Not the big wide world...

Now, after more than two years in Thames, I notice that my attitude towards our emigration adventure has significantly changed. The exciting feeling of having moved into the big wide world has faded and been replaced by a feeling of living in just a different province. Now, this is natural, isn't it, as it is the truth.

At the moment, moving back to Germany is not an option, for several reasons, the strongest being that we do not want to interrupt the good way our kids are going at school and in private. That includes that we won't relocate elsewhere either.

As it is my very nature to look out for a change from time to time, and I do not see how to get involved in it or see that happen at my current employer, I have opted for something new – I applied for a training contract that will lead me to new experiences in overall two other practices – under training conditions. At the end of this 12 months period, I will sit an exam („Primex“) and hopefully, after one more year at another practice, attain a specialist title, the „vocational registration“ in General Medicine, or the fellowship at the RNZCGP, which means the same. It is roughly equivalent to the German „Facharzt für Allgemeinmedizin“. My formal employer will be a medical education organisation. It is awesome that I will be even paid during that year, although less than now.

This step I, or we, have taken in view of a possible longer stay here in NZ, although I will probably interrupt this training to spend some time in Europe, which would be no problem in terms of the training. But whatever decision we take, it will be enriching to see something different, and I will be able to learn a lot.

I will leave my German speaking colleagues and friends back at my former workplace, but we will surely meet often in private.