War Bride

Germany gave me writer’s block- obviously, as it’s been a very long time since I’ve written a chapter, but I need to get over it. I need to write this book so we can get back to podcasting.

When I was ten we visited Germany, when we lived in Europe. Germany was amazing, and felt like going home, even though I had never been there before. I didn’t speak much of the language (Grandma used to cuss at us in German so I knew those words, but that was it), yet I could understand almost everything if I didn’t think about it too hard. We first went in the winter; we flew into Munich and rented a car to drive to Garmisch. Our family still lived in the house where my mother was born, in the heart of Garmish Partenkirchen; a beautiful old house that looked like it belonged in a storybook, with eaves covered in snow. Tante Marta, her son Uncle Werner and his wife Helene, and their daughter Evie all lived there; generational living was new to me but common there. Evie was a few years older than I but she took me to school with her, and to hang out with her friends. They all spoke English and tried to teach me German. Evie actually spoke a lot of languages - she was learning Mandarin Chinese at fourteen! Education is very different in a lot of ways in Europe.