Now where was I?

Whew, that was fun! I feel like I've been on vacation for the past two weeks. I think I managed to attend Oktoberfest 8 or 9 times - so at least half of the days. Impressive that I'm still standing, no?

The major thing I learned from my marathon of festing is this: if you don't have a reservation, go during the week, and go early! There was a huge difference in crowd level between weekends (including Fridays) and weekdays. On a weekday one can get a seat in pretty much any tent for lunch and some afternoon drinking, without waiting in line or getting shoved around by too many drunken frat boys. The music is a little more low-key and traditional during the day, but it picks up in the early evening, which is about the same time that the dancing on the benches starts. Speaking of Oktoberfest music, how long until I get these songs out of my head? (The playlists at the tents are very repetitive, to say the least.)

Now I've got about four days of 'normal life' before visitors and travel descend upon me again. So, if I've owed you an email for the past month or so, expect to finally get a reply this week. Right after I hose down the apartment. And figure out what to do with 50 green tomatoes...

7 internet resources to help you find a job in Germany

As a follow-up to my post about how to find a job in Europe, here are some of the specific websites out there that can help with your job search if you're hoping to end up in Germany. Happy hunting.

Xing.* In addition to LinkedIn and Plaxo, a popular networking site in Germany in particular is Xing. The only problem with Xing is that if you don’t already know many people in Germany, you might not find many people to connect with at first. But filling in your complete profile may still be a good idea, as I hear that recruiters and headhunters use the site a lot. There is a free level of membership and also a paid 'premium' membership available, and there are searchable job listings with plenty of Germany-based stuff.

LinkedIn* is a networking site similar to Xing, but with a more international membership base (so if your contacts are mostly outside of Germany, you may have a better chance of finding people to link to here). It also has job listings searchable by city or postal code. One cool feature is that it will help you figure out if you have any contacts or contacts-of-contacts who work at a particular company you may be looking to work for.

JobsinMunich.com. This site claims to list jobs targeted at 'English-speaking professionals'. All in English.

JobScout24. This site is in German, but is probably navigable with just some basic knowledge and educated guessing. Use 'English' as a search term (Suchbegriff) to pull up many listings in English.

Monster.de. Just like Monster.com, except for Germany-based. Lots of job listings. Also in German.

Toytown Germany. This big community site for expats in Germany has smaller message boards dedicated to employment offered and employment sought. It also contains various wiki pages that list companies in Germany by industry or area (for example, here's a page on international companies in Munich).

And don't forget to check out the websites of individual companies that interest you. Some of Germany's largest employers include DaimlerChrysler, BMW and Siemens, but even smaller players such as AutoDesk and Infineon are big into hiring expats.
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* If you happen to know me in real life, feel free to add me as a contact on Xing or LinkedIn.

Have you found any other websites to be useful for a job search in Germany? What about for other European countries?

Adventures in cross-cultural gynecology

Two short stories for you from my recent trip to the gynecologist in Munich:

Story #1: The waiting room was quite full, and the women were getting restless. Glimpsing the crowd, the doctor came out to loosen us up with a joke (here translated by me from the German): “What’s the difference between an Ossi* and a Turk?.... The Turk has a job and speaks German.”

I wondered if there were any Ossis in the crowd.


Story #2: My name finally gets called, and I go in to see the doctor. Upon hearing my accent (or perhaps from reading my name off the chart), he asks where I’m from. “New York” I say. His response: “The pretzels in New York City are awful! So soft! Horrible!”

At least he didn’t try to blame me for it.

* Ossi is slang for a person from East Germany.

7 tips for finding a job in Europe

(The tips in this post are aimed at Americans wanting to work in Europe, but most of the information is valid for those of other nationalities, as well.)

So you want to get a job in Europe, but you have no idea how to go about such a thing? It might be easier than you think. First of all, it helps a lot to have some sort of special skills, since an employer will probably need to be able to justify why you, a foreigner, were the best applicant for the job. Luck for you, fluent English can count as this needed special skill for a variety of positions. Obviously, specialized and advanced degrees can help too, as can relevant job experience. What you don’t necessarily need is a pre-existing work permit, company connections, or foreign language knowledge.

