Oktoberfest--you can take my daughters out of Germany, BUT you can't take Germany out of them

[DFW]

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They were born and bred in the Rheinland, but get them a dirndl and a stein of beer, and "o zapft es!"--instant Bavarians. These modern 21st century women, bi-lingual jetsetters who need to teach their stone-age parents how to use smart phones, are as at home in the skyscrapers of Manhattan as anywhere else. But they are as tradition-bound to the land of their birth as a 15th century Gutenberg printing press. We love it!

[TheDebbieDee]

1. Oktoberfest occurs in September...

I've wondered why they call it Oktoberfest when happens mostly in September...

[DFW]

2. Leads up to October

Don't look for any more logic to it than that!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Your daughters are so beautiful and smart, my dear DFW!

Not surprising, considering who their parents are!

[DFW]

4. Many who know me but not my wife express serious doubts as to who their parents are!

[underpants]

5. Their mother must be beautiful

[DFW]

6. I'll leave that up to you to decide, since I'm biased

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[underpants]

7. :-)

That's an old joke between guys.

Yes I was right. God bless her

[DFW]

8. She has two traits necessary for her to marry a nerd like me

1. She is a social worker

2. She is nearsighted

[HipChick]

9. Gorgeous family...you are truly blessed!

[DFW]

11. It's the only thing I ever won

It's also the most important thing anyone can win.

[Aristus]

10. Wow!

Boy, do I miss Germany.

I'd give any thing to have a good foamy Mass in my hand right now. Some good food. And a fest-tent full of happy revellers...

Germany is my idea of Heaven...

[DFW]

12. Except that heaven has no bureaucrats!

It's a nice place to visit, but you wouldn't want the paperwork necessary to live here.

They DO have some VERY nice friendly natives, though.........

[WoonTars]

13. So when are you moving back to The South?

...

[DFW]

14. My wife is the only one of us with a parent still alive. As long as that's the case

Then there's no question of us moving anywhere. Her mom just turned 90 and her vision is going. We're not just going to abandon her. I'm flexible, since my job takes me to a different country every day anyhow. But should that change, I'm definitely looking to move south. Probably about 300 miles south, actually. Don't know which Kanton yet. We have friends in both the Zürich area and the Geneva area, and speak both languages.

[WoonTars]

15. No, i meant Southern US, where there's much less bureaucracy...

..for you to have to deal with...

[DFW]

16. Switzerland is much easier to emigrate to, says a colleague of mine who just moved there

I'll leave it up to my wife. As long as I'm working with this travel schedule over which Jason Bourne would go on strike, it's her call where we hang our hat. She isn't at all thrilled with the idea of moving permanently to the USA--never has been, and is now even less so since Trump got in. Switzerland and Holland are the alternatives for now, although Holland's bureaucracy isn't much easier to navigate than Germany's.