15 years in southern Germany leave their mark. Be it in the language (Oine Semmel, bidde!), in behavior (Not scolded is praised enough) or in food preferences alone (Kasspatzen/Kasespatzle ftw!). In Hamburg things are a bit different than in Bavaria or Baden-Wurttemberg. HOW different it is here in contrast to the south of Germany, Anna tells you in her column: "Servus Hamburg!". This week is about the challenge of making new friends.
All beginnings are hard and with a move comes many beginnings. There is the new home, the new environment, the new job and especially the new people around you. With this move I moved out of my comfort zone and besides a joyful excitement also fears flared up in me. What do I do if the apartment turns out to be a moldy nightmare?? What do I do if the job is a grasp in the loo? And above all: What do I do if I don’t make any new friends and loneliness catches up with me??
Do we want to be friends?
Like probably everyone who has moved to a new city, I had these thoughts in my head before the move: Will I make new friends in Hamburg?? And how is getting to know people supposed to work at all?? Moving to a new city for a job is a challenge of growing up and I can only say that it gave me quite a few sweats.
When I was a child, all my friends were friends, as long as they stacked building blocks with us, jumped around with us and to whom we quickly ran over to the neighbor’s house, rang the doorbell and asked at the front door: "Hello, may xy please come out to play??". As a teenager, you had your clique and closest confidants around you every day at school, and as a student … Oh, as a student, friendships were made between lecture halls, bar counters and semesters abroad. Until then, you didn’t waste a thought on making friends, because it just happened.
Don’t give up!
In working life, things suddenly look quite different. While you are surrounded by people with the same interests during your studies or training, you meet very – let’s say – different characters on the job. People are just peculiar and you don’t have to get along well with everyone either. But what do you do when your colleagues are the only people you have direct contact with in your new city and you realize: We won’t be friends in this life.
Option one: give up and get one, two or three cats. It’s just stupid, if you are allergic to cats and actually quite like to maintain social contacts. The second option is not to give up! Hey, you moved to a new city to get to know new things and if your colleagues don’t become your best new friends, there are still a few million other people in the city who can become your best new friends. Now it’s time to gather up all your courage and mingle with the people! Join a sports club, do some volunteer work or look for a part-time job that interests you. What I don’t recommend is to go up to people who seem nice for no reason and ask them if you want to be friends. This is just creepy and does not inspire confidence.
And now what about you?
So now to me. Are you interested if I have become a cat lady and write the texts from a small dark cubbyhole, surrounded by canned food and moldy walls?? Maybe I have also found a few gold pieces among the Hanseatic city residents, which I no longer want to give away and now deal with the question of how I can now maintain my old friendships from home. Tell me if you want to know more about this story or write me what kind of problems you had to deal with when you moved here. As always, I look forward to hearing from you at [email protected] !