Got marketable skillz skills? Good. No more excuses - now polish up your resume and get searching. Here are some suggestions to get you going:

Open your mind wide. I know, this is the cheesiest job-searching tip ever, but I’m telling you the number one reason people fail to land fabulous jobs abroad is a closed mind. Sure, maybe you’ll be able to land job X at company Y in country Z, but the narrower your target, the narrower your chances. Instead, try to focus on all the different ways this could work out for you. Spend time brainstorming about the types of positions and companies that would interest you. Be willing to browse through job listings for things you aren’t sure about at first. Ask yourself whether your self-set criteria are necessary, and be open to considering changes. OK, now on to the more concrete stuff…

Online networking. Sign yourself up for LinkedIn, Plaxo Pulse, and whatever other sites you can stand. Link to as many folks as possible. Poke around to see who they know in the countries or companies you are interested in. You never know which long-lost high school friend may have ended up as a hiring manager in Paris...

Monster.countryofyourchoice. Monster.com has sites set up specifically for many different countries, including 20 in Europe. This can be a good starting point to browse the local offerings and get a feel for what companies are hiring. If you don’t know where to start your search, go with the keyword “English” (and/or the word for English in the local language, if you speak it).

Multinational corporations. In my experience, larger companies are less likely to balk at a foreign hire who will need a little paperwork filed for a work permit. Plus many of them use English as their official language even in non-English-speaking countries, so these are a good target if you don’t happen to speak other local languages. Check out company home pages, which these days usually offer a list of open positions searchable by location.

Universities, NGOs, and non-profits. Idealist.org does have some international job listings, but you are most likely to find these types of jobs on the websites of the entities themselves.

Internal transfers. Does your current company have any European offices? See if they’ll hook you up with an expat gig.

Expat websites. Many countries and major cities in Europe have one or more websites where expats gather virtually to share information and socialize. Employment is a topic that comes up often on these. Poke around for helpful information.

See also: 7 internet resources to help you find a job in Germany

If you have a job in Europe, how did you find it?

Where am I supposed to ride this again?

Gotta love superfluous English. Although at least the 'outdoor' on my new bike makes a little more sense than the 'street racer' written in big letters on my skis. (Or could it be that I've been using my skis in the completely wrong environment all these years?)

Not unlike skiing, I learned to ride a bike too late in life to be very good at it. But cycling seems to be such a fun and convenient way to get around in Munich that I figured I might as well give it a try - while investing as little money as possible in the actual bike in case I only end up using it once. Nice bikes supposedly get stolen quite regularly in Munich, so I'm probably better off with my no-name 'outdoor' bike, anyway. Now to figure out the rules of the bike path...

Chocolate chips for expats

As ubiquitous as they are in the US, chocolate chips are practically unheard-of in the rest of the world's supermarkets. Sometimes the clever expat must improvise:

1. Unwrap a bunch of dark chocolate bars (extra bonus step - freeze them first)
2. put them in a ziplock bag and seal it
3. break up the chocolate in the manner of your choosing (drop the bag on the floor several times, take a wooden mallet to it, etc. etc. Be creative!)

This little tip isn't new... in fact American expats have been making their own chocolate chips using this method for decades, if not centuries. But when a fresh-off-the-boat gal from Florida asked me about chocolate chips the other day, it reminded me that not everyone knows this ancient expat secret.

Here's a little bonus tip: in place of brown sugar, use white sugar plus a tablespoon or so of molasses. Now go forth and make cookies to dazzle your host countrymen!

Bonus tip #2: don't even think of using those vanilla-flavored sugar packets sold in Germany as a substitute for vanilla extract. In my experience, real vanilla extract is one of the very few food items still worth smuggling over from the US. Unless you live in Zurich and can buy it at El Maiz, that is. If someone has a source in Munich that isn't absurdly expensive, please share!

I made these cookies for our Eurovision party tomorrow night. I can hardly wait! I think so far Azerbaijan is my favorite, but I haven't finished watching part two of the semifinals yet. How can you not love this act?

Uncounted

Last night we attended a Democrats Anonymous Abroad meeting here is Munich, where we watched and discussed the documentary Uncounted. The film explores the ways in which the outcomes have been manipulated in recent US elections, how vast quantities of people were not allowed to vote, and how vast quantities of cast votes went uncounted. It is hard to watch, deeply disturbing, and important. I encourage every American to watch this documentary. Here's the trailer:


You can order a region-free DVD from the Uncounted website by following the instructions for a special request. I also encourage Americans living overseas to register to vote from abroad. It's easy!

