Buzznut3000

If it helps anyone, I applied for the conversion (Texas DL with full reciprocity) as soon as I established residency.  They said I couldn't get my German license until the full 6 months had elapsed but they processed it and I had my license a few days after the 6 months.  It's a weird deal where your license is only good for 6 months but you have to wait until the 6 months has passed to switch it.

There are several checks in place to guard against people doing this.  You have to show your residence document.  You are supposed to hold the license you are trading for at least 185 days (this was told to me when I traded my Texas DL).  There is also a 3 year limit (someone always posts that this has been changed but never has a source).  It appears though that many offices just don't care enough to bother with any rules.  The office I went to was rather strict but others have reported that they were able to get away with this.

Glad to hear you are settling in.  I feel your pain, last year we were being audited by both the US and Germany at the same time!  I wouldn't agree totally with your last sentence, though.  I have income from rental property in the US and that is not taxable in Germany.  Germany was trying hard to find something to tax but ultimately failed (my other income is from a government pension which is also not taxable in Germany). 

I'm an American retired in Germany.  My resident permit was no problem as my wife is German.  You'll need someone to help you with the paperwork for sure as you can't count on anyone speaking English in any government office.  A couple other things I discovered:  1. You cannot get on the public health insurance if you are over 55 even if you are in perfect health and your spouse is on it.  2. Learning German in your 50s (or older) is a LOT harder then I thought it would be.  3. Be sure you have at least 3 more years on your passport, otherwise renew it before you arrive.

International Kids' English Club in Darmstadt info:  toddlergroup@ikec.de

There are a couple of active groups on meetup.com.  I'm sure some of the folks have kids that might be a good fit for you.

We used Rainier https://www.rainieros.com/ moving from US and were very happy with them.  We moved a small amount of furniture and personal things, I think it was around $7000 (40ft container, Houston to Bremerhaven) but we also had to store our things on both sides for a short time.  They packed everything for us and unpacked at the other end.

I grew up in Fargo ND which makes Chicago seem like Miami (Fargo was -35C yesterday)  Our house was insulated pretty well, better than the older house I now live in in Germany.  The places I lived in Texas and California were not very well insulated.  I think the newer houses in Germany are probably better insulated than most in the US but anything more than 20 or 30 years old probably is not.

Bad luck.  I have ordered multi-vitamins several times from the US.  A couple times they were stopped at customs but they released them to me at the customs office (Hanau) without further charge.

The thing is his lies are so obvious that the only reason he got away with it is his stories fit in with what the Spiegel editors wanted to believe.  They were sure everyone in America is a right wing bigot and he delivered the goods.  Most of the falsehoods could’ve been detected easily with a quick phone call or even a simple Google search.

Netflix periodically collects the IP addresses of the servers of various VPN companies and blocks them.   Eventually you will tune in one day and it won't work.  An option is to purchase a unique IP address from the VPN company, which will likely never be blocked.  If it is for some reason, they will issue you a new one.

Those on the far left do seem to feel that the ends justify the means.

I can't imagine the 80% of businesses that won't accept credit cards in Germany will embrace this.

GLS is so bad in our town, they never actually deliver anything.  You get an email (sometimes) that they are "sorry they missed you" and you can pick up your package at local store.

Apparently we were extreme assholes for interrupting his very important texting.