Case Study: _Settling on a living space when abroad: homestay, apartment or dorm_

On a weekday night, I sat down at the table with my host family as my temporary mother, Sabine, carried out a steaming dish of baked cauliflower and cheese and sat it down next to the schnitzel. Pouring herself a glass of sparkling water, she motioned for me to begin eating.

Conversation was a little strained. My broken German only gets me so far on topics as simple as the weather or as complicated as America’s financial crisis.

However, Ule, the father, and Sabine smiled patiently and encouraged my German, while my host sister, Magdalena, translated my incomplete sentences. After dinner, we cleared the table together, and I climbed the stairs to my room ““ another average evening as the newest member of the Hop family.

One of the most important decisions when going abroad is choosing where to live. This is especially vital if you are trying to learn a new language.

The three most common options are host families, university dormitories and private apartments.

During my stay in Germany, I will be experiencing two out of the three.

I had a mediocre time with a host family when I traveled to Spain in high school, but I decided to give it another shot. It was absolutely the right decision for me ““ I improved my German, I got a taste (literally) of German culture, and I didn’t have to worry about finding my way home from the airport on my first day.

James Chwierut, a fourth-year business management student at UC Santa Cruz, had a similarly positive experience staying with one man.

“It was like living with my (biological) dad,” Chwierut said.

But not everyone gets lucky.

Daniel Pfaff, a fifth-year mechanical engineering student at UC Berkeley, is having what Germans would call a “schrecklich” ““ or terrible ““ experience.

“My first day and a half was great, everything I expected,” Pfaff said. “But after that it all went downhill.”

He’s been served cold French fries for dinner and rarely eats more than muesli ““ a typical German cereal of oats and grains ““ in the morning, he said. But the worst part is the almost total absence of the family.

Kirsten Mize, a third-year political science student at UC Berkeley, chose to find her own apartment upon arriving in Berlin.

She said she heard from previous Education Abroad Program students that the dorms were dirty and too far from the city center. Mize also decided against a host family because she thought it could be unsocial.

She stayed in a hostel for the first five days while looking for an apartment, eventually moving in with two Swiss students.

But Mize now says she would have chosen to stay with a host family instead if she had known she could live with them for only one month.

Even Pfaff said he would still live with a host family if he had to do it again.

Finding a host family for stays shorter than a quarter long can offer strong language immersion benefits, students said. For stays longer than a quarter, however, splitting time between a homestay and an apartment may better integrate the student traveler into the day-to-day life of the city.

Exclusive to Berlin is the “Wohngemeinschaft” ““ a much more casual version of a co-operative. The “WGs” have a built-in social structure that provides a way to meet both Germans and other international students.

We were given the opportunity to sign up for private dormitories, but in Berlin, the dorms are far away from the universities and the city’s center and house mostly non-native students. Yet, the dorms require a lot less paperwork and legwork and offer an easily accessible community.

I moved into a WG last week. Its central location, just a few U-Bahn subway stations to the city center and my university, will allow me to explore the city.

Lugging my bags to the Hops’ big, red van, I realized how much I would miss living with a family ““ I got used to wandering downstairs and watching German soap operas with my host sister.

But I’m happy to be moving from the suburbs to a livelier neighborhood: I’m trading in mornings greeted by Sabine’s cheerful smile and fresh strawberry-and-raspberry marmalade for parks and weekend flea markets.

Bruin reporter Elizabeth Case is living in Berlin, Germany, reporting on life abroad while taking classes at Humboldt Universität. This biweekly column is a collection of tips, advice and insights from a student traveler. Email Case at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter.