What it means to work abroad

A few days ago, I stumbled upon an article on The Local's website. According to this article I'm not the only qualified immigrant coming to Germany for a piece of the cake. Plenty of us find ourselves in the same situation. We move to a country with a 5.1% unemployment rate (lower than Canada 6.5%), we make a few friends to network, start looking for jobs and realize through the application process that if you don't speak German, your options are very limited.

As a native French speaker I pick up English at a very young age and consider myself lucky to be able to fluently discuss in both languages. Europe is different! The proximity between all of the countries is the cause of a cluster of languages. International companies are looking for people who speak Spanish, Italian, Russian, Arabic, Dutch and the list goes on.

Certain skill sets override the language requirements. I've see a lot of engineering and computer science jobs which require only English. Makes me think about a change of career path sometimes.

As far as I'm concerned, I still have to improve my German skills to be able to pierce through the Communications and Marketing field. I've been actively searching for a position in PR firms, Communications Agencies, bigger companies such as Yahoo, Amazon and a few local craft beer companies (everybody has a dream right?)

I'm currently looking at the job market and the internship dilemma. Stay tuned for my next post.

Munich Monster Bash 2014

Here's a fun one, you know that guy at the concert that's constantly pulling out his state of the art iPhone 4 or Samsung Galaxy to take very high quality pictures from 50 ft away? He's the same guy who's scrambling to take a video of the "new" song or "song we've never played before" from that obscure band and post that masterpiece on Youtube.

I chose to be that guy just to show you that we sort of lost the feeling of what going to a show is all about, the event, the excitement, the exclusivity of it is tossed by the shitty pics and videos that will be archived in our phone and never shown to anyone.

The concert was on a Saturday starting early in the afternoon and like any other concerts it took way too long to get our wristbands and we missed the first band all together.

If you want to check out the place: http://www.zenith-muenchen.de/

 


 Here's a few from the pit, you can't get any closer but if you've ever been in a mosh pit, you know that no image stabilizer in the world will make these pics look good!

 And a bonus picture from this guy wearing some Mute gear (Québec is present in Munich).

Ignite video here.

The Good, The Bad and the Different: Die Musik

The Good

For starters, Spotify is available in Germany and I've been enjoying the hell out of it, it's interface is similar to iTunes and it's free, with occasional ads. The paid version gives you no ads and an unlimited amount of music across several devices for an annual price tag of 120$.

The Bad

Can't torrent, whether you're a firm believer in file sharing or an advocate of copyright protection in Germany you no torrent! A handful of law firms are partnering up with ISPs all over Germany and are sending out letters threatening to fine you for life. Settle or fight it, you will have to fork out some Euros to resolve that piece of mail.

The quality of the internets in some areas are very low quality, if your building is not equipped with fiber optic you're stuck on DSL along with all of your neighbors and their neighbors. Static and interference prevail! Streaming movies and tv shows is a painful activity for most, we have better luck with music files which require less resources but not without interruptions.

If you read my article on GEMA you already know that a fair amount of Youtube videos are blocked as well.

The Different

The best and most reliable source is still the cd player! We own one and I use it! This piece has likely lost 90% of it's original monetary value but in my heart it will forever remain a loyal friend.

A post about mypole [sic] maypole!

Spring has finally arrived in Bavaria, the birds and the beers, love is in the air, flowers are blooming and soon will come the time to erect some poles. No joke!

I've been asking around about those tall blue and white poles all over town which seem to be associated to beer gardens and no one was really able to give me a proper explanation.

Maypoles

They're called maypoles or in Deutsch Maibaum, which literally translates to May tree. Which reminds me of a funny saying the Germans have: "Mal bist du der Hund, mal bist du der Baum." Sometimes you're the dog, sometimes you're the tree.

Back to the poles! Erection date is usually May 1st and believed to come from Germanic pagan traditions, they're also thought to symbolize the return of summer and growth of vegetation. There's a mention on Wikipedia of phallic symbolism for those of you who thought I was immature. Which I am but erections are nothing to joke about.

(insert Viagra ad banner here)

The signs added to the pole represent the different trades represented in the region. This tradition is also practiced in the Scandinavian countries, the UK, Ireland, Italy and some parts of the States.

If you're interested in learning more about poles or if you have pole related articles you'd like to share first check out this neat Bavarian website.

