"If you can't make it here, you can't make it anywhere"

In August I visited Berlin for perhaps the sixth time. (I lost track after a few years!) While I was strolling down a warm city street, I spotted a bag in the window of a store that read "If you can't make it in Berlin, you can't make it anywhere." My friends and I (two native Berliners and my American traveling companion) had a laugh and went on about our nighttime adventure.

But the phrase stuck in my mind.

There's a perception that Berlin is the easiest place to live. By California or New York standards, prices are comically low, it's very international and accepting of all cultures, the public transportation system is stellar, it's flat and there are a million places to park your bike... perfect, right?!

I certainly felt that way.

The truth is slightly more complicated.

First of all, EVERYONE wants to live here - people from everywhere have flocked here, lured by the low cost of living, and so everyone is also looking for a place to live. It's a constant conversation. Since moving here in February, I've already moved three times and I'm moving twice more before I settle into a 3-month sublet. You have to roll with the punches.

Yesterday I met up with two French friends for an avant-garde dance performance about female Bolivian MMA fighters. One of them told me that her therapist said this week that all her clients are disappointed and depressed because of the disconnect between their perceptions of what it would be like to move to Berlin and what the actual reality is to live here. I felt better in that I'm not alone, and worse knowing that there may not be a solution.

Amidst all this, I've started to reframe this experiment. Rather than doggedly clinging to the idea that I must stay here, I'm letting it unfold more organically. I'm opening up to people about the fact that it's not all roses and chocolates. I'm treating it as an adventure. There's only so much we can control in life. (VERY LITTLE, in my experience.) So I'm letting Berlin speak to me instead of trying to conquer it.