Why Did You Go?

Hey fellow readers,

After due consideration, I have decided to try and keep this running despite the obvious lack of internationality at the moment. Which obviously will not be all that interesting for some of you others however might still enjoy it.

I tried to really give an insight of what a German person would experience going to England - what's different, what's similar. Whilst I was living with people from England, others do not. In fact a lot of the ERASMUS students do keep to themselves in the foreign country. They create their own little states and live in their old little worlds. Do not get me wrong, by all means, this is not necessarily a bad thing. To a certain extend, I did this as well. I travelled with other international students a lot, I spent loads of time getting to know their countries and their customs. I enjoyed it almost as much as I have enjoyed spending time with my room mates and the guys I met along the way and to be quite honest, I never really cared where they were from, I wanted to meet people and with a bit of distance to it all, I finally understood why. It was about the challenges that changed me along the way. So why was it such a unique experience for me and why should you want to go?

A Year Abroad and How It Didn't Really End

It has been quite some time since the last time I published something here. In fact, it has been more than two years, which is a pretty considerable amount of time passed.

My time in England ended and so - I thought - did the purpose of this blog in general. Fact however remains that once you have lived abroad for a while your life is not quite the same as it was before any more. After some time of reflecting on those changes and on the time in England, you always get back to the question, what did you learn and how did it shape your life. For me, what has changed rather drastically is the interaction with people from abroad. A lot of people from abroad come to study in Germany and it is sometimes rather difficult for them to meet locals. Before I went to Bath I was not aware of international students too much and I have to admit that I did not really care very much either. I didn't notice them too much and it always seemed like they wanted to keep to themselves. A mistake that's not easily forgiven, since essentially this behaviour is what shapes the way people will think about this country and especially the students here. After coming back, my circle of friends has changed dramatically. Whether it's all for the good or not is not to be discussed here, however I do want to stress how vital it is to take every chance to meet people from foreign countries.