Moin Moin from Hamburg!

[Miasmata]

Greetings everyone, or as we say in Northern Germany, Moin moin! I'm very happy to find this forum, and I hope I'm welcome here

I'm a 22 year old gal in a rather fresh relationship with a 23 year old guy from Utah. We are both huge nerds, so we met on a forum about a cartoon we both like a lot. I was still in a relationship when we started chatting each other up. I was definitely not avaible, but even if that hadn't been the case, I was absolutely not interested in anything romantic at that point because he was not in a good mental place at the time and had still quite some troubling views on relationships. As the months went by, my worries that my current relationship had been petering out were confirmed, and my friend was making fantastic progress with his mental health and confronted his fears and troubles regarding romance. I was the last to realize it, but by that point I was falling hard for him, and after quite a few honest conversations we decided to give a LDR a shot!

Since then, we've met once - He visited me in Germany for the first week of April. It was an absolutely amazing time - I think I should spare you the overly longwinded gushing, but we are going to see each other again from late July to mid August, and if that goes over just as well I think I really want to lead a life together with him. He's going to graduate either this Fall or Spring, and he's always dreamt of moving to Europe, so it's very fortunate that I'm another incentive on top of that I'm a very cautious, organizing type of person, so I already set up a budget plan for us to save up for his move, and I do my best to stay smart about the steps we need to take. I don't think I'm particularly good at this whole LDR business, especially considering how impatient and lonely I can get, but thankfully I'm also incredibly stubborn, so there's no way I'll give up anytime soon.

He has already met my mom and she welcomed him as part of the family immediately. I haven't met his family yet, but I plan to visit in December, after Christmas. Truth to be told, I'm pretty worried about the cultural and religious differences - While he left the faith years ago, his family is still very much Mormon and conservative, while I was only loosely raised Christian and am not religious at all. I'm also what a stereotypical conservative might call a "raging leftie", so I really hope I'm not going to accidentally offend anyone. I've had a webcam call with his mom and he said she liked me a lot during that, so that's something at least. Regardless, I'm pretty nervous, and it's still over 6 months until then!

About me, I enjoy myriads of nerdy hobbies, especially videogames, cartoons, superhero comics (Batman is my favorite) and collecting figurines. I aspire to be a voice actor one day, but for now I'm starting evening school in August to improve on my high school degree (for those who are familiar with the German education system, I'm trying to get my Abitur). I also enjoy to draw silly things, go to concerts (especially Metal music-related ones) and do volunteer work both for conventions and a local summer camp.


I hope I didn't babble on for too long now - Apologies if I did, when I'm nervous I never know when to shut up Many thanks for reading, and hello again!

[Kristin91]

Welcome to LFAD!

[Lucky]

Haha, this is the ideal place to babble about your LDR, family and friends can only take so much

Sounds like things are pretty organized with you guys, good luck in your relationship even though you don't need it! if anything I would just suggest to avoid religion and politics all together when you meet his family, is not like you are going to see them often enough to matter so you might as well keep things as friendly as possible.

welcome~

[Lilly9886]

Willkommen!

(with 2 ll? I'm forgetting how to write German sometimes :P)

[Miasmata]

Thanks a lot for the lovely posts so far! You're too kind

if anything I would just suggest to avoid religion and politics all together when you meet his family, is not like you are going to see them often enough to matter so you might as well keep things as friendly as possible.

I will try my best! From my experience, however, Americans seem to tend to be very eager to discuss politics. I at least know that my partner says his father is very vocal about being conservative. My luck is that his father is apparently also very proud of being part-German, so I hope he'll be much more interested in my Germanness than my political beliefs

[abna1]

Herzlich Willkommen

[Snake Vargas]

Hello, I am her SO. I'm not good at introductions so I figured I should just piggy-back off her thread. I'm a 23 year old optical engineering grad student living in SLC Utah and I'm currently planning to move to Germany with Miasmata within the year. I'm currently learning German over the summer from Rosetta stone.

My biggest worry so far is getting a job in Germany. I imagine having a master's in a good and needed field will help me in Germany in addition to taking the initiative of learning the language of the country, but even then I have zero experience in a foreign job market which I will admit makes me very nervous about moving there, but I am absolutely committed to Miasmata and I want to make it work any way I can.

The distance is tough, but we have friends, family, and technology that help make it manageable.

[CynicalQuixotic]

Hello, I am her SO. I'm not good at introductions so I figured I should just piggy-back off her thread. I'm a 23 year old optical engineering grad student living in SLC Utah and I'm currently planning to move to Germany with Miasmata within the year. I'm currently learning German over the summer from Rosetta stone.

