Two hearts

Now I am back in Berlin, Germany and it has been two months ago that I was leaving Gothenburg. 

Leaving again, as it was my second time I was working there. This time much longer and in town. 

Thinking back now and watching the pics I have made. I feel my heart pounding. In a god way and it is also interesting, as it is more then I expected. 

As starting again in Berlin has become much more different as planed, I wonder, but have no regrets. 

You know, it seldom goes the way as planed and in the end mostly you see why this was better. 

Thought it can be a challenge to have patience with yourself and how things are going on.

One is to discover that bureaucracy has become worse since 2013 when it is to work in another country. Had I known this, maybe things have already went another way. But so it is and I have to do as needed. 

Even when I know much more then before that my heart is bound to Berlin, I still have part of it in Gothenburg. Of course, it never was such a bad place. It was the other way round and above the trouble I had, I had a god time and working there was nice and I learned so much. 

Lucky as I am, I am still in contact with my colleagues and that is a very nice feeling.

When I was in Thailand in January, I felt leaving was right and in the same time it began to feel like all what was happening is from a long time ago. Same now with my feelings of the Thailand journey. Feels already as it is from another life. Pictures can't bring back the feeling you had when you've been there. It's a memory of the fact what you felt. 

So looking at the picture from Gothenburg, I see the beauty and understand how easy it is to look over what was not so nice. In my mind I know the problems I had and why some things bothered me. But looking back is kind of doing it with a soft eye. 

Crazy thing is, when I am here I miss the other town. If I am there I miss my town here. Even known that I am more a -Berliner- and feel very comfortable here with all the things going on in town here, I sometimes still wonder, if I could live again soon in Gothenburg or Stockholm. But when I look on the job/ work I wanna do- I know I'll stay here quite a while. 

No, working in Sweden was nice, but how it went on was not the way I expected. But you live to learn and see how you can find the right way. 

Of course I am maybe thinking too much and just now I have more time as planed for such.

I wait for the time to know, how does it feel when I am working and learning again in Berlin. And how will it feel when I am back in Gothenburg to see my friends, colleagues and the places I worked at. 

When I left I was not that sure if Sweden would play a bigger part in my future. Now I think, it will, but maybe not that big just now, but maybe, many years from now I try it again, but who knows how the world, the politic and the private life will change. Maybe I first try England, as I am very curious to see how living there would be. So making my next journey when I have my holidays is already planed.

Yes, I am one of those who have to see the world, to try the things on other places and find out, if there is a place I am gonna settle down for a couple of years. 

I am free. Still have just myself to feed and pay my own bills. 

Sure not getting any younger but who can tell me it is impossible to try? No one! 

LOVE & LIGHT

licorice ice cream

an now Germany/ Alexanderplatz- Berlin

To find a job in another country

You maybe have read that I have come to Sweden and am actually working here but how did I do this and why in the world Sweden? 
Well, first of all, the love to this country became slowly bigger with the years I was visiting this country and my friends I have there and got over the years- so each year a new one- kind of. 
It was one day that I came out of the plane and breath the air and the first though was - home- in swedish. That was the moment I knew I will try it but before I cold look out for a job I had to learn the language. 
It took me three years to be ready and this is something all should think about before moving to another country. Because most jobs need you to talk to and the understanding of people. So you need to be able to talk about minimum 1000 words and to understand about 3000.  Sounds not much but in our every day life we use about 300- 400 different words. 
So three years is a realistic plan before you actually start for seeking a job. 
Well, some jobs do not need that much knowledge but be aware that the language is most important if you will succeed. Because after all you will need people and friends around you who can tell you things you never learn from a book, you'll never watch on TV. In time of Facebook it is a good thing also to search for people to get to know from  the country you want to move to, because they can help you with ideas where to look out for a job. It's very different from country to country so look out for that at home, on the internet, on the webpages of the town you want to move to or from the country. Those webpages use to have good advice where and how to search for job and what you need. 
Now back to my own journey. After three years, I searched for job and this was about to find a summer job, which means you just work a couple of months while others have holiday. This is a good chance to test and start a life in another country.
And while many will give up everything home, I did not gave up my flat, which was very good although I rented it to the wrong people and could have payed the same if the flat was not rented. But so is life and I can now recommend only to rent to friends or take an rent office to help you and make sure you get the right people. 
So I started my work in a little town in south Sweden which is around 2,5 hour away from Gothenburg.
This is something you should think about too. Start somewhere if able and see how it goes and if you start in a small town then you have also the chance to see if you can get through times with not much going on around you. Usually after the first job it is easy to get a job for a longer time or the next job for a couple of months. But as it is these days, maybe you have to go home and work there again and then try another time again in another town. So don't have to much baggage with you. 
How to send an application? This is something you should find out first after learning the language. For it is also a very different thing from country to country. In Sweden most job are to find on the internet and you send you interest per e-mail. And always write in the language of the country but be sure you can speak the way you write. They expect you to be that good what they read. 
Next thing is of course to make sure that your certificate is valid in the new country or you have the version you need. Make sure they except your education. And find out what is different from the way you work in your country and the way you do the same job in the new homeland, because this will be one of the questions when you have your interview. 

