Oh, the Year Abroad!

 

I’m currently in my 4^th month of my year abroad, though I spent about a month of it back in the UK so let’s say we’re in the 3^rd month. It has been an interesting few months, and I thought it would be a good idea to do a check-in, an update, a review. Or perhaps just a rant.

I’m currently living in Berlin, on the outskirts in the far East in the borough of Lichtenberg. For my year abroad, I had the choice to study (if I was going to get time off from education, I decided I would take it), do an internship (with Brexit, this basically wasn’t an option as I’d have to find a company which would sponsor my visa, which no company wants to do and to be honest I don’t blame them), or teach as an English language assistant in a school. I decided to go with the latter, as it’s only 12 hours a week of teaching, I get paid a decent salary for the amount of time and effort required, and I also get a day off a week in addition to the weekends, giving me the opportunity to travel.

So far, it has been a bit of a rollercoaster, though admittedly there have been more downs than ups, and to be completely honest I’m looking forward to it being over. How I feel about my year abroad keeps changing, but for the most part it has been quite shit to be honest. My teaching contract ends at the end of May, so I only have to stick it out for another 6 months. I thought that I would write this piece in the hope that I can look back on it in half a year’s time and think “thank God it got better”, or at the very least I always think it’s a nice idea to document how things are going. I also think it’s worthwhile writing about the reality of my experience as social media can oftentimes give off a very different perception of what’s actually been going on.

So here is my account of what’s happened here from September 17^th to December 12^th 2022. I landed in Berlin on the morning of September 17^th. A Saturday. I had been very lax in my attitude towards finding accommodation, telling myself and friends that I would “sort it out when I got there”. Luckily, a uni friend had already moved to Berlin a month before me and kindly offered to let me stay at her place when I arrived. So, I crashed on her floor for the first week of being in this new city which is rife of discoveries from its renowned art scene to historical iconic landmarks, all the way to its legendary techno clubs. I was excited to have arrived, and to find out what Berlin had to offer. I was mostly excited to explore the hipster artsy areas of Berlin, like Kreuzberg, visit museums to learn more about the Cold War, and meet new people.

On September 19^th, I had my first day at school where I got to meet with the staff in the English department and had a tour of the school. I’m helping out at a Gymnasium, which is essentially a grammar-school equivalent. Germany’s school system is pretty complicated compared to the UK – there’s a bunch of different types of schools depending on whether kids want to attend a more practical, academic, or comprehensive school. Because the school I’m teaching at is academically focussed, and most kids who go there will choose to go to university, I’ve found that the kids’ standard of English is decently good; a lot higher than I had expected. This makes my job easy, but I’ve frequently felt quite useless in lessons as I will walk around the classroom asking if anyone needs help and usually receive a response of “no thank you”. Nonetheless, the teachers at the school have all been very welcoming and keen to speak German with me, which I was pleasantly surprised about. One weekend, I even got to go on a sailing trip with them to the Baltic Sea, which was a fun bonding experience and nice to see the teachers out of a school context.

It has been interesting to work in this school, and also such low effort compared to what I had expected. For half the lessons I walk around the classroom trying to help the kids out with a grammar worksheet, and for the other half I chat to the teachers at the front of the classroom about their kids, working life in Germany, or their experiences getting into teaching. It has been a huge contrast from the 6 weeks I spent teaching in India, where I was entirely responsible for a class, oftentimes without a teacher in the room, and was working 9am-3.30pm.

I have struggled with the lack of structure at the school, as I haven’t had a timetable for the past few months. Every week I’ve been in different lessons with different teachers, which has been difficult as I haven’t been able to create regularity. I guess I always thought I was a person who didn’t really like structure and regularity, and got bored of it quite easily. Though I certainly enjoy having a lot of variety, I’ve realised that having at least some structure is essential, and then I like to have changing plans outside of that. I’ve tried to create a fixed timetable for myself and emphasised to my supervisor teacher how I really need some structure. My timetable has already been changed again since 2 weeks ago, so we’ll see whether I can establish that soon..!

In terms of accommodation, it took me about 3 months to find somewhere stable, which I think is pretty standard for Berlin, unless you have a connection already in the city, or if you’re willing to be locked into a 12 month-contract. I think in the end I probably messaged over 300 people on WG-Gesucht (a platform for searching for flat shares), and went to 3 flat viewings. I did temporarily move into a flat share which I had to move out of due to hygiene issues. Do ask me to see photos of the flat so I can prove that I wasn’t being dramatic.

I’m sharing with one other girl, which is ideal and it’s in a pretty neighbourhood away from the hectic centre of Berlin. I’ve had a few interesting experiences with my landlord, including some miscommunication about me paying for a router (don’t ask..), and him telling me I have to rake the garden leaves for 3 hours because I missed their last garden raking session (I’m struggling to find the clause in my rental contract which states this), as well as him calling me 6 times to kick me out as my rent payment hadn’t come through 1 day after the due date (I’m paying from a Starling account, which takes a bit longer to come through). Nevertheless, it’s been good experience, albeit difficult, to enter the real world and learn how to navigate rental contracts, pay my bills on time and live harmoniously with a complete stranger. I think if anything, I’ll be grateful to return to the comfort of student accommodation in October!

Outside of school, I’ve been to plenty of cafes, bars and bakeries, visited the famous Christmas markets, taken a weekend trip to Milan, worked on a film project about ‘home’, seen the iconic sites such as Brandenburg Tor and Mauerpark, been on many walks, and done lots of photography. In the coming months I’m hoping to work on a street video project, interviewing migrants about their experiences of moving to and living in Berlin.

On the whole, I feel like I’ve gone through a lot of emotions since being here, and though it has been tough for the most part, I do think I’ve grown up a lot and pushed myself well outside of my comfort zone. There are clear cultural differences between the UK and Germany, which is funny because I hadn’t really expected to feel that much of a culture shock. The main thing I’ve struggled with is the “German directness”. I’m so used to people being indirect and beating around the bush in the UK that I find myself getting offended by Germans being direct with me, though it’s not because they are being rude, it’s just because I’m not used to being spoken to in such an upfront way. I think I’ve also noticed that there’s differences in initial friendliness, and I don’t know if it’s a general attitude in Germany, or just in Berlin, but I do think that people are friendlier in the UK, and if you’re new to a place, people are more inclined to invite you out to things and make you part of the group. I have spoken to people who are from Berlin about this, and they say that it’s a Berlin thing.

For the time being, I’m just trying to take each day as it comes and get involved with things outside of school, and feel settled in Berlin. I think I’ve really come to appreciate how important it is to have permanent accommodation and a place you feel comfortable, and I think that a large reason for why I’m feeling so unsettled is because I only recently moved into a new flat. Anyways, I think that was enough splurging and I feel like I’ve covered the main points of what’s been happening. I’m sure I will start to feel more settled with time, but I thought it was worth writing about, because I think that year abroads are romanticised, and everyone says that “it’s the best year of your life”. As of yet, I couldn’t disagree more with that statement, but who knows, maybe in 6 months down the line I will be the biggest advocate for a year abroad?! For the time being though, I think it’s important to show that things aren’t as perfect as they may seem on social media, and I want to be brutally honest about how it’s been so far.