I’ve been clearing out an ancient LiveJournal in preparation for deleting the account. While most of the stuff there is utter fluff, a tiny portion of the posts are worth preserving. What follows is one such post. The original was written on the LJ in September of 2011, as I was considering a move to Germany. This blog was actually created the following month, in October.

Details are beginning to emerge regarding my potential stint in Germany.

For those of you who missed the previous post about this, I’ve put my name in for consideration to live and work in Regensburg, Germany. The commitment is supposedly for three years now, up from the one to two years I was originally told. I would be about to turn 42 when I return to the US. That’s kind of fun.

I’m the only person who volunteered for this, so it’s not a competition. If I remain ghung ho, it looks like I’m heading to Germany. Soon. Definitely before 2012.

Apparently I need to travel to Germany to find a place to live, because I have to have a German address in order to even apply for the work permit- German labor laws for foreign nationals are pretty stringent. I’ve seen some of the exchanges between local HR and the folks in Germany, and it’s enlightening, to say the least.

If this all happens, and things look like they’re definitely heading that way, I’ll need to offload a bunch of stuff from my storage unit- the fees involved in storing a house full of furniture for three years are well in advance of what it would cost to simply replace that furniture when I come back. I’m likely giving away my bedroom set, couch, the dining room table, and a bunch of other stuff. I’m keeping my coffee table, damn it. I love that thing.

The area where I’ll be is Regensburg, about an hour outside of Munich. It’s a scenic,temperate place that has a lot of businesses. Siemens is there. There’s a BMW factory. There’s an Ikea.

It looks almost stereotypically German. The Old Stone Bridge, pictured here, is a famous local landmark which was supposedly built by the Romans, so there’s that.

The folks in the office there are all pretty fluent in English, so I’m not going to be totally adrift at first. I plan on getting myself Rosetta Stone, at least level 1, before I head over. I fully expect to be fluent in German after three years there, but my accent will probably be shit. We’ll see.

This is exciting. And terrifying. And happening.