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Life in France

Vil was living with his family in a small town in Southern France, the Basque Country, he had a nice house. One day his girlfriend asked him if he wants to have a dog because it now would be the perfect time for one. Vil agreed and they drove to a dog shelter near to Bayonne.

At first, they checked out all older dogs, because Vil thought that puppies always find a new owner and he would like to give an older dog a chance. So, he saw all dogs and he wanted to leave and go home without seeing the small ones, but his girlfriend insisted. After all dogs, I was the last creature they saw. Vil immediately fell in love with me, since then we are together and best friends.

Life in the Basque Country was very nice. We all had a little house near to a river, and every day we had a long walk in the nature. I like to hunt birds and sometimes I was very close catching one, but never made it. They are really fast. Anyway, wonderful life in southern France life couldn’t be better for us. In Germany, they say: “To live like God in France!”

I had a boyfriend, Lou Chin, a very big nice guy and the night before the morning he was scheduled to lose his balls, but before he managed to give me a wonderful present. Actually three: Boule, Neige and Vache. “Ball”, “Snow” and “Cow”. My little Smallies.

All was a real dream, we planned to stay forever, but unfortunately our life changed from one day to the other and we needed to go back to Vil’s home country, Germany.

I don’t want to go too much into details, but I can say that Vil was hit by a personal tragedy which made it impossible for him to stay in France.

So, he arranged everything necessary within a few days, we went with little warning time back to Germany and this is the beginning of our story.

Ok, ….. Let’s go.

Back in Germany

We booked a trip with “Bla-Bla” car in a VW-Bus with four others, the pickup was in Bayonne very early in the morning. 1.300 km in a green and noisy Volkswagen box. Time to think what we gonna do when we arrive in Germany. Vil wasn’t living in Germany for more then 10 years and he has absolutely no idea how it will work out when he registers at the town, the job-center and the health insurance. Paperwork……. BOAH!

The trip went with no issue, it was booooring and after 15 hours driving, several coffees and toilet stops we arrived late night around 03:00 am, but no one was there to pick us up. We tried to call our friend more then once, waited for around an hour, until we decided to take a taxi to his place.

When we arrived, we rang the bell several times, no one opened the door and after a few minutes trying Vil gave up. “Let’s have a smoke first.”, he said, sat down and rolled a cigarette. So we waited, tired, freezing, it’s raining and no coffee.

Around one hour our later our friend showed up. Totally wasted and surprised to see us. Unfortunately, our friend “forgot” our arrival today and was on the road partying with his freaking mobile phone switched off.

Anyhow, finally we arrived in Germany, a new country for me no long-term solution, but a place to stay for the next few days.

Good night Bark!

No Job in Germany!

This morning Vil went to the employment office, to the health insurance and also to the job agencies to sort out his paperwork and to get back into the social system. No big deal, you might think, but when he went to the Job-Center he learned that it will be nearly impossible for Vil to get a job in Germany. The only help they can offer is an “application training” to learn to write his CV and how to behave within an interview. NOTHING useful!

No “German CV”

If someone asks, why a very experienced and highly skilled IT Support and Sales guy won’t find a job in Germany? Long story short. First, Vil has a unique CV which is not really compatible with German CV standards because, he worked all over Europe and changed his position quite often.

Sick, but not sick enough!

Second, Vil is chronically ill with Diabetes and this is a some kind of negative “mark” on his CV. Don’t us tell that Diabetes is no issue. Vil can work very hard and normally he is well, but sometimes the damage takes it’s toll and within minutes he start to feel sick and take quite strong medicine which makes him very sleepy and then he need to go home to recover. Unfortunately the sickness itself is confirmed and some status of handicapped status was acknowledged, but in this state Vil is not sick enough to retire or get any benefit, but also he is not healthy enough to compete on the job market.

50

Last, but not least, Vil already passed the “magic” age of 50 years. All of this combined lead his applications directly to the bin.

Welfare

Now Vil is registered for welfare and he will receive a little financial monthly payment, but there is little to no hope for a job. Welfare itself is no fun and not even enough money to have decent food. Welfare means two week of decent life and then waiting for the next payment to arrive. At the end of the month a fresh apple becomes a delicacy.

Homeless soon?

No money left to save, therefore no way to find our own place. If we want to stay in Germany, we need to find a very cheap place to stay, very fast and with no deposit or we will be homeless soon.

Mission impossible!

What to do?!

So we needed to decide what to do.

“The only wrong thing to do is nothing.”

Option one

We can accept the situation and give up. We can sit on the sofa all day, play video games, have long walks and at the end of the month receive just enough financial support to stay barely alive.

Option two

We don’t accept to slowly rot on the sofa and find another option ourselves.

While browsing the internet and looking for any useful information Vil found a clause in the welfare agreement, which allows him to leave Germany for up to four weeks and still receive his payments. This might be a way to get out of  Germany and look for a job somewhere else.

I think we will take option two and search for a job somewhere else. Where?

We need to find our luck somewhere else.

Vil decided that a town with a high density of call centers would be an opportunity. Maybe Barcelona, Dublin or Amsterdam and he checked the jobs online. LinkedIn, Monster other Job boards, and the most positive feedback came from Barcelona.

So it’s sure we will leave Germany and try to find our luck somewhere nice. We are not sure, but most likely, we will go to Spain. Vil organized already a few interviews and let’s see if one of the companies is interested and offers him a job.

Catalunia? YEAH!

Victor-“The VW-Polo-Camper”

Wherever we go, we need something to live in because we won’t be able to afford a hotel or even Airbnb. We need a place for all our belonging, our camping equipment, storage, clothing and finally a place to sleep. A cheap solution was needed, so Vil bough Victor, a 1991 VW-Polo,  for 150€, that’s around 200$, to transform him into our future home.

Rebuild

Victor was built in 1999, he has circa 100.000 miles (170.000km) on the clock and “extreme power” of 44KW / 60PS. Victor will be transformed into a complete camper with water, gas cooker, table, bed, storage, electricity, WiFi,……. and a place for me.

After this is done we will travel to Spain, visit exciting places, eat delicious food, meet interesting people and hopefully find a job for Vil before our money runs out.