We celebrated Thanksgiving with three Americans and their German wives and one Australian and her German husband. We were the only All-American family. The best part of this celebration was not the turkey and stuffing, although they were very good, but spending time with Americans who seemed content with their lives in Erlangen. They had some complaints, which is part of human nature, but they had no regrets about choosing to live in Germany over the USA.

Bob and I chose to move back to Erlangen, because we preferred everyday living in German over our everyday lives in Chicago. Unfortunately, many people on both sides of the Atlantic don't seem to understand this. "You'll regret moving to Europe and leaving the greatest country in the world." "Why would you leave an exciting city like Chicago to come back to Erlangen?" (I have to add that many people encouraged us to grasp this opportunity. Unfortunately, it's the words of those you tried to discourage us that stand out in my head.)

Sure, Chicago is an exciting city, if you don't have children. I found it hard to live there with kids. My biggest complaint was having to drive everywhere. I hate driving a car--I prefer riding a bike, and our first year back from Erlangen, I tried to survive without a car. But, traveling by bike in Chicago is dangerous. There aren't many bikepaths, and the few paths that exist share space on busy streets with reckless drivers (Germans are better at following the rules-of-the-road). It would have been stupid of me to allow my kids to ride their bikes on the Elston or Lawrence Ave. bikepaths. Erlangen has safe bikepaths--that is, safe for bikers. Heaven help the pedestrian that steps onto the red-bricks that designate the Fahrradweg.

I hated the competitiveness of many parents I met in Chicago. "Are you trying to get your kids into the gifted-programs?" "Have you signed them up for baseball?" "What did Philip get on the last math test?" And all the kids in Chicago are perfect, they have no faults, at least according to their parents. They are all Albert Einsteins and Joe DiMaggios. In Erlangen, children have limitations, and their parents are not afraid to talk about them. I hated it when my competitive side was released on my children. "Michael already knows how to count money. How come you don't, Philip?" "Did you see how many goals Patrick scored?' "Matthew got into a gifted-program and he doesn't seem any smarter than you." I also hated trying to keep up with the Jones's children. I had Philip in soccer, basketball, t-ball, ice hockey, piano, etc. Here parents think one (maybe two) extracurricular activity is enough.

And then there was shopping in Chicago. Because we lived on the Northwest side of Chicago where there aren't many small independently-owned shops, I often had to shop at Target. It always took me about an hour just to buy a bottle of shampoo, socks for the kids, and Milk-Bones. After a few trips, you'd think I'd remember where to find everything, and yet it took about a dozen trips for me to figure out where things were shelved. Then, of course, I had to go back to the same Target everytime, because I didn't want to have to search again. Here, I have to make several stops--the bakery, butcher, fruit market, Schlecker (the German version of Walgreens), but because the stores are small, I can find everything I need quickly. And the service is impecable. Just tell them what you want--a porkloin, one hundred grams of salami, half a kilogram of pears--and they'll pick out the best they have. No more rummaging through damaged fruit or blood-smeared plastic covered meat. No more staring at a wall of shampoo or Zip-Loc bags. The variety is still here, but not the overwhelming quanitity of 100 bottles of Motrin, 50 tablets, or 100 bottle of Motrin, 100 tablets.

Of course, the most obvious reason for wanting to live in a foreign country is so that my children grow up bilingual. Sure, you can send your kids to a foreign language school. Philip and Alex spent Saturday mornings learning German. But the best way for children to learn another language is by playing with children who do not speak English. Philip spoke German with his teacher in Chicago, but I know he spoke in terse sentences. With the other kids, he had long conversations in English. Sometimes I still speak to the boys in Ukrainian, but all they will learn from me is how to make small talk. To learn German, or any other language, to the extent that they know English requires that learn how to have deep conversations with their peers in their new language. They need to know how to describe the details of the last Harry Potter movie or the latest Mario game in German.