Yesterday it dawned on me that it’s almost time for the Whiney Expatriate Blogger Unmissable Meet-up!
It will certainly be a moist time for all.
From September 4-6 I’ll be down in Munich for the largest gathering of complaining German expatriates bloggers in 2009. We’ll be visiting all the best spots that Munich has to offer. I just reviewed the schedule put together by Deutschland Über Elvis, This nonAmerican Life, Jeweled Concrete, Our Feet are the Same, and Lucid in Deutschland. Happily the schedule explicitly includes the phrase “biergarten” twice, and the phrase “English Garden”—which I hope is a euphemism for “biergarten,” but probably actually has a Japanese Tea House, or something like that—Germans seem to like to call things one name (“Mexican Food”) and deliver another (“Heartburn”).
All kidding aside, this is a great opportunity for expatriates to meet each other and talk about our common issues with Germany (Why do apartments not include kitchens?), amusement with the German usage of English (Happy End Toilet Paper), and whatever else crosses our mind (insert something witty here).
Notice that I did not include the phrase “blogger” after the word expatriate: we welcome all expatriates. We even welcome locals—provided the locals don’t mind listening to their native land being bashed in English. (Locals can suck it up, I listened to America get bashed by the locals from 2004 until January 20, 2009.) Note: There is a caveat-see the comment by Cliff1976 below…
If you want to join in, I suggest you head over to the Official Discussion Board for the Expatriate Bloggers In Germany Meet-Up, register, and find out more.
Finally, if there are any Weimar-based expats who are interested in going, let me know. Maybe we can carpool, or hop down together. Full fare train tickets from Weimar to Munich, with ICE, cost 81€ each way. I have a Bahn Card 50 which reduces the price considerably, a total of 81€ round trip, naturally, but if a group of us rents a car, it ought to be less expensive, even with the price of gas added in.
I am sooo looking forward to it!
I’m still not sure if I will be able to attend, but since I’d be driving down from Hamburg if I can, a detour to Weimar will add all of 50-60km in to the 800km total trip, so I could pick up some people on the way!
Not to put too fine a point on it (“say I’m the only bee in your bonnet!”), but while you don’t have to be an expatriate blogger to attend, you do have to be an expatriate blogger — or at least know one who’ll vouch for you — for me, your humble Gate Keeper to let you in the front door to our discussion board. Just so you know.
@J: I’m counting the days…
@Emily: Oooh! I might take you up on the offer. I’ll email you in the next couple days.
@Cliff1976: Thanks for the heads-up. I put a note about the caveat (to see your comment) in the body of the post.
Woo hoo!
Cool. Look forward to meeting you B-)
Be there, or be parched.