That’s Right — You Heard It Here

What, why? What happened? Let me explain my situation.

Now, I came to Germany with a remote job with an American company. The plan was to get an apartment by showing I had stable income, register that address, then apply for a residence permit in Germany with that address and also show them that I had a stable income. It was my hopes to stay for six months or maybe a year working remotely with this company.

Back in March/April, when I was looking for a job and about to finish school in the summer, I was very honest with potential employers that I wanted to: A) work for a company I believe in. B) eventually go back to Germany.

So, when I was accepting an internship in May, we were very honest with each other — the potential boss knew that the internship might not last past the summer — but, if I worked well with them, if they liked me, if I liked them, if I did good work, etc., etc., then the internship could turn into full time.

Now, I was very well-aware that by time August came around, I might have needed to look for a new job. It was my plan to move to Columbus with my friend, Ashley Moor, and save up money looking for an international company to work for. Why? So that I could F*CK*NG go back to GERMANY. Hmm, is there a trend here? Possibly. My friend Ashley couldn’t manage coming back from New York to Ohio, so Columbus plans fell through. My sister lived/lives in Denver (as I write this). On top of that, my parents dropped the bombshell that they were cleaning/fixing up our house so they could either rent or sell it.

I guess you can imagine the change in my life plans, then. So, I asked myself, “If I can’t go to Columbus, where do I want to go.” Hint-f*ck*ng-hint, the answer was Germany. Shocker. Even more of a surprise when I found out that I liked working with my company, they liked working with me, and I did good work. Great work, in fact, More than that — they had no one doing my job previously, nor did they have someone working with me. It was me handling writing, editing, communications, press releases/PR work, etc., etc.

So, my boss and I were having conversations about full time. When the internship was supposed to end (in August), it kept being strung out deep into September. I told my boss that I was graduating in July, so if they wanted me for full time or wanted to let me go, they needed to make a decision. They decided to keep me on. He promised me that the company was searching for funds to keep me on, but at the very least, they had enough money to keep me on for six months. Not only that, he gave me his word that if they couldn’t find the money, he’d give me a two month’s notice and warn me so that I could properly plan a return trip to the U.S or look for a job.

To my surprise, instead of delivering a stable contract or agreement after I arrived in Germany, like I was expecting, he told me that “the board” of the company didn’t have funds to hire me now or anywhere in the future. I asked if I could have at least a grace period so that I could have some security so that I wasn’t jobless in a foreign country. But, I wasn’t allowed that.

This hurt me because we had an agreement during the summer that I’d be paid for 15 hours and the other 15 hours was “learning” or “training.” In reality, I often spent time working more than 15 hours and not getting paid for it. So, how was I rewarded in the end? By not having a job. Awesome.

This all happened way too soon. I had no apartment, no extended visa or permit, no job, and not even my Goethe-Zertifikat — a way to prove how much German I knew to get a job… German and most European laws state that as an American or Canadian, you can stay in an EU country for 90 on your passport before you have to leave. This December 26 marks that day. I applied to about 100 jobs and I just couldn’t get one. It takes the immigration offices a minimum of four-to-six weeks to process a permanent visa/permit when you have a concrete job offer. So, I ran out of time.

Instead of all doom and gloom, what did I accomplish? I saw Oldenburg (where my family came from), Bremen, Hamburg, Berlin, and Hannover (blog posts to come soon) all in Germany. And I also saw Amsterdam in the Netherlands, of course. I was able to track down information on how to get family records and in 2019, I’ll be able to access those and try to learn more about the Ostendorf family. I saw these amazing places, met amazing people, ate great food and drank better beer. I also made new contacts and did a little freelance work. I traveled to completely new places and solved issues on my own along with the help from the kindness of strangers.

But, what did I learn? People kept telling me that I’d learn things and know more about myself. I learned that a company is still a company. So, no matter how much you like them or they like you, things just don’t always workout. And plans fall through. Life wouldn’t be interesting if we weren’t forced to improvise.

What are my next steps? I’m spending Christmas with my parents and then I’ll be going to live in Denver, Colorado with my sister and her husband. There, I will save back up my money and I’m considering returning to Germany to study for my master’s degree. Maybe that’ll workout, maybe not. But I still plan on writing about traveling until then.

Thanks for reading.

Until next time, lovelies,

Ehron