Staying Safe in a Crisis Abroad | The Munich Attacks

As you all by now have heard, Munich was attacked this week. Somewhat unluckily, I have, as you know, some experience in this situation from the Paris attacks. There are no words to lament the loss of life in tragedies like this, so I won't attempt and blunder. What I would like, though, is to give you some tips on what you can do to stay safe if you find yourself in a situation like that of Paris or Munich. . Get to Safety
You and the friends or family you are with need to be in a safe space. If you are lucky enough to be at home away from the danger, or in an office/ restaurant/ other safe space, then stay inside. Unless it's an emergency, try not to wander. Both during the Paris and Munich attacks, I was lucky enough to be at home and safe. Unlucky, during both attacks, I had friends who were out in the city. In Paris, my friends were ushered back into their apartment by people hiding in a restaurant in Châtelet - Les Halles; in Munich, a friend was taken back into his workplace near the Olympia Einkaufzentrum. Everyone I knew came out unharmed, which I am eternally thankful for. The importance of staying in a safe space is unequalled. . Stay informed
If it's safe for you to do so, stay informed. This might mean reading the news on your computer, switching on the news on the TV, or if you aren't lucky enough to be at home, keep up with the events via Twitter or an online news programme on your phone. Only do this if it is safe. If you are in the midst of the danger, do not risk using your phone unless you know this is safe.  . Keep calm
Do not panic. It can be terrifying to learn that there is an attack occurring in your area, especially if you know that friends or family might be affected. But panic will not help you. Remaining calm is key, particularly if you need to contact friends and family to check on them: calling or texting in frantic and panicked tones will panic them too. It's also important not to go wild on social media. Sometimes, as in the case of the Munich attacks, the authorities will ask citizens not to post about events in their area on social media so that the perpetrators are caught unaware, making it easier for them to be apprehended. If you need to inform friends and family of your situation, do your best to use an instant messenger or private message. It's also important to consider how appropriate any social media posts are in this situation. . You never think that it will happen to you. Even after being in Paris during the November Attacks, I didn't think I would experience that again. If you're going to live abroad, try to familiarise yourself with the emergency services and the location of your embassy when you arrive. This may sound extreme, but in today's cultural climate, it's much better to be safe than sorry.

A Weekend in Prague

Working abroad is enriching as always, and my office is great. But my 8:30 - 6:00 work day is starting to wear me down, so my lovely colleague (and great friend) Cas proposed a long weekend in Prague. After a little battle for days off, we booked our tickets and hopped the border!

Staroměstské náměstí, Prague's Old Town Square

Straight off of our bus, we managed to navigate the subway and find the centre. Prague's Old Town Square isn't just a beautiful place to be. It's a great starting point for finding your way around, and a good place to stop for something to eat.

Vlatava River

This is the Vlatava River, and just out of shot, to the right, is the famous Charles IV Bridge. We spent our first afternoon in the cafe on the river, right next to the famous bridge. 

St Vitus Cathedral

St Vitus Cathedral is in the centre of Pražský hrad (Prague Castle), and is one of the most stunning pieces of architecture we had ever seen. We made the right decision in taking an entire day to look around the Castle: it's the largest ancient castle in the world. 

        

Juice stand near Petrin Tower

Petrin Tower

On our last day we decided to climb the hill towards Petrin Tower - Prague's smaller version of the Eiffel Tower. On our way up, we found a cute little juice stall and stopped for a refreshing smoothie, a must if you haven't opted for the funicular. 

Apartment Hunting, Comparisons and Compromises

My cosy room in Munich, found on Airbnb

I’ll start this off with a warning: I am hyper-organised. Do not read this as a cautionary tale - if you don’t do exactly what I did to find accommodation in these exact steps you won’t end up on the streets, you might just take a little longer to find your digs. It’s not a big deal, don’t freak out. A lot of students in the year above me told me that they didn’t even sort their accommodation until they arrived in their country of choice. It’s not the end of the world. But here’s how it went for me when I was looking for a place in Munich.

