A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ME…
I am a Canadian who came to live in Gijon, Asturias in early 2014, but what led me to expat life started in Frankfurt, Germany two and a half years earlier.
In my German language lessons was a well-dressed, charming Asturian who would soon become my boyfriend and, later, life partner and father to our two amazing little ones.
But, I’m getting ahead of myself.
I was born and raised in the small, industrial city of Sarnia in southwestern Ontario. I went on to study interior design at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario and later, with bills to pay and only a minimum wage job to support myself, I ended up back at home in Sarnia.
After my first trip to Europe two years earlier, I knew I wanted to go back and experience life there. So, since I was back at home with no career related job and nothing tying me down, I decided that it was now or never if I wanted to pursue my dream of living and traveling in Europe, so I created an au pair profile on AuPair World and took the plunge. It was off to Büdesheim, Germany for me. I moved there in September 2011 to start my journey of personal growth, reflection and exploration of a continent I have roots in but knew so little about. (You can read more about my au pair year in future posts.)
Carlos and I met in Frankfurt in May of 2012 and we hit it off from the beginning. He had recently moved there and I had been living in a town on the outskirts for just over half a year. Together we discovered the magic of what was to be our home city for the next two years.
In September of 2012 my au pair contract ended and I had to make the decision whether to stay in Germany or return home to Canada. Making the decision to stay was easy, the hard part was that I had to find a job to get a work and residence permit, but most employers would not hire me without already having the permits.
And so began my first experience with the paperwork required as a Canadian expat in Europe – in this case, Germany. It was a stressful period of making calls to potential employers with my limited language skills, and having successful job interviews only to be told to come back when I had my work permit. But, finally, my luck changed and I found an employer that was willing to hire me in order to help me get my permits – Starbucks.
Carlos and I spent the next two years together exploring Frankfurt as well as many other German and European cities. We spent weekends in Paris, Vienna, Brussels, Amsterdam and Prague (to name a few). We were young and in love and we made the most of our time together.
