Hard as it is to believe, today is the last day of our first year in Tübingen. We arrived on September 1st, 2011, one year ago tomorrow.

Funnily enough, I had a hard time remembering what German dish we ate for dinner that first day. But then it dawned on me – we didn’t eat German food that first day, since a friend in Bolzano had given us a jar of her homemade pesto sauce to bring with us to Tübingen, which delayed having to find German food that we liked that first day.

But in what has been an action-packed, eventful and highly enjoyable year of settling into life in yet another new country, we’ve come along way:

On the food front: not only have we identified German dishes that we like to eat, we are now Stammkunden, “regulars”, at 3 different restaurants within 2 blocks of our apartment building. By “regulars”, I’m talking about  the type of relationship where owners recognize you, know your names, or at least the name of the person who makes the reservations. They will anticipate the drink you always order, asking if you’ll have “the usual”. That’s what happens at the restaurant down the street, Zum Gutenberg, which is where we’ve decided to go tomorrow to celebrate the official one-year anniversary.

Now, when they actually start to refer to you as Stammkunden, you may even get offered us a complimentary liqueur to finish off the meal. That actually happened the other night at the place where we regularly go with our photography group, PICT, a group that I’m happy to say is still going strong.

On the language front,  I now can speak some German, whereas one year ago, I spoke just a handful of words and had to rely on Chris for everything, since contrary to popular myth, most people do not speak English here in Germany. Today I even feel comfortable attempting some official things without Chris. While Chris  continues to speak better German than I do,  I think after 8 months of that intensive class this past year I’m definitely catching up.

Speaking of that class, that was definitely a high point for me during the year.  Never in my wildest dreams a year ago could I have imagined that I would be making new friends from Columbia, Azerbaijan, Spain, Japan, Greece, Romania, Iran, Kosovo, Sweden and even Italy, where our common language is German.

Of course I wrote quite a bit how much I enjoyed the class and the people in it when I was looking back on our first 6 months. And the last 6 months have continued to bring about the unexpected ways I’ve met new people, seen new places, and tried new things, especially related to my photography.

It really has been striking, actually, how many photographic opportunities have fallen into my lap here in Tübingen. At that start of that class last September, when asked what my profession was, I described myself as an (unemployed) software designer who did photography on the side. But after being hired to take photos for a couple of university departments, being offered the chance to have a photography exhibition out of the blue, teaching a couple of people how to get more comfortable with taking photos, getting hired to take some informal portraits for friends, making special photography memory items for friends … well, I now just introduce myself as a photographer. Which is what I am hoping to pursue more of as a profession as we start this second year in Tübingen.  First up will be a 4-session workshop that I’m offering starting in September, which Vivat Lingua, the language school, offered to host.

I don’t know how this will all play out, just like I didn’t really know what to expect a year ago today as we prepared to head to Tübingen. However, I’m looking forward, as always, to seeing what adventures come up along the way.

Of course, as I look forward to the year ahead, it’s not with the same kind of anticipation about going into the complete unknown like there was last year.

But, anticipating that there might be something new in what is now somewhat familiar is actually just as exciting. I’ll leave you with that thought as you look at the photos below: new takes on old familiar reflections along the Neckar River.

Enjoy.