Check out my blog regularly as I will be posting pictures of poles pre and post (no pun intended) May 1st.

If you want to help me collect poles, send me your local poles via @valleem on Twitter or @coasterbox on Instagram.

April 23, 2014... Let's call it "The Big Day"

Today is the Reinheitsgebot's 498th birthday, in 1516 the beer was only allowed to be produced using water, malt and hops and the purity law stands to this day. Today we celebrate the German National Beer Day. Here are a few interesting facts I managed to find about the Germans and the culture of beer.

Prost

When you raise your glass up high and exchange Prosts with your drinking partners always look them in the eyes, otherwise common belief in Germany is that you will have 7 years of bad sex.

The Nation's Favourite

The top five beers in Germany this year are "apparently":

1-Oettinger (discount beer similar to Coors Light, I was told only construction workers drink that one)
2-Krombacher (Official sponsor of the Bundesliga)
3-Bitburger (sold 3.86 million hectoliter, also distributed worldwide)
4-Warsteiner (If you have a beer on a Lufthansa flight that'll be a Warsteiner)

5-Veltins (Also known for the Veltins Arena home of FC Shalke 04)

Anyone else think that this shouldn't be called Nation's Favourite but perhaps Nation's Most Lucrative?

Warum Weisse?

The Weißbier is one of the most known beer type associated to Germany. They have mastered the crafting, the pour, the glass, the head and even the toast. You should always toast a weißbier with the bottom of the glass in oder to shake the sediments from the bottom of your glass toward the top and release the additional flavor into the beer.

A beer a day

It would take you 13 years to taste every German beer at a rate of 1 per day. Bavaria alone is said to have 4000 types of beers.

Was ist das?

Those are beer nails, produced by those ingenious German students, the beer nails were added to their school books to prevent them from directly lying on wet bar tables.

You'll find more interesting facts in this article from thelocal.de a great source of information for the expat in you and a mild source of humor for foreigners. 

But that's not all, FC Bayern Munchen...

...is playing in the Champion's League tonight against Real Madrid, this makes National Beer Day even more exciting, could we ask for more? I don't think so!

I’m religious… again.

I was filling out my new employee form at work and noticed a mandatory “Religion” field. I’m far from being a regular when it comes to religion or religious practice but for the sake of the paycheck I wrote in Catholic. Moments after returning my form to human resources I was summoned in their office only to be told that if I didn't put any religion I wouldn't have to pay the “Religion Tax”.

They have such a thing

On an intern budget I thought the few Euros a month I would save would be great to I left the field blank. A few days later I received a letter from the city of Munich including a form which I had to fill out for my residency. Sure enough the “Religion” field had miraculously manifested itself on that form as well. This time I only had the choice between a bunch of abbreviations each representing a religion. I asked my girlfriend if any of the abbreviations stood for “NO RELIGION”. It was then explained to me that if I wanted to get married in a church (“I” being “WE” and “WE” being a common consensus where one has a veto) along with every other services churches might provide (baptism, confirmation, funeral, etc.) I would have to pay the tax.

Death and taxes

The two things in life one can’t avoid… and mail, if you live in Germany. This week I received a welcoming pamphlet, full-sized, colored pamphlet from my church. Now I know where my church taxes are going. I've heard from a few that this tax is sort of bogus and I don’t see how the church would refuse a “lump sum” or some sort of monetary agreement in order to get married in church. More on that in a post-marital blog entry.

St. Anna im Lehel, Munich

To work or not to work, that is a good question!

For all the curious souls who wonder when the next civic holiday is I present to you an interesting map of the civic holiday for Germany. Most holidays are related to religious events and some are specific to regions of the country, an extensive list can be found here.

If we do a little math... my accountant friends will likely request an edit of this article. Either way if we count an average of 12 civic holidays and take into consideration the fact that most stores, shops and offices are closed on Sundays, that most people have some sort of two day weekend during a week and that the average working German is given 30 days of vacation every year...

An average working German only works 219 days per year.

The GEMA, loading... or not!

Basically the GEMA is the copyright police. If you watch a lot of Youtube videos and you live in Germany a fair percentage of your search results will result in this:

I read that even Psy's Gagnam Style video was not legit in Germany... and he still got the most views of all time on Youtube! It is now accessible for all you Germans that missed it, you probably missed a lot of other stuff too! I was made aware of proxies such as Prox Mate that will bypass the blocked media and play it for you on Youtube, Last FM, Spotify, Groove Shark and all the other popular streaming sites/apps. Didn't find too much info on the legality of using such proxies but someone's certainly working on it! Use at your own risk.

