Happy New Year!
When I was at school in the 4th or 5th grade, I wrote a project about the Roman God Janus. The powerful image of a head with two faces, one looking forward the other back, has remained with me ever since. Janus, the god of beginnings and transitions, guardian of thresholds, is also the origin of the name January. So it’s fitting to take a look back at what we achieved in 2021 and forward to our aims for English Post in 2022.
The first half of 2021 was dominated by restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic. There were few chances to meet up with friends, join events or go on excursions. We could sit at home, research and write, so at English Post, we maintained our rhythm of publishing weekly articles, sometimes two or three. Highlights included Melissa’s fabulous article titled “Home Sweet Home? My Reverse Culture Shock Experience“; Lydia Taylor’s enlightening “Germany’s Press Freedom Under Pressure” and Merle Sternwender’s articles on Nüremberg’s Volksbad, Hesperiden Gardens, and Stolperstein. Carolina Adams delved into the depths of Germany’s political scene with a trilogy of articles on the federal elections held in September of this year. She gave her personal farewell to Angela Merkel and welcomed Olaf Scholtz as he stepped into some very large shoes. Not forgetting our regular articles such as Philip Weisel’s “Franconian Word of the Month,” a tongue in cheek look at some phrases you are likely to encounter whilst living in the Franconian Metropol, and Lydia Taylor’s fascinating and enlightening interviews of local artists in her Artist of the Month series. My own contributions included an interview with Adam StJohn Lawrence, an article about Flying Taxis coming to Nuremberg as well as on historical subjects. Our appreciation also goes out to Guido Casati and Demir Ibraimov for their wonderful photography. A very special thanks must go to Alice not only for her own excellent photography but also for taking over our social media channels on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Whilst her frequent and talented posts have brought a much-needed exposure to English Post, her organisational verve and constant hard work are crucial to our project. Thanks also to our website Admin, Philip Weisel and people not mentioned here who have also made substantial contributions through the year. We hope you will continue your involvement with English Post.
In August, the English Post signed on to take over the English Stammtisch Facebook group. At a Stammtisch at Bäckerhof, Gemma Snowden handed over the keys. When possible, we continued the regular monthly Stammtisch on the last Thursday evening of the month, engaging with our English speaking community. In August, we also made our first excursion hiking around the lake Brombachsee. We organised several other hikes from then onwards – usually embellished with alcoholic rewards as a true Franconian would! We rounded the year off with our Winternational outdoor Stammtisch at the Rosenau Park. Many thanks to Alice, Carolina, Melissa and Lydia for their energy and superb efforts in making these events possible. Thanks also to Uwe for his promotional assistance. We have made so many friends with these events, and we encourage you to join us in 2022! Hopefully, as the year gets underway, we can look forward to fewer restrictions, more events, more friends and more fun.
In 2022 English Post will be introducing a subscription service. Subscribers will be notified individually about all our upcoming events, English Stammtisch get-togethers, and recent posts.
In 2022 English Post will also be looking for sponsors to continue this project which we started in 2020. Support will be essential to finance the increasing costs, pay authors for their work, and recompense the enormous efforts many people contribute. We hope you will continue to support our venture in the future.
We are looking for more help with writing and editing articles, so if you are interested, please let us know! We would love to have you on board!
If you have any suggestions or wishes for excursions, please let us know. Also if you would like to help organise events, we can always do with some help.