Munich: the first quarterly report

Our first three months in Munich have flown by. Well, on one hand it has felt fast, and on the other it feels like we've been here forever. Since I've lived in Germany before and speak passable German, it was a pretty soft landing. It also helped that we were able to move into our permanent apartment right away, and for once there were no delays in receiving our belongings. The immigration process involved a couple of ridiculous hoops, but luckily we had company lawyers to assist us in jumping through them. And overall the process was much closer to the über-efficiency of Switzerland than the clusterfuck of Italy.

Although I feel quite at home in Munich already, there are still plenty of things I don't know about the city. When people try to describe where certain things are, I often stare blankly, not having a clue where the mentioned streets or landmarks are. I've never been particularly good at street names, anyway, and if you consider that my brain is already full of mental maps of about 20 previous cities of residence, it's a wonder I can even remember my own address (which I do, most of the time, except for the zip code, which sounds kind of lame, but can I impress you with the fact that I still know my zip code from when I lived in Bologna 12 years ago? No? I didn't think so.). I wonder how long I can get away with this before the "I'm new here" excuse wears off and I start to sound like a scary recluse who never leaves her house.

We still don't know very many people here, but we have met some great folks and started to make some friends. Meeting other expats is pretty easy (even though I tend to dread large happy-hour-type get-togethers), but I wish we had more social contact with locals. This is one of the perpetual challenges that foreigners seem to face all over the world, to varying degrees. (I have much more to say on this topic, but I think I'll leave that for a post of its own.)

Munich has a lot going for it in terms of livability: safety, cleanliness, good public transport, good & affordable restaurants, good beer, good pubs, green areas, nice architecture, and so on and so on. Not to mention the cheesy pretzels. So far I'm really liking it here. And with beer garden season around the corner, I'm thinking it can only get better.

Watch out Autobahn, here I come

[Headbang8, I recommend skipping this post...]

Woo hoo, let's hear it for efficient bureaucracy! (And you thought that was an oxymoron.) Although not quite as speedy as in Switzerland, we have managed to procure ourselves some German driver's licenses, and it was relatively pain-free.

Whereas in Switzerland all US licenses are equally and deliciously exchangeable for Swiss ones, in Germany some US licenses are more equal than others. Depending on which state issued your license, you may be subjected to a written exam, a practical exam, both, or neither (you can check out how your US license stacks up here).

Or you could just trade in your Swiss license and be done with it. That is, if you happen to be lucky enough to have one.

It took two trips out to the big old German DMV (or Fahrerlaubnisbehörde - how's that for a beautiful word?), each visit involving a token amount of waiting (less than half an hour in each case). Apparently the Germans don't trust their postal system as much as the Swiss do, because instead of mailing us the licenses when they were ready, they mailed us a piece of paper inviting us to come pick them up. And while Switzerland let us keep our US licenses, Germany held on to our Swiss ones. But still, the whole process was simple and not overly paperwork-laden, and our German licenses are the magical kind that never expire. Yippee!

In which I achieve Bavarian culinary genius with the aid of my freezer

Before we even moved here I had noticed the vast superiority of Bavarian cheesy pretzels to their Swiss counterparts. But never did I dream that a yet more delicious version of cheesy pretzels existed.

Let me back up a bit and tell you about our freezer situation. Unlike in the US, freezers do not seem to be considered an essential kitchen feature in much of Europe. In Zurich, our freezer was about the size of a shoe box, and could hold a couple ice cube trays and about one package of frozen food. The entire refrigerator was smaller than what you would find in a typical college dorm room in the US.

Here in Munich, the refrigerator that came with the apartment didn't have a freezer at all. Obviously this wouldn't do at all, as ice is a staple of my diet. So we bought a freezer. It's still small compared to what you would find in an American home, but it's freakin' huge compared to what we had in Switzerland. So to celebrate its arrival, I went for a long stroll through the freezer aisle at the grocery store, marveling at all the exciting stuff that was now available to me. Frozen berries, frozen veggies... what's this? Frozen pretzel dough? Into to the cart!

