Next up: being an adult

Yep, uni is over, my bachelor thesis was handed in mid-May and the following week I presented it to my peers and a bunch of testers. The job-hunting has begun.

I’ve always enjoyed working more than studying, so I am excited for this new chapter and hope I can find a job in Germany! My German is good, but it’s not perfect (articles, grammar….) so I’m hoping that someone will still want me!

I started by compiling a list of opportunities that sound interesting to me. Thankfully, we had to create our CV and write a cover letter for a uni assignment, so that was all ready to go with a bit of editing here and there.

The main hurdles here include actually writing the cover letter so that it shows how you can be useful to the company and that shows your passion for the company/job and then going through the whole procedure of applying. Some companies simply ask for your documents, but others have long and tedious online applications which makes their work easier, but makes you type out all of your past jobs etc in detail even though all of this information is already in your CV.

So far I’ve sent out a small handful to companies where I can really see myself working and today I got an email from a recruiting agency, saying that they liked my application and want to help me to find a job. I’m quite excited because my husband also worked with this agency and they were very helpful.

Fingers crossed that I can soon join the working world and be a proper adult! 🙂 I can’t wait to start and to learn even more through actual work.

They didn’t look like your typical Nazi. There were no shaved heads and no head-to-toe black clothing. Two, average-looking guys in their 20s, but the feeling that I left that train with was one of disgust and above all, fear.

The train was packed so I wasn’t very afraid that something would happen to me physically, but it was like emotional torture. The two men got onto the train, shouting ‘SIEG!’ and asking each other if everything was ‘heil’, replicating the chant used by Nazis back in the day. They spoke about Hitler and mentioned Adolf, which I think is also what they had named the rather large pitbull that they had with them. In addition they did the Nazi salute multiple times, which I am sure is illegal in Germany.

I’m not quite sure why this affected me so much but by the time I got off at my (our) stop, I was shaky and scared and the feeling didn’t leave me until I got home and had some soup to calm me down. They also got off at the same stop and we all had to walk through a tunnel, where they continue to belt, ‘SIEG, HEIL!’ and the sound echoed all around.

Earlier this morning I also walked past a trio of men, possibly from Turkey or a country around it, and they said ‘Konnichiwa’ and ‘Ni hao’ to me, which I always find offensive.

I guess I’m writing this post because this was something new for me. I had never felt so afraid of another person/other people and I felt like although I’ve had mostly good experiences with other Germans in the last (almost) three years, this event today did a lot to undo it. Is it not possible in this day and age to feel safe in what is supposed to be a civilised country? It’s times like these when I miss multicultural Australia. Not that it’s perfect because have our share of low-lifes who terrorise people who look like and who do come from other countries, but I’ve never experienced anything like this back in Sydney.

I just hope that situations like these are once in a lifetime here, though I’m not too sure about that.

I will be getting back to travel/food/positive and happy posts but for now, thank you for reading and I hope you are safe and well wherever you are in the world.

Summer holiday in Northern Germany

This gallery contains 9 photos.

Ok, it’s a lot of pictures of animals but we went to such a wonderful wild park not far from Hamburg/Lüneburg that I had to share. The animals have so much space to roam around which is really lovely. Enjoy!

A new chapter

If you follow the Kokstars blog, you’ll know that we’ve found a new place and are planning on moving out towards the end of the year.

It’s a first for me. I’ve lived overseas but you generally just move into temporary places and never have to really do that much to the place itself. When you own a place, however, you need to paint, decorate, pick out furniture and think about how you are going to arrange the space that you have. I’m not sure if it’s better or worse that we have so many ideas and like so many styles as opposed to not having any ideas at all!

I guess my blog here will turn into a bit of a scrapbook for awhile until the explosion of ideas slows down. I’ve basically looked at every item of about 10 different design/furniture store and I’m all googly-eyed now. I never realised how many choices one is confronted with when looking for items for a household. Just looking for a sofa has left me with more questions than before I started searching.

If you are experienced in, or about to furnish a whole apartment/house, any tips or ideas are welcome!

In the meantime, here are some of my picks and DIY ideas:

Telephone booth keyholder

 

DIY Colander Lamp – they cast nice shadows!

Rake clothing hook – can also be used for cups and glasses