by Brendan Harlan ’22

Ever since I started planning to study abroad in Bremen, I wanted to live in a Wohngemeinschaft (WG). WG’s are shared apartments. From info sessions, professors, and conversations with other students who had or were studying in Bremen, I heard about the benefits to living in a WG. Mainly, your roommates can help you with learning German and immersing yourself in the local Bremen and Uni communities (if you choose to live with fellow students).

If you’re a student interested in studying abroad in Bremen, you will receive resources in the lead up to your time here to help you find a WG. However, another great resource in the meantime is another post here by Liam Pauli ’21. I hadn’t actually read Liam’s blog post before coming to Germany, yet somehow I actually found myself living on the same street that he did during his time in Bremen. I also used wg-gesucht to find a WG with a specific focus on finding a WG with a furnished room and fellow students living there.

I don’t know if it was just the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic or the fact that I’m only here for a semester or if it’s just normal, but I had a challenging time finding a WG. I applied to roughly 20-25 WG’s, received 8 responses, was invited to interview twice, and was finally offered a room in one of the WG’s who I interviewed with. It was an admittedly frustrating and time-consuming process, but I am quite happy with the WG I found and glad I put the effort into finding it.

Located in the Studentenwohnheim on Vorstraße, I’m just a 15 minute walk from the Uni campus and 5-10 minutes away from two different tram stops that can get me into the city center. I’m subletting from a Uni Bremen student that is currently on their own study abroad trip and I have three flatmates that are also students. Our current “thing” is watching the German TV show Tatort every Sunday.

Echoing what Liam wrote in his post and what other past Dickinson-in-Bremen students have said, I would wholeheartedly recommend living in a WG here. The search can be frustrating, but the results are worth it.

Photo credit: Durden Dickinson Bremen Program