​Kelsey's Travel Blog!​
I travel not to escape life, but to be sure that life will not escape me! Come join me!
Allermöhe: Studentenwohnheim
To say that I was skeptical to be living in student housing in Germany was an understatement. I really tried to do everything I could to get out of having a dorm, yet I had no luck. I was brought back to my first year at Temple where I hated my roommate, hated all of the immature people on my floor, hated the lack of privacy, and hated the overpriced, shit food in the dining halls. Having that experience be my only reference for dorm life, I assumed I was destined for the same fate during my semester abroad. Thank god, I was incredibly wrong!
Student housing in Germany is incredibly different than housing in the States. First, housing is unaffiliated with the Universities. Instead, a private company provides student housing across the city for all students, regardless of university. I was housed with people who didn’t even go to my school. Not only were the rooms cheaper (222 Euros per month verses our nearly $800 per month at temple) but we each got our own room, and there was a kitchen in every unit, not to mention a student bar on the first floor that was open every Tuesday and Friday with 1 Euro beers. This was the dorm life I had always dreamed of!
My student housing was located about 30 minutes from campus in a small neighborhood called Allermöhe, located in the Bergedorf part of Hamburg. Although it seemed like Allermöhe was in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by fields and farms, it was actually a very cute a quaint area, with everything you could possibly need in the small square near the train station. There are six buildings for students in Allermöhe, all mixed in with housing for families, mostly immigrant families, and other young couples looking to escape the incredibly high prices of Hamburg City Centre. It had more of an apartment suburbia feel to it, but it was what I got to call home for five month from March through July.
Allermöhe turned out to not only be an awesome dorm experience, but to also replace all of the negativity I felt towards student housing thanks to my first year at Temple. I was in a five- person unit, with three other Germans, and one Brazilian girl. After traveling for 4 months straight, it was nice to finally have my own room, decorate it with cheap Ikea bedding, and picture of places I had been since December. My little room, filled with a twin size bed, a small desk, a tiny closet, and book shelf, was mine. It was my sanctuary; a place I could stay up late and watch German movies in. It was perfect. Even better, we had our own kitchen. I could run to the grocery store and cook meals, instead of having to eat anything the remotely resembled dorm food. This is how student housing life should be.
My roommates, who I adored, made the experience that much better. Marina, whose from San Paulo in Brazil, was an environmental engineering major who would be in Germany for the entire year, something I wish I would have done. Eazy, a 29 year old Bio student from Stuttgard, was my soccer buddy. Without fail, I would be in his room, watching that day’s soccer match, yelling at the TV, and drinking beers. I didn’t really know Corbin and my other roommate too well, since I never really saw either of them. I often saw Corbin out on the Reeperbahn or in the student bar, but we had a bit of a falling out thanks to my friend from Temple, but hey, he’s still a cool guy. The other girl, whose name escapes me, was never there, which meant I never actually got to know her at all. But whatever.​
The student housing situation in Germany was the ideal student housing situation. You didn’t have to rely on horribly cooked and unhealthy dorm food, you had your own space where you could actually relax and study, and awesome activities were planned for you by the students who had been living there for a while. Once the weather got nice, we would often head to the lake nearby where we would grill bratwursts, drink beer, and hang out in the sun. In my free time, I would often run around the lake, or run to Bergedorf or Mittlerer Landweg, both one train stops away from Allermöhe. I also tried to better my German by talking to both my roommates and Shelby’s. We often cooked dinner together, celebrated birthdays, etc. I truly wish that I could have stayed there for longer, since it was incredibly hard to make really good friends. There were a lot of international students living in my area, which was not exactly ideal for me, since I would have preferred to only live with Germans. Regardless, I did enjoy the short time I was in the dorms. I wonder what life would be like if I was a full time student. Maybe I’ll be able to test that when I come back to Germany for my masters? One can only hope.