About more than 400 boxes, cutting lines, a lemon lantern and a broken door. Why an American attitude helps us settling down in Germany and how baking brings us back to the US – even though it’s been anything but a cakewalk. It’s been a while ago – almost five months to be exact – since we said good-bye to you and our life in the US. The past months have been quite an experience – it has been pretty overwhelming sometimes and I felt more like hiding under a rock very often just like a skinned insect waiting to get a new carapace. We are not quite at the finish line yet but still on our way to routine here in Germany. Going back – a home game with the devil in the detail Going back to Germany was definitely different from going abroad to the US. This time the language was not new to the kids (which helped a lot), no one lost his speech (as Paul did in his preschool in Morristown), we came back to our family and old-established circle of friends here and there were no real cross-cultural clashes to be expected (ok – hold that thought…). Even the German quirks wouldn’t come as a real surprise to Marc and me, e.g. cutting lines (as a national pastime), grumpy faces (without any particular reason), pretty aggressive car drivers (never mess with a German behind the steering wheel) and gloomy weather, to name just a few. However, within the 2,5 years we really got used so much to the „American way“ (in the widest sense) that knowing about the „German Way“ has not always been of too much help while trying to settle down again. Honeymoon in the first weeks In the first weeks after our arrival we didn’t realize that this was for real now. It was really good to see our family and friends again, but it felt more like a summer vacation. It was like living in a bubble – without all the people, the language, the things that had been our …