OK, OK, 'nomad' is a bit over the top, but so far I am on my fourth European country: if anybody is a true European citizen, it must be me! :) I absolutely love the fact that I can move to any country in the European Union without too much hassle. Admittedly, at times I feel a bit like I have no real home anymore, and every country I moved to had its quirks (positive and negative), but all in all it's great and I take something with me from each place I lived in.

Growing up in a country doesn't really make you realise how special some things about it are. Only when living somewhere else you start to compare and understand a bit better what gives your home country its uniqueness as you start to look at it more like a visitor would. Since I moved further and further away from central Europe one of the basic things I miss are the summers and winters that a continental climate has - with clear temperature differences compared to spring and autumn. Nevertheless, something I don't miss are the problems that come with driving a car in snowy winters. Everybody will find something like this when they leave home: they will miss some things, but they might also find that they prefer certain ways of the new place. At the same time they might find asking themselves why on earth people don't do things the same way as they are used to from home ('it makes so much more sense')! Even though I fret about this as well, I ended up finding the whole question quite pointless. People simply do things differently, so I note the fact, try to get on with my own life and that's it. :)

Therefore my country sections (links at the top) aren't so much about the countries, rather about what happened to me and why I moved on. But to amuse you I put sections about my favourite and least favourite things onto each page. If you don't have the time or patience to read through all of these pages, you can find a summary of my stations below.

Short and sweet - a summary

• Born and also grown up in Hannover (that's how we spell it!) in Germany. Finished school at Lutherschule Hannover (VEL/teachers). Started studying English and German linguistics at the University of Hanover and got in touch with PCs. [Read more]
• 1989: I started my European field trip and went to Reading, UK, for 6 months as a visiting student at the University of Reading. [Read more]
• Finished my studies in Hanover finally early 1992.
• 1992: Moved to London, UK, in order to prove myself! :-) Spent some useful(!) time on a RSA Information Technology course and in 1994 started working as a technical support representative. [Read more]
• 1995: Moved over to the Netherlands and since then I have been working for Symantec. Lived in Den Haag and Leiden. [Read more]
• 2002: Moved to Dublin, Ireland. [Read more]
• 2006: Moved to Eastleigh, UK, and had a baby.