Expat Perspective: Chris in Freiburg - Arvo Meets Arvo

Welcome to Expat Perspective, a new series of posts by guest writers who come from X but are living long term in Y. Our first post comes courtesy of Chris Mavergames, an American librarian who's recently settled into family life in Southern Germany.

My name is Chris Mavergames and I'm originally from Griffin, Georgia, USA and after spells in New York and London now live in Freiburg, nestled in the Black Forest of Southern Germany. My experience here thus far has been tremendous. It is one of the most beautiful cities I know in the world and is a vibrant university town, which has its benefits - art house cinemas with movies in original language, live music (this past Saturday Howe Gelb, singer of the seminal band Giant Sand was here and Will Oldham played in Basel, Switzerland which is 45 minutes from here on Monday night) and an active social and political community.

On 11 January of this year, our son, Arvo, was born. He was named after the composer Arvo Pärt. Yesterday, we had the good fortune to introduce the littlest Arvo to his namesake! See attached picture. Mr. Pärt is here receiving an honorary doctorate from the University of Freiburg. For more on Freiburg, see freiburg.de .