We might be moving to Germany!

[Aroura]

Temporarily. 

My husband just applied to, and had an interview with, a company that requires one year at their German branch for training.  They are very excited about him, and he is very excited about this opportunity!  He will have a technical interview in 2 to 4 weeks, and within a week or so after that, we will know if he got the job. It's a software automation company.

It seems he has all the skills they are looking for.  They are building a new team, so they want fresh college grads, and it happens that my husbands specific areas of studies and interests neatly align with what they are looking for.  It is a bonus to them (and us) that we are flexible enough to move to another country, and have already taken a special interest in Germany.  

The permanent position is still in Oregon, and it happens to be in my home town, so that is also really great news all around.  After our stay in Germany, we would move to Bend, Oregon.  There would be semi-frequent trips for my husband back and forth, and he likes that as he enjoys travel.  The pay is great, too!

So we now have a very good reason to focus on learning German. I have to admit that although we've continued lessons, it's been more like puttering around in a language than learning it.  I need to do this seriously now.  Even if he does not get this job, a number of the jobs he's looked at are either German based, or have offices in Germany.  So I'd love to develop some kind of skype buddy thing with a German speaker, if anyone is interested?  I did pen pal with Alex for a while, but I slacked off on that (Sorry Alex!).  Also, I think learning to speak it is more important than learning to read/write it, for now.  I have programs a that are teaching me the written part, speaking it with my daughter has been complicated because there is no one to correct us or learn from.

I've got this idea about setting up a "mini-Germany" in our home to force ourselves into immersion, but it seems a lot easier said than done.

Anyway, so 4.25 years of college and stress and very hard work is finally about to pay off for my husband, and for us!  he's got 3 companies that are very interested in him, and 2 of them are German based, so chances are we really will need to take this seriously.

So anyway, I'm very excited!  I've never been to any European country before.  I really hope this all pans out!

What part of Germany? Never mind I read the rest of the thread.

If you ever want to stop in Ireland while you're this side of the water drop me a line.

Ireland is definitely on our "must visit" list, if we get to do this thing.  My husband identifies as Irish almost more than he does as American.  We'd love to meet up!  It'll be a while, like, a year probably, but I'm going to hold you to this

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I do hope you make it to Germany. I really miss being there. I lived there for three years before returning back to Scotland at the beginning of 2015. I want to return there, my husband wants to stay here so he has a chance of finding work. Fair enough. I insist on keeping our options open because we don't know what's going to happen with the second independence referendum in Scotland and how bad it will get after Brexit.

It's a common thing for couples of families to move over because of a job and the spouse not be able to find work because they don't have the necessary language skills. Get yourself on an integration course. They are very cheap because they are funded by the government. Things would have been very different if my husband had done that as opposed to wasting three years stuck at home.

And our house is in the north of Germany so we could meet up next time we fly over. It's in the Harz mountains in Lower Saxony. It's beautiful Hansel and Gretel type country and we'd be able to put you up for a week's holiday. We're always looking to try and get friends over there.

One thing is for sure, when or if you return to America, you won't believe all the bullshit the mass media spout about socialism. You'll see how a country can be properly run for the good of its people and how there can be a very good quality of life.

As for the language, it's quite complex, but it's also very logical. So once you learn it, you know what to expect. Unlike English where you have to learn how to pronounce each word for example. What's more though, I really love the German language. It's fun.

Hung over at a conference? Hah! I accidentally flashed naked pictures of myself during my last presentation at an international conference. No, I'm not going to tell you the story. Just beware other people's laptops with Adobe Photoloader installed.

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I shall just leave this here

That video totally had us rolling on the floor!

Thank you for the advice!  Also for the invitation.  : We would love to visit you there, and give you an excuse to come back to what sounds like a lovely (vacation?) home.  My understanding is that he will have 27 vacation days, and there will also be many weekends where a night or 2 away would be doable.  If we get this, we really plan to make the most of it!