Welcome to Germany

I have received so many wonderful warm welcomes to Germany from J.P.’s family and friends, that I feel incredibly fortunate.  Besides the Warm Welcome to Germany, when I first arrived, I recently had another special warm welcome to Germany from Anna, one of J.P. friend's wives.  She came over just to meet me and brought a bottle of champagne and a yellow rose, to welcome me to Germany.  I was incredibly touched.  Then she proceeded to tell me that anytime I needed to talk or felt lonely, to call her and we could talk over a glass of wine.  I was so touched and a little surprised by this incredibly warm welcome to Germany.  Germans are usually a bit more reserved when they first meet you, but because she knew J.P. her warmth automatically extended to me.

 They say that it may take Germans some time to warm up to you as they don't have the instant "friendliness" of us North Americans (which many Germans perceive as fake), but once they do, you have a friend for life. I would be very fortunate to have Anna as a friend, especially if she will put up with my annoying Canadian habit of asking too personal questions too quickly which I haven’t quite fine-tuned to German standards yet, but I’m working on it.    Welcome to Germany indeed!    

A Warm Welcome to Germany

I received a warm welcome to Germany at the Frankfurt airport where I was met by my fiancé J.P. and surprisingly his mom, who lives an hour away but insisted that she too wanted to greet me.   The warm welcome to Germany didn't stop there.  We drove back to her house where some good homemade potato soup was waiting for us.

My cats were supposed to accompany on my journey but due to an error by my vet back in Canada they were unable to, although they will hopefully join me in a few weeks.  J.P.'s mom knew I was upset about this so bought me a cat ornament as a "substitute" until my cats arrived - how thoughtful!   She also wrote a card in German that was incredibly sweet welcoming me to the family and saying that I was now part of her family too and how happy she was that I was finally here and welcome to Germany.  Fortunately J.P. was able to translate since my German is  very elementary. 

So much for German's reputation of being stoic and unfeeling, I couldn't have asked for a warmer welcome to Germany.  I have a feeling that this is only the first of many cultural misconceptions that I will discover living as an expat in Germany.