Woman who moved to Germany 18 months ago says she feels 'so unwelcome'
An American woman moved to Germany and grew to hate it, saying she 'completely regrets' the decision to move.
Stephanie Vollmer, a 34-year-old freelance marketer from Sacramento, California, moved with her husband to the European country with her husband who works for the US military.
They moved in January 2022 but 18 months later she says she feels "completely unwelcome in Germany" and "can't wait" to move back to the US.
In an essay published by Insider, Mrs Vollmer describes her 'ordeal' of trying to settle in in her new home. She had moved from South Korea.
Although excited to start with, she wrote: "Unfortunately, I now completely regret my decision to move abroad to Germany. It's been one of the most difficult culture shocks I've experienced.
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Mrs Vollmer runs her own travel blog (@adventureswithnienie/Instagram)"After 18 months, I still feel completely unwelcome in Germany"
She and her husband live in a small town called Otterberg due to the nature of her husband's work.
As a half Korean and half white woman, Mrs Vollmer claims she has faced "weekly microaggressions in the form of rude looks and comments about my shaky German".
She wrote: "I feel like a trespasser here, like I'm straddling two worlds. The first is the US-military community, which my husband belongs to, but I don't. The second is the German-resident community, which I'm reminded on a daily basis I also don't belong to."
In the essay she complained about the struggles of finding people to practise speaking German with and the lack of next-day delivery for online orders.
She moved to Germany with her husband who works in the military (@adventureswithnienie/Instagram)Another complaint she had was the food.
She wrote: "Germany offers cuisines from other cultures, but it's nothing like the Asian or Mexican dishes I grew up with."
Despite the litany of complaints she did have one thing she admired about Germany - the healthcare.
She said: "This is undeniably better than US healthcare, and I'll miss it. But coming from South Korea, where the care is even better than in Germany, I recognize it's the care, not Germany, that I'll miss."
A link to her essay ended up on social media platform Reddit where many users tore into her.
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One wrote: "Well guess where those english-speaking communities are! Not in fucking otterberg. and what a surprise. On the european continent Asian and Mexican food don't taste the same as in America and Asia. How about trying European food ffs. For someone travelling a lot she sure complains a lot about how the current country is not like her home."
Another quipped: "Damn Germans! They ruined Germany!"
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