When did you start feeling "at home" in Germany?

[muchado 158]

 

I miss mexican food in the good old USA and a bit more Lebensraum but not Walmart and Home Depot and the like... endless pointless world-destroying motoring through ugly landscapes. That shit makes me depressed as hell and remember why I don't want to be there. Now, I'm off to Kaufland...

 

Yes, but the million Aldis, Pennys, Lidls littering every village and carrying the same junk depresses me too.

[the Boy From Bozlem 574]

Sat in a beer garden about 18 hours after landing in Munich, I looked around and decided that I wanted to spend the rest of my life there.

 

Just counting down the days now till I return.

[Justanne 996]

Hey! FDG is quoting ME in post #51, not nina_glyndwr. How'd that happen?

[truemana 66]

I only moved here in September 2012. This place already feels a lot more like home than my last place in Canada (Nanaimo). However, I miss a bit of the familiarity and feel like an outsider here, even though I'm technically German. All the processes and taxes on everything make me go bonkers (€60 to change my vehicle registration to a new city?! Why is the system so everyone has to get new plates?!?)

 

That said, so many things feel like how they should be. The cities are spotless. Cars are in the right lane unless passing. The clothes fit slimmer people (nicely). The chocolate and cheese variety is great. People care about the environment and not being wasteful. I can drink inexpensive but delicious beer outside anytime. No UFC or christian audigier shirts at the bars. Trains are usable. Transit is usable. Logic wins over emotion, generally.

 

The biggest piece missing right now is the language. I sit quietly at the lunch table at work and with my roommates and their friends, trying desperately to catch even a few words to laugh when they do. It's been a long time since I've been so personally frustrated with my own abilities. Probably my first failed math exam in grade 10.

[FDG 372]

 

Hey! FDG is quoting ME in post #51, not nina_glyndwr. How'd that happen?

 

Magic!

[Blue Cow 255]

Home is where you tell your friends you are going :)

[BobUK 4,654]

Can't say I've ever felt 'at home' anywhere, throughout my life, but I do enjoy living in Bavaria...

[Synfoola 2,949]

I've been here 5 years. I married the girl I came here for and gave her a son. I built my business up from nothing to successful enough to support said wife and son. I know enough of the language, follow the rules (many of which I still believe are stupid and outdated), pay my taxes and customs fees, and have a nice apartment with a great view, my own car, and money in the bank.

 

That being said, I feel at home in my apartment because I'm slowly making it my own with comforts of home; my US-built computer, my US bed, my stock of US goods, but also my wife's German stuff that we started with and we even bought German stuff like a Thermomix so I wouldn't be the only one cooking. LOL I love the Schwimmbads here and the fact that I can massage even prostitutes and nobody thinks anything of it...especially when, unlike several "reputable" companies, my whore-clients pay me on time. I love the fact that I can finish a client and drive home overlooking the river flowing through Heidelberg while the sun sets across from its castle. But, do I feel at home here in Germany as a whole? No. And, unless things start changing here with the average person, I doubt I ever will and I don't feel the slightest bit of remorse admitting it...hell, I'm proud of it.

 

I had no interest in this country or even this continent. I only came here for my wife and only stayed because she just couldn't live without the "security" that her country supposedly provides and thumps its collective chest over. I can't go into detail right now as we're still fighting these battles, but every single one of those securities that she grew up believing she had as a German citizen has failed her and also my 10-month old son. This stuff is happening to more people than is admitted and so many natives here have no idea because nobody talks about it, let alone stands up for themselves against it, until it's too late. Then they move on and tell themselves it's "not worth it" to fight over.

 

I thought the birth of my son would help me see things here with new eyes but it worked out in the opposite way I expected. I'm actually worried about raising him here where there's so little accountability from laymen to name-title professionals and so may damned contracts & rules laid down just because people here can't be arsed to avoid doing something asshatted out of plain class or common sense. And I say this coming from the Land of Rednecks, for God's sake. Either way, I just keep on driving myself to succeed and drag at least one industry here kicking & screaming into the 21st century while I'm here. And I hope my son will eventually understand that some of the higher expectations I may place on him that don't coincide with the "*shrugs* Was kann ich tun?" attitude that's so prevalent here will pay off so that he doesn't scurry back to Germany with his tail between his legs after his first solo visit to the US.

[HEM 11,163]

 

(€60 to change my vehicle registration to a new city?! Why is the system so everyone has to get new plates?!?)

 

In order to extract money from you. Present in other areas - latest being the new expiring driving licenses - no medical check, no capability check - just pay money again.

[Gambatte 972]

I feel at home when I'm with my wife and daughter. I don't care where.

 

But I feel best when I'm in the mountain, running or cycling, with my wife and daughter not far. Don't really really care where.

 

I'm heading for Hamburg (moutain?) with no wife and daughter for now :(

[arunadasi 7,075]

It took me over 30 years to feel at home in Germany. It's a long story and might be of interest to some people. I'm thinking of starting a TT blog. I came in 1975, a naive 23 year old without a penny in her pocket and hardly a word of German. It's been a rollercoaster ride, I can say that much.