the moving movie

©expat copenhagen - the moving movie

after a long long long week jen, tetsuya and I have our first weekend here in københavn. although we are tied to the bed (aka the couch) because I caught a cold, jen is suffering from allergy and tetsuya hurt his leg while running toooooooo hard and enthusiastically on the grass close to the opera.

It's been a hard time the last two weeks packing, moving and unpacking but I somehow got sick of telling the whole story over and over again. For that reason I made a little movie with all our pictures and hope some of you can experience how it was (to move about 1.5 tons of our stuff).

I also want to shoot a special thanks to our friends who helped out even when we lost our last reserves. Also to our family who supported us not only financially but also with love and helpful reminders! And last but not least a special thanks to our new and first danish friends Sune & Kristina who not only rent us their lovely apartment but also help out with any question and also with their muscles for our most precious goods.

this movie is hosted by youtube but you can also watch it in a better quality on my web gallery.

enjoy!!

there

we made it

after a long long long trip finally to our now home! it's been hard and exhausting but now that we had our first night here we're finally happy!

2 more days & I am still a freak & party !!!

©expat copenhagen - invitation

It's Monday and this is my 3rd last workday in Vienna! I cant wait for leaving this office! Been too lang that I had fun here! No offence, but since my team here was always very "busnessy" I just had very little funny times! So I'm not sad to leave this place which I consider as OK!

After a weekend off from moving duties I somehow feel the pressure in my neck coming! Our apartment here in Vienna is a total mess! Just imagine everything you have but not placed in your drawers or storage, just layed out on the floor! We'll start with packing everything on Thursday and I'll try to cover this with daily pictures of every room!

For the moving we'd been lucky to get the little truck of our relatives from Salzburg! They borrow it to us over the long weekend of the 1st june! I've already posted a sketch of our tour so maybe now it's understandable! I've started to draw the loading deck of it in 3d and did a 3d packing plan! I was somehow scared of not fitting everything in! but my 3d packing plan was telling me "yes we can" (maybe Im a kind of matha steward -or architect freak but better testing it then,..)

©expat copenhagen -the transporter

©expat copenhagen -3d packing plan

last but not least, our leaving party is off on wednesday! we are about to hit the 30 people mark and I hope we'll enjoy the evening with some strawberry bowle and all our friends!

last 6 days

©expat copenhagen - the new work surrounding

as moving is getting closer, other things have to end. my carreer at BEHF Architects yet not old and yet not very successful will be over in 6 working - days. though it wasn't the work I'd die for it was a nice time and along that time many things changed. I think I grew older and that working relation in a strange way let me know what is and what's not my way of living! Of course there have been outstanding days like the opening of the beautiful EO Oberwart (pictures, movie), the little but always hidden success that after 100 types of façades they finally took my suggestion for a hotel in Salzburg and so on.
The not so nice, situations always disappear in time or at least we try to let them disappear. I think it's a kind of self-protection to not the bad things remain within your heart and mind. still these points let me change my future perspective and drew me to a new situation of leaving home for something I am very excited about. a new job, a new duty, a new role, a new life!

Yes I passed the status of half-heartedness, I passed it and I feel a little sad of leaving my home where I grew up, finished school, had many of one's first experiences and so,... Not that I haven't left home yet, I had half a year in Sydney, finding out how I am able to survive in the out(back)er world. But that time was completely different, it was a time where I always new that I'd be back some day!

Well I'd lie if I say that I never return to Vienna. I guess I will. Somehow in my head there is that wish to see it as a great move. maybe it's stupid maybe I'll regret it, maybe this or that. Telling how these feelings emerged would be hard, I just have no idea. But since a certain poing I've allowed it to be and it felt like a big step.

This time I spent with BEHF, put me into "real" business life, not that I was totally new to that having worked for several offices along uni & school since I was 16. Here it was different. It emerged through a real business application process (which I admired at that time) and it always had nothing to do with people I know before. Just realizing that this was never the case before with all the other places I spent my time with. Always it had something to do with a colleague or a friend or a friends-friend, or someone who know someone or,... simply there was always a personal relation. I just realized that this is something I've missed here and I never really got closer with someone here. (besides some nice colleagues, still colleagues)

I'd also lie if I'd say this will change. It can't, how would it. But I'll try to change. I'll try to find someone who's valuable to become a real friend not only beside the working desk. At least I can try. Else than that I have no idea how to really deal with my concerns. Maybe that's just the sad business life! I hope not and I still have the believe that it's possible to love not only what you do but also the circumstances it's in!

our moving sale

©expat copenhagen - moving sale

the moving sale, we held through out the last weekend, went quite well, considering that I made the misstake putting it on a sat. of a long weekend! well we made 120 € and sold 1/4 of our stuff which is totally fine I guess!

It's shocking when you see how much goods oneself's got and was never in use. one could make a study of dead value hidden in drawers and boxes of each and every apartment or house. that would be radical! it would open consumers eyes and it would hopefully change thinking of everybody! well I'm already starting to think of starting that project!
wow!

