u/Friendly_Sea_8469

Hi! I have arrived and started my study in Germany about 1 year before. Here's an example situation that I'm still feeling a bit weird and uncertain whether I did something improperly:

I leave my seat every 2 hours or so during a day in the library, each time about 15 minutes, to go to the toilet or just take a walk in the building, because I want to avoid sitting for too long which I understand as unhealthy. Every time I return to my seat, I notice that there are a few people suddenly raising their heads and taking a glance at me.

Internally, I feel bad every time I notice someone looks at me like that. I was born and raised in Asia, and in my culture, people do that only when they are irritated by the person they look at, and that glance works as a somewhat fierce warning ("you do that again and I will do something to you"). Since no one has ever complained to me after such a glance, I have always assumed that this is just a cultural difference, that the people glancing me when I take my seat do not mean anything with that. Today I came across this channel and finally have the chance to ask this question: why do some people look at me like this?

I do follow the rules in the library seriously, use the break-time sign properly, and free my seat for lunch if it takes more than 30 minutes (our rules allow max. 1 hour break time), no food, no coffee, not typing loudly and not too much. I don't think my movements bother anyone, I'm a quite small person that fits in the smallest gap of seats and bags during exam rush period, and I'm not talking about rush hours, e.g. it happened today as well, when most students have finished their exams and only less than 30% of the seats are taken... Am I overthinking this, or am I actually behaving improperly?

Thank you for reading this.

EDIT: thank you so much for your friendly answers! I now know that this is what people call "The German Stare", and that people do this not only out of instinct, but also to help guarding each other's belongings. It's amazing. One little concern less for me, and a bit more about the culture learned. Thank you and have a nice day :D

Hi! I have been looking forward to the rewards and was finally able to update to version 5.23.3 yesterday. But whenever I try to open the "invite & get rewards" page from the settings, I get stuck in a completely white page (it's fully white under both dark and light modes), not even a return button so I would have to restart the app. I'm wondering if it's just me or does anyone else also experience the problem.

I'm on an iPhone with iOS 26.6. The issue has been submitted via the in-app support.

Hi everyone,

I'm going to Nijmegen for a summer school (one week) at the Radboud University soon, and I would like to prepare myself a little bit for it. Here are some questions I have in my head:

1. is the situation in general safe? For example, as a girl, is it safe to walk around after the sunset?
2. About languages, I speak no Dutch, but only English. I also know some German. What difficulties should I expect with no knowledge of Dutch?
3. Is there any issue related to health? E.g., ticks? And is tap water safe to drink?

Thank you for reading this, and wishing you all the best.

Edit: thank you all for these friendly and helpful responses! My little anxiety has been swept away and I'm really looking forward to this trip now :D