After 5 years of hard labor for little reconnaissance and few opportunities it was time to take off to another place and check if the grass really was greener on the other side. We will come to that in my forthcoming articles called “Learning French with Christian” - but now let’s write an article as a for me final look of those years in Vaterland. Obviously it won’t be the last one as good and bad memories will need to be written over time. I finally took off from East Germany after a well prepared 6 last months. Everything went as planned and I do believe my moves were not understood as such but instead as madness. As usual I got everything under control. I came to Germany with an idea of the excellent organisational skills they were known to have and I literally lived through the opposite. Now, and calmer about it, I can only say that I didn't find it at work but I did find it in some other areas in East Germany. I was surprised to find so many interesting and caring local persons my last two months there. Actually I found more during that period than during all the other months of my 5 years. The main difference? It was at school. Both teachers and employees were nice and valuable. Sadly I think the workplace I was in was just an endless pit of sorrow and incompetence. From top to bottom. There is a lot to tell about it and I will at some point. When it will be advisable to talk about it. At the end, I am happy to have been there 5 years. Well actually 3 years were great, or sort of. The other two were difficult times that I do believe I managed to live through due to my better half and my close friends and family. I did it my way as someone famous sang once. But I wouldn't have accomplished it without them. I closed many circles and started a new life. At the end I changed myself for good but I realized what I lost in the process. After a couple of weeks after these 5 years in East Germany, finding myself in a complete different place, I can clearly see that I had become less human than I am genuinely, less warm and less caring. Yes, 5 years there made me a colder person, but old habits die hard and I am recovering quite good by now. I can kiss and salute my new work colleagues normally everyday with a real smile, have decent food in the cantine, see and interact with most of the locals simply and happily but first and foremost - I am happy. I finish my day with a smile even if I miss my dear friends and family left over there or around the globe terribly.Bonjour Toulouse, O mon pais.
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