..... to be continued!

inbetween "2" sucks!

©expat copenhagen - newcastle (aus)

©expat copenhagen - sydney bay (aus)

©expat copenhagen - uluru (aus)

once again I'm in an inbetween status. I was so enthousiastic with organising and planing everything that now 4 weeks before leaving old for new home I'm finding myself again with whired feelings. I've got time to think now. certainly thats good but too much for thinking never leads to what we call happieness!
these pictures from the time when Jen & I fell (jumped) in love should somehow represent how I should feel! happy and sad! happy to get into a new place and excited to live in denmark. but I'm not jet! Sad that I leave my homebase where I grew up where I learned everything where I've got my family,... but I'm not! I am just a mash of something and nothing!
not stressed but not relaxed, not happy but not sad, not exhausted from work, planning or scheduling but also not free of it! I just don't know!

maybe I'm too much grown up now to have these feelings again. maybe I'm philosophising too much. maybe I.... I'd love to cry and be deeply down but I can't, I'd love to be high up in the sky but I'm not!

I don't know what it is but I don't think thinking makes the thoughts about it better so I'll try to draw off attention.

from 110 m² to 40 m²

©expat copenhagen -tetsuya, his first ride in a christiania!

moving isn't easy! moving isn't always fun! and moving when you leave country is quite hard work! with us there is a certain fact that makes our moving very hard!

here in Vienna we moved into a nice apartment in the 4th district which is very cheap for the size. it has 3 rooms, kitchen, bathroom,... and 110 m² so very big!!!

in Copenhagen we will move into a very very nice apartment in Christianshavn with a reasionable price for the location! it's got only one room less and but a lot less sqare meter, 40!!!

we'll need to get ride of a lot of stuff! not only furniture but also "the cultural waste" one accumulates over time which is never used again! we'll hold one or two markets with friends and hope that we'll be able to get ride of the stuff!

massive light on the end of the tunnel!

jen's parents said, when one door is shut another will open up!

that's so true with my situation! I didn't get the funding/scholarship for the intern and only got the possibility to work without payment! till today, I got a interview and was totally frank which I thought isn't the right thing but I couldn't help to let it all out! AND

it worked. Anyhow either I must have been so pathetic or so clear that I want this that finally the guy from MAPT said that he'll put me on an assignment and that it's gona be a free lance relation ship! MAN I LOVE IT!

2.

This morning already started great cos we got a sms that told us that we, although the long struggle, can have the apartment!!

SO WE GONA LIVE IN CHRISTIANSHAVN!

AND I'LL WORK FOR MAPT!

sometimes live's got great turns to offer and that's what makes it liveable!!!

shit happenz

it all went just too fine! till yesterday noon!

pretext.

we came to copenhagen started to seek apartments and also visited the lovely apartment we've posted earlier! We really liked it, jen fall in love with it and the surrounding. Just I was a little uncertain! We had a great Saturday with lots and lots of sunshine and got in love with our new hometown!

but then.

1.

driving the christiania with the doggy is just impossible right now! he's so frightened that he's jumping out which is not a good thin between lots of traffic! So riding the christiania with Jen and the doggy in it gave me some aching muscles. We know that it'll take a while but still it's not what we've expected!

2.

we tried to find apartments aside to the place we've seen but it seems to be virtually impossible to find something nice, and not as far away as sweden (you wouldn't believe it, but we found announcements where they say, the apartment is 15 min away from cph center, close to malmö central station! wtf??) under 8.000.-kr!

So we sad we'll take the lovely small place we've posted earlier but we found out that they'll be seeing other tenants today because I sounded uncertain! well we'll know it maybe till early afternoon!

3.

I DIDN'T GET THE SCHOLARSHIP

yes it's definitive I am not able to do a normal internship without doing a side job to survive!

well it had to be the hard way! it's crises time and why shouldn't it hit us, too! I know I'd be able to make it but it would have been good for the start!

4.

I've got two interviews today and I've got no idea how to turn it and how to position myself.

last time I was frank to everybody it didn't really turn out to be good for me. I've no idea! Danish people sometimes leave you quite uncertain! Just that i have the problem that I hate to lie! (normally not a bad attitude,maybe not in real life!) I hope that I'm still optimistic after the afternoon!

5.

We've found the perfect "cykler" for us and our doggy, the Nihola it's great to ride and easy for jen, tetsuya and me! BUT it costs 16.000 kr. and is far out of budget!

BUT'S

we still want this!

I still want to work here!

we are still optimistic to find a nice place to live!

I'll find a job and if necessary a side- and a second side job!

WE'LL MAKE IT!

I'm always reading a german business magazine brand eins and there was an article about a company that is now during the crisis hiring loads and loads of people to grow! the guy in the interview sad, everybody who swims with the stream has to take the bumps and the turns of it. Everybody who's not has a hard time but he's still in hand of his road!

I JUST LOVE THAT!

so lets swim against the stream!!!!

it's time to go now !!!!

