The 27 -year -old American moved to Germany to the Faculty of Medicine: “I feel happy here.”

while Erika Roberts A high school student grew up in the outskirts of Philadelphia, and participated in a two -week exchange program that was transferred to Munich, Germany. She did not know that at that time, but that experience would form the rest of her life.

Quickly forward until 2016, when Roberts was a college student, he studied biochemistry with a pre -medium focus in Massachusetts. Even when she worked to obtain a Bachelor’s degree and attend the Faculty of Medicine, she was not loyal.

“I was an adult young man who wanted to try the world and all that came with him,” I told CNBC. “All the places that I toured high school and promised diversity, society and personal growth, but the reality felt different. I decided that I needed to search for my own challenge if I really wanted to try this. I didn’t feel that I was working in the future I was excited.”

At the same time, Roberts started thinking about life if she moves to a different school, specifically again in Germany.

Unlike the United States, in Germany, you do not need a Bachelor’s degree in joining the College of Medicine. Instead, students are registered in a six -year program divided into three stages, with exams that are managed after each.

Most public universities in Germany are either free or provide less costs compared to ownership in other countries.

All of these factors continued to influence Roberts’s thinking. This step is considered its best choice because it can become a dermatologist without longer education.

Roberts began to capture the German language again after taking high school lessons.

“I started challenging a psychological and meeting people from all over the world. This is definitely not something that you necessarily get in the United States unless it is in a major city,” she says. “I feel that Europe is doing a better job in treating adult youth in a way that gives you responsibility until you are exposed to a younger age, and you know what to do in the United States, it is waiting more until it is 21 years old and then suddenly hell collapses.”

Roberts tried to discuss joining the Faculty of Medicine in Germany with her father, but he rejected the idea. She wanted her to finish her education in the United States. But when Roberts ended her first year in her year with a 3.9 -over lamb, her father changed his opinion and gave her the green light to continue her studies in Germany.

“My father was like,” well, if this is what you think is the right direction, “she says. You have tried the typical road experience, and if it still seems that you need to go and find out, it is certain that you can try it. “

Roberts completed her first year in college in 2017 and registered in a linguistic school where she also planned to live during settling in Germany.

Just a few weeks after the registration, Roberts arrived on a plane and headed to Germany. She lived in a housing in the language school for less than a year before moving with her boyfriend in the time family. This arrangement ended when the two separated. She moved to a common apartment with two other people where she lived for about a year.

In the end, Roberts fell in an apartment with room colleagues and lived there for five years. When I moved for the first time, I paid 565 euros or $ 648 a month. By the time it came out, its rent was 659 euros per month or $ 751.

Today, Roberts lives on her own, but she is not comfortable to reveal what she pays for rent. Instead, she shared that her total expenditures outside the rent are 749 euros or $ 859 a month.

According to the documents reviewed by CNBC, these monthly expenditures include 230 euros per grocery, 144 euros for health insurance, 24 euros for gym membership, 28 euros for its mobile phones and 38 euros for transportation. It also pays 85 euros for study fees at the Faculty of Medicine and usually spends 200 euros to go out to eat or accommodate friends.

“The taxpayers allow to maintain the fees of public universities very low,” Roberts says.

Roberts noticed that since she lives in Germany, she commits her days differently, has healthy eating habits, and has surpassed things much less.

“I think that coming from my experience in Philadelphia in the desire to really be individual and see how people are here in this universe from not trying to do this, it was my budget,” she says.

((It) makes me confront who I am honest outside the world tells me about me that I am supposed to be. “

Roberts has been in Germany for nearly eight years, and she says she loves to feel safe, reach good food and access. That there is also to force her to learn how to adapt.

“The awareness of the environment in which it is present and the rules that dictate that the environment is really necessary to understand how to succeed,” she says.

“What I have noticed is definitely how much years over the years, I adapted the German culture more. I grew up here in many ways. I have grown to the person I am now.”

She says that the Roberts family is mostly in us, so returning back will always be a possibility. But at the present time, she can see itself in Europe for a long time to come.

“I haven’t been thinking for 10 years that I would live in Germany as long as I was and how everything was put forward as is the case. I couldn’t predict my place from now 10 years.”

“I don’t try to strictly predict where I will go after 10 years of today, but now I feel happy here and I can see myself staying here.”

References were made from the euro to the US dollar using the OANDA rate of 1 euros to $ 1.14 on April 23, 2025. All amounts are brought to the nearest dollar.

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