How I ended up here

It started in summer 2013. I came to Germany for a two-month language course in Kassel — terrified of people talking to me, terrified of people looking at me. My German was A1, meaning I could say Guten Morgen and not much else.

I fell in love with Germany anyway. Two years later I came back to pursue my Master’s degree. And somehow, more than a decade later, Cologne is home. It’s where I drink my coffee, navigate my Ausländerbehörde appointments, take my photo walks, and occasionally get on the wrong UBahn for 20 minutes before noticing.

In 2024 I married my wonderfully patient Indian husband — after navigating the German Standesamt with documents from two non-EU countries, which is its own kind of adventure and has its own blog post.

I was diagnosed with Generalised Anxiety Disorder years ago, and later suspected — and confirmed — ADHD. Getting that diagnosis in Germany, in a second language, with waiting times that are truly something else, was complex and occasionally completely absurd. But it was one of the most clarifying things that has ever happened to me.