Following-up with my nonsensical* exploration of Hamburg as a good candidate for your expat life in this post, we look today at why Hamburg might offer more stable situations for their inhabitants and how its environments improves quality of life.
Every now and then, there are posters hanged on lamp posts or in the U-Bahn. I’m sure you have noticed them. This is generally the sign that elections are soon held. This time, it is local elections in Berlin; representatives of each Bezirk in the city (BVV – Bezirksverordnetenversammlung) are renewed every 5 years. That’s 55 representatives per Bezirk who take decisions on local matters and allocate budget as well. As a foreigner who has been living here for a while, there is a good chance that you are interested in how politics are run in your Bezirk. Those are elections are a chance to impact those policies.
So let me tell you 5 reasons why you probably won’t take part to those upcoming elections in Berlin.
I know what you are thinking…
This guy has a blog called “settle in berlin”and he is telling me that i consider moving to Hamburg? What is wrong with him?
You’ve got me there. It doesn’t make sense. However many of us expats become a bit obsessed with Berlin with time. We all know why; excellent quality of life, top night scene, alternative lifestyles, etc. We all fell in love with the city for good reasons. However sometimes, when you feel passionate about something, it’s hard to see past it. We do visit the country once in a while, especially Hamburg since it’s only 1h45 away with the train but we might never consider other candidate cities in Germany for our expat life. A special invitation from the city & a personal wish to see past my love for Berlin leads me to do that today.
If you ever felt like you got tired of Berlin, maybe this post will help you reach a decision.
Last month, i was invited by the folks at BecomeWide to take part at an event at BetaHaus. This event called BetaPitch happens on a regular basis in the coworking space. During a few hours, start-ups come and pitch in front of fellow entrepreneurs and in front of an experts’ panel who have experience in the industry. This allows to gather feedback on the business case and see where shortcomings might be.
It is a wonderful and scary experience.
During the BetaPitch, a group of journalists & bloggers were gathered to work on a more specific part of a pitch: the elevator pitch. I’m sure you all know this exercise that is about convincing someone under 3 minutes about your project. It’s a difficult exercise that requires work & precision.
Very much like during a speed-dating, each of us were matched with an entrepreneur for 3 minutes that was to convince us with their great idea. After that time, a rotation would let the next one in, until each journalist/blogger had met with each entrepreneur.
Why should that matter to you? Good point. I’ll tell you why.
Having to sell your project to an investor is very much like selling your-self to a potential employer. There were some elements that i thought could be relevant to an interview situation and that could make a difference between getting a job or getting negative answer.
The real first days of Spring are finally here and the summer is luring in the distance. After the long days of Winter, you find yourself in dire need of outdoor entertainment. What better way to quench that thirst than going on a urban trip on the 1st of May? All the right ingredients are there after all: free concerts, cheap booze, & general sense of laissez-faire with the occasional fight. In a nutshell : the perfect occasion to meet up with some friends and spend some time in a joyous atmosphere around Kottbusser Tor or Görlitzer Park.
However the reality is far from ideal. The 1st of May is best defined by the following:
- Unmanageable crowds in narrow streets meaning it takes about 45min to walk 200m
- Permanently losing friends that didn’t follow the group properly, thus spending half of the time trying to back-track them, instead of enjoying
- The impossibility of contacting them via cellphone since connection is non-existent (refer to 1st bullet point for explanation)
- A tons of concerts way too close to one another, with never-ending sound system competitions. This means you either can’t hear the music properly or risk hear loss.
- Pick-pockets & fights
My point: Here are some 6 free ways to better use your time around the city.
With so much demand for housing in Berlin and an offer that simply cannot provide for everyone, pressure has increased tremendously for tenants when looking for a flat. It requires more organisation, more perseverance & more flair than ever. It also requires speed as you have to be fast to make decisions.
When there are 30 other applicants waiting in line for the same flat,some people may sometimes take advantage of your weakened position and trick you.
This increasingly competitive environment has led some individuals with loose moral to trick unaware flat-hunters into some bad schemes. Here is a quick best-of, provided by our friends at Wunderflats.
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Our series of expat portraits continues in 2016 and we are again meeting someone from across the atlantic. We meet Paola, a young american woman, who came to Berlin for someone, and stayed for someone too.
Introduce yourself in a few words
My name is Paola. I am from the city of Atlanta in the United States. I am in the Ad-Tech industry, enjoy art, and making my own furniture. I love food, maybe too much.
Why did you move to Berlin and why you stayed?
I moved here for love (cheesy, I know). I guess I stayed because of love too (and the amount of vacation days). I moved here from NYC and initially thought it would be too “small”, but Berlin has something for everyone!
Giving to refugees in Berlin
Hi everyone. I’m sure you have seen it everywhere on the news : a crisis. lots of refugees. It’s probably the biggest challenge for Europe right now.
All those events are way beyond our scale of power, influence or understanding. However, It feels like we could assist a little the effort of supporting those people leaving everything behind to come to Europe & to come to Berlin.
Portraits series
“Come with an open-mind & depending on what you are looking for, rest assured that you will find it.”
The Berlin Expat portraits series aims at putting in word the realities of being a foreigner here. Sometimes, a biased opinion is needed to get a clearer picture of what Berlin is like.
Second post of our series “Berlin Expat Portraits”, we meet today a Canadian guy that just can stop traveling and loves Poutine. (the dish, not the President)
Once you have arrived in Germany, you will need a place to live. No question. It will be cheapest to share a room in an apartment by becoming a subtenant. When you rent an apartment, you will need to know a lot of rules. This article is to brief you on what you ought to know for general orientation.
First thing is to find such offer. University students post their empty rooms on the blackboards on campus. Another possibility will be with classifieds in local magazines. After visiting and testing many possibilities, you finally found something suitable and affordable. Good work!
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