Post your Achievements - New Jobs, Academic......

Welp, Katie and I are no longer dating…

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I browsed a few threads before landing on this one, as I think it definitely counts as an achievement: Like I've already shared on the telegrams, we welcomed a baby daughter a week ago on early Thursday morning. 50cm of wonder and a healthy 3.3 kg, she arrived to this planet with fuzz covered shoulders and a head full of hair. After a week of not really sleeping before and after the delivery, my GF is now recovering well and the little girl also seems to know when it's a good idea to sleep. She's asleep right this moment, too.

It's definitely one of those moments where you view your life to be "before this" and "after this", as I abandon the being-25-forever mindset and slide responsibly towards 40 having finally produced some offspring after years of not being sure if I wanted any. I'm also on parental leave now, which will transition to a summer holiday somewhere in June, and it comes really handy as we're all learning new things... I also think it's been great living with the three cats, as you learn to talk encouraging nonsense to small beings while making sure they stay fed, healthy and happy. This also partially explains why I've been moving from driving cheap shitty cars to leased EV family cars.
 
New job starting mid-January. Yaaaaaaaay! The hell of starting at 4am is ending.
 
Love seeing all the good news in this thread.
 
93Flareside said:
New job starting mid-January. Yaaaaaaaay! The hell of starting at 4am is ending.
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Erm, so....

That new job was cut short in April. I needed to renew my residency before the end of April, real nice of them. I got an extension so I could 1, find a freaking school that offered Integrations as it's required to renew, and 2. find new work.

I found an online integrations course which I didn't know was an option until the school offered it, didn't show the options on their website, that's knowledge reserved for in-person speaking appointments it would seem. A certain special military operations event seems to make that harder with so many displaced people. Since I got an online course, it means I am not privy to a location so I started looking for work in another area as Freiburg region doesn't have a lot of industry to support my field of work. I was applying to jobs for my profession, but because I worked with industrial/commercial equipment the companies around Freiburg basically only do residential, I was told that I wouldn't be a good fit, hence the losing of the job in the first place. They took a chance, and we had some disagreements, like ask to work with people who didn't smoke like Cigarettes are 2 cents to buy, and they decided that after seemingly reaming out the guy I complained about, chose to let me go as this other guy had tenure with them.

The new job is focused around Cologne (smells no different than any other city) and is exactly in my professional field of steam/water boilers and the control systems around them. I start in July. This also meant moving and sadly, leaving the Black Forest/Kaiserstuhl region. Ah well.
 
Welcome to Rheinland, happy to have you here!
And yes, despite everything the locals keep trying to tell themselves, cologne really isn’t special. It’s pretty ugly, has its very own corruption issues (but it’s not called corruption so it’s just a cute culture thing ok???) and prides itself way too much on a half week of compete idiots getting mindlessly drunk.
That somehow sounded way too negative didn’t it? It’s fine, honestly, but don’t let them tell you it’s all that special 😉
 
eizbaer said:
Welcome to Rheinland, happy to have you here!
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What he said!

You might have an easy time settling in because in my experience, it’s a pretty welcoming and accepting (or at least tolerant) part of the country. As for Karneval, there’s a lot more to it than the public drunkenness downtown; even I like some parts of it.
 
This song literally is the only thing about Karneval I like.
 
I am slightly curious however... what are the parts that you do like?
The only thing I can think of is the fun kiddie part with the costumes and throwing candy all over the place... which I honestly feel is being ruined by the wildly excessive drinking and all the crap that comes with it.
calvinhobbes said:
That’s not what I meant when I said there are parts that I like!
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eizbaer said:
Welcome to Rheinland, happy to have you here!
And yes, despite everything the locals keep trying to tell themselves, cologne really isn’t special. It’s pretty ugly, has its very own corruption issues (but it’s not called corruption so it’s just a cute culture thing ok???) and prides itself way too much on a half week of compete idiots getting mindlessly drunk.
That somehow sounded way too negative didn’t it? It’s fine, honestly, but don’t let them tell you it’s all that special 😉
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Don’t worry, I’m used to hearing „everything sucks here“ complaint. It’s all what we’re used to. I’ve noticed a calmer, more relaxed attitude to things. I’m more often to hear a „hallo“ or whatever from people walking by on the street than I ever did around freiburg. You get this sort of menacing look and a confused reaction when you would say hello. Dude, you’re locking eyes on me, we’re you expecting a friendly greeting or what? There seems to be less staring at me that I’ve noticed here too.


calvinhobbes said:
What he said!

You might have an easy time settling in because in my experience, it’s a pretty welcoming and accepting (or at least tolerant) part of the country. As for Karneval, there’s a lot more to it than the public drunkenness downtown; even I like some parts of it.
Click to expand...

Ah well, BaWü also has that, it’s just called Fasnacht with different variations of the name between the villages in the Black Forest, because why not?

Either way, disappointing I needed to move once again, but I hope to get more roots planted so to speak. The company I’m working for will also train and certify me for the all important Elektrofachkraft Tätlichkeit. That license alone is why I started with crappy jobs or lower level heating companies. I feared my language level wasn’t good enough to take the class/wait until I am more fluent to try. Who knew moving north was the answer? I did. try a company near Frankfurt, but they wouldn’t be able to train me in house and I was denied because the local authorities didn’t approve my credentials as allowed to work on industrial boiler stuff.
 
93Flareside said:
I’ve noticed a calmer, more relaxed attitude to things. I’m more often to hear a „hallo“ or whatever from people walking by on the street than I ever did around freiburg.
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Oh yeah, that is definitely a good thing around here... as calvinhobbes said, everyone's very open and welcoming, mostly. I've always lived here (abouts), so it's just not something that I take notice of, simply because I don't know any different. Only other place I really lived for a while was NZ for half a year, where they take that welcoming and friendly thing to a whole other level :D
 
eizbaer said:
The only thing I can think of is the fun kiddie part with the costumes and throwing candy all over the place.
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That’s it, the “Schull- und Veedelszöch“ (school and neighbourhood parades). I may occasionally agree to watch the big Monday parade with the wife, but only if I haven’t been annoyed

by the wildly excessive drinking and all the crap that comes with it
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before.
 
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