We are living in the MRN...

I have lived in this area now since 1998 when I moved here with my husband who was born and raised in Neustadt an der Weinstraße. I found the move here an easy one to make. I was welcomed into my community and within a short period of time had found many social and professional opportunities to suit my needs. I joined a local choir and a number of social organizations. I volunteered with the local child protection organization (Kinderschutzbund) and became involved in both taking and offering courses at local educational facilities (Volkshochschulen).

Thankfully, I also found a job in my field, which provides me with the professional challenges I enjoy and colleagues that keep me on my toes as well as keeping me laughing. I work at the Heidelberg International School, an International Baccalaureate World School, with a growing student body and a challenging curriculum.

H.I.S. also has provided me the opportunity to extend my interest in languages through their integrated, multi-language, international approach to learning. I have been supported in extending the languages offered and have been able to add Mandarin Chinese this year to support the mother tongue of a student new to H.I.S.

I have found that this region offers a wide range of cultural and sport activities. There are beautiful hiking trails, local sport organizations and health clubs in addition to community activities, such as marathons or adventure days such as in the early Autumn, when the Weinstrasse is closed to cars and the streets and villages are full of people biking, walking or in-line skating from winery to winery.

And, oh, the wine! It’s the best in the world. The regional white wines have long been praised but the reds have developed and young vintners have introduced fine new varietals and cuvees! I love the local festivals and the traditions that find continuity here. What can I say, except, Zum Wohl der Pfalz!

Susan Hoeck-Buehler

MYP Coordinator, Learning Support Coordinator, Languages Coordinator H.I.S. heidelberg international school GmbH internationale schule in freier trägerschaft

A last ray of sunlight in the darkening sky, reluctantly following the setting sun, outlines clouds at the horizon. I am sitting on the balcony of my apartment in Dossenheim, a town just north of Heidelberg. Distant lightning announces the thunderstorms that are quickly approaching over the wooded mountains of the Odenwald. Soon the showers will enter the Rhein-Neckar Valley and chase away a long and hot June day, but my mind is elsewhere.

Last January I started as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Heidelberg. Since then I have been living in the Metropolregion Rhein-Neckar, first on campus in the guesthouse of the University and since three weeks in Dossenheim. My -mostly German- colleagues are great; we have been on a ski trip, gone out a couple of times for a drink and had a barbecue party on the ‘Neckar-Wiesen’ (the grassy shores of the Neckar overlooking downtown Heidelberg). Through activities organised by the Foreign Academics Office of the University I have met people from many other countries, living and working in Heidelberg, who -without exception- are as enthusiastic as I about their stay in Heidelberg. Hopefully I can live here for many more years.

…I have been living and working here since 1991. My love story to the region began very pleasantly: already on my first working day my new colleague offered to be on a first-name basis with her and took me along to her meeting in a restaurant. The first night in my new home also ended with a surprise! The land-lady served me breakfast the next morning! At this point I knew I was at home! In this way I quickly lost my heart not IN but TO Heidelberg. (“to lose your heart in Heidelberg” is a famous German song.) Although I did have to get accustomed to apple cider and French fries with “Wurstsalat” (cold sausage salad), my German friends had to put up with my affectionate greeting kisses. In the meantime the Germans themselves seem to have come to like it too.

In order to get to know lots of people outside of work I enrolled in several courses at that VHS (“Volkshochschule” – Adult Education Center): dancing, cooking, drawing- and walking courses. In the meantime I have moved, and am now living in the fantastic Kraichgau, enjoying the unusually beautiful landscape and the unbelievable offer of fantastic restaurants and cultural events. What can I say? I’m living in the lap of luxury… here in Germany!

...the tax code. Take a complicated language like German, couple it with something twice as hard as what the IRS can muster, and you get your neurons firing a good clip, keeping the brain young. Fortunately, SAP, my employer, provides full tax services at no cost to me. This brings me to my main point, which is that it’s I really do like it here, but I don’t know if it’s because of the area or what SAP affords me. That said; it’s hard to beat the combination.


Compared with Chicago, my former home, the weather here is completely enjoyable and the landscape can be beautiful. I’m avid bicyclist. In Chicago, we had essentially one route to ride, north and south parallel with the lake, completely flat, like a pancake. Here, we have 360-degree to ride, offering every terrain except the desert and the Alps – there’s the hills and countryside in Kraichgau, the forests and small mountains in the direction of the Odenwald, and flat terrain of surrounding the Rhine.