As the title says i got burned out, wanted to do something different so i moved from the bay to Germany. Europe aint what it’s cracked out to be. The work culture isnt much better. In fact i feel more pressure here than back home. I had unlimited vacation and could kick back beers on my lunch and chill if things were slow. Here it is more serious. Vacation is strictly given out. You want to leave at noon on Friday? Put in a half day vacation. The weather sucks. Nuff said. People are extremely cold and unfriendly. Idk how people live like this. Combined with the weather it can be the saddest most miserable place on planet earth sometimes. Society is way behind, technically. Start ups here are scrambling to implement things american startups have been doing for 10 years. The culture is technophobic. Card payments are not widely accepted except maybe at the grocery store, and everything happens via post. I earn pretty well for the city im in, but my monthly paycheck is less than my two-week paycheck back in the US... by a lot. And its not just relative to cost of living. I save like 10% of my check versus 30-40% in CA. Health insurance premiums are higher than my Kaiser premium. Surprise surprise. The quality of medical care is actually shockingly bad. Hospitals are right out of the 60’s and doctors actually prescribe tea to fix illnesses. Train travel costs are high. Super markets have good quality and low prices but are extremely sparce in variety. When i travel back I’m sure Whole Foods will give me a heart attack. Everything is closed on sunday. I miss the beach and the mountains. Food is bland and the variety isnt very good. Anyway thanks for listening to my rant, i really needed to get it off my chest. TC: 80k EDIT: to any germans reading this im sorry if it came across like i hate germany or something. its totally NOT the case. im just having a hard week. being in a whole new country can be hard sometimes. sorry.
So move back to the US
Yes, come back to the flabby tattooed arms of these United States!
I will eventually. I will probably move to LA in a year or two. I’m not done with Europe yet and maybe I haven’t given it a fair chance.
🤣🤣🤣 Europe esp. Germany!!! What exactly were you thinking yo?
So there was no upside to moving to europe?
Upside is the opportunity to learn a new language/culture, and travel opportunities.
The grass is always greener on the other side. It's good to experience the difference first hand.
Becoming a virgin Europoor from being a chad American is obviously gonna be bad
I’m so poor bro. Can you spare a dollar?
I could, but you probably do not have banking services over there 😂
Shhh.... don’t say all of that out aloud. It is detrimental to the hype.
What about the bike friendly cities, beer, castles?
Not many castles in Germany. But castles/old architecture is cool when it’s something new, once you see it all the time it loses its charm. Beer? Beer is better in CA. Cheaper here tho!
Not many castles in Germany? I think if the country with the most total castles doesn't have many your calibration might suck https://castletourist.com/which-country-has-the-most-castles/ Not a huge argument of course, but I get the feeling you're not even trying to enjoy things. When I go to a foreign country I try out what the locals do and enjoy before complaining that it's different
The reason Californians admire Europe is equality. If being equally poor is not something you are aspiring to be then stay away from Europe. It's only for people who become livid when somebody parks a Bentley next to their Lexus but are fine parking their Yugo next to a Trabant as long as nobody has a Bentley.
Is European society truly equal though? There’s a shit ton of elitism from people who graduate from Eton, Oxford or ecole polytechnic who later become the political elite.
Californians only care about wealth though. And wealth-wise Europe is more equal with anemic economy and enormous taxation bringing everyone down.
The problem is that you chose Germany. Meh. Do you have other European countries as options? France and Spain are very different in all those aspects. Even UK and Ireland are much better except for the weather. I lived in southern France for a year and loved it. I know many who transferred to London and also loved it. Moving to Germany is like moving to Iowa unless it’s Berlin.
I live in Berlin. But yeah I chose Germany cause I already spoke B1 German before moving and wanted to be fluent.
Berlin is a cool city. The city has a Brooklyn in Europe vibe. There’s more tech than finance there tho. Maybe you can switch to doing finance at a tech company instead if you’re looking for a more friendly culture?
What about Switzerland? Isn't the pay better in Switzerland?
Yeah but Switzerland is super fuckin boring and has all of the same issues Germany does except maybe the easy access to beautiful landscapes.
Plus it’s much more expensive