Life Reflection

This is probably something meant more for a diary, but since this is my blog I decided to publish it.

In New York career comes first then life while in Berlin it is quite common for life to create career. i feel ok being a nanny 15-20 hours a week and surviving off that. I feel ok sharing a bed with my best friend in a small apartment. I have been brought up by my society to feel subpar about this, but I am choosing where I am bringing myself up in these crucial years now. And I am learning so much about cultural development and mostly myself as a result. This is not to say that I was brought up poorly, if i didn't have the supportive parents that I do have, coming here may never have happened or it simply would have been a lot more emotionally tolling on me. I am speaking more in cultural generalities. There is community here, people are not concerned with being cool or ironic, they just want to enjoy life and in turn they are cool. people are genuinely interested in helping others and meeting new people. new york is just so self-absorbed and paranoid that everyone is out to fuck them or rip off their style. and it is for that reason that I never knew about couch-surfing until I got here.

For now on when I travel I will use couch-surfing instead of hostels or hotels. This is a program where there is cultural exchange. Online you search through a database of people in different cities/towns that will accept you into their homes or simply just show you around their city as a local (people are given reviews so that you have an idea of who they are). This way you get a true experience and not something in travel book or in a pre-planned bar crawl listing of hotel. No you might not be sleeping in the fanciest or most comfortable setting, yes you might feel a bit awkward at times with the strangers you are staying with. You might even have some paranoia, but these are the chances that I feel I must take to keep learning about the world and myself. It's not even so much about saving money, because as a guest in someone's home you might want to take them out for dinner or drinks, but this is money spent on making people happy and meeting others instead of on some overpriced bed. You don't HAVE to offer a place to stay in your hometown, but when you are able, it's a really nice thing to do, and you meet some amazing people. I have already met so many great people just by hanging out with other friends' couch surfers.

Yes this has a lot to do with the fact that rent is so expensive in New York and so people are just trying to get a piece for themselves while here it is much easier to come by. But also America was created as a country of independence and the culture has been developed on that. Europeans are just much more community based and its beautiful and sincere. i have never seen so many people just go so out of their way for others as I have here. Our group have friends have bent over backwards to help us out and just completely accepted us foreigners into every facet of their life. This is not a bash on New York, because I love the people I left at home and it is my home and what has shaped me into the person I am, but I think that we have a lot to learn. And it doesn't necessarily require a flee from the country, but just some reflection. Question yourself, maybe put yourself out of your comfort zone every once in a while. Question your values. Helping others and being kind and little bit less self obsessed benefits everybody. Good energy is contagious and just so worth it.