My name is Zach and I am currently a student at the College of Charleston studying International Business as well as German Studies. I am writing this blog to talk about some of my experiences so far living in Germany for the past three months. I have been accepted to study here for two semesters at the University of Tübingen. Living here so far has been wonderful, the food, culture, ability to travel Europe, and meeting new people are a few of the best parts of studying abroad. I have been speaking more and more German with each coming day. I took part in an intensive three week long German course in the month of September where I met a lot of new people and made a solid group of friends. It was a great experience and would recommend it to anyone when starting a semester or year abroad. It allowed me to feel comfortable with speaking German and made me realize I am not alone in the pursuit of learning German.
When I arrived in Germany it was a little different than a normal study abroad experience. I stayed with a friend in another German city for an entire month before traveling to the city where I am currently attending university. During that month I was able to get a taste of what life would be like in another country and had a friend be my helping hand in getting to know what was different about day to day life here. The biggest change for me was the fact that public transportation here is actually awesome. I never relied on public transportation in the U.S. because many of us have cars to get to wherever we need to go. However getting around the country of Germany without a car is possible and in my opinion the way to go. Unfortunately, there is one major downside to the trains and buses here. They can be very expensