Living and working in Germany

Well I guess I should post an update and some pictures of where I am at the moment, what I've been doing :)

I'm in Heidelberg Germany, which is here:

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I'm still working for ThoughtWorks, they've just sent me to another company to work - as I'm a 'software consultant', which means I get sent to different companies to work for a few months, or probably about a year at the most.

I haven't actually been able to go and look around much in Heidelberg (as I usually travel to Hannover or elsewhere on the weekends), but here's some pictures that I've taken there so far:

The first few pictures I took are from the office where I'm working, and then the fountain is at the local cafe. The computer set up at work is pretty cool - we always work in pairs, and they have two keyboards, and two mice for us to use. The idea is that we work in twos to bounce ideas off of each other, and to catch each others errors, and keep focussed.

I also had a pretty cool trip to Amsterdam with Helena, it was amazing how many bikes they have there! It seems like everyone has and uses a bike, or if they don't they might have a scooter instead.

Of course going to amsterdam, you really have to stop off and experience the coffee shops, which we did :) After eating a muffin, we wandered around town thinking that we had a special kind of immunity to the effects of it, until an hour and a half later when we wandered around a clothes shop wondering why there were only escalators going up, and none going down.... it seemed we were trapped, but we did manage to find our way out ;)

Amsterdam was definitely a really cool place to visit, and I haven't seen anything like what I saw there - the girls in the windows, the aroma that drifts from the many coffee shops, and just how biker friendly the city is.

The other characteristic of amsterdam that caught my attention is the 'old-skool' style that it has - many opp shops, and older style jewellery. Amsterdam definitely deserves another visit - and it is only 4 hours away from Hannover on the train, so is an easy getaway from Germany. 

There was also no language barrier there - as everyone spoke English anyway :)

I'll leave this post with a few more pics of Amsterdam - a lot of them may look a bit different than pictures from other posts - I've been using my new phone as a camera, and that's where the effects for some of the pictures have come from as well.:

A Banging time in Bangalore ;)

Well I've been in Bangalore for a couple of weeks now. 

Being in India consists of a whole heap of eating, going out to restaurants, socialising with my ThoughtWorks class, and visiting a place every now and then.

One of the places we visited was a temple that had a giant statue of a god. There was also a bunch of interesting statues and exhibition type things there, and music was blasting through speakers while people sat and worshipped the god(s).

There was also one guy that was the smallest non-dwarf person I've ever seen (see above).

Just this weekend we also went on a trip out into the country. It was a whole heap of fun with paintball, lots of swimming, and playing Mafia into the night. The country side is actually really nice, and they have huge bolders everywhere. The river was brown, but was clean and safe to swim in :)

As you can see the country side is quite nice and green. I kept thinking that without rubbish on the side of the streets, and a bit of maintenance here and there, India countryside could be mistaken for being a tropical paradise. 

Well that's all from me for now. I'll keep taking pictures (or take more pictures), and get some more up on the blog :)

In Bangalore, India

Well I arrived in India yesterday, to start my 6 weeks of training here at ThoughtWorks University (TWU). TWU is basically getting us ready before we start our job, letting us know what to expect, and giving us a project to fail at, so that we can get used to what it's like working in a team.

India is pretty amazing. The first impression was the drive from the airport. The taxi was swerving in and out of traffic, and it was going 120 in an 80 zone. There was a tire on the road, people were walking and biking down the side of the motorway, and cars continually tooted as they were passing one another. It's not quite chaos, but it's definitely not orderly!

As you can see the chaos can have different effects on people. I was quite enjoying the experience, while Tom was terrified out of his mind!!

Since being here I've tried Indian food at a few places. The food here can be very cheap. 30 rupees can buy you a good meal for breakfast - a pancake like thing with potatoes, and some sauces. This is equivalent to about 1NZD.

We also went out for a drink at a local pub. It costs around $2 for a beer, so as you can imagine, it's very relaxing to know that you're not spending a whole lot of money.

Of course not everything is so cheap, there are more expensive places, but on the whole you can get by very cheaply here.