OK, now cheesy pretzels from the bakery are one thing, but cheesy pretzels fresh out of my own oven, with melting cheese oozing all over the place, are a little slice of heaven.

Munich: random thoughts for the day #3

• German raclette cheese is not the same as Swiss raclette cheese. The German version is much, much stinkier.

• We did a quick-and-dirty blind taste test of 3 locally-available Weissbiers the other day (why only 3? Because that's how many Weissbier glasses we have at home. Yes, we need more): both Paulaner and Franziskaner were deemed to be highly drinkable, while Erdinger disappointed. But I still love our Erdinger soccer ball glass.

• Interesting article about how the Holocaust is being taught in German schools these days: No Laughs, No Thrills, and Vilians All Too Real.

• I know it's from a McDonald's commercial, but I can't help but love the word Schmektakel.

Have Vonage? Cancel it.

But not really.

First of all, I'm sure plenty of you are wondering what Vonage is. Simply put, it's an awesome service that has allowed us to keep our last US home number through four countries now. Friends, family, and business contacts in the US can call us on our old US number, and a phone in our German (or Swiss or Italian) apartment rings. We have a box from Vonage that we hook up to our high-speed internet and a telephone, and we're good to go. Voicemail messages get sent to us via email, so even when we don't have the Vonage box with us, we can find out who has tried to contact us and hear the messages.

Now on to why you should cancel if you have it. I have it on good authority (ie, not only have I tried this, but one other person I know, too) that Vonage is willing to offer two free months of service to customers who want to cancel their accounts. Just call to cancel (the only way to cancel is by 1-800 number - very annoying when we wanted to cancel but didn't have the Vonage phone to make the call from!), and hold out until they offer you two free months of service to stay. Woo hoo, free phone!

So why did we want to cancel? It's a little pricey if you don't make that many calls. For us, we pay around $20 per month for up to 500 minutes of outgoing calls. While we have been happy with the service so far, we realize that we probably don't make/receive enough calls to the US per month to justify spending $20 for a US line, especially given how rarely our friends and family in the US bother to call us (want to prove me wrong? Call us! Just remember the time difference...).

There are numerous other cheap international calling schemes out there, too. Skype is probably the most famous (but didn't work with our crappy Swiss internet, so neither of us is in the habit of using it). We're also test-driving Rebtel right now. I'll let you know if we like it.

What do you other expats use to make phone calls to the US?

Too much screwing

This afternoon I was going to finally finish putting together our Ikea guest bed. I had plenty of time set aside, so I should have been able to get it done today, right? Except I forgot about the screwing. Or rather, I forgot about how painful non-stop screwing can be. My palms are red and raw from constantly rubbing against the end of the screwdriver. And as you can see from the photo, there is still a lot of screwing left to be done. Oh, the glamorous life of an expat!

So, um, no guests yet.

Hmmm... wonder what kind of search engine traffic this post is going to bring in?

Not going home to Zurich

After over a month of sleeping in my own bed (for a change), it was time to move around a little bit. So last week I hopped on a train and headed back to Zurich for a quick visit.

It's always strange to go back to a former home city for the first time. It's like talking to a former boyfriend you haven't seen since the break-up. There's so much familiarity, but you know your relationship as you knew it was over. You're not sure how it will play out from here. Shut up, I never said I was good at metaphors.

Zurich is more familiar than Munich, but I don't live there any more. I'm also not Swiss, and I'm not from Zurich, so what is our relationship? Do we mean anything at all to each other now? Am I just a tourist when I go there now?

Despite my best efforts to temporarily un-degrüezi-fy my vocabulary, I seemed to be tossing around "Gruβ Gott!" left and right. I'm tempted to drop all regional greetings from my vocabulary entirely and reverting to the textbook "Guten Tag" no matter where I am...

Naturally I fit in a trip to Sprüngli to pick up some Valentine's Day truffles for my husband (hey, I'm a good wife), but the highlight of the trip was definitely seeing my Zurich-based friends. I miss them!

Munich: random thoughts for the day #2

• Who the hell convinced the Germans that orange cheese-like-food in a spray can is an essential part of the American diet? This stuff makes an appearance in every single "American Foods" section of every single grocery store in all of Germany. This is not a new thing, either - I remember seeing spray cheese at the KaDeWe in Berlin way back in the 90s, when their American food section consisted of little more than that, marshmallow fluff, Dr. Pepper, and DM10 jars of salsa. What do you think it would take to get the international food stockers to forgo the cheese in favor of some real American essentials, like vanilla extract and peanut butter cups?