As soon as I got my job in Munich (around April 2015) I started looking for accommodation. I figured I knew I was going to be there - for sure - so waiting would only make it more stressful in the end. And ain’t that the truth. A couple of my friends left it much later, and still didn't have set accommodation a week before they arrived. Now, don’t get me wrong, this is definitely not the worst thing that could happen to you. A lot of students don’t find accommodation until they are already abroad and have stayed in a hostel for a few weeks. But if you ask me, that’s a lot of unnecessary stress. I know that as soon as I step out of my front door, it’s going to be one panic after another: the last thing I want is to know that I don’t have a permanent place to go. So, if you’re a bit more of a free spirit than me, don’t panic about your accommodation. But if you’re a worrier (not to be confused with warrior, which I’m definitely not), then the sooner the better. There’s nothing like crossing “find some bloody accommodation ASAP!!!” off your to-do list.

So once you’ve decided to start, you have to decide where to start. There’s a lot of murmuring about sites like WG-Gesucht (for Germany) and Appartager (for France) - where you can find a room in shared accommodation, usually with other students. Living with other people is definitely the number one recommendation for year abroad - it will strengthen your language skills, be cheaper, and make it easier to find friends. But honestly? Not for me. I spent about 20 minutes looking at the places on appartager and knew it wasn’t my cup of tea. Don’t get me wrong, I loved house-sharing in first and second year, and I loved my housemates. But finding a house share in a very specific area can be really hard. In Paris it’s really tough, and if you’re on ELA (like a couple of my friends) and end up in some town or village in the depths of the Schwarzwald, it’s pretty much a no-go. Honestly, I’d rather live on my own and be able to roll out of bed 30 minutes before school starts than spend an hour and a half commuting to Uni or work every morning just so I could live with other students. But that’s just me. So your first mission is to decide whether you want to house-share or go it alone.

Second - and this might have been decided along with the first - is how close you want to be to your uni/ school/ workplace. As I already said, I savour the idea of avoiding early mornings and long commutes, so in both cases I opted for a place close to my Uni (for Paris) and down the road from my workplace (in Munich). For some people, this will mean deciding between living close to the centre of a city, or living close to the place you need to be. Luckily for me, I’m both studying and working in places which are slap-bang in the city centre, so it wasn’t a problem, but this might be something you have to decide. The downside for me though, was rent.

Rent is the elephant in the room when it comes to finding a place to stay. There’s a lot to take into account. You will be getting more student loan, Erasmus grant (most likely), and for ELA and working students, a wage. But you will want to travel and go a bit wild, so do you want to splash it all on rent? Don’t imagine that you’ll be living the way you do at your home Uni - you’ll want to travel around, go out more, eat out more, and generally be able to kick back. If you’re dishing out XXXX € a month for your fancy apartment in the middle of town, will you still be able to tag along when your friends hop the border to Austria, Prague, Amsterdam? All I will say is that you might want to consider whether you will actually be able to afford to do both, or whether you’re just looking at the massive loan, Erasmus grant, and salary you’ll be getting, and forgetting what else you’ll want to spend that on.

The final thing I will say is take a look at Airbnb. Some lecturers will warn you away from this site, as it was originally founded for short term lets and holiday-goers. Well, Airbnb has now introduced long term lets - or renting in layman’s terms, and you’re completely protected by the site. It’s basically the equivalent of going to a letting agency, but you don’t have to go abroad to do it. There are also reviews from former guests and tenants, which might give you some valuable insight into what you’re looking at. I found both of my places on Airbnb, and it’s been the simplest thing. Give it a chance.

Happy house-hunting!

Teach, Learn or Earn?

One of the earliest decisions you’ll have to make about your Year Abroad is which path you want to take: teaching with the British Council; studying at a partner university or finding a work placement or internship. It’s tough to know what you want to do, but chances are your Uni has set the timer on your decision. Panic sets in. Here are a few things you might want to consider when you’re making the choice.

