Ready to Mingle
The best way to find local people is by socializing at night. I am lucky that I have a family friend that lives here and is “local.” I get to meet people from the area through her and her
family. My family friend is my age so I have gotten to know her friends that study in the area. It’s very interesting to compare and contrast our university experiences. Almost every time I interact with someone from another country one of the first questions they ask is about what frats and sororities are like in America. I find this question to be amusing and hilarious. Almost every time I seem to have a disappointing answer to them because I am not involved with Greek life.
Other ways that I have found useful in meeting local people are by returning to the same coffee shop, exploring different shops and feeling comfortable talking to other people. There is one restaurant that I return to because the food is delicious and reasonably priced. There, I have established a relationship with the hostess. At our new hostel, I have made an effort in getting to know the other people that are staying at the hostel. There are always groups of people traveling from all around the world in our hostel so it’s interesting to get to know them and hear about their lives. One important key in establishing relationships with locals is by having confidence and not feeling afraid to ask questions. There are some people that may not want to engage in conversation and that is okay. All of the times that I have tried to strike up conversation, I have always had a positive experience. Part of our learning process is being able to interact with the people around us and fully immerse ourselves in the culture we are living in! For my research paper, I am writing about gentrification and why the people of Berlin are so resistant to it. For this research paper I have to conduct different interviews with people from Berlin. It is because I have established relationships with a few local people I can now use them to ask questions for my paper.
Unfortunately, so far I have not purchased anything interesting. The only item that I have purchased here that wasn’t food (or drinks) was a shirt from Urban Outfitters. At the start of the trip I was doing a fantastic job at budgeting and spending money. Since we have moved hostels, we have a ton of new food options. In addition, the food options in the new area that we are in are also much more expensive. In our previous area, we could get dinner for around 3 or 4 euros if we really wanted to. The cafes in our new area have higher quality food so the food is inevitably more expensive. Since the move, I have spent almost twice as much on food and drinks than I did in our previous area. I am having a hard time resisting trying the delicious food
in our area. The issue with the currency here is that because I do not have an international bank plan by fees for taking money out of the ATM are extremely high. I usually take out around $300 euro at a time with a $40 bank fee. At times, I feel uncomfortable having that much money in my hostel at a time.