• I'd just like to mention how cool it is to live in a neighborhood (and city, for that matter) which has more than two grocery store chains (I'm looking at you, Zurich). Oh, the choices!

• The Germans just won't quit until beer really is good for you. I like that.

• All I can say is kudos, CNN, for breaking the latest Britney Spears news even before MTV did (um, not that I've been sitting around watching Date My Mom all afternoon or anything like that...). That's some quality international reporting right there.

• This beautiful building? Oh, that's just our neighborhood swimming pool.

A couple political notes for you Americans abroad

1) Dr. Sara appeals to us all to write our congresspeople about how ridiculously lame we find it that we as Americans abroad are expected to pay taxes in two countries. Pretty much every other government in the world has figured out that this is a lame way to treat expats; hopefully this proposed bill will straighten things out. By the way, your congresspeople are the representatives from the last state in which you legally resided in the US. You can vote for them (or against them), so that means they have to listen to you. Ha!

2) The US government may see us as double-tax-paying suckers, but at least the Democratic party loves us. Democrats Anonymous Abroad is sending 22 delegates to the DNC, and if you register on the Democrats Abroad website by January 31st (ie, tomorrow), you too can take part in the primary voting. You can also register to receive your absentee ballots for any and all upcoming elections using their handy Vote From Abroad wizard.

OK, back to my usual posture of closing my eyes, plugging my ears, and singing LALALALALA whenever US politics comes up.

Great chieftan o the puddin' race!

Yesterday evening we were honored to be guests at a traditional Scottish Burns Night, the essential ingredients for which are haggis, whisky (are you Scots out there appreciating my spelling?), and a little poetry. The men in kilts were just an added bonus.

We learned a lot about Scottish culture while sipping on the delicious, warming whisky, important facts such as what kind of shoes are worn with a kilt, why haggis is better than salmon, and a variety of uses for the word 'pudding'.

You've never seen a folk more enamored with their national dish than the Scots and their haggis. This love of a dish based on sheep entrails is hard for a vegetarian like myself to understand. But indeed, the Scots consider haggis so important that they want to make sure that everyone gets a chance to partake: there's even a vegetarian version (entrail-free, naturally).

Without further ado, I give you the dramatic interpretation of Robert Burn's poem 'To A Haggis':


A poem for a haggis from zurika on Vimeo.

I wasn't able to coax anyone into proclaiming 'If it's not Scottish it's crap!' (mainly due to a lack of concerted effort on my part), but there's always next year... lucky for me Burns Night is celebrated each and every January 25th.

So you want to move to Zurich? Have I got some tips for you

Midsummer Night’s Knitter asked me a bit ago if I had any advice for someone moving to Zurich. While I certainly don’t feel like an expert on the subject, I suppose I might have some useful things to suggest after 2 years here. At least I should, shouldn't I? I mean, it would be pretty pathetic if I had spent all this time here and not learned anything useful... So here’s what I came up with:

1. Read Living and Working in Switzerland. It has its faults (like how it perpetuates scary myths about Swiss apartment house rules) but overall it’s pretty useful info to help you feel more prepared.
   
   
2. If you plan on exploring Switzerland by train (which I highly recommend), consider getting a GA card. This is something I wish we had done, but we didn’t consider it soon enough. It’s an investment, but it pays for itself if you’re a frequent traveler. Plus the money goes to a good cause (Swiss public transportation counts as a good cause in my book – I love it so much I once wrote a poem about it). Plus no buying tickets. Plus when you know the trip is already paid for, you’re more likely to jump off the couch and go get to know a new city or Alp on any given day. If you don’t get a GA, definitely get a half-fare card. These things pay for themselves with one or two trips.
   
   
3. Random grocery advice: sign up for a Migros card right away (they send you coupons for free money!); get outside the big chain supermarkets some and shop at the outdoor markets, your local Reformhaus, and specialty shops such as Asian groceries and El Maiz.
   
