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puddingcat
18 Aug 2003 11:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
karohemdSame rules as before
1. Which charities do you support, & why?
I don't, regularly at least. As sometimes I'm an impulsive buyer, I'm also an impulsive donator. It's a case of, oh, this sounds interesting, they could do with some of my extra cash. Sadly, I don't have much of that at the moment.
2. All other things being equal, would you rather settle permanently here or in Germany? Why?
Germany, definitely. While I'm not a patriot or particularly proud of my home country, I'm still German and always will be.
I have found a number of very good friends here but I still don't get the majority of the populace in certain situations.
To look at it realistically:
There's a certain imbalance where I live at the moment. I make a reasonable amount of money (the net salary in a similar job back in Germany wouldn't be much different) but I live in a tiny rented studio flat with no room to move. In a city like Nuremberg I would get a flat three times the size of this for the same rent. Not to mention costs of food, drink and other commodities. A good bottle of beer from a German supermarket would cost me 40p max, so less than half the price here.
Quality of housing: It's quite simply appalling here. To get the level of quality I'd consider standard in Germany, you would have to go to the high end here. I'm not talking about luxuries, I'm talking about good windows, a decent bathroom and kitchen. We'll not talk about food, especially bread.
Next, welfare/health care. It's going downhill in Germany as well but the quality is still better. The horror stories I've witnessed here from colleagues or friends suffering from NHS treatment makes me want to get a helicopter to Germany should I get really sick/have a horrible accident, even if I have to pay for the transfer myself.
If I stayed and worked here until the end of my days, I would not be able to live off the poor state pension.
I (and pretty much every continental European I've spoken to) sometimes feel like I'm in the 19th century...
I guess the ideal situation would be to do both. Live permanently in Germany but come back regularly to visit my friends here.
3. One thing / law / idea from Germany you'd bring to the UK? And the reverse?
A bit of the repeat from the above.
From Germany: Quality of housing
To Germany: Two major things I'll miss when going back. Takeaways and films in the original language on TV and at the cinema.
4. If you had the resources to go back to university / college etc, what would you study & why?
More languages because they fascinate me. My Tremere is essentially the ultimate linguist I'll never be.
5. Long one, this! If you could have no ill effects whatsoever from one particular substance (e.g. wine, beer, tobacco, specific illegal substances, caffeine etc), but all the others became completely intolerable to you, which would you choose to keep? This means you could (say) smoke without getting wrinkles, cancer, etc, drink like a fish without cirrhosis, take crack without getting addicted, sleep soundly after a strong coffee...
Hm, I drink not because of the alcohol but because I like the taste of a good wine or Malt and as with anything good, moderation is the key because if you could have it all the time, the nicety/luxury factor would soon wear off. I don't smoke, not because it's unhealthy but because it doesn't give me anything and smoke is simply disgusting and makes everything smell bad. I haven't tried illegal substances except dope which is sort of cool but linked to smoking so no to that as well.
What remains is coffee, and yes, I'd like to be able drink as much coffee as I used to 10 years ago, especially since discovering Blue Mountain. Now I have to be careful that my stomach doesn't play up and of course there's the not being able to sleep thing.
Caffeine it is, then.
1. Which charities do you support, & why?
I don't, regularly at least. As sometimes I'm an impulsive buyer, I'm also an impulsive donator. It's a case of, oh, this sounds interesting, they could do with some of my extra cash. Sadly, I don't have much of that at the moment.
2. All other things being equal, would you rather settle permanently here or in Germany? Why?
Germany, definitely. While I'm not a patriot or particularly proud of my home country, I'm still German and always will be.
I have found a number of very good friends here but I still don't get the majority of the populace in certain situations.
To look at it realistically:
There's a certain imbalance where I live at the moment. I make a reasonable amount of money (the net salary in a similar job back in Germany wouldn't be much different) but I live in a tiny rented studio flat with no room to move. In a city like Nuremberg I would get a flat three times the size of this for the same rent. Not to mention costs of food, drink and other commodities. A good bottle of beer from a German supermarket would cost me 40p max, so less than half the price here.
Quality of housing: It's quite simply appalling here. To get the level of quality I'd consider standard in Germany, you would have to go to the high end here. I'm not talking about luxuries, I'm talking about good windows, a decent bathroom and kitchen. We'll not talk about food, especially bread.
Next, welfare/health care. It's going downhill in Germany as well but the quality is still better. The horror stories I've witnessed here from colleagues or friends suffering from NHS treatment makes me want to get a helicopter to Germany should I get really sick/have a horrible accident, even if I have to pay for the transfer myself.
If I stayed and worked here until the end of my days, I would not be able to live off the poor state pension.
I (and pretty much every continental European I've spoken to) sometimes feel like I'm in the 19th century...
I guess the ideal situation would be to do both. Live permanently in Germany but come back regularly to visit my friends here.
3. One thing / law / idea from Germany you'd bring to the UK? And the reverse?
A bit of the repeat from the above.
From Germany: Quality of housing
To Germany: Two major things I'll miss when going back. Takeaways and films in the original language on TV and at the cinema.
4. If you had the resources to go back to university / college etc, what would you study & why?
More languages because they fascinate me. My Tremere is essentially the ultimate linguist I'll never be.
5. Long one, this! If you could have no ill effects whatsoever from one particular substance (e.g. wine, beer, tobacco, specific illegal substances, caffeine etc), but all the others became completely intolerable to you, which would you choose to keep? This means you could (say) smoke without getting wrinkles, cancer, etc, drink like a fish without cirrhosis, take crack without getting addicted, sleep soundly after a strong coffee...
Hm, I drink not because of the alcohol but because I like the taste of a good wine or Malt and as with anything good, moderation is the key because if you could have it all the time, the nicety/luxury factor would soon wear off. I don't smoke, not because it's unhealthy but because it doesn't give me anything and smoke is simply disgusting and makes everything smell bad. I haven't tried illegal substances except dope which is sort of cool but linked to smoking so no to that as well.
What remains is coffee, and yes, I'd like to be able drink as much coffee as I used to 10 years ago, especially since discovering Blue Mountain. Now I have to be careful that my stomach doesn't play up and of course there's the not being able to sleep thing.
Caffeine it is, then.
