At the age of 28, Maike Werner has already gotten around quite a bit. She spent her childhood in Rostock-Reutershagen and graduated from high school there in 2012. After school she didn’t really know what she wanted to do, only one thing: she wanted to go far away. She decided to do an au pair year in the USA.
“I ended up with a family of four in upstate New York on Long Island,” says the well-travelled woman. It was great. And Fascinating. Culture shock included. She liked a comparison very much: According to this, Americans are like peaches; soft shell, hard core. With the Germans it is the other way around. “You can tell that the American mentality is very different. The people are all super friendly, which I had to get used to at first.”
One year in the USA finally turned into two and in between she was only once at home in Rostock. “I couldn’t have done it for such a long time without seeing my family. Also, my visa had expired and had to be extended. So I was able to combine one thing with the other,” reports the lively young woman.
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After two years in New York, back to the Baltic Sea
It finally went back in 2014. “I know it sounds crazy, but when I was back in Germany I had to learn the language again. I lost so many words and was only able to speak in half sentences,” remembers Maike, who has been fluent in English since the long stay Childcare. During this time, Maike applied to several universities. Throughout Germany, because she wanted to see something different again. So the Rostock resident finally enrolled in health promotion at the University of Fulda. But she quickly realized that this didn’t suit her.
“Even though I had toyed with the idea of going into business administration before, I was afraid of all the numbers.” However, as it turned out after she switched to this very field, her fears were completely unfounded. Ultimately, “International Business Administration” was the right decision for her, especially because half of the course was in English. “A semester abroad was even compulsory, which fueled my passion for travel again,” says the returnee. She wanted to go far away and not go to the USA again. She landed in Bangkok. Another culture shock. Only bigger. During the five months of her semester abroad, she traveled a lot, for example to Bali or Singapore.
Family lived in Ireland for years and is now back in Neubrandenburg: A whiskey with the kebab, please!
The first job in the old hometown
Graduation followed in March 2021. At that point at the latest, she knew that her real home was in the north. “I would not have thought it possible that I would miss the sea air and the sea so much. How often have I walked past the harbor in everyday life without paying any attention to it. I could only find out that I miss the sea through the mountains of Fulda.”
The 28-year-old now lives with her roommate in the Kröpeliner Tor suburb and works in the Welcome Center in the Rostock region. In doing so, she has fulfilled a dream. “I could never really imagine a classic position in a human resources department. I like the life stories of people too much for that,” says the passionate globetrotter. At the Welcome Center she looks after people who are planning to settle down in the Hanseatic city. And that was a hell of a lot in the summer of 2021. She can give advice and work economically – she likes that a lot.
Where will the globetrotter go next? “Absolutely to New York to my former host family,” says Maike wistfully and sincerely hopes that 2022 will bring some normality again. Until the next trip, the Mecklenburg native enjoys her favorite places: the ghost forest in Nienhagen and the swan pond in Reutershagen – the place of her childhood.
Regulars’ table at the Welcome Center: Where newcomers toast each other in the lake district
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