   
4. Zurich things to see/do at least once: Street Parade, Sechseläuten, a movie on the lake, the Kunsthaus, the food basement at Globus (the cheese counter has cheddar), the Limmat Swim, the Uetliberg, the zoo, the Christkindli Markt, ice skating, swimming in the lake, a Laughing Lemon class, museum night, the Blinde Kuh, Expovina, an evening stroll down Langstrasse.
   
   
5. Things to see/do on day or weekend trips from Zurich: a cow parade, Murren, Fribourg, Lucerne, Bern, sledding, skiing, Basel, Art Basel, the Matterhorn, Bellinzona, Lugano, Rapperswil, Milan, Strasbourg, Colmar.

I’m sure I’ll think of more to add later…

Ask the serial expat

I’ve received a bunch of questions, both here on the blog and in person, related to our decision to leave Switzerland for yet another expat adventure. Below are some of the most common. Think of this post as a serial expat FAQ.

Why do you keep moving? Don’t you want to settle down?

I always assumed I’d get the urge to settle down sooner or later, but so far that just hasn’t happened. If anything, the opposite has become true – each new city reinforces my love of living in new places. Daily life becomes an adventure when you’re somewhere new – new foods, shops, languages, restaurants, streets, and so on and so on. Yes, there are some negative aspects to a move (leaving behind friends, move logistics, etc.), but to me the stress is more than worth it for the chance to intimately get to know another new city and country. I’ve very, very lucky that my husband feels the same way.

Why leave? What’s wrong with Switzerland?

It’s not that there’s anything particularly wrong with Switzerland. Life here has its share of good points and bad points, just like anywhere else. We’re not leaving because of some intolerable situation, but more out of a desire to move on to something else. Overall we’ve really enjoyed our time in Switzerland, and it will always have a place in our heart. (Is that the sappiest thing I have ever said? I think it might be…)

How is it that you can work in Europe? Aren’t work permits hard to get?

Getting a job in a foreign country is not as hard as many people think, especially if you have certain qualifications (such as a degree in something useful – for example my husband is an engineer, and I have an MBA in international management) and are willing to be flexible. The legal process for an American looking to work in Europe is usually pretty painless*, as long as you can find a company that wants to hire you enough.

I could never live in a foreign country.** I have kids/ a gerbil/ rabies/ acute xenophobia/ lives to save/ asses to scratch/ something important going on in my life that you obviously don’t have.

Nobody’s asking you to move. You don’t have to tell me your reasons or excuses. Really, it's perfectly fine for you to make different life choices than I do. [I know this one isn’t actually a question, but it’s something I hear all the time.]

So, any more questions?

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* With the exception of Italy. Anything involving Italian bureaucracy is by default extremely painful.

** If you really, really wanted to, I bet you could. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a legitimate excuse from someone as to why they can’t.

How do you choose a new country?

We will soon be leaving Switzerland.

As I deliberate over international move number seven, I realize that the process has become much different over the years. The more experience I gain abroad, the more opinionated I become regarding what I want out of my next home.

You don’t always know enough about your possible future host country to consider many different factors – you just have to jump in with both feet and see what happens. But in our current situation, we know a decent amount about our two top contenders. As it turns out, this isn’t making the decision any easier.

Just a few of the factors on our long, long list:

• Language: we are looking forward to escaping the 2-language system of Zurich. Beyond that, how much of a challenge are we up for?
• Travel opportunities: both places offer easy, affordable travel to different cities and countries
• Quality of life: hard to put a finger on, but some cities are just more appealing than others. Factors like public transport, walking areas, parks, a body of water, art and other cultural aspects, outdoor cafes and yummy restaurants all go into the ‘quality of life’ category.
• Friendliness: ever notice how in some cities, everyone you encounter seems to hate you just for existing? This attitude can kind of get to me after a while.
• City size: We like to think of ourselves as big city folk. I thrived in cities like Berlin, New York, and Milan, whereas Zurich has felt a little too small at times. But why do we really need to live in a big city? It’s not like we ever go to the opera or the theater or other things that only a big city can offer. Is it just nice to know they’re there?
• Beer: both locations have considerably better beer than Switzerland, so at least that’s a win-win.

At the end of the day, we have two fabulous opportunities laid out in front of us. Either way we will probably be happy with our choice. But still, it’s a hard choice.

What factors are most important to you when choosing a new home?