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Cannot suggest anything except go where your opportunities lie. You are only on earth for a short spell so you have to make the most of it.
Whatever! if anyone is floating off to another board, let us know and we can maybe all emigrate with you.
I do like this one though.

p.s do we all get a free copy once a month.

Last edited by NT73 (Mar 31, 2007 09:11)

I'm giving up the internet and all electrical devices in my life, down with moving electrons.

Congratulations Jules. Nice one!! 

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You're a truly incredible guy. Fantastic!

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No doubt you'll be counting the hours now, eh. 


Polly

Great move, congratulations!!

So what's the plan, are you scratching the travel? Or travelling first, moving afterwards? Is there any chance you will be staying in Germany long term? What about your wife, is she going with you?

Questions over questions, sorry, here are some facts:

Han-Münden is relatively small, isn't it, if you like living in cities you will be orienting yourself towards the two you mentioned, Hannover and Frankfurt. Actually, Göttingen is not too far, which is an interesting old Town, around 60thousand people now, and a famous University. You can mingle with the students for coffee and hokah's if that suits you, and there is a very good theatre (Deutsches Theater) with their alternative branch the "Junges Theater" (young theatre).

Will you be driving in Germany?

Things, including rent, public transport, health care etc are trememdously expensive in Germany. When you sign your contract, make sure they give you good health care coverage so you are not broke in case you get a cold. They will help you with the paperwork for Germany health insurance, which is mandatory.

Are they providing accomodation for you? At least for the start?
In Han-Münden the property market should not be too tight, and you should find something nice for yourself if you have too. Not to be bragging, but for all I have seen (UK, US....) German building standards must be among the highest in the world, any place you rent should be neat and clean and warm and safe!

I think in the IT field you will be among young, open minded people, they will all speak English - or try to, and they will be nice.
Be aware though that people of our parents generation might seem a little reckless with foreigners, their English will be quite poor and not ALL of them are always friendly. That's not too say all Germans are impolite or careless, but I do think they tend to live in their own little world and generally don't care much about things or people outside their routine.
My advise is definitely to make your own routine, to find your favorite baker's shop and supermarket, and as soon as people start recognising you as a regular, they will be more firendly. You should also learn some German to find your way around, signs and instructions don't tend to be in English at all, especially in a small place like Han-Münden.

There is quite some racism in Germany, which is usually directed towards oriental-looking people like turks (this has a history from loooooooong before 9/11....) and you should not get to feel much of it for yourself, but you will see how things work with "Ausländer" (foreigners).

Actually, I hope you can take your wife with you, or at least that you meet other foreigners in your company, it's easy to become lonely in Germany, as it takes such a long time for Germans to warm up with newcomers.
Make sure you ALWAYs ask someone for help if you feel you need it, don't let them scare you off with a potentially gruffy first reaction!

Finally, I think you will enjoy the food in Germany. There is a big influence from Italy of course, italian restaurants are immensly popular and often quite good. Other than that there is Turkish and Greek as two of the most popular cuisines.
The traditional German food is heavy and saucy, while the more modern places tend to serve light-style life-style food like salads, baguettes and soups. The bread is special in Germany, as while you can get toast and baguette just like anywhere else, the "Graubrot" and "Mehrkornbrot" and "Vollkornbrot" are absolutely unique to Germany. You will either love them or hate them, a lot of people who grew up on white bread are not too fond of our heavy, grainy loafs...
You will love HOW clean Germany is, I think along with Canada we live in one of the cleanest countries, and we keep it clean, too (haven't seen any part of australia for comparison).

Make some time for trips to our neighbour contries, sample some of the fantastic variety of cultur and food (I sound like a travel advertisement....), go to Amsterdam, Brussels, the Alsace, Italy..... great wines, landscape, it's all there, and Europe is so neat and small that you just have to travel. A weekend trip can cover significant ground.

So, that's my quick notes on Germany. Anything I forgot? I will add it later. Feel free to ask!!
Actually I just woke up early myself and will move to Hefei today - a little adventure that, too.
In July I am planning to go to Germany, if you're still there, we'll go out on a shooting together!


Lots of luck with the Germans, I hope you enjoy your time and don't get frustrated with the people, call Irma for some warm-heartedness if you start feeling frosty in Germany!

Uli

What's the time difference between the US and Aus again Jules?

Your new 'related items' links made me see an interesting post about digit online around about april fools day 2005....   Do I have to take back those nice things I said about you?

Last edited by smarti77 (Apr 1, 2007 01:13)

Hi everyone, thanks a million for your well wishes - I'm truly touched!  As much as I would have loved the opportunity, I must apologise for it is April Fool's day here in Australia! I feel quite bad for telling fibs but I promise - it only happens once a year!

To Uli especially - thank you for those wonderful tips, as I'm sure they will be most useful when I visit on my Europe trip, which is less than a month away.

Good to see that some of the older members picked up on the clues I left - "digit online" was from two years ago.  Like Shane pointed out - the threads show up in the "similar topics" list below..


p.s. Funny story, but my wife's family must have read it and when we got home this evening we got seven missed calls and 3 messages left on our phone...

I thought of the time difference last night but my wife was on the PC. Still if you ever get the opportunity take it with both hands.
I had in mind to send Pm's to everyone except Julian, and say we had all been offered the job as well but it was too late then.

Hmmm. I also bought the joke, hook line and sinker - which is a negative - but on the positive side, at least there is no danger to Shuttertalk folding - and that is VERY good news.