Thank you, Facebook, for nostalgia: this morning I got a reminder about my first working day 5 years ago on my first full-time job from 9 to 6 (I had only internships or part-time projects before that). Intitiation into my adulthood took place far away from my home – in Germany. I worked at the online dictionary for 25 languages as a content-marketer in a fully international team at the centre of atmospheric Hamburg.

Looking back now, I understand that a lot of my first times of adulthood happened to me when I was abroad. It is no surprise here as I have worked and studied in 3 countries (Germany, Russia, Britain), 5 cities over the last 5 years and I cannot even count how many places of accommodation I changed. I started living separately from my parents a little bit earlier during my summer volunteer internship for a couple of months – also in Hamburg. I even got my first experience of living in student halls only after my student years in Russia.

It is uncommon but I managed to overcome German bureaucracy: I got cheap student accommodation at the halls although I already worked at that time. To be honest, I derogated from the rules out of unawareness and not intentionally: they didn't check the documents and kicked me out only when it was time to prolong my contract after a few months. I think I was quite lucky but I definitely don't recommend to make a mischief on purpose: Germany is not the country where you will get away with it. I still consider my most malicious crime a one-stop ride with my friends without a ticket to a train station in Berlin. The level of adrenaline was probably the same we would have robbing a bank:)

Basically, lifestyle and mindset of Western Europe sets you up for independency. My first job I found through the international student organization AIESEC, a member of which I was back then. We also received interns and employees but we bent over backwards to find free accommodation for everyone coming due to our southern hospitality traditions. A lot of students just offered a place without having enough space or conditions for it. You find your own pace to live in Germany, especially if you earn at least some money – I contacted student halls and arranged everything myself.

One of the biggest challenges I had to come across was management of my household and, in particular, doing laundry. I remember a comic culmination of my initial attempts of adulting when I started doing laundry in a washing machine with long German words as regimes on it. I barely spoke the language back then. Something went wrong in the process and my clothes were just stuck in there – the machine broke down and refused to be opened. I had to wait for an eternity until somebody came in and helped me to call the service where nobody spoke a word of English. It is hilarious that I had no clothes to wear because I didn’t know the language enough to solve the situation but I was on the verge of bursting into tears out of desperation at that moment:)

I acquired necessary social skills there as well when meeting lots and lots of people of different nationalities simultaneously. It is quite a challenge for an introvert but enjoyment from communication with representatives of different cultures outweighed everything. I had so much socialization that I had to come back at home at 4 a.m. and sometimes even after 8 a.m. after clubbing on Reeperbahn and a visit to Fischmarkt – a classic route for Hamburg.

The most vivid memory I have from that time is a party in the middle of a forest out of the city. You are not allowed to make any noise in Germany after 9, even shower, that is why organizing a party in the middle of nowhere seemed like a great idea. We left the party at 4 a.m. and saw a deer prancing towards us. I didn’t drink that night so it is not something you would think of:) I have never seen a deer even at the zoo let alone in the wild. However, the main adventure started when I came home and understood that I left my key inside and my neighbors were asleep. I had to find a place to sleep at my drunk friends’ house on the other side of the city.

Having acquired communication skills abroad, I had to deal with some communication difficulties in my own country, but I will continue on this topic in the next post.

When did you go abroad without parents the first time? What were the main difficulties you came across on your way? Which adventures were waiting for you there?