And what after…???

A story by Natalia

Country of origin : Poland

Country of destination : Germany

I studied Landscape Architecture in Wrocław for 5 years. I always rejected all thoughts about “What after studies?” All this time I was sure that I have a lot of time. But, finally, in march of 2014 I realized that my time is closing to an end. I started to panic! And then – suddenly and unexpectedly… I bumped into Erasmus+ Internships for graduates on my University. THAT WAS IT! I found my chance!

I knew immediately where I want to go – Germany. I wanted to meet people, work in my profession and improve my German as much as I can. But in life nothing can be easy… right?

Firstly – looking for a company that would like to give me the job. Dozens of e-mails with CV, Portfolio and cover letters sent across whole Germany and still negative responses. I was in despair… But finally, in the last minute, I received invitation for job interview on Skype. Yes! I’ve got it! From October 2014 I’m going to move to Berlin for 3 months! Small, family Polish-German company. Well, Better than nothing 😉

Secondly – formalities… Papers, papers and more PAPERS! Stressful thing…

Finally – looking for a room for rent. Dozens of websites with flats and messages. How to do that without going to Berlin?! But I found solution. I contacted with polish minority in Berlin and the room was waiting for me

Why I’m writing so much about preparations? Because this is the most difficult (but also very instructive) thing in whole “trip”. I know many people who were very close to abandon this STUPID idea – so was I. But it was worth of it!

Maybe I didn’t improve my German, because sometimes I was working 12 hours per day – the delights of my profession – and I simply didn’t have time for meeting people. And almost all of the projects we were working on in this time were made for Warsaw (sometimes Polish all WEEK long). But definitely I learnt a lot of things about my profession and my personal skills I didn’t know before. I had to take care of myself in difficult moments and do everything by myself to survive alone in such huge and strange city as Berlin. Those rare free hours I spent in the Polish choir, so I could still develop my passion – singing. You can say that I stuck in Polish community there. And probably you are right. But still it was great experience for me and I spent there a lot of wonderful hours JWhat more did I learn? Well… I know now that I couldn’t live in another country for long time… Not without my family and friends. Not alone. So I decided to go back to Poland (I had proposition to sign agreement and stay in the company).

I am back. With great memories and much bigger life experience. And really happy