to be spoken everywhere, which is unique to Berlin when compared to Germany as a whole. The city feels safe and we are surprised how many small children we see out and about or using public transit on their own (like 9 and 10 year olds just trotting down graffiti-lined, business-filled, sidewalks). Graffiti appears to be a very socially accepted form of artistic expression…not destruction of property. Smoking in bars is allowed. Gray is the color of life in winter. Airing out a room by opening a window is a very serious cultural norm not to be ignored. And German ¨efficiency¨ is some sort of national joke we still don’t understand.

Over our first month in Berlin, we enjoyed hikes together, with Tyler’s coworkers, and I got out for some solo-adventures as well. Berlin has a vast amount of green spaces and nature-trails, all easily accessible by public transit. As a Coloradian, I find it difficult to call these outings ¨hiking¨, as there is no elevation happening in Berlin. But there is a verb in German for this type of activity that I greatly appreciate: spazieren, which means to walk or stroll. So…wir spazieren in der natur.

We also found new ways to foster physical fitness. Tyler continued his new hobby of Ju-Jitzu by joining a gym nearby. For three months now, he gets up at 6am, 3-days a week, (for those who know Tyler’s sleeping patterns this is a shocking accomplishment) to practice with the ¨Morning Crew¨ at the gym. I also joined eine Frauenfitnessstudio (a women’s gym) and enjoy biking to the gym for fitness classes like Body Pump and Step Aerobics. These classes are in German, which proves to be joyful, as well as a great way to practice my German.

As we moved into November and December, the weather became colder and the darkness became real. Berlin does not get as cold as Denver, but it is humid, damp, and cloudy…and very dark. I continue to find it utterly bewildering when I am outside at noon and the sun (on the rare occasion in which it can be seen behind the clouds) is at a 45 degree angle to the south, not directly above my head. We are further north in latitude than I originally understood. In fact, if you overlay the latitude of Europe onto North America, we are quite a bit into Canada, further north than Calgary or Winnipeg. I also learned Denver is essentially in the middle of the Mediterranean…inline with Valencia, Spain in latitude. This is all to say, the sun rides the horizon from sunup to sundown…and we drop everything and run outside with the sun shines…for those brief moments feel glorious.

Unsurprisingly, our daily life in Berlin is quite similar to Denver. Tyler likes his work and Ju-Jitzu, but naturally still makes time to play boardgames with me and online games with friends in the US. I have been practicing German at two social meetups a week, but I’m certain I sound like a 3 year old trying to express myself. I do a lot of cooking. I really enjoy the ease of grocery shopping in Germany and find the groceries to be more affordable and perhaps the produce a bit fresher than in big US grocery chains. That being said, everything spoils here quicker. Bread: you’ve got 4 days max; cheese: maybe a week; produce: typically no more than 4-6 days. As a random aside, laundry takes forever to dry, like two full days for a pair of jeans!! And of course there are no dryers. We also found we both really enjoy taking advantage of the bike-shares in Berlin. The city is impressively bike friendly and despite the cold, biking to get everywhere is a very socialized norm. We even see parents with cargo bikes full of tots and biking with an infant strapped to their chest.

We spent the holidays on our own in Berlin, as we were waiting for our legal residence cards to arrive before we could travel…which they indeed arrived on December 23rd…our own Christmas miracle!! We spent Christmas Eve making Buckeyes (a Merry-family holiday treat with peanut butter and chocolate…we even had to make an emergency call to Tyler’s mom to help us save the chocolate!) and watching the old claymation Rudolph. On Christmas Day we biked to a Christmas market and enjoyed the festivities.

New Years really surprised us! Our neighborhood became absolutely chaotic!! There were fireworks going off for days leading up to NYE, but we figured we’re American…we’ve seen the neighborhood dads out in the street with their Wyoming fireworks, we understand this behavior. We were wrong. Come NYE night the consistent bombardment of firework blasts was indescribable. We decided to go out into the madness, as Tyler wanted to have the culture experience of being shot at with Roman Candles. He was not disappointed. We took a few videos, they are in our photo link. Fireworks were EVERYWHERE. Literally catching in trees and exploding, bouncing off apartment buildings and exploding, flying awol into crowds and exploding. It was not safe. I would not say I recommend. I think Tyler loved it.

Next up for us: We are heading to Valencia Spain for the month of February. I need some sun in my life and thankfully Tyler can work remotely for the month (though he will greatly miss the Berlin office). We will return to Berlin in March before heading to North Carolina midway through April for a long overdue visit with the Merry-clan. Afterwards, we will make our way to Denver for a few weeks at the beginning of May. Finally, we will again return to Berlin to continue making this city home.

We always love hearing from friends and family! It was amazing to get a few Christmas cards sent all the way across the Atlantic!! Thanks for thinking of us! We would love to know what you did for NYE!