This page will give you some comments on our move, problems we had and maybe some useful information and advice for others thinking of moving. We were really lucky as the company provided so many things that made life easy. The company paid for a 40 foot sea freight container plus 400 kgs of airfreight so that we could ship everything at no cost to us. They are also paying for German lessons which are indispensable. I think the most useful, however, is the "facilitator" paid for by the company. We were provided with a nice guy called Günter from a company called Systematic Movement. Günter looked after all the complications for us. He found us a house to rent, he registered us with the police, he registered us with the municipality and arranged the refuse removal and electricity and water, he completed the formalities to convert my short term visa to a 5 year residence permit. He assisted us in opening a bank account, and he took us on an all day tour of our area, all the shopping areas, tourist areas etc. He was also available during our first month in case we had any problems we didn't know how to deal with. It was really great as it would have been quite tricky to sort all this out with no German language skills. And it was nice to know he was there if we got stuck.
Choosing a country
We had been talking for some time about living somewhere else. We just wanted to broaden our horizons by living somewhere overseas for a few years. I initially started with a list of requirements of this imaginary country we were going to live in: No quarantine for the dogs, nice warm climate, English speaking, weekend (snow) skiing nearby, weekend sailing nearby, both of us must be able to work, and, and, and. No quarantine for the dogs ruled out the UK, Australia and New Zealand but we didn't really want to go to those places anyway. We started out looking to move to the USA but the job opportunities never quite worked out. So when Phillip told me he had a job opportunity in Germany I was not very excited - cold weather and German speaking! I was under the impression at the time that European countries had 6 months quarantine for dogs, so I told Phillip that I would only move to a country that had no quarantine for dogs. Boy, did I get a surprise. When Phillip found out that Germany has no quarantine, I had no other excuses! We decided in the end that learning another language would be an interesting challenge and that maybe the cold weather won't be so bad (Walldorf is in the Rhine valley with the warmest climate in the whole of Germany - big deal!), and Walldorf is much closer to weekend skiing than anywhere we might end up in the USA.
Preparations
Phillip spent most of the 5 months before we moved, already working in Germany. So he had loads of time to get the German side of things organised: housing, ordering cars, bank accounts and general information. I never even went to Germany until the day we moved. On the South African side things went quite smoothly. I managed to sell the house within 48 hours, thanks to Paul Assad Realty in Bryanston. That was a relief as we only had 3 months notice of the move. I insisted on an unconditional offer so as to avoid any problems once we were already in Germany. Resigning from my job was a tearful affair, as I had been very happy, and was really sad to leave. My mother flew back from Malaysia to stay with me for the 6 weeks before we moved. It helped a stack to have her around to help with various errands, as I was alone with Phillip in Germany, and I was working up until the day before we left. That was a good choice actually, because it gave me no time at all to worry or reflect on what we were doing. I arranged to sell my truck to one of Phillip's colleagues, and Phillip found a few dealers who were happy to take his car.
Furniture Removal
That left the removal of the furniture and the dogs. I phoned the standard 3 removal companies for a quote. They come around and do a survey of house much stuff you have, which takes about 1 hour in total, and then they send you a quote. I chose Elliot International as I had been very impressed with their service so far, and I had 2 good recommendations from friends who had recently moved overseas. They were also the cheapest so the company was happy. I was very pleased with them in the end and had no complaints whatsoever. Their packers were careful, honest, and could think for themselves. One of them found an old passport when packing my papers, and brought it to me as he thought it should not go in the container. I locked all the items that shouldn't be packed, like passports, papers, luggage etc in a bathroom while they packed, to avoid any nasty surprises after the container had left. Remember to ask the removal company for a letter confirming that they have packed your television for shipping overseas. Then do yourself an affidavit and go and sign it in front of a policeman. Send both of these documents by registered mail to the SABC with a letter cancelling your TV licence. Otherwise they will keep looking for you and issue a judgement against you in your absence. It took nearly 3 full days to pack up our house and load the container. Unpacking in Germany was quite something as it took all of 4 hours for the Germans to unload and unpack everything. Our house looked like a bomb had hit it when they left, and it took me 3 days to sort everything out! But Elliot were great and the container arrived exactly when they promised it would. We arrived on the Saturday morning, and our furniture arrived at 7:30am on the Monday morning! Although we had paid for the full unpacking service, we asked them not to unpack the kitchen boxes, as there was too much stuff for our tiny kitchen. I then unpacked and sorted out the kitchen myself over a few days, and phoned the removal company to collect the unwanted boxes when I was finished. We also kept a few boxes for that stuff which we couldn't fit in the house, to be kept in the basement.