©expat copenhagen - flying tetsuya ;-)

I'm at work and it's just 2 more hours before I leave the office to run home and jump into the car to go north. Strange that feeling! I'm so excited about what I'll be seeing on that journey.

Will we find a proper apartment?
Will I be able to say " I've got a job now"?
Will we find out which area is the nicest for a start in cph?
Will Jen be able to get into a study program?
.
.
.
and finally
Will Tetsuya like Copenhagen!?

Well one thing is for sure, we're looking forward to some northern spring sun. Maybe have some nice walks and cycle in the sun. So far my last post from Vienna.
More next week directly from Copenhagen! Now it's time to get ready, though Vienna is showing it's lovely face today: 20 degrees, people sipping aperol spritzers in the sun, and beautiful sunshine!

departure coming closer!

©expat copenhagen - Helsingør

everytime you leave town for any purpose it's the same! there are hundreds of things popping up in your mind, that need to be solved and to be finished and to be handed in, to be given to someone and so on and so on......

maybe it's only with me but I guess it's the same with everybody. It's not often that I had enough time to pack my stuff properly and think about what and which and why.

well, it's like that this time. jen's got her bachelor thesis to hand in. I've got a hand in for a project that I'm doing aside of work and there is loads of stuff to do at the office! Additionally, there is the big opening of the shopping center that I was partly working on, tomorrow, and so on and so on! (not that I like shopping centers but sometimes it just happens to be the thing you have to work on!)

we didn't find apartments, yet, to visit, aside from that lovely christianshavn-one of our friends when we're in Copenhagen, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem. (because most of the apartments are rented out within some days. we just need to be the lucky first!).

I hope to offer more new pictures of Copenhagen in spring, because I'm running out of my own pictures anyway!

in-between

©expat copenhagen - habour helsingør

when you decide that you move to another country it's all dazzling new! you are happy about everything and you are excited! images pop up in your mind and you see yourself in that or this position, place, .....

the time between your first thoughts and the rush you are in when it all actually takes place is strange. at least it's for me! you confront yourself with different questions that occupy your mind although you're still far from facing them! you think about apartments weeks long and lose your mind in little details like mobile phone rates.

meanwhile you talk to many friends/people about your plans. you'll find supporters, opposers, happy and sad people. some will tell you they'll visit you, some you know will actually do it some wouldn't. some tell you things you didn't know before.

when you enter that phase of migration you're in-between! you and your mind don't really live on the same spot any more. it happens that you're lost in thoughts. it happens that you forget stuff, that you're scared and that you're tremendously happy! all maybe only within some weeks or months! with us it's months, since it'll take till early July until we move to Copenhagen. a long time will pass and some things in life will pass by while I'm/we're occupied by ....

did you ever have this kind of experience?

angst

vienna - picture from virtualsightseeing

it might seem a little stupid, but those last few days I realized that we will really move to copenhagen. but the feelings I get from this sort of late epiphany is mixed. suddenly a hundred things pop up in my mind that I haven't done during the past 6 years I've lived in vienna. I have never been to the Lichtenstein Museum although I've lived right next to it for 3 years, I've never been to the Prater, actually I've never really done anything "touristy" here. When I arrived 6 years ago, I immediately started with my studies, so there wasn' t really a lot of time to do things like that. except for going out to get to know people of course. :-)

that's actually another things that gives me the creeps: friendship. it took me so long to build a circle of good friends whom I can trust and who've really grown on me. and then, do you know how long it takes to befriend a viennese person????? it's almost impossible, they don't seem to care about making new friends. it took me years to befriend some of them and that my boyfriend is from vienna certainly helped, though I still got know people while going out and so on. I have the bad feeling that danish people are not so different concerning the friendship thing, I've heard they will have a good time with you, but to really make friends with them is very difficult. I mean, as I said, I'm used to it from Austria, but on the other hand it makes me sad to know that the first few years will be rather difficult and may involve the feeling of being a stranger without family ties in a foreign city. especially when now some of my friends are getting married and having children and I won't be there to take part. also my parents just moved to vienna, which was actually nice as well.

then there is the study thing. now that I'm almost finished with my bachelor I'm really afraid that I won't get into a msters' programm here in cph, I don't know if this is unrational, but I always panic when my future is not planned out, yet. all these horror scenarios about what I will do if I don't get to study and so on and so forth.. I know I should focus on the good things and that everything will eventually work out, but you know, my nature..

on the other hand, this time i am not starting out alone, I'll have paul and the doggy with me, which already makes it tremendously easier! and I'm sure that we'll get know some people in the beginning, maybe not danes, but other people who are new to the city. I'm really looking forward to cycle everywhere and to live close to the sea!
although paul may deny it, vienna is kind of morbid, especially in the winter, and often I felt really encased here by this gloomy atmosphere. there is a reason why freud lived here..
copenhagen may be dreary in the winter as well, but when I was there it still felt differently to vienna. people where still smiling at you and trying to make it "hyggelig" inside during the dark winter months, at least that's how we experienced it.

well, that leaves me to say "gute nacht" and tomorrow we'll be one day closer to spring! :-)