November 2006 JS.pmd - The American Women's Club of Taunus

President’s
Pen
by Vera Thiers
Membership
by Cindy Kauppila
4
Happy Expat Life, Part II
I
f you remember, last month I wrote about
suggestions on how to attain a “happy expat life”. It
started with you, the expat woman. While we shouldn’t
expect miracles, a good step toward a feeling of wellbeing
here in Germany can be made through
involvement—having an activity, hobby, or worthwhile
task that brings relaxation, motivation, and perhaps an
understanding friend or two. And never underestimate
the amount of useful information that you will gather.
For example, you just may discover where to find
Ziplock bags, that Dolormin Frau is a good replacement
for Tylenol, or how to make a call to the US for €0.02/
minute with the prefix 01081.
Feeling on top of our household tasks and good about
ourselves helps us cope better with our other
responsibilities, but the well-being of our children and
spouses remain a major concern. If they are unhappy,
that happy expat life may elude us. Parenting issues
and the emotional needs of our children often have
priority. This goes beyond the education factor which
parents tend to focus on first when relocating. Even the
relocation industry has realized that there is much more
than just education in creating well-adjusted expat
children, and is offering cultural training for kids,
including classroom training sessions, but also
mentoring schemes to help children integrate into their
peer groups. Young adults especially profit from this.
November Birthdays
1 – Patrizia Parenti
3 – Heather MacVie-Martorana
4 - Erika Brown
6 - Penny Donath
6 - Sharon Hansen
7 . Dagmar Barthel
7 - Renate Gusy
7 - Iva Pearlstein
8 - Christine Moore
9 - Hannah Deutsch
10 - Michelle Power
11 - Sumiko Minowa
12 - Ingrid Gräfin von Walderdorff
12 - Karen Howard-Goldsmith
13 - Pamela Gerla
14 - Debra Caswell
15 - Barby Allison
16 - Camilla Barisa
16 - Carole Liebert
16 - Kristen Scheyder-Rabinowitz
16 - Tina Schuett
17 - Alanna Fenner
17 - Monika Pohlmann
20 - Bettina Buchrieser
21 - Wai-Yee Schmidt
www.awctaunus.org
Here again networking for information via the club,
school, or interest groups will help concerned expat
women find solutions to problems and special needs that
might crop up. Whether it be a sport or hobby, therapy
for a physical or emotional need, or a special support
group, you will find almost everything you need in the
Rhein Main area, and often in English. Special
handbooks for parents include the AWCT’s Parent’s
Guide which provides information about being a parent
in Germany. I can also highly recommend “Discovering
Frankfurt and the Rhein-Main Area with Children” by
Heike Wolf as a well-written, practical, and very handy
guide to this specific part of Germany, which will help
you plan constructive entertainment and outings with
your children.
For more insight into the challenges children face when
moving abroad and how they could profit from the
experience can be found in David Pollock’s sensational
book Third Culture Kids. Another book, Footsteps
Around the World by Beverly Roman has very good
relocation tips specifically for teens.
We hope to see many of you at our Thanksgiving
dinner on November 23rd (see details on page 5). �
22 - Hyun-Ju Lim
23 - Bettina Lischka
24 - Umarah Taugir Ahmad
25 - Patricia Gebauer
25 - Nicole LaRock-Mueller
27 - Sandy Chavez
27 - Marge Manfredo
27 - Sylvia Whelan
28 - Christine Nassivera
28 - Efthymia Tomtsi-Lagos
29 - Lydia Woods-Gresham
30 - Jennifer Farah
30 - Jennifer Jefferson