One way ticket to Germany

Goodbye to Dallas....

Hello to Germany...

You would think after a year and a half of trying to find a job there and all the excitement of finally being with him I would be thinking of him and the lovely romantic time we were going to have together… well sort of… as you can guess from an overseas move, I was rather stressed and exhausted. So much so that when I finally arrived in Germany, I got my terminal wrong and went to the wrong baggage claim… more on that in a moment.

Normally I go through customs with my traditional Q&A session with the patrol officers. They always ask how long I plan to be in Germany. Then they ask the nature of my visit. Sometimes they will look at the other stamps in my passport and ask me questions about my other travels just to confirm it is my passport. This day I was a bit nervous. I had my offer letter from New Firm in hand all set to handle the “issue” I was going to cause with my answers being out of the ordinary. However, when they asked how long I plan to be in Germany, and I answered “permanently”, the man just smiled, stamped my passport and set me on my way. It was lovely just going through the line past all the other people who were actual “issues”.

Normally going to the wrong terminal and baggage claim would not be a big deal. I asked where I should go and they told me if I walked outside I could get to the guarded doors of baggage claim and someone would let me in. Let me preface this by saying that in Germany, you go into baggage claim and only passengers are allowed in there. The area is surrounded by painted glass so you can’t see out into the waiting area (and they can’t see in either). So here I am, after a 12 hour flight (via Frankfurt), ready to see Alex, and I walk outside to the other terminal. As I walk through the waiting area I see my sweet boyfriend and notice that he is talking to other people. As I get closer, I think that the other people look familiar. It turns out that Alex has brought his father and our best friends Christoph and Patrizia and their adorable baby boy Alessandro (who just turned a year old)! They have balloons, flowers and a banner that says “Willkommen” (Welcome)! How lovely could that be?? Except here I am on the outside of where my entrance is supposed to be and botching the plans of a grand surprise they had in mind. Not a problem though, as it was just a great suprise to see them there and seeing little Alessandro and how big he is!

I also forgot to mention, I landed in Germany on October 14, 2007. This was exactly 2 years from the day we met in Washington, D.C.! I chose to travel and arrive on this date due to the significance. Our friends and Alex's dad had such thoughtful gifts for us to celebrate that milestone.

When we got home to Lüneburg, Alex had decorated the place with flowers and a homemade banner saying “Welcome Home!” His dad made me a yummy dish of chicken curry and I am afraid that shortly after that I was fast asleep. I slept for so long that I missed my chance to say goodbye to his Dad. However, I was finally in one place with no plan of needing to move for quite a while. I did not have to worry that it was a matter of time before I had to leave Alex to go back to the States. I was at my home, our home, with Alex! And with that peace of mind, I slept some more!

Can I be a sheep herder in Germany?

Before I can start with my story of finally being in Germany, I thought I should give a bit of background on the efforts to get here. Due to the fact that this is a public blog, I am going to change a few things. Those of you who know me know the names of my companies. So I will refer to my company in the states (the one I worked for in DC, Dallas, and New York) as “G-Firm” and the one I am working for in Germany as “New Firm” (yes, in keeping with the authors Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus).

When I decided I wanted to move to Germany, I was quite tenacious in networking and asking as many questions and trying every option I could think of. I have to say that the number of people at G-Firm that tried to help me would be too many to list. It went from partners to people working for them in the US that were from Germany. I somehow, unknowingly, kept arriving to the same individual with G-Firm in Hamburg (we will call him “T-Man”). He was insistent that there was nothing I could do for a job in Hamburg with G-Firm due to the fact that I was not fluent in German.

So I decided to try other options and avenues. I called a colleague in our London office with the offer to work for him and his tax team but from a home office in Germany – that was not an option that worked. He referred me to another London colleague who thought he could help me. That person referred me to someone else who ended up working along side with T-Man! (why is the world really so small??). I quickly learned that all roads lead to T-Man, so my lack of German was not going to get me a job with G-Firm in Germany. I started giving up and looking into any other option imaginable – English teacher, au pair, even sheep herder (which apparently is a very common occupation in northern Germany!)

However, my colleague of a colleague of a colleague in London was successful in getting me an in person interview/meeting with T-Man of G-Firm in Hamburg, so I was finally getting my feet in the door (literally). I showed up for my meeting wearing my very cute Ann Taylor interview suit that had a 100% success rate in securing job offers. However, Ann’s luck was not going to help me with my lack of German. While the interview was devastating due to the “language block” that kept my brain and mouth from remembering every inch of German I had learned, it did have one positive result. T-Man said that he had a friend who was from the States and worked with New Firm. He said if I was ok with it, he would pass along my resume to him to see if there were any possibilities there.

As you can imagine after months and months, I had become quite good at keeping my hopes down until really given a reason to think otherwise. I truly did not expect to hear from Man’s American friend, so imagine my surprise when I had an email from him requesting a phone interview. After our conversation, he thought I might be successful with another group in his company and that he would refer me to them. I took this information with a grain of salt and carried on with my life. Quite a few months later, I received an email requesting a phone interview with two senior executives of New Firm. We had a great conversation asking about the job and them about me and why I wanted to be in Germany. At then end they said they needed to speak to the managing partner. Again, I figured this was going to be a “not interested in the American girl who is not fluent in German” and did not hold my breath.

Almost a month later, I got the email that the managing partner wanted to call me for another phone interview. The first available time was the next day, so I acted immediately. We had a good conversation as well and for quite a while. The conversation reached that familiar point - the point where you figure they are just going to say they have to check on things and if you’re ever in the area, pop by for a hello or some other brush off like that. I still remember his exact words as I thought he was about to say good-bye. He said “I would like to make you an offer…” It was literally an out of body experience. I floated above my head and watched as I said something in the way of “I accept” and hung up the phone. I had finally done it! I had gotten a job that allowed me to live in Germany and be with Alex; and not at the expense of being a sheep herder!