First posting

Hello, World!

I hate blogs. At least that's what I always said. And now I have my own. What a shame!

What made me change my mind, and give blogging a try? I'm going abroad for a while. From Germany, where I was born 35 years ago and spent most of my life, to Australia. I don't know how long I will stay there - it all depends on how I'll like it and how badly I'll miss my friends and family here and on whether I'll find a job in Down Under or not, and whether I'll find new friends there. I don't know where I'm going to live either - my plan is to initally rent a room somewhere in Greater Sydney and then see what will come up. I'm travelling alone and a big adventure is before me, an unknown territory, a book with empty pages waiting to be filled.

In any case there are friends, family and colleagues who will want to know how I'm doing and I decided instead of sending e-mail newsletters I'll try to do a blog instead. This blog, like most, is not going to interest the world, but I don't care if it's available on the web public to everyone. I'm not going to write too personal or embarassing things here, although knowing myself I'll probably put down a lot of personal thoughts, if only to get them "out of my system", as they say.

All my German-speaking friends: please forgive that I'm writing this in English. I thought of making the blog bilingual, but that's a lot of extra work, so please bear with me if most of it will be in English only.

And thank you for listening! :)