Before you set your sights on a particular city, even a particular country, you should probably take a second to consider how you want to spend your time. It’s great knowing where you want to go, but knowing what you want to do there? Not so simple. And even if you’ve already decided where you want to be, you have to consider whether that city or country offers the path you want to take. 

Work Placements and Internships

I’m not proud to admit it, but I’m a prime example of the jump-the-gun mistake. In the summer after first year, I visited Paris for a few days. That was it - the decision was made. That’s where I’d spend my time in France. It didn’t even cross my mind that it might be hard to find a job in one of the world’s most competitive cities. To add insult to injury, I was dead set on working in Berlin for my second semester. Same mistake, different city. Now don’t get me wrong, a lot of my course mates have found great jobs in capital cities - Paris, Vienna, Berlin etc. But I applied for 35 jobs in and around Berlin before I decided that the process would be a lot less painful if I widened my search. Narrowing your search to a specific city isn’t impossible, but it’s just that - narrow. If you’re looking for a specific kind of job, looking for it in a specific city is going to be hard. I decided to let go of my Dickes B dream so that I could find a job I had experience in, and I got myself a placement at a firm in Munich - an equally beautiful city. My advice is that if you’re dead set on a city, be flexible about the work that you do. If you’re not flexible about the work you do, be flexible about where you do it.

Studying

Alternatively, you could check whether your University has a partner Uni in the city you want to land in. Most Universities are partnered with at least one University in the capital cities of big countries (Germany, France, Spain etc). The bonus here is that the application process for a partner university is a lot simpler than looking for a job, and in most cases, you’re guaranteed a place by your home Uni. One you’re in, you’re in. I gave up the job search in Paris and settled on studying at the Sorbonne. Not a bad decision, considering I didn’t have to do any more laborious Skype interviews or form-filling. The only downside is that I settled on not receiving an extra income… in one of the world’s most expensive cities. Every silver lining has a grey cloud though, right?

If your Uni doesn’t have a partner in the city you want to be in, and you can’t find a job there which you have experience in, then you’ve got the two same options: look in other cities, or look for other jobs. 

I won’t say that studying abroad won’t be taxing - none of the three options will. But at most universities, the grades you get in your exams don’t count towards your degree - you just have to pass. In some cases, if you fail, you can even pass so long as you can prove you tried. Don’t let this fool you into thinking it’s another first year though, your uni will probably be very stringent in checking that you’ve tried. 

Teaching

If you ever attended a Languages Open Day before you came to Uni, you probably heard the glowing reviews of being an ELA (English Language Assistant) abroad. They’re not wrong. You get paid, the hours are great if you want to travel and socialize, and it looks great if you want teaching experience on your CV. 

However, if we continue the thread of setting your sights on a specific city, then be aware of ELA. When you apply, you are asked if you have a preferred area. Do not take this to mean that you will automatically be placed there. Some candidates (who spend hours writing a very compelling account of why they want to be in that area) are placed in their desired county, Bundesland, Province etc. That said, if we take three of my closest friends as an example, all of which applied to ELA:

Friend One applied to Bavaria, wrote a compelling application about why she wanted to teach in Munich, and was placed in Munich.

Friend Two also applied to Bavaria, wrote a compelling application geared toward Munich, and wasn’t placed in Munich, but was placed in Bavaria.

Friend Three applied to Bavaria, but was placed in Düsseldorf - at the other end of Germany.

Luckily Friend Three wasn’t dead set on Bavaria, but just be aware of setting your heart on a city if you’re choosing to teach.

It’s also important to remember that the British Council’s system of placing candidates is very long - the majority of candidates won’t find out where exactly they are until the middle of the summer. Some don’t find out until a few weeks before they have to leave. This can make things really tough with finding accommodation, so if that’s something that worries you, you’ll have to weigh the financial and social benefits of ELA with the potential problems with location and accommodation.

