Week 1: March 18-March 25, 2016
My first week has been a whirlwind of emotions. I’ve been excited, homesick, upset, nervous, and completely clueless.
Since landing on Friday I’ve been getting used to the time change and have started exploring my new home for the next 10 months.
Some brief observations (in no particular order):
- There’s no flatbed trucks here! But there are some tiny-ish vans. So weird, but also it’s kind of nice!
- People really like biking here & for good reason (there’s almost a lane on every street and they are marked either on the road or on the side strip of the sidewalk, usually in a different color –> I learned this the hard way by walking in the bike lane before I knew & getting yelled at, woops!)
- There are streets that are just dedicated to one thing, like all light-bulb stores or all furniture stores. I suspect this makes it way easier to find things, but also I wonder about the competition.
- Tips are a lot less here… so when I gave a large tip to my server they proceeded to hug me, which was nice, but totally caught me off guard.
- Customer service is not a thing here unfortunately! They’re just not nice at all and super impatient.
- Things close really early and grocery stores & most other things are closed on Sundays.
Before I got to Berlin, I did a bit of Rosetta Stone, but I definitely don’t know that much yet , so I’ve had to rely heavily on Google Translate to lend me a hand. It was hard going to the grocery store, especially as a vegetarian. On Friday, I went to the small grocery store near my house and picked up milk. Then, on Saturday, I braved the big grocery store which is about a 10 minute walk from my house. I bought some pasta and some cheese (& hoped it didn’t have rennet in it) and some apples.
I also went to a store near my house to buy some other things I need (laundry detergent & shampoo). As you can see in the pictures below, the products are very similar to what I’m used to in the US, but in German. And the laundry detergent is small enough that you can actually carry it home with other things, which is really nice! One thing though.. my shampoo says “XXL” and I’m still baffled by this. This is definitely regular size in the US (where everything is ginormous), but it’s kind of cute that it’s considered “XXL” here.
I needed to figure out a good way to buy groceries without having to spend much time trying to Google beforehand. So, I created a handy list of words and plan on taking this to the store so I don’t have to keep translating things over and over.
Besides my adventures at the supermarket, I also had another interesting experience this week: getting my visa to live here for 10 months officially!
This was a very different experience for me. I went to the foreigner’s office (Ausländerbehörde) and met the immigration lawyer. I’ve never felt more like an outsider than I did that day. All the signs were in German and I watched as many refugees waited in a long line in the cold outside a building to get their visas and paperwork approved. I can’t imagine what their thoughts are, especially because all of the signs are in German and aren’t friendly at all to those who can’t speak the language.
While I was waiting outside, a police officer pointed over to the area and asked me why I wasn’t heading in that direction (he pointed to the building where the Indian people from India where going to). This shocked me because you would think that at a foreigner’s office people would be more open and understanding. I can’t comprehend that level of narrow-mindedness to assume that I am from India, just based on the color of my skin.
Once the immigration lawyer came, we walked over to my appointment. I felt really helpless because I couldn’t say anything to the immigration officer handling my visa and just sat there in silence while my lawyer translated and filled out paperwork for me. At the same time, I also felt really thankful that I am able to have someone to help me in this manner. I’m sure my meeting would of went much longer if I had gone by myself.
Two hours later, I got my visa! It was a great feeling to know that I am officially welcome to Berlin and living here.
Comments are closed.