Now this time I had not only the luck of a short searching time (last time it took me next to a half year) I also knew where to search for job because I had already the plan to stay for longer then just three, four months. So I searched in Gothenburg, Stockholm and Borås, which is an hour away from Gothenburg. 
So the pics you see in the end of this blog are all from Borås, a very nice but little town not far away and because I trained my swedish all the years I could vote for the job I thought was best for me and the future here in Sweden. 

So... Be positive and have many good reasons why you want to work on the new place and what makes you able to work there. Some jobs are more easy to get as others but never forget after all no one needs you, so make them needing you. :-)
And then, three years is also a good time to collect some money on your bank. You will surly need it. It is never cheap to move and search for a new job, new home and new friends. 

And if you have all this ... well don't be shy to speak and tell people to correct you if you speak wrong or use words which are right but don't fit in. Even say thank you as much as you can and show them that you understood what they said. That way they trust you more and will also be more sure about you, because after all the most care about you. 

See, this does not sound too bad, doesn't it. It's like with so many things in life, be free to do what you want, but try to be smart with that, because success will be more able that way. And of course you have to want it in your heart and take it in the same time easy as possible, because your luck does never depend on the way you planed it, it depends on the way you think.

So think positive and take it as it comes. Even know you'll be afraid or feel this little fair in the back of your heart. It is always worth it. As long you are open for every test, you'll get through it.

LOVE & LIGHT

go on the pic and you have it big

Sweden and a new way has open up

What a beautiful day. The sun is upon the sky, it's warm and summer is on it's best. No holiday season for me but a new job and a new town and new challenges. 
Again my ways have lead me to Sweden. Gothenburg is it now where I started my summer work as a nurse for people at home who needs help and for old people in nursing homes. 
Thought the education is the same in both countries the work is quite different. As a nurse in Germany you have to do a lot of work which includes washing, taking off and on the clothes of people, making the meal and then of course all the classic nurse things like all around the medicine, discussion, advices and working together with the doctors. 
In Sweden it is more about administrative working and thinking, talking a lot, having discussion and doing advices and giving out the medicine and also do a bit of doctors work and taking all the blood to the labor. So, while in Germany the work with nurse assistants is very close and you have a lot heavy body work to do, it is in Sweden less working with the assistants and no heavy body work, though you talk a lot with the assistants and tell them what to do, for they are allowed to to more then in Germany- like giving medicine -the nurse made sure before. 
And while taking a blood test as a nurse in Germany is only allowed in hospitals and doctors practice it is a very common thing in Sweden to do. 
A challenge for me, as this was five years ago my last time I did take a blood test on someone else. 
But as it is I have the luck of colleagues some came from other countries too so they know very well the problem you can get into when you start a work in another country and with this I also mean the language. It's best to know more then some words otherwise they will not help you that much for this is too much work for them. They already have enough to do with they own work and so helping you a bit is o.k. but you have to understand them. Especially when you are going to work with a lot of people and even have to make calls you should have a good way into the new language. 

Just now it is the summer job and then the next one till the end of the year, but back to the summer job- things go on a bit slowly in many ways for it is holiday time in Sweden and this means that many people are not to reach, to ask or even the bureaucracy can take time cos many stores and offices are simple closed the hole month. 
And as we talk about bureaucracy, well it is everywhere your luck with the people who work in the offices. So same old story in most countries. Have patience and be positive, know your rights and don't be shy to sometimes to protest what they may tell or write you. 