The best thing to do is decide what you want to do before you think about where you want to do it. It’s much easier to decide where to go when you know what you want to do there. If you, like me, know that you don’t want to teach, then you should think about which Universities are available to you, and where you’ll be able to find a job. If you’re choosing ELA, you’ll need to be prepared either to spend a while writing your application, or let go of the idea of getting your dream city. In all honesty, this step is about flexibility and compromises, but also knowing what you want. At the end of the day, you need to figure out what will make you most comfortable, and go from there.

The Journey to Work | Finding a Job Abroad

If you're undertaking a Languages degree, or perhaps have a year in industry for your BA, you might need to find a job abroad. It can seem like a daunting task at first - finding a job in your own country can be hard enough - but don't let language barriers or long searches discourage you. Working abroad is one of the most enriching and useful experiences you will have.  But what's the best way to go about the search? There's no definitive answer, but here are five tips from my experience.
The Ghost of Employment Past
The first step in my job search was sitting down, and thinking about what I wanted to do. What jobs have you had before? Did you enjoy them, did you hate them?  When I was applying for jobs in Germany, the experience I had was the following: 4 years in the food service industry, 2 months as a Customer Service Agent, and 2 months as a Language Teacher at a kid's summer camp in Vienna. I knew from this that the food service industry and teaching were not experiences I wanted to repeat, but that Customer Service was something I could see myself doing again. So that was the first thing I added to my list: Customer Service jobs.
Know Yourself
I thought about this for a while, and what this would do for my CV. While Customer Service would look great on my CV, and afford me some good opportunities in the future, I knew deep down that I'd prefer a cultural position, maybe in a museum or film company. It never hurts to expand your search, so I added these types of job to my search. 
Cast a Wide Net
So you've got a few areas you know you'd like to work in. That's fantastic, and it gives you a focus for your job search. But remember that finding short-term employment is often a tough competition, especially in countries like Germany, where all high school students have to take part in an internship. This means that these places fill up fast. Aside from writing a killer CV and cover letter for your applications, it will help if you cast a wide net. Try using search engines to look for part time jobs in a specific country - don't refine this by city or industry sector unless you have to. This will show you a wide range of job opportunities, and you might end up somewhere you didn't expect, and love it. I had my heart set on Berlin, but I cast my net a little wider, landed a job in Munich, and enjoyed every minute.
Think like a Native
The best websites for finding a job abroad are, of course, going to be those which the natives use. Run a quick Google search or ask a native friend which are the most popular job advertisement sites, and get searching. You'll find the biggest variety of jobs in the widest range of places this way.
Prepare for a Skype or Phone Interview
This one is self-explanatory. It's unlikely that a company will ask you for an in-person interview for a short-term position abroad. More often than not, they'll arrange an interview over Skype or phone (don't worry about charges, they'll call you). This sounds terrifying, but the advantage is that the interviewer can't see you, so you can have notes on the company, your own CV and cover letter, and dictionaries if necessary in front of you. 

Sunset drinks on the Isar with my colleagues

These are just a few of the ways I landed my job in Munich. If you have any specific questions or would like tips on finding a job in Germany particularly, don't hesitate to leave a comment!