The Good, the Bad and the Different

The Good:

In Germany, you can drink alcohol pretty much anywhere you can think of. You can have a beer on your way to a bar or a party no more pre-binge drinking at a friends place before going out. Road beers are the way to go. You can drink on the street, in a park or garden even in the car (as long as you're not driving or biking). Until recently you could drink in the tram and bahn (subway), it's still tolerated from what I understand but we should try to be discreet about it. You can also leave your empties on the ground next to a trash can for easy pick up by homeless people.

The Bad:

You can spill beer in your girlfriend's car because for some reason VW doesn't make the coasters big enough for a regular sized 50cl bottle of beer... and that makes her sad! (Tip: green onions seem to mask the smell of spilt beer in a car.) Take note that as much fun as have a few drink on a long road trip this will certainly add a few stops to... um... take a piss.

The Different:

Those who know me know I love beer, why else would I move to Germany? Oh yeah, maybe one other reason. Although I live in the indisputable beer heaven region of the world the Reinheitsgebot (German beer purity law) makes it difficult to find beers similar to IPAs and high IBU beers. I have barely scratched the surface of hefeweizen, dunkel and in this moment "stark bier", a strong beer made especially for lent. It would be nice to be able to get a taste of home every now and then. Wish me luck on finding a Hoser bar otherwise I'll have to make my way back to Belgium for a bitter taste.

My beef with Bell

Time to leave the country and of course I'm one of those suckers who's stuck in that 3 year Bell cellphone contract with limitless clauses. I have an iPhone 4, the price was modestly reduced by signing a 3 year contract (way back when).

First things first, this iPhone is locked to Bell, in order to unlock it and make it available to run on on a  European SIM cart I would have to pay the cancellation fee to cancel my current contract 300$ + Canadian dollars and a 50$ fee to have it unlocked so it can be used overseas.

I decided instead to buy a used unlocked iPhone 4 (I like that model) on eBay for 300$ and sell mine to my dad along with the contract. To my surprise Bell told me that when I signed the contract I signed up for mandatory Internet usage (because it is a smartphone) so I "had" to have an Internet bundle which goes for around 55$/month. Obviously I had the caller ID and voicemail added for 12$/month (which is stupid because these are the most important features which everybody wants!)

= 75,71$/month (approximately)

The only thing I could do to reduce my cellphone plan was to remove the caller ID and the voicemail and save that 12$/month. My contract ends on the 4th of May 2014, so I asked them to cancel my contract on the 4th of May, that way my dad can benefit from choosing whichever provide he sees fit.

Bell's "Mohamed", told me that I should call 30 days before the end of my contract to cancel. Unfortunately Mohamed, I won't be in the country at that time, could you put a note on my file to terminate my contract on May 4th? You already know the date right? No? Oh, the earliest I can terminate my contract without any penalty is 60 days before the end? Still not going to be in the country at that time...

The only reasonable solution was to put my dad's name on the account so he could call in 60-30 days before the end of the contract and "negotiate"  his termination or renewal of the contract which involves loyalty (bullshit) points.

In the hope that everyone will forget to call ahead of time and make it a pain in the ass to simply "NOT RENEW" a contract which has technically ended, Bell is shit!

I'm moving to Germany where I'll be paying around 20$ CAN per month for the same service.

PS: Maybe Mohamed has two "m"s sorry bro you've been nice and helpful.

My last week in Canada

Empty my office - CHECK

Work and travel visa - CHECK
One way ticket to Munich - CHECK

One last ride on the Rideau Canal - CHECK

5 days left to wonder how my life is going to change over the weekend. I'm leaving my very comfortable job on Friday to fly to my new home for a year, Munich. I've had about a month to plan where to store my bed and other things I won't bring. I'm sure I made some friends happy leaving them responsible for my music collection and instruments.

I'm bringing my "Goldie" with me. I would have to pay 100$ for an extra checked bag but I got a nice on-board size suitcase as a gift for my birthday! In which the rest of my life will be crammed for a few hours. :-\

I'm landing in Munich on Saturday and have Sunday to rest but Monday is already the new routine kicking in and I'm starting my new job at Ciao!