1. A TRIP TO GERAMNY

When I have heard about the exchange program taking place at our school I got exited, because I like to travel. I quickly signed up for the program. Then after a while I found out that we had to choose from three destinations; Germany, The Czech Republic or The Netherlands. A tough choice was handed to me because I liked all of the destinations, but my instinct guided me to ultimately choose Germany, a decision I would later not regret. 

Before we went and I was super exited. I was ready to take on this experience. On Sunday the 2^nd February we departed from our home country and went through Italy and Austria to finally arrive at Gersthofen, it was an eight hour long ride, but we survived it. When we were greeted by the families and staff it was a cloudy day with occasional rain, not very welcoming. We went home to our host families and we got to meet them and they showed us their house. Before going a lot were a bit worried. They feel like they wouldn’t connect with their host or their family, but that is almost never the case. The student and his family are very welcoming and by the end of the experience many of us felt like a part of the,, a second brother or son or daughter or sister.

The day was like mine back home, so I didn’t have to adjust many things to my new schedule. There were some differences here and there, but we (me and my exchange partner) both live similar lives. The main difference was the language, although we both talked to each other in English because I myself before coming to Germany didn’t know any German. Sometimes there were language barriers, but we got over them quite quickly. The people were also accepting of me. Germans from my experience are very kind and caring. It does take time for them to open up to you, but overall they are very nice people that have a will to learn many new things. I have seen for myself how they like to broaden their minds and so we had a lot of interesting conversations. 

Overall the experience I and others had was very positive. In Germany I had so much fun and I have learned a lot. I am more than happy that I have met my host family and I it is my dying wish to see them again someday. I have to say that even though on the day that we departed it was sunny and the birds were chirping everyone felt a sadness glooming over them. It was hard for everyone to leave Germany and many a day did my mind wonder back to it. I miss Germany very much.