But where do I live now? Not in Berlin, although I still have my flat there but for not long. As it is in Sweden it is known that you have to have your luck to find a flat or a house to rent or by is a thing of time and big luck and of course the connections you have. So I am a lucky guy to live and rent a room at a friends friend home. Because without your personal number you won't get much here and won't get far as this number is kind of the most important thing in every day life. This number gives you the right to go to a doctor and please for help and not paying all on your own. This number can give you a mobile you need for private life and job. This number gives you the right to rent a house, a car or whatever. But be sure you don't only have this number, make sure they write you in the book of folk- kind of, because then your are to find in the system and then you are free to do all the things I named. Otherwise it is just a register number who doesn't help much and you are paying for everything but have no right t.ex. for health insurance. 
If you now think this is enough with challenges, you're wrong. What you're gonna eat. This is to find out and so I am out shopping on different places, looking on the prices and quality and taste. As much as I already know a lot of the food in Sweden, there is still much to learn when you live here and really have to buy for life. Sweden is after all not a cheap country, even though your wage is not the baddest. 
But going out is really expensive as a you may heard. The alcohol is a kind of bling bling hobby. Be sure you have money on the bank. A big beer can cost you around 9 Euro. Just one. But surly when you're out in summer in Sweden enough people will surround you because it may cost a bit, they do go out, have fun and meet friends. 
A thing I am very grateful for is, having friends, because I already have some friends in Gothenburg and this makes everything a bit more easier and I have someone I can ask. 
Last time, five years ago, I had some friends too, but I was not living in Gothenburg and worked in a little but very nice town called Skara. So it was mostly to be on my own which was fine and a very strange and good experience. But knowing my friends around me and being able to visit them in an half hour is making this new stay here much easier. Cos this time the work and the earnest and the new direction of my own future makes it kind of a hard work to get in. 
The first days I had my problems to hang with all the things and what people where talking. My head was telling me to take it slowly but I wanted to hang with, then my ear became hot for two days because I so much tried to listen, but here you see, you can be good in the new language but it is a difference if you have to deal with it every day. And I was so tired as I was never before when I started a new job on new places. Now all became much better. My brain does not need so long to start and become warm like a car to work best and my ears can hear better and better and all the slang and accents become better to understand for me and the times I feel tire are fading. Still there are challenges I know are coming but I will make it through everything. 
You know last time it was to prove if I could ever live and work in Sweden. 
I found out I could and felt home and do it till today. Last time I decided to move to Sweden but things went another way which I am lucky now. 
Now I tell you that I try it again and in the same time it's kind of moving for real. Cos I belong no longer to Berlin, though I have a lot of dearest friends there but also a lot all around the world. But you know, I just take it step by step now for I feel that if this seems not to work out at the end, it's less a problem, it's just the way it is. So I try my best and see what's coming. 
Maybe that's the real change when you visit and learn and live in other countries. The place you live is a place you live as long as it is meant to be and you have easy to go on to a new place. 
You can read and travel that way, but you learn more when you really travel and with that I mean not only the tourist streets but also to take the sideways. 

Is it about the people? Or is it about the work? I think those both are part of the decision but at last it is something inside you that makes the real decision to move to a new place. And when you have traveled a while and have also friends who did and do, you also learn there is always something to compromise. 
Well, then you .. maybe, you just do, because you feel free to do, although everyone is free to do so but most of us are so into the -but- and -if- and have reason they tell you, all because it's just the fear inside of change, of the courage you have inside. 
Sure many people will move to another country because it seems so much better and the work is better the people are nicer and on and on, but most never really took the sideways, never really stayed a longer time to really see how people live, work or even talk, many forget to watch TV or read the newspaper because if they did they would learn a lot about the country. So for many it is a big surprise when they do the move and suddenly all seems different. Some give up, some learn some never learn but stay. This is the way we do when we move. But to be true, however you do it, it is always right and when the time is over, then a new way is on to be walked through. You maybe live in Sweden and while watching the TV program you learn to become a lover of Great Britain. So maybe your steps will lead you there at the end in a couple of years. Everything can happen.
And now... some pictures I took...

"midsommar" in the park

one of the many ferries 

licorice ice-- you'll want it, it's like a drug!

these are very typical flowers in end of spring/ beginning of summer

this is actually a tram station under the earth and it looks much like being in Stockholm

3 big hotels, but actually it's the same and on the right side you come to the amusement park #Liseberg

yes swedish summers can be light and hot

not without a bus

this is also a part of Gotheburg

part of the central station where you wait for the busses

being inside the university Chalmers which is on the Lindholms piers 

next to the central station we have all the trams... 

LOVE & LIGHT