Living away from my home country was an awkward experience. When I first moved to Los Angeles, everything worked perfectly fine and it was an interesting experience, as I was living with my uncle. I didn’t really have to worry about a place to live.
However, I knew that I can’t stay with him for a long time. After living with him for a couple months, I started to look up a place that was close to my school. I was lucky that my uncle was able to assist and guide me so that I didn’t get confused. I went into a website called Craigslist and found a new place in Burbank. Though finding a new place was easy, moving in was hard. Most of the places required credit checks.
Due to my visa, I don’t have any credit score so I had to pay 2 months of security deposit.
My suggestion for students who wish to move to the US is try to find a comfortable place to stay so that you don’t have to move around and pay a lot of security deposits. The AFI College website has a page for finding a place to stay. Finally, it was still a good experience as I haven’t moved out by myself before and it was my first experience.
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When I arrived here in Los Angeles it was different than I imagined, I was so sad because I was in the process of change. It was not too hard to get situated here in Los Angeles because since the beginning I had my sister here with me supporting me a lot and I didn’t have trouble with accommodation because I came here to live with her.
In the beginning, I was trying to find friends but it was so difficult because a lot of people here in Los Angeles are rude. I was sad all the time because in my country it is totally different than here. All the people are happy, always open to help each other. When I started studying at AFI College, I found a classmate from Brazil and we became good friends.
Los Angeles is a good city and I recommend it to anyone who wants to live here. It’s not easy to leave your birth country to go live in another country without knowing anybody. It's just you surrounded by strangers. My advice is to look at places like "Zumper Rentals," before you arrive, if you want cheaper prices.
The most important advice that I want to give is if you have a dream just do it. Life always has its ups and downs but with focus and hard work you can do it, so, don’t give up!
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My first impression when I moved to America from Germany was very exciting for me. I like new challenges and I am very open minded.
My friend is from Germany, has lived in Los Angeles for many years and helped me find a place. I did some research online before I moved. There were many different options on Craigslist. It is very popular. You can even try to join a group, but first of all it’s important to figure out what exactly you are looking for and how much money you want to spend on rent.
One of the most common ways is to share an apartment with other people. If you need more privacy and are able to spend a little bit more money, you could get your own studio. Los Angeles is very spread out. I would definitely try to find a place where it’s easy to commute if you don’t drive. If you drive be aware Los Angeles is known to have bad traffic during rush hour.