Category Archives: Living

Just arrived in Berlin?

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Single and just arrived? Your apartment is renovated and your moving is finished? You are living on your own?  Anyway, if you recently live apart, a long-distance relationship or you are not living in permanent relationship.  No problem: 50% of households of Berlin are single ones.

Now you start your social life in Berlin. There are many possibilities to make new contacts. No matter if you join online groups like “new in Berlin” or you go out for a drink, dinner or party. There are so many places you will meet nice people and get in contact.

One quickly makes contact not only at parties or bars, but there is also a large variety of initiatives: business-clubs, science circle, “creatives groups” or voluntary activities.

A great opportunity to get in touch with other people is, to join one of the many clubs in Berlin: for startups, women, international women and creative people.

You will find many more different clubs in Berlin.

Working & Living in Germany – Europass

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This entry is part 1 of 1 in the series Traps & Myths about EU permits

The Europass – What is it really?

The Europass is not (although it might sound like it) a residence, travel or work permit; it has nothing to do with travelling, living or working in the European Union. It is not a document you need to hand in to get a working permit or a residence permit, nor is it a document for acknowledging your qualifications or vocational training.

Thus, the name is quite irritating, although the idea behind the Europass is promising. It is a service to facilitate communication of your skills, qualifications, education and other job application documents. It should provide a platform to facilitate comparison of skills, different university degrees and other qualifications.

Education and training authorities can define and communicate their curricula content, citizens can use predefined forms for e.g. their CVs, language skills.

If done and used by a majority this would enable employers to understand the skills and qualifications of their workforce more easily and comparison would be facilitated and job application rounds in the EU could become fairer and more transparent.

Additionally, it is possible to ask for the “Europass Mobility” document, which records knowledge and skills in other European countries, for the “Certificate Supplement”, which describes the knowledge and skills acquired and is based on your education and training certificates. Further, the “Diploma Certificate” is issued on basis of your knowledge and skills acquired by holders of higher education degrees.

However, these are lot of “ifs”, “cans” and “woulds”. The Europass has still some flaws: it is a platform providing several documents and forms, however they are still to be filled in by the persons themselves and no one has to fill them in. There are no real guidelines to fill in the Language passport or the CV, which makes comparison subjective and not really easier than comparing two different CVs.

It is questionable to what extent the Europass meets its objectives at the moment and how useful it is at the moment. However, it is a good idea and hopefully in some years comparison of skills, qualifications as well as of academic and vocational training is fair and easier throughout Europe. To achieve this, however, we need some musts and guidelines and really comparable documents and grade scales.

How can you plan your move to another country professionally?

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This entry is part 5 of 6 in the series Relocation

How can you plan your move to another country in order to be professionally successful over there?

Of course, first of all you need some information and Expat-Portals are perfect to gather information as well as experiences of different people. However, it takes long to find information appropriate to your case. You might have to scroll through experiences of expats, moving neither from your home country to another country nor did they move to the country you want to move to. Still, you will find people’s experiences of moving from your home country to other countries, moving from other origins to the country you want to move to or even people making the same move as you: from your home country to the country you want to move to (the ideal case for you).

And afterwards – what to do with this bulk of information and experience you gathered? There won’t be a case that fits you completely. There are always specialities to each of us, furthermore, in those portals you can find experiences only, there is no security that everything will happen to you the same way it happened to them. Rather, there is security that at least something is different. You want to live in a different part of the city, you have children, you have another budget or simply the circumstances in the town changed (because of time, supply & demand or whatsoever). Therefore, you need something more specialized, more tailor-made for your further steps like gohelpy and Xpatvisor. Expat-Portals are great to get a first or even a detailed overall impression of what to expect and what to bear in mind. However, when entering the actual planning of your move and planning your steps to your new home, do not rely on experiences of other but use the possibility to have a tailor-made path to walk along. You have special desires and demands which should be realized. The Xpatvisor does exactly this and hence adds a more personalized and specialized part to Expat-information portals.

 

Brexit is on the horizon already – first impacts are felt

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A recent case shows that Brexit has its influence on European as well as British citizens already. Uncertainty is immense and still growing among all citizens. A British had to feel this personally: Because of uncertainty a landlord decided to rent his flat to a person with lower income, however a European citizenship, lasting longer than the next 2 years. He valued the security of having a tenant for probably longer than the next year higher than the security of the higher income of the British citizen.

