Working to create a new life in a new city with new friends and new work opportunities has the entire range of ups and downs.

Being the new person socially and experiencing the pace of a new city is incredibly fun. But your mood can take a dive when you’re unsure where your life is going. You’re living in temporary places, knowing that the arrangement of this furniture is not yours. You’re trying your best to find the right path to work by coming off confident, experienced and open, despite not speaking the language…yet.

Ultimately you’re trying to find a place for yourself in the pace of a new city. A huge, foreign, new place, with a ton of people doing the same thing.

But when you can recreate certain routines, like an evening at home, and pair it with the environment, you’ll bring yourself back up very quickly.

Something simple like making dinner in your new, temporary sublet can do the trick. Right now I’m digging the thistle out of an artichoke, having a glass of wine, and watching Roseanne. And I opened the window to listen to the heavy Berlin rain.