About Me

Hello,

I am Dorothee and I am sure you are interested in whom I am and why the blog is called “Dorothee International”.

I chose this name for my blog because I will write about my experiences of different countries. I have been living in five countries and I worked in six. When I was working in Denmark I was continuing to live in Sweden and crossed the border every working day. I did not do that for a longer while. I will not talk about the reason here, maybe I will write about that another time in my “Memories”.

I was born and grew up in Kassel, Germany. I was going to school for all the years in this town and also when I continued with further studies I was living there. During these studies I had to go to different places. I had to change place quite often, so I had my flat in Kassel and was going by train every working day to another city or I was for some weeks at another destination, because the different courses.

When I finished my studies in Public Management I had to move to Wiesbaden, because that was my new working place and too far away from my home town. I was only happy about it, I was happy that I finally could leave my home town,  that little city where “nothing happened” – at that time Kassel has had around 250,000 inhabitants. I felt that this town was too little for me, but Wiesbaden was similar in size anyway it was more dynamic. I enjoyed to live at a new place. I was working there for five years.

In 1978 I quit my job in Wiesbaden and was moving to Sweden. I was falling in love with a Swedish guy as well as in the country. I followed him to his home in Hälsingland. I was moving around in Sweden for different reasons and have got the Swedish citizenship in 1982. My working places/places of studies were situated in Hudiksvalls kommun, Nordanstigs kommun, Lycksele kommun, Linköpings kommun, Aneby kommun, Helsingborgs stad, Bjuvs kommun, Skurups kommun, Malmö stad, Lunds kommun, Perstorps kommun and Klippans kommun. The most of them I lived in, too.

There were times I tried to earn money with my own companies and other times I was unemployed and have had jobs with just a few hours a week. At least I have got a “Plusjob”, that is the same like a “Arbeitsbeschaffungsmaßnahme (ABM)” – that was a real job somewhere where the employer do not have the money to employ a person, but has work to do anyway. It was told, that we should not take jobs from other people, but it is not that way in real. Lucky persons can stay with their employer afterwards and get a real contract, but my working place was at the public administration of the Municipality of Perstorp and this municipality did not have money to employ one of us afterwards. Nobody of us around 20 “unemployed” did get a contract afterwards and we did know that before the end of the period of two years.

Most of the Swedish employers were asking for people with good knowledge in English. Therefore I decided to try to get a work abroad in an English-speaking country. I have not used English after my studies in Germany, but during a few situations. I did not remember much and tried to recall the language by watching TV, because in Sweden there are only subtitles. The movies are not synchronised. I thought if I have been working in an English-speaking country it would be easier to find a job in Sweden. That was the reason why I, in the age of 57 – my youngest child was just 18 years old at that time – did move to the Republic of Ireland. I was happy that I have got a job offer in customer care over there. It was a contract for almost 9 month, but it was extended until close to a year. There were only three weeks missing.

I tried a while to get an employment in Sweden and also tried to get one on the island of Ireland, because I was very interested in to get another job and I did, but not in Sweden. My first working place on this island was in Dublin, the other one was in Leixlip, Co. Kildare. Actually it was not far away from Dublin. The new employment was without a definite end and I thought I will stay on this island until I retire, but life is difficult sometimes and I had to move again.

In 2009 I moved to Hamburg (Germany), because I have got a job there and it was much easier to go from Hamburg to Sweden instead of going from Ireland to Sweden. There were no longer a need to take a flight for going home to Sweden. I had to move av family reasons. I lived in Hamburg until the month of April 2014. It was up and down with my jobs and I was unemployed since 1st November 2012, but a few hours a week. I liked Hamburg. For me the city has always been the most beautiful one I know, but I disliked the job politics and the politics in general.

Therefore it was not hard for me to take a job on Malta and move there in May 2014, even I left some friends behind me – again. I had to choose between a low pension and a life in Hamburg or to have a low pension and a job on Malta. I have been engaged in politics and more in Hamburg. I did a hard work, but could not get a job I could live of. Though it was not difficult for me to decide to move to a Mediterranean country with the possibility to explore the South of Europe and the North of Africa during my vacation leaves and days off.

My home is not my castle but a busy junction for couch surfers and other friends. I have friends in a lot of countries and I get more and more all the time. In addition to that I really explore more countries now by being a guest at others homes. When I was living on Malta I hold a Swedish passport, a German ID-card as a German citizen and a Maltese ID-card as a resident on Malta. That means: I really am international!

I left Malta after a surgery for thyroid cancer and finally lived my dream travelling the world. I did it for a year and run out of money, moved home to Sweden, lived for around six month with my youngest son and his family. In May 2017 I rented a little apartment, where I could have my things and a place I could call home in Ekerö, Stockholms county. Looking for a summer job I moved to Portugal instead as my second residence and was working there for half a year, before I moved home to Sweden again, already with a purchased ticket for Mexico.

About all this years you will be able to read on this blog and I hope you will enjoy it.
Dorothee