Country: Germany
Town(s): Mülheim/Ruhr and Bielefeld
Germany in general is quite a strange country. While proud about many stuff (like sport, wealth, the health system), the germans are over-cautious about almost everything else, especially how they look for foreigners.
Everything that could be conisdered racist in even the slightiest bit will be a major problem, maybe even cause a nation wide problem.
Germans are also seriously worried about money. They have lot's, but they seem to always fea it might disappear. I hear others constantly nag about it.
The education system is widely considered as bad. Only about 20% of all elementary students will ever be able to attend a university. Some school types (Hauptschule) are even considered life threatening, because those are schools were the kids of poor and foreign parents go to and were aggressions are normally fought with knifes and worse. Teachers have a extremly poor reputation and are paid even worse which results in frustrated students that fail in school. Leading to germany needing good workers and taking them from other countries, what again frustrates the germans since those people "steal work".
Germans hate their own music with a few exceptions (Volksmusic is considered to be heard only by old people, the other german music is often only for minor groups like gothics, middle age fans and stuff), mainly getting music from america. The only exception is Hip Hop, but the german HIP HOP scene is considered as racist and sexistic, leading to many bans.
Germany has a really high minor protection with music, movies and games, making it almost ridicoulus hard to get some stuff. For example is Bioshock censored (the blood is green, the corpses don't look shot, burnt, etc and they disappear after some time), GTA got several scenes cut out and Dead Rising never appeared on german ground and owning it is forbidden. Most germans buy those stuff in england and austria anyway, but shops will get extreme penalitys if caught selling any of those uncensored.
Germans are extremly over-cautious with their own history and how some people treat it.
The old people could be called racist in some ways (my grandfather for example deeply hates America for some odd reasons), the youth on the other side is very open minded and loves to simply ignore WW2. The people in the middle freak out by both. While they try to hide the hating seniors they try to manipulate the young. I had to learn about WW2 and what "I" and "We" had done FIVE TIMES in school. It was always identical, full of uncensored gore. Be it videos of Nazis raping defenseless woman or showing the pile of corpses. Always saying "We" should never do that again, leaving me and my fellow students in total discomfort since we have no memory of ever doing something so cruel.
Funny is that those people get very angry when called Nazi from other countries (like some greek people when Germany cut off the money for a while or like many people in America love to call Germany the Nazi country). They get furious and I guess they are extremly cruel to anyone tending to the right because of that. They hunt them down and badmouth them, no matter if they are really racist or not (it's sometimes enough to just look like a Nazi to get to jail for a night).
BUT it is also a beautiful country with lot's of culture. Almost every bigger city has beautiful castles or other landmarks. Germany tries to keep literature and classical music alive, has lot's of museums and takes extreme care of it's historical gifts (like the baroque garden in Brühl or the Wieschurch in Freising).
So it is a really complicated country :/
But I once lived in Belgium and England, so I can at least say properly that I still love Germany very much
You just have to choose the right town, then you can feel right at home ^^
Depending on the town you choose it can also be harder or easier for someone without german knowledge to become a part of the country (the Ruhr area for example is perfect since it is one big checkpoint for all cultures, but without the ghettos of Berlin)
BUT the people differ greatly from place to place.
I was born in Mülheim/Ruhr, a small but previously rich city in the middle of the Ruhr area. I grew up with open-minded people that say out loud what bothers them. They can be cruel because of that, but they are also very open and friendly. It is always funny and full of action, especially since many cities here are right beneast each other (Essen, Duisburg, Oberhausen, Düsseldorf, Cologne).
I study in Bielefeld now and even though it's only 2 hours away by train, it differs extremly. People here are very silent and anti-social. Everyone does his stuff alone and in silence. They never speak up their mind and stay extremly polite most of the time. Thy often seem unfriendly, if intended or not. My only friends here are people like me that came from other parts of germany to study there, since they are also more open and easy-going.