Dogs
It had been recommended that I put the dogs into kennels while the packing was taking place, as this can be very stressful for them. Since they had never been to kennels, and were about to take a flight on a Boeing, I put them into kennels for the 3 days packing period, with the same company who were going to ship them, so that they could get used to it. I wanted the dogs to be comfortable with the idea of being in kennels and being handled by strangers, before they had to go through customs at Johannesburg International Airport. The dogs were quite upset when I left them at the kennels, but not as upset as I was. At least they would be out of the way while the packing was taking place. The company we used for kennelling and to ship the dogs to Germany was Air-A-Pet in Kempton Park. They had also shipped Justin and Ursula's dogs to Toronto a few months before, and Justin had recommended them. They do this sort of thing all the time and know what they are doing. When you ship your dogs overseas, you buy custom made crates for each dog, unless you already have them. I arranged with Air-A-Pet, that my crates were made early, and Air-A-Pet delivered the dogs back to my house after the packing, in the crates. This gave them a trial run at being handled by strangers, and taught them that being stuck in the crate and put in a vehicle, means that they get to see me on the other side! They coped very well with the kennels and the trip home, although I did have to phone the kennels each day to make sure my babies were OK! I then put the crates in the house with the dogs blankets inside, and put treats in them every day, to get the dogs used to the crates before the flight. Eventually the dogs would go into the crates to sleep of their own accord, so the were definitely not scared of them by the time the move came. We arranged that the dogs would fly on the same flight as us, to avoid having to arrange a special import permit. Ten days before we were to fly, I arranged a health certificate for the dogs from our local vet. For this, their shot must be up to date, but not newer than 30 days, and the dogs had to be healthy. My mother then delivered these certificates to Air-A-Pet, who arranged the State Vet Clearance for us. The dogs were then collect by Air-A-Pet, in their crates, 3 days before we left, to go into kennels. They could have gone on the morning we were flying, but we were moving out of our house, and I also wanted them to avoid sensing the tension build-up in the last few days. Once on the plane, we asked the air-hostess to confirm for us that the dogs we all loaded into the plane OK. She was able to check and confirm it for us, so I had a happy content 6 hour sleep on the plane. Well, the dogs arrived happy, if a bit pissed off, in Germany, so all went well. We had arranged a German airfreight company, GK Airfreight, to clear the dogs through customs and the state vet in Frankfurt, and deliver the dogs to our house. Within 15 minutes of being delivered to our house in Germany, Emma was whining to go for a walk, so it can't have been that bad.
Immigration
Phillip already had an EU (British) passport, so all he would need was police registration once we arrived in Germany. Since I had a South African passport, I would need a visa and residence permit. Phillip's company provided an immigration lawyer to do this for us. The process is that you get some sort of 3 month visa from the South African side. Then you convert it to a residence permit once in Germany. I had to provide all sorts of paperwork, passport etc, and he did all the work. It did take about 2 months though, and we were a bit pushed for time at the end. Once we arrived in Germany, Guenther registered us both with the local police. You need this to do anything, buy a car, register with the municipality, prove you exist! Then Günter had my visa converted to a 5 year residence permit. I am not allowed to work on this residence permit, so when I find a job, the company will have to apply for a work permit for me. One of the terms of the visa is that I must get medical insurance in Germany. Since I have both asthma and arthritis, no private medical insurance would accept me, so I had to take a government medical insurance. They are obliged to accept everybody. Hopefully I don't get to test out what the quality of this is, but i'm sure it's fine.
Language
You could probably get by living in Germany without speaking German - just. But it really wouldn't be worth the aggravation. Once we knew we were moving, we bought a language course with a book and cassets. It was a simple phrase course but was a good way to start. I was able to listen to the tapes in the car driving to and from work, so managed to fit some German lessons into my schedule quite easily. We started our German lessons about 6 weeks after arriving in Germany, but it would have been better if we had started 2 months before leaving South Africa! It's easier here because you get to practice every day, things you learn in class. But the sooner the better. We have a private tutor for the 2 of us which is great, as we can go at our own speed. We have 4,5 hours of lessons every week, and have completed about 25 hours now. Our grammar is not great (yet) but we can understand of lot of what happens on TV, Radio, newspapers. Speaking is a little more tricky, but we can communicate so people understand us. We have recently learnt to talk in the past tense which is really useful. Phillip was saying the other day that he didn't feel that we had learnt anything in class that day, but that he then realised that we had just spent 1,5 hours talking about things in general with our teacher, in German! So it's getting a bit easier now, but I reckon we still have a long way to go. Having spoken Afrikaans is a bit of a help. Many words are similar, and the word order is the same. But there is still lots to learn. I wrote my first German email to someone the other day, and I got a coherent response which I understood. So they understood me and I knew what they were talking about. Marvelous! At least it's German we have to learn, and not Japanese! A big help is the Online German/English dictionary of the Munich Technical University http://dict.leo.org/. Life without LEO would be impossible.
Getting settled
One of the first things we did was to get me set up with email and internet access. This meant that I was in touch with my friends and family, and didn't feel so far away. The salesman who sold me the computer, convinced me to buy it with Windows and MS Office in German. Apart from the fact that English would have taken 2 weeks to get, and would have cost more, having everything in German has helped my language skills a lot. Setting up the PC, internet, ISDN etc took a bit of time, sitting with the dictionary, and guessing every now and again. But I got it all set up, and now my vocabulary improves each day. It has to, otherwise I wouldn't be able to download my email, browse the web and type a letter in MS Word. It was a bit challenging when I had to change the cookie settings in my browser to complete an online application, but now I know how!
Making friends has been a bit difficult, the only friends we have are South African, Australian or American! When winter comes we plan to do a few weekend trips with the local ski club from Hockenheim, which will force us to meet people and speak German. There is also a group of South Africans who get together in Karlsruhe (about 40 minutes away) once of month for a braai or dinner or to watch the rugby in an Irish Pub. Its nice to know that if you get lonely, you can go and meet some people who speak your language. We have been pretty busy since arriving here though. We had Phillip's family for 2 weeks, and most weekends we try to get out and see a castle, historic city, or at least a beer fest!
Useful Information
Air-A-Pet - Pet Transport and Kennels Tel: +27 11 396-1257/8 Fax: +27 11 396-1258 www.airapet.co.za airapet@intekom.co.za
GK Airfreight - Pet customs and vet clearance and delivery in Frankfurt g.k.airfreight@t-online.de
Setting up your own home page Would you like to learn to set up your own home page? I had no idea how to do this, but learnt and set this up in just a few weeks. All the software is free and there is a website which teaches you how to do it. Go into the website below and first read the First Steps section and then work through the HTML Tutorials section. There are also links to where you can download the free software from, and where you can find a free web hosting service. Don S' HTML Learning Corner
Moving to Germany
