Accommodation in Germany, plus pics of my room

 

After living in Germany for two months I finally took some photos of my bedroom. I detested my room and halls when I first moved in, but after a few months of decorating the place, I am now quite proud of my little hovel.

Welcome to my room ^^

The room is rather spacious. It was a bit too big because I do not have much furniture to make proper us of the space. The room only came with the bed, table and desk. The table is hiding under my pink table cloth. I bought a lot of pink accessories for the room to bring a bit of colour to the drab white and brown decor. (The ugly picnic basketesque blanket came with the room. It may not be nice to look at, but it is warm.)

My room looks much lighter in photos than it actually is. There is no ceiling lamp, only the desk lamp and a small light above the head of the bed. There are a multitude of shelves in my room, but they are quite bare, as I didn’t bring many books with me. The room did not come with a mirror so I purchased this full length mirror for €9 in the local Einkaufzentrum, Bargain. You’ll notice the washing line that travels from my bed to the window. I have a lot of clothes that cannot be tumble dried, and I didn’t fancy leaving my delicates down stairs in the laundry room for anyone and everyone to see, so my friend suggested this to me. Its both practical and interesting to look at.

   My bedroom is split into two rooms. At the other side of the hideous wooden wall stands a sink, and a walk in wardrobe. The door between this space and the bedroom (the one with the poster of a telephone box) can be used as either the door to the bedroom “chamber” or the door to the wardrobe. I prefer the former because firstly the sink area smells quite damp but also because my main bedroom door (between the sink area and the hall way) does not block noise to or from my room…to cut a long story short I like my privacy.

So there is my room. I hope you enjoyed it :) Now time for a few questions.

Why did I choose to live in student accommodation?

I chose to live in a Studentenwohnheim primarily because it was the easiest option. I was guaranteed university accommodation. I understand that it is not the best for my language skills, as most students who live here are international (although some of my friends were lucky to end up with German neighbours), nor for my social skills, since people are very private and do not socialise with other people on their floor; something that is very different to the UK. (Although I must admit I’m starting to enjoy the solitude). For these two, living in a WG would be better. A WG or Wohngemeinschaft is a type of large flat where people, as the name suggests, live together. To live in a WG, you need to be interviewed and picked by the people who are already living in the flat. Rooms are very competitive, so my advice to anyone who doesn’t want to be the typical international student to start searching way in advance and to be prepared for many rejections.

How are the living standards?

 The accommodation is basic. Unbelievably basic. I and many of my friends cried when we first moved in, because it does resemble a prison cell. There is a shared kitchen, two shared toilets and two shared showers. In the kitchen we have an oven (many of my friends do not have one!), a stove, sink, one fridge and one fridge freezer. There are two tables to sit at. We each have our own small cupboard with a key; until recently my cupboard was bare. We have a Wirtschaftlerin take care of the cleaning of the shared spaces so cleanliness if not really an issue. We can also go to her on a Friday morning to get a fresh change of bed sheets.

---I’m very proud of my room now. I feel very much at home in it. Although it was hard to handle living here at first, I have learnt to adapt myself to a more basic and simple way of life. Do I wish the halls came with an internet connection, of course, do I wish I wasn’t situated in a wood full of giant spiders, damn right, but alas that is life.--