Blogpost 1: Moving in Times of Covid

As you probably know already, in September 2020, I moved to Germany. However, in March 2020, the worldwide pandemic started. Before all this corona stuff, I was planning on moving on July 4th, but my travels had to be postponed, because everything was closed off and I was out of work for a few months, like almost everyone, so I couldn’t save up that much money anymore. In this first blogpost, I’ll be talking about the pros, the cons/difficulties of moving during this period and my personal experience with all of it.

First of all, let’s start with the positive, because it’s what we need in these tough times! One of the good things about having postponed my moving was the fact that I could take some time to perfect my German before going there, which was pretty necessary and it helped me a lot. I took an intensive online course at the Goethe Institut, which I probably would not have done if I had moved straight away, and I would’ve struggled with the language a bit more. I took the B1.3 course, so I learned a lot of new vocabulary and it prepared me a bit for future job interviews in Germany.

Another pro was that Trudeau had set up the PCU during the first wave, so I could save up a bit more with it, which really compensated for not being able to work, and all the restaurants were closed, so I couldn’t spend money on “useless” stuff. In May however, my work opened up again and I was finally able to return to work, so I decided to work until September to save up more money, just to be sure. Also, since I stayed a bit longer in Montreal, I got to see my friends and family a bit more before I left.

The last pros, were that the Winter here was a lot better than in Montreal, only a week of snow and colder weather, pretty warm, if you compare it to Canadian weather. The lockdowns here were also a lot less strict than it was in Quebec. We haven’t had a curfew yet (it might be coming within the next week or few weeks though), we could see more people, we could travel from region to region (but you can’t stay in hotels for tourist purposes).

Now let’s go to the cons. The first thing, is that there’s not much to do during a lockdown. You spend your time either going outside or going to the grocery store, so if you don’t have friends or a hobby here, it can get boring. You can go to different cities, but you’ll still have to spend the day outside only, and you have to be lucky with weather. Also, it’s really hard to find toilets in cities in Europe during the pandemic, so it is a concern for me when I go to different cities.

Another thing is that it’s quite hard finding a job at the moment. Almost everything is closed, and for me, working at a grocery store was just not something I wanted to do. So, even though I have had interviews for restaurants, they couldn’t really take me, because they just couldn’t open for the moment. Also, I already knew I was moving in the Summer to Flensburg, so not many companies wanted to hire me only for a few months.

I’m not gonna lie, being away from friends and family has been especially difficult during the pandemic. The time zones are not very fun, but you get used to it. Friends are also pretty hard to make during Covid times, you can’t really go up to a person in the street and say “hi, do you wanna be my friend?”, yeah it just doesn’t work like that. So, what I did was download Bumble BFF and tried to get to know a few people and I met up with one girl. It was nice! But it is very hard to make friends and stay in contact with those people. Thankfully, I also had a few friends that I already knew before moving to Germany, who I met in Montreal (also on Bumble BFF), and they ended up living pretty close to me here. On New Year’s Eve, my boyfriend, Esther (a friend of mine who moved here with me until February) and I got to know a couple that lived here for a few weeks already and then met our next door neighbour a week later, so we finally had made some friends and until this day we’re still very close and get together every week to hang out.

In the end, there were a lot of difficulties moving to another country during the pandemic, but even though there’s a lot of negative sides, the pros of living abroad, for me at least, outweighed the cons. I couldn’t be happier living in Germany, and let me tell you, it can only get better in the next few months/years! I also got the chance to finally meet the Dutch guy I was talking to for 6 months back in Canada before moving and he has now been my boyfriend for more than 6 months! My German also got a lot better and I still got to travel a bit before everything closed down, and I can still go to cities close to Düsseldorf. The weather is also getting a lot better, more and more people are getting vaccinated and that means that hopefully, in a few months, everything is going to go back to normal or almost. This really makes me thankful to be here and I don’t really miss Canada, except for friends and family. I was sure of my decision back then and I do not regret it one bit.

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