GirlGI | Girl Gone International Issue 8 | Page 97

Helena Mikulska, Polish, 27
Community Manager in Prague

I f*ed up big time while living in Germany. I organised a birthday party in my
tiny shoebox apartment which had taken me ages to find. To my surprise
over 30 people came. We were more than loud. The next day I received a
‘friendly’ letter from my landlord giving me an ultimatum to move out by the
end of the month or be kicked out!
I also had my name ‘officially’ changed by the German government after the
processing officer at the office where I registered my German residency
heard me wrong – this may be the only bureaucratic mistake made in
Germany history!
Here in Prague, I try to integrate as much as possible – it’s my boyfriend’s
hometown. My native language is Polish, his family speaks Czech so as
they are both Slavic languages I try to speak Czech. I make mistakes
constantly throughout the day. For example, I say, ‘something smells
awesome’ and awesome for them has the opposite meaning, so I am
saying it stinks. I’ve also told my mother in law with all sincerity that she
looks pretty. But of course I was saying the exact opposite.