Influencer Ariba Khan on her relationship with Kiel

Kiel. When Ariba Khan arrives in Kiel in February 2021, after a ten-hour journey from her home country of India, the first thing she notices is the cold. “How can you live like that?” she asks herself as her glasses fog up and she tries in vain to use her cell phone with gloves on. Three years later, Khan has settled in and shares her impressions of the city and its people with others on Instagram. With great response: her account @enroutekiel now has more than 15,000 followers.

The 28-year-old is doing her doctorate in linguistics at Kiel University. They feel at home in Kiel: not too crowded, small enough to know everything, but not so small that there is nothing to do. “You quickly feel at home here,” says Khan.

Influencer Ariba Khan from India: This is strange about Kiel

And yet there are many things about Kiel that surprise her. One point of criticism: the Indian restaurants. For Germans, the dishes are just right. For Khan, however, they don’t taste really authentic. She also finds it strange how quiet the traffic is on the roads here compared to India. Ariba Khan tells an anecdote about this: Shortly after her arrival, a car stopped to let her cross the street. The doctoral student was confused – had she done something wrong? She hesitated, stopped, the driver became angry and signaled her to move on. “A car stopping for a pedestrian – for me that was crazy,” says Khan.

She also had to get used to the complex rules of waste separation and the directness of the Germans. At first, she thought it was rude when others said they didn’t want to do something. “I’ve become more German myself now,” says Khan.

Instagram account @enroutekiel: More than 15,000 followers

On her Instagram account, influencer Ariba Khan shares such impressions of Germany and Kiel in humorous videos: what she likes, what she finds strange, what misunderstandings she experiences. She never planned for the channel to become so big; Khan actually just wanted to document her time in Germany for her friends and family. But then an actually unspectacular video unexpectedly went viral: a swan on the Kiellinie, accompanied by music. From then on, the other reels were also well received and the account grew.

However, Khan cannot imagine producing videos for social media as her main job. It is too uncertain for her – the risk of losing years of work within seconds if her account is blocked. Nevertheless, she likes the potential of social media to share one’s thoughts with others. The pandemic and the associated social restrictions have enabled many creative people who are not promises to present themselves. But there is also a lot of hate online, and she often receives racist comments. They reacted to this with Sarka’s answer tables.

Doctoral student from India: How to make friends with people from Kiel

Can Khan confirm the cliché that it is difficult to make friends with northern Germans? Yes and no, says the Indian. It can be difficult to get people from Germany to open up, to reveal a lot about themselves at the first meeting, and building friendships takes time. But she has tips for anyone who comes to Germany from abroad and wants to make friends with local friends: be interested in life here, join groups, have a hobby. She has also built a community on her Instagram account in which she feels comfortable: “It has grown into something that I am really proud of.”

She still gets homesick a lot: Khan hasn’t been home in India for over a year, the journey is long and the flights are expensive. What she misses most is the support of her family when work on her promotion becomes strenuous, the housework overwhelms her or she gets sick. But she has gotten used to the cold. When Ariba Khan is in India, she still finds the weather too hot, even though her parents are already putting on sweaters.

CN