All of the other 20 or so ThoughtWorks University students are really nice. A lot of them are from china and India, with a few from America, and then a guy from Brazil, and Tom from the UK (who I've been hanging out with quite a bit). At the moment we're sort of in orientation mode, so just getting settled into our apartments (we have a room each in a large apartment). Tomorrow we'll be heading into the town bit of Bangalore, so that should be interesting.

My apartment is a really good size; I have my own room with bathroom, there is a huge lounge, as well as a kitchen and dining area.

We also have people that come in everyday and make our beds, tidy up, and do the dishes. Yes, we are living a good life here! - Just check out the view from my balcony! (unfortunately the pool is closed because we're almost in winter).

Post from London town

Well I made it to London!

I arrived on 6th of September, had my job interview at ThoughtWorks on the 7th, had a second interview on the 8th, and was offered a job a couple of days after that!

ThoughtWorks - a bit like a dream job for me actually! A really good company, the people there love what they're doing, they love technology, treat staff well, and I'm really excited and happy about being there.

In fact I took a few pictures, so here's what the office looks like:

In all honesty I don't think the office looks really cool or anything, but then I won't actually be working in the main office that often - I'll be based out on a client's site.... somewhere!

The cool thing about the office though, is that they had a corner for junk food, and then a healthy eating corner as well :) They also have a little library you can borrow books from, and the office layout is quite nice and open :)


Helena came to London for a week as well which was really cool. We did all the touristy things, went and saw buckingham palace, went to some night clubs, ate out, and went to several markets (london has a million markets). Here's some pictures of some of our time in London :)

Heading off to London

OK, as it turns out I underestimated the importance of speaking a language when seeking jobs in a country!

I think that if I tried really hard I could get a job in a kitchen, or something like that in Germany, but not a software programming job - which would be more ideal for me!
The other pitfall is that I live in the country side, which means that it is a lot harder to get a job, as I would need my own transport, and there's less available than in I was in a big city.

My solution: go to London. I applied for a Youth Mobility Scheme visa which will let me work in the UK for 2 years. I think that visas are really against me as well when applying for jobs, but it seems to be ok with some of the bigger companies in London.

So I have my Visa for the UK now, and I'm flying to London on September 6. I have been trying mainly for two jobs in London - one at ScanSafe, and one at ThoughtWorks. Both seem like really good companies to work for. The cool thing about working at ThoughtWorks though, is that they'd send me to India for 6 weeks for training!

The process that I've been through so far with companies has involved several phone interviews, and writing a code sample for each company. I have high hopes for ThoughtWorks which seems like a company I could really enjoy working for, and the recruitment lady seems to like my CV and my phone interview... fingers crossed. If all goes well, I'll be going to an 'assessment centre' on September 7.

Once I get to London I'll have to apply for a 'National Insurance Number' - it's a tax ID number.

For now I'm practising some violin, and will be enjoying my time with Helena here in Germany.

Visiting the local castle

Just thought I'd do a quick post. There's a castle that's close by, within walking distance. I think that it might of been attacked once or twice, as it's now in ruins... Anyway, it's quite nice, and the old houses are interesting :)








Oh yeah, there's a snail in there - I thought it was interesting, they have snails over here that don't have any shell - they just look like slugs...

Another day out in Stuttgart

Yesterday Helena and myself went into Stuttgart to enjoy yet another scorcher of a day :) Summer sure is feeling like summer over here!

We went off to the zoo - I felt quite sorry for the animals in the zoo... The penguins' feathers were falling out, the rhino was banging on it's jail like bars, and the hippos looked as though they might just try to drown themselves.

Anyway, I took a few pictures, here they are:






Here's some of the animals:





That first animal wasn't at the zoo - David Hasselhof was in a bookstore we just happened to walk into, where he was doing some signings for his autobiography.

Back in the country, Helena and myself had a nice picnic today as well. Here's a picture :)



I got my first job interview today as well! I then got emailed and told that they didn't want me - I suspect that it's due to my lack of knowing German... I think that while translating my CV, and emailing people in German seemed like a good idea, it's probably better to email them in English, seeming that I don't actually know all that much German yet!