WriterinResidence

About this sitter

I´m a writer with a focus on philosophical subjects and history of ideas, living in the city-centre of an industrial town in the South-West of Germany. Fortunately, this town is situated near beautiful Heidelberg and its famous old university. I have a lot of cultural interests (theatre, films, history, literature, classical music, languages, travelling...), But to realize my ambitious book projects and also for my personal well-being, I need a regular change of scenery and a certain distance to my personal situation at home from time to time:preferably a calm and peaceful environment, a beautiful landscape, if possible some wild nature and nice pets to care for - things, I do not have at home. As a house sit, I prefer the countryside to big cities, places as quiet and peaceful as possible. Concerning the country, I´m very flexible. Being multilingual (German, English, French, Spanish and some basics of Swedish), I normally do not have any communication problems, wherever I stay.

Why they want to house sit

Living in a big city can be very stressful - the more, if you have a noisy environment and noisy neighbours.
The opportunity to stay on a peaceful place for some time of the year, for a couple of days or weeks, is just a wonderful thing for me to get some rest, to read, reflect and write or prepare my new projects.
I love to be in the countryside, and I love pets and animals. I am orderly and reliable, and I like taking responsibility for a house and taking care of nice pets like cats, dogs, birds, rabbits, guinea pigs or whatever. Time and place is basically open and depends on my plannings here. Normally, I can announce my availability a couple of weeks in advance, but not very much longer, as I have to be flexible in my works too (public readings, lectureships, library researches...). The destination depends on my financial situation - whether or not I can afford an expensive oversee-flight currently. I basically prefer Europe, and there´s still so much for me to discover as some parts of Scandinavia or Eastern Europe.

Their experience

Yes, I have plenty of "house sitting"-experiences - mostly in the course of personal recommendations (friends of friends of friends who needed someone to care for the dogs and the house during their holidays...). In my student´s days, I cared for a house in Paris and for the parrot "Gaston". Later on, there were two little dogs in an appartment in Seoul/ South-Corea. In 2006, I spent two nice weeks in Ingolstadt/Germany with "Jack" the Jack Russel and years later with "Kookie", the Irish wolfhound, in a beautiful wooden house in Bavaria. The house- and pet-owners (and the animals, as far as I can say) were always satisfied with my caring, and I loved coming back.

What can they bring to the assignment

Reliability, love of pets, orderliness and a great interest for new places and people, for new cultural experiences.