Teaching in Germany by Das Blog

While I'm in "baby mode," some lovely bloggers will be stepping in to guest post for me! (Be sure to leave them some love!) I'll be popping in here and there to share sporadic baby updates with you :). In the meantime, enjoy!!

Hello Everybody! I'm Emily over at das Blog, and I'm so excited to get to share some of my stories with you while Sarah is enjoying family time with the new baby!


For the past 2 years I've been living and working as an English teacher in Germany. I love getting to spend everyday speaking German, making new friends, and soaking up as much culture as possible.


One of my students' favorite topics is stereotypes. They ask questions about American stereotypes ("Is your favorite food McDonalds?" "Do you see celebrities everday?" "Do you have a big car?" etc.). But they also love to ask what stereotypes Americans have of Germany. My stock answer that I've refined into one smooth sentence over the past two years is: "We just sort of imagine Germany to be a giant Oktoberfest 24/7 with everyone wearing Dirndls and Lederhosen, drinking beer, and dancing to oompa music." Which in about 99% of Germany is laughably false. Unless, of course, you live in Bavaria.

And it just so happens I did live in Bavaria my first year in Germany! And I can confirm that there is beer drinking and oompa music and dancing. But my favorite part of all is that people actually wear Lederhosen and Dirndls! Now, for the most part, you'll only see people rockin' their Lederhosen and Dirndls at festivals (which are also plentiful in Bavaria), But I don't think a weekend ever passed where I didn't randomly see someone on the street all dressed up! Almost all of my German friends in the south owned this traditional German dress and I even had a few students show up at school in their Lederhosen.

For that whole year, all I wanted out of life was to get my own Dirndl to rock around Bavaria. But alas, they are not cheap! Both the Lederhosen and Dirndl easily go for a few hundred euro each. The little white blouse with a Dirndl, for example, (which is usually sold separately and is actually only half a blouse) generally costs between 40€ - 60€! Of course, before I went out of my way to get myself a dirndl, I think I'd have to consider getting a small child and dressing them up. Then I my heart could melt from the adorableness 24/7.