All posts by Chad Josey

We are former US ex-pats who lived 4 years in Germany in the Rhineland-Palatinate (wine) region and now make New Jersey, USA, our home while still traveling the world.

Picking the Perfect Day Trip from Frankfurt or Stuttgart – Travel to Heidelberg, Germany

So, before I started work, I decided to be a tourist and visit one of the more popular tourist attraction towns of Heidelberg, Germany.  Heidelberg is located 20 minutes southeast of Mannheim by tram.  It is a very popular town to live in by foreigners because there is a fantastic international school present, it's very ...

Learn the 10 Things to Know about Shopping in Germany

As Americans, we take so many things for granted.  One of these is the super convenience of shopping in the US.  Of course, the trade-off of this convenience is the bombardment of commercials and advertising as companies vie for the ever decreasing share of Americans' disposable income. However, with that being said, in Germany, we ...

Show Me Your Papers – See What Is Involved in Getting a Work Permit, Residence Permit, and City Registration in Germany

Moving to another country is challenging from the aspect of all the required documentation needed.  You can't just simply show up and expect to stay indefinitely without the proper paperwork.  Well, okay, you can, but we're talking about entering a country legally 🙂 I'm sure each country is different, but these were our experiences becoming ...

Flying with Our Dog from the US to Germany – the first time ever we have flown with our dog

Since May of 2012, when our move to Germany began to become a reality for us, neither Amanda or I were concerned about where we were going to live, our jobs, moving to Germany, etc.  Our single, biggest concern was how will our dog Barney do flying over, considering he gets extremely nervous simply riding ...

Packing Up & Moving Out – THE Move from New Jersey to Germany

For ten years, I swear I have moved the same boxes from one place to another.  But, since we need to pare down our stuff to move internationally, we finally opened up some of those boxes.  After a few of "Oh, so that's where that was!" or "Oh, we kept that?" -- it was time ...

International House Hunters – Apartment Hunting in Germany

One constant that Amanda & I have shared over our past ten years together is that we have moved quite a bit.  We have moved between apartments, between cities, between States, between houses, and now between Countries.  With websites like Rent.com or various Realtor sites in the US, we had tools available to us to ...

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year – One Week Before Moving to Germany

This is just a quick posting to wish everyone a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!!  I have not had an opportunity to add any new posts to this blog since the announcement we are moving to Germany. As you can imagine, there is so much involved with moving, and moving internationally is even ...

The metric system…it’s not that complicated! Easy Cheats to Convert English Measurements to Metric

For anyone that has ever traveled outside of the United States, you quickly realize that the metric system can be a bit confusing.  It still amazes me that the US is the only country that still uses only the English system of measurements.  Heck, even in England, both units of measure are used. Luckily, as ...

We Have an Announcement – Germany, Here We Come!!

So, this travel blog that I started a few months ago is about to become VERY different!!  Amanda & I (oh, and let me not forget our Barney) are officially moving to Germany the first of January due to at least a 3 year job rotation.  It's a fantastic opportunity both professionally and personally.  Since ...

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer & Huck Finn – Have You Been to the Birthplace of Mark Twain & Taken a Mississippi River Cruise

  I've been working on a repetitive project where I participate in a team that visits our manufacturing plants for a week, and provide improvement recommendations.  This has been a fantastic opportunity for me to learn our manufacturing processes, but it makes for a very long week. Traveling to these sites, it is neat to ...