A new home

 I couple of weeks ago, I left Freiburg in souther Germany and moved across the country.  So now, I had the misfortune (or privilege? I haven`t quite decided yet!) of having to look for a new home. I really liked my old room, it was quite big, bright, with a nice wooden floor and my own balcony. I was really torn between moving into a shared flat again or getting my own apartement for the very first time.

I always had fun flatmates. One was a Libanese who looked like a teddy bear and always invited a ton of friends from everywhere in the world. I could  mooch the best thai, libanese or indonesian food there. Another girl got me the idea of doing WOOFing (meaning you stay at a farm somewhere for free and help some). Because of her, I spent a fun time in Normandy, drinking a lot of apple cider in the sun.
Also, the farmer´s son, a French cook, taught me how to make the most wonderful crepes. I will have to share that recipe sometime!
Well, some flatmates where not quite as much fun. One girl always took my pots and chairs to parties and then denied having taking them...until her friends brought it back three weeks later. And there was a Chinese girl who put her chicken into the one star freezer without any container right on top of my food. But living in a shared flat was a huge part of my university experience, and I loved it.



After a couple of weeks checking out flats where my shoes stuck to the floor with every step because it had not been cleaned forever, or opening mystery kitchen cupboards to discover the tiny shower (in a five person mixed gender flat, too, and I still don´t know where they hid the toilet...), I decided I had outgrown the shared flat . So two weeks ago, I happily moved into a freshly renovated, clean and all mine apartment.

One of the first things I do to feel more at home in a new apartment is hang all my favourite pictures. Really, buying shower curtains or putting food in the fridge are overrated compared to hanging pictures. Remember I digitalized my family´s old photos? This was the perfect moment to order enlarged copies and put them everywhere! Even after a short week of living here, I feel at home, partly due to them!

What do you do to feel at home in a new apartment?