It was a Saturday morning in September, so early that the road still lay quiet. The neighbours were asleep, no cars were on the road yet and the birds had just started to sing. I opened the front door and stepped outside pulling a big heavy suitcase that must have once belonged to one of my grandparents. Wearing his blue dressing gown, my father stood in the door of our house and waved as I walked from the porch to the pavement. Away from my family’s house to the train station to catch three trains, two tubes and a taxi to take me to Bradfield College, a boarding school near Reading. It was the first time that I left Germany to live abroad.
That was in 2001 and with a two year break to do my Abitur, I have been living abroad ever since. In May, it was my eighty month anniversary of living outside of Germany.
People often ask me whether I miss it and there is only one answer: “Of course I do!”
Germany is a beautiful country with stunning scenery, vibrant cities and amazing culture; we have fantastic food and even better beer; a functioning public transport system and people who are so polite that they send a text when they are running five minutes late.
So after eighty months of living away from home, I thought it might be time to return to Germany.
But then again, I do love South Africa’s bright blue skies, the amazing wine, the people who always seem to sing a song and the opportunities this country offers me… Once here, South Africa is not an easy place to leave.
And that is why I didn’t think twice when I was offered a job at the Germany Embassy in Pretoria. Now I enter German territory every day – under South Africa’s blue sky and eternal sunshine.
Clearly the best of both worlds.
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