Uncertainty, especially concerning citizenships, work and residence permits is extremely high, not only on the side of the British citizens but among EU citizens working and living in Great Britain as well. “Will I be allowed to live here? Will I be posted to another country? How long will I be allowed to live here from now? What will happen?” All these questions are going around in many peoples’ heads. And of course not only those directly influenced by the Brexit, but they influence those indirectly affected as well. This group is huge: landlords, hotels, apartment-owners and many more are people being uncertain about the Brexit´s impact on their jobs as well.

Although, nothing is really decided yet on the Brexit conditions the consequences of it are growing and growing as uncertainty rises.

We have to wait and see and hope for the best, for both sides.

Diversity in Berlin: “Karneval der Kulturen”

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Since 1996, Karneval der Kulturen has been celebrated every year in Berlin. Over the four-day street festival reflects Berlin’s many faces. “Karneval der Kulturen” celebrates diversity of Berlin. You will find parties, live music and culinary delicacies from all over the world. This year the festival will take place from the 2nd to 5th of June. The highlight of the festival I the parade on the 4th .

The highlight of this festival is the parade on the 4th of June. More than 4,700 participants from 80 countries took part in the parade last year. Many caravans, dancing people with traditional costumes and music groups are celebrating Berlin’s diversity. The parade starts every year at Hermannplatz at 12.30 pm., along Hasenheide and Yorkstreet, it ends at Möckernstraße at 9.pm.

Learn more: http://www.karneval-berlin.de/de/strassenfest.21.html

 

Berlin – a weekend full of dichotomy and fun is coming up!

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Everyone enjoys a short working week and Berlin is preparing for a long weekend full of contrasting events: German Protestant Church Day, Men’s/Father Day and the final of the German Cup Competition.
The long weekend starts on Thursday with Ascension Day. However, the first big events takes place on Wednesday evening already. In front of the Reichstag, on Gendarmenmarkt and in front of Brandenburg Gate the German Protestant Church Congress is started with huge, ecumenical, cross-generational church-services. Afterwards enjoy the summer evening at the big street party with culinary delights, music and prayers. The German Protestant Church Day lasts until Sunday, 28th May, and has a schedule full of international, intercultural, political and other interesting themes. It offers a variety of services, opportunities and cultural entertainment for the whole family. One of the highlights might be the biggest event of the Protestant Church Day: former US-President Barack Obama will hold a speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate on May 25th; other prominent speakers are Melinda Gates and Angela Merkel.

On Thursday, the attendees of cultural and political program of the Protestant Church Day, will be joined by mostly male Berlin visitors as well as Berliners celebrating father’s (or in Berlin Men’s Day) strolling through the city with their friends and handcarts and a pint or two of beer.

On Saturday the mixture of becomes even more colourful! In the evening the final of the German Cup Competition takes place between Borussia Dortmund and Eintracht Frankfurt. The match starts at 8 pm but the fans will celebrate the whole day and will mix and mingle in the city.
The fans of Borussia Dortmund will celebrate in front of Gedächtniskirche, whereas the Eintracht Frankfurt fans will start their party on Alexanderplatz.
There are even opportunities for those who want to join both: the Protestant Church Day and the soccer feast: Start your day with the ecumenical service in Gedächtniskirche on Saturday at 11 a.m. with all the BVB fans and afterwards celebrate at one of the fan feasts.

Berlin will be full of happy people that’s for sure!

For more information on the Protestant Church Day: https://www.kirchentag.de/programm/programmsuche.html
For more information for BVB Fans: http://www.bvb.de/ger/News/Uebersicht/Fanvorabinfos-Pokalfinale-Berlin
For more information for Frankfurt Fans: http://www.eintracht.de/news/artikel/adlerimanflug-eintracht-fantreff-in-berlin-60199/

