Megeen

I've never lived in Hamburg but I've visited and speaking from a German perspective, many students and young adults looking for flatmates use WG-gesucht or similar local sites but WG-gesucht is the most widely used as far as I know: https://www.wg-gesucht.de/wohnungen-in-Hamburg.55.2.0.0.html
 
Looking for housing can be a hassle because when you look for flatmates, you usually do not correspond with the landlord directly but with potential roommates and they can sometimes be hesitant if they don't get to meet you in person. But then again, you can also be lucky if your request and background intrigues them. Good luck!
 
As for activities: Hamburg has a great public transport system and if you're matriculated at the University you get to use it for free so the entire city is basically open to you. Nightlife is great and edgy if you want it to be. You have the North Sea right in front of you so you can go to the beach and there's the harbor and they have great museums and such.
 
In terms of mentality: People in North Germany have a reputation for being reserved and somewhat rough by comparison but don't let that perturb you. They're actually really lovely.
 
I hope you have a great time there & enjoy the city and the university!

I pretty much had my heart set on the US but if it hadn't worked out this time or maybe next season, I would've looked at Germany too. I never had to though because--I don't know how familiar you are with the German PhD application system--the whole thing is vastly different.
You basically have to wait until you have your degree in hand, write a dissertation prospectus, (which doesn't happen until the second or third year in the US), find a supervisor (Doktorvater/-mutter) who's willing to take you on based on your proposal, which is not very difficult because you tend to take care of funding yourself and then you're basically stuck with this supervisor and maybe one other Doktorvater/-mutter. Tuition is not an issue because we don't have any and so you basically only have to figure out your living expenses. Some, very few people have something comparable to GA-ships that include the option to teach your own independent course, some people get external scholarships from institutions or political parties, many people work regular jobs next to writing their dissertations or rely on mon and dad, and lately some schools have started to launch interdisciplinary graduate schools in the humanities that offer funding, but those spots are coveted too.
That's it in a nutshell, a very, very simplified notshell. Overall the entire PhD process tends to be a lot less structured than in the US which is one of the reasons why I prefer to do my doctorate in the US, but there's also advantages to the German system such as the fact that you don't have to take classes before you start writing your dissertation, which is good for those who know exactly what they want to write about, and you generally have a lot more freedom. Basically, no one will hold your hand, but no one will hold your hand... If you're highly intrinsically motivated to work on your stuff, it can be great but it can also be very isolating because you're not necessarily involved in everyday life at your institution and it depends on your professor how much they promote communication between their doctoral candidates. Some do, some don't, some try and fail. Mostly it's just difficult to gauge the entire thing from the outside whereas in the US I find everything fairly transparent by comparison but well, that's subjective...

Well, it's always difficult to gauge chances, especially such a long time in advance, but I'll give you my two or three cents because I'm coming at it with a kinda similar perspective but reversed biography. I'm German (about to graduate with Staatsexamen) and got my Master's in Comp. Lit. in the US in 2012. I applied for English PhDs last year (8 rejections) and this year and also for one Comp Lit PhD program this year. I got into the Comp Lit program and I'm really excited about that although I would probably consider my interest in American Lit as stonger than in German. I'm sure that me being a native speaker and applying for Comp Lit and my American MA contributed to this acceptance but there's always other factors. My perspective, maybe my delusion, was that me being German makes me kinda exotic (yeah I know, but well) and I imagine in your case, your non-traditional bio will in the very least make you interesting to grad programs and isn't that what we want. Having 2 MAs will hopefully show them that you can stick it out too.
Another tidbit about my bio: All in all, I took somewhat longer to complete my German degree as is often the case here (I also had to work and stuff but I also genuinely enjoyed studying...) and Maryland at least doesn't seem to mind
 
If you're not set on what kind of program to apply to, I'd definitely go for Comp Lit or German in your case. Fewer spots, yes, but I imagine your degrees from a German-speaking uni can give you an edge.
 
Also, the German grading scale translates into a pretty decent GPA.
http://www.foreigncredits.com/Resources/GPA-Calculator/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_grading_in_Germany

Good luck!

I officially accepted my offer to attend the PhD Program in Comp Lit yesterday! I doubt I'll be able to attend the open house unfortunately and my contact hasn't said anything about it anyway. Still, I look forward to meeting you guys in the summer!

YOU WERE RIGHT!!! ALL'S GOOD!