My biggest worry so far is getting a job in Germany. I imagine having a master's in a good and needed field will help me in Germany in addition to taking the initiative of learning the language of the country, but even then I have zero experience in a foreign job market which I will admit makes me very nervous about moving there, but I am absolutely committed to Miasmata and I want to make it work any way I can.

The distance is tough, but we have friends, family, and technology that help make it manageable.

Well, you're in a STEM field, which works very much in your favor, but how are you planning to move to Germany within a year? Most employers don't want to bust their asses to sponsor a foreign worker when they can hire one at home, unless you have some kind of very special, in-demand skillset with the field.

Your best bet would be to get a engineering master's in Germany. I'm not German, so I don't know the specifics of whether you would be marketable if said master's degree was in English or German, but we have German members who could weigh in on that!

[Miasmata]

Well, you're in a STEM field, which works very much in your favor, but how are you planning to move to Germany within a year? Most employers don't want to bust their asses to sponsor a foreign worker when they can hire one at home, unless you have some kind of very special, in-demand skillset with the field.

Your best bet would be to get a engineering master's in Germany. I'm not German, so I don't know the specifics of whether you would be marketable if said master's degree was in English or German, but we have German members who could weigh in on that!

We definitely know there's more than one option for us. I wasn't so sure if studying abroad would work out, particularly in his last semesters, but maybe that's a much better chance than I thought? Thanks for the advice, we should definitely look into it again.

[Snake Vargas]

Well, you're in a STEM field, which works very much in your favor, but how are you planning to move to Germany within a year? Most employers don't want to bust their asses to sponsor a foreign worker when they can hire one at home, unless you have some kind of very special, in-demand skillset with the field.

Your best bet would be to get a engineering master's in Germany. I'm not German, so I don't know the specifics of whether you would be marketable if said master's degree was in English or German, but we have German members who could weigh in on that!

I've been applying around online mostly. As you saw from my post, I obviously don't know the best plan to go about this and is also partly why I joined this forum for advice on properly planning for this.

I certainly would love to attend a good German University in which to get my master's if that's possible. It's something I'll look into.

[CynicalQuixotic]

We definitely know there's more than one option for us. I wasn't so sure if studying abroad would work out, particularly in his last semesters, but maybe that's a much better chance than I thought? Thanks for the advice, we should definitely look into it again.

I meant more like applying to a German university as an independent foreign student and getting a student visa that way. I'm not sure if it works this way in the entire EU, but in France, as long as you can prove that you are enrolled in school, can support yourself, are at least doing the bare minimum academically, you can renew your student visa every year with minimal hassle. Then, with a German master's degree, you have a chance of being hired somewhere, because as a foreign worker without residency, your chances are practically nil.

I'm actually professional student-ing my way to French citizenship, so, I can tell you that it's the only way to stay in the EU theoretically indefinitely outside of marriage as a foreigner.

[Moon]

CQ is right, a student visa is your best option. Unless you have plenty of on the job experience, there are very few countries that will even reply to you, it's expensive to hire a foreigner, so your credentials and career related experience have to be much better than anyone else applying. Also, in Europe, they use CV's, not resume's, and the way they're structured is a bit different than in the US, so make sure you're sending a CV and not a resume. Honestly, go be a student first, it's probably the only realistic way to get any type of residence visa, outside of marriage. Don't stop trying, but have a plan B.

[Snake Vargas]

This is all very good to know and I'm thankful for your replies. If I may ask a question, how hard is it to get into a University like say TUM for a Master's program? I have more than a few well-respected references to back me up (have multiple professors I've worked with that attended MIT, Harvard, etc. that could give me good recommendations and I have two publications under my belt). The school I'm attending currently is good, but it's not exactly internationally respected so I'm just curious of my chances of getting to a good German University.

[CynicalQuixotic]

This is all very good to know and I'm thankful for your replies. If I may ask a question, how hard is it to get into a University like say TUM for a Master's program? I have more than a few well-respected references to back me up (have multiple professors I've worked with that attended MIT, Harvard, etc. that could give me good recommendations and I have two publications under my belt). The school I'm attending currently is good, but it's not exactly internationally respected so I'm just curious of my chances of getting to a good German University.

If you're already published, I don't think you're going to have trouble getting into an English-language master's program. But I also suggest doing a lot of research on the website of the school(s) you want to go to.

[Dziubka]

Welcome you two

Snake Vargas: If the degree is in German you need to pass a DSH or similar language exam. It depends on what program and university you decide for, but in most cases a bachelor's degree and language exam should actually be enough.
I wouldn't pay too much attention to "Elite" universities (I don't think the differences are really that big, but that's just me) and look into where they offer a program that you're interested in.

My SO is getting is Master's degree in engineering in Germany and all he had to do with pass the language exam (um, well and do a 1yr course to prepare for it) and get his bachelor's diploma translated.