Reflection and Remembrance | The Paris Attacks

It's been more than two weeks since I have posted, but there have been many more than two weeks' worth of developments here in Paris. As you will already have learned, on the 13th, Paris was victim to a series of terrorist attacks. Over 100 lives were lost, many more were affected in a way that it will take years to recover from. University can hold all the preparatory talks they want before you leave for your year abroad, but you will never be able to imagine what it is like to be abroad in a time of crisis unless you've experienced it first hand.
The 13th, for me, was a standard evening. I was feeling a little blue, so I decided not to join my friends for a night out. I was in my apartment, watching some trivial show on Netflix, and everything was totally status-quo. It was late when I received a message from a friend who studies at the Sorbonne with me, asking if I was ok. I had no idea what she was talking about. When she explained to me that there were people being held hostage just 3 miles from me, and that a café had been the target of a shooting, my blood ran cold. I opened a news page on my browser; I could hardly believe it. My friends were out, and I had no idea where they were, or if they were safe. Mother-hen instincts took over, and I called one of them to ask where they were, if they were safe, and to make sure they were staying inside. Thankfully, they were all fine - staying in one of their apartments together. I relaxed the tiniest bit. We were all safe, but it wasn't over. Paris Police department were warning everyone not to leave the house, the news pages were constantly updating with figures and statistics of how many were injured or killed. I watched the numbers topple into the hundreds. 
Before long, my phone exploded. Calls from friends in the UK who had seen the news; notifications from distant relatives on Facebook. I assured everyone I was safely locked in my apartment building, and got in contact with all of my immediate family to update them. The most bizarre part of all this was that Facebook asked me to check in as safe. I was less that 400 miles from home; I was in a country I'd been to many times, and that I would never even consider a dangerous place. And yet I needed to check in to let my friends and family know I was safe. Until that point, I'd only ever seen the Check In feature used for huge natural disasters - tsunamis, earthquakes, the like. Maybe I just hadn't been paying attention. I never thought I'd have to do it. I've seen that feature abused too many times; "Joe Bloggs who lives in your little home town has checked in as Safe during the Japanese Earthquake". Completely unnecessary, embarrassingly insensitive. So I asked myself whether I should check in - did I really need to? By this point, old friends and acquaintances were messaging me to check I was ok, so I decided to check in. I suppose it was possible something might have happened to me, but it still felt so unreal. 
It wasn't until this morning - Monday 16th - that it really hit me. The Sorbonne sent out an email to say that classes were cancelled that morning, as a ceremony was being held in memory of the three students the Sorbonne had lost in the attacks. Three. Three people that walked the same corridors as me, three people with homes and families, with lives and futures ahead of them had disappeared from this Earth as a result of what had happened. It's to these three students, and to the dozen of other victims and their families, that I'd like to pay a little remembrance. To Marion Lieffrig-Petard, to Kheireddine Sahbi, to Suzon Garrigues, to the many other victims, and to all friends and families. The atmosphere of solidarity that has arisen from these events is phenomenal. There is a very respectful mixture of tributes to the victims, and will to persevere. It has become a political statement to go for a drink on the terrasse of a café in Paris. A motto shines onto the Eiffel Tower, it reads "Fluctuat nec mergitur", "Tossed but not Sunk". Sites around Paris light up in tribute, and Parisians drink and laugh in perseverance, to remind us not that life goes on, but that they have not surrendered to this tragedy.

The Eiffel Tower is lit with the colours of the Tricolor

Siège la banque postale shows its solidarity

Homecoming

October break crept up on me pretty quickly. I won't say I want to leave Paris yet - I still feel like I'm just getting started there, but I have to admit I've been missing home a bit. Well, to be perfectly honest I've been missing having dogs in my life, and knowing that there are 9 little puppies at home wasn't helping. But I'm back, and it's puppies galore.

The puppies don't seem to understand shelves though. Or maybe they have a better understanding than us.

They've not grasped how the sofa works either. 

Needless to say, their Mum is absolutely knackered.  Aside from the small army of puppies, I also came back because my sister is graduating, for the second time. I'm incredibly proud to have a sister who not only has an Integrated Masters, but now also a PGCE. That's one big pair of boots to fill.

I used to be salty as the Pacific that she was so accomplished, and that I was constantly a step behind her. But now I'm old enough to see how lucky I am to have a role model and a best friend that is capable of anything she puts her mind to. 
But now it's back to La Vie Lumière, back to Uni and back to living without puppies. Sad times. On the plus side, the view from the plane was sensational.