New Trend: Professional people sharing flats

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You are not a student anymore but you do feel like a student or miss your good old student times in shared flats? You are single but you do not want to live alone?
Then you should follow this new trend: professional people sharing flats! More and more of these types of shared flats are popping up in bigger cities.
The advantages? – Many!
You do not have to live alone by your own, however if you are professional you might not want to live together with students, having completely different daily routines, and of course a different standing towards tidiness and comfort.
Sharing a flat with other professionals offers you a family of like-minded people. You share a similar daily routine and most of the time you have similar standings concerning comfort, tidiness and house rules.
Professionals do have a higher level of comfort they want to live in, however they also have a bigger budget as they are working already. Students do not have such high-level expectations towards their rooms as their budget is only small and they are not working but studying…and partying (you know you were a student once as well). However, therefore professional sharing a flat with student could cause some trouble. This is the reason why the new trend of ‘professional shared flats’ is rising so fast. Multiple online portals included already the option to search for ‘professional shared flats’ as opposed to ‘student shared flats’ within the bigger cities of Germany such as Berlin, Munich, Hamburg and co.
This might be something for you? Try it out! Find your room in a shared flat and live together with like-minded.

Top Ten Fun Facts Düsseldorf

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This entry is part 7 of 8 in the series TOP TEN
  1. Officially, Düsseldorf has 600,000 inhabitants, however because of all the commuters travelling to and from their offices, there are about 200,000 people more are in the city on weekdays.
  2. Düsseldorf the advertising city – about 400 advertising agencies are based here, including international agencies as well as three of the largest agencies in Germany.
  3. the ‘KÖ’ is Germany’s busiest upmarket shopping street: it is nearly a kilometer full of international flagship stores and shopping centres
  4. ‘the longest bar in the world’ Düsseldorf’s Altstadt (Old Town) comprises over 300 bars and clubs in a very small area
  5. Düsseldorf itself is mentioned in the US- series ‘The Simpsons’ where it is the hometown of the German exchange student wearing Lederhosen.
  6. Wheels of joy play an important role in the city’s history: in 1288, when Düsseldorf won the battle of Worringen and received the town charter, children did wheels of joy. Even today, when you are strolling through the Old Town, children will offer to do cartwheels for one or two coins – and there is even an annual cart-wheeling tournament.
  7. It became the Capital of North Rhine-Westphalia although it is only the fourth largest city of NRW. It did so because it was the least destroyed city after World War II.
  8. Düsseldorf is in constant competition against Cologne. Both towns hate each other and compete when ever possible and in every matter possible against the other one.
  9. The Rhine-Promenade connects ‘The Old’ with ‘The New’ of the city. It leads from the Old Town to the modern Media Harbour and makes Düsseldorf a skater paradise.
  10. It was and is the home of many musicians: Robert & Clara Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn Bertholdy and Johannes Brahms as well as the modern bands of Kraftwerk, die Toten Hosen und Marius Müller Westernhagen called or still call the city home.

Happy 828th Birthday Port of Hamburg!

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Hamburg is celebrating the 828th birthday of its port on 5th to 7th May 2017 with the world’s biggest port festival.
A varied maritime programme for the whole family will be presented in the  unique setting of the Port of Hamburg: More than 300 ships from all parts of the world, spectacular displays, lots of stages with live music and French savoir-vivre of this year’s partner country France.

The world’s greatest port festival will be celebrated at various parts in and around the port of Hamburg: around Landungsbrücken, in the Speicherstadt warehouse district, the new HafenCity district, at the Fish Market and Oevelgönne Museum Harbour.

Get to know Hamburg from the seaside and celebrate its port birthday! Discover Hamburg, its party face and its maritime history!

Spring Festival in Stuttgart: WASEN

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They call it WASEN: The spring festival in Stuttgart. This year the WASEN started on the 15th of April and lasts until the 7th of May! For three weeks, visitors from near and far celebrate the launch of spring in a cheerful and jolly manner.

Europe’s biggest and best attended spring festival attracts around 1.5 million guests to the Cannstatter Wasen fair grounds. On an area of 4.2 hectares, a wide selection of stalls and confectionery stands, modern and traditional fairground rides, side-shows, beer tents and catering stalls offer every conceivable type of family fun and entertainment.
Alongside the traditional keg tapping ceremony on the opening Saturday, annual highlights of the festival program include the balloon glow and musical firework display. Every Wednesday is family day, when a wide variety of cut-price offers are available to parents with children.
Enjoy Oktoberfest in Spring in Stuttgart! Great fun for the whole family!