Wyatt's Torch, I'll see you in Maryland next year, baring injury, mutilation or that the other program which I do not want as much as this one gives me a much better offer!!!
 
I wish I drank to celebrate! Now all that's left is running circles around a tree in the streets and have people think I'm out of my mind.

Thank you guys again for all the encouragement. It's really really helped me calm down before this...

YOU WERE RIGHT!!! ALL'S GOOD!

Wyatt's Torch, I'll see you in Maryland next year, baring injury, mutilation or that the other program which I do not want as much as this one gives me a much better offer!!!
 
I wish I drank to celebrate! Now all that's left is running circles around a tree in the streets and have people think I'm out of my mind.

Thank you guys again for all the encouragement. It's really really helped me calm down before this...

YOU WERE RIGHT!!! ALL'S GOOD!

Wyatt's Torch, I'll see you in Maryland next year, baring injury, mutilation or that the other program which I do not want as much as this one gives me a much better offer!!!
 
I wish I drank to celebrate! Now all that's left is running circles around a tree in the streets and have people think I'm out of my mind.

Thank you guys again for all the encouragement. It's really really helped me calm down before this...

YOU WERE RIGHT!!! ALL'S GOOD!

Wyatt's Torch, I'll see you in Maryland next year, baring injury, mutilation or that the other program which I do not want as much as this one gives me a much better offer!!!
 
I wish I drank to celebrate! Now all that's left is running circles around a tree in the streets and have people think I'm out of my mind.

Thank you guys again for all the encouragement. It's really really helped me calm down before this...

YOU WERE RIGHT!!! ALL'S GOOD!

Wyatt's Torch, I'll see you in Maryland next year, baring injury, mutilation or that the other program which I do not want as much as this one gives me a much better offer!!!
 
I wish I drank to celebrate! Now all that's left is running circles around a tree in the streets and have people think I'm out of my mind.

Thank you guys again for all the encouragement. It's really really helped me calm down before this...

YOU WERE RIGHT!!! ALL'S GOOD!

Wyatt's Torch, I'll see you in Maryland next year, baring injury, mutilation or that the other program which I do not want as much as this one gives me a much better offer!!!
 
I wish I drank to celebrate! Now all that's left is running circles around a tree in the streets and have people think I'm out of my mind.

Thank you guys again for all the encouragement. It's really really helped me calm down before this...

Thanks guys, that's very encouraging! I wrote "I'm most definitely still interested" and something about being honored if I were accepted but the wait is unnerving because I'm so excited. Wait and see... I hope they don't make me wait the weekend.

Thanks for sharing that info.

Also, I'm familiar with automatic refresh syndrom. I feel like many of us on this site probably are. Let's keep our fingers crossed (and also thumbs pressed as we do here in Germany) so we won't need to do it all over again next time.
 
As for the willpower thing. Thank you! I tend to call it stubbornness. I give myself two tries for most things since I'm usually pressed for time the first time around. Also, I look at rejections like they could just be bad luck. We know what the chances are and we also know that not getting in does not necessarily mean that the application portfolio was bad. I'm not trying to convince you to try again, even if it doesn't work out, but it might be worth considering, do you feel you could improve your chances next time around?

I have a question about Chicago. Are you just talking about the MAPH or also English PHD? If there's a glitch in the admissions system, that wouldn't affect the acceptances the English Dept sends out directly, right? I'm still hoping against hope that there's a PhD admission in there somewhere.
 
As for coping: I had a couple of pretty miserable phases when acceptances started rolling in and I didn't get any and then I somehow convinced myself that none of them are gonna work out this year and I'll try again next time. I'm still hoping for the last two but I've gotten to a place where I don't really see it as an option anymore and I'm fine with that. Sorry, that probably doesn't help much. For me it's mostly a head space thing. Mine tells me I don't want to be miserable anymore and then I move into resignation/acceptance stage...

Wow, I've never heard that. If they want you, I'd say they pay for you to come visit. And making funding decisions based on that sounds kinda like a dickish move. If you can't afford to fly out there, doesn't that mean that you're especially in need of funding. I understand the "dedication" argument but it's still a weirdly coercive move... What school is that?

I haven't seen anything from Chicago yet. I'm waiting for them too and I hope they'll send something out by tomorrow.

Yep, I did and I didn't get any complaints except for grad admins at Penn State with whom I wrote emails back and forth over the course of a week (granted sometimes, they didn't reply for a day or two). It worked out in the end apparently, but it was very annoying because they weren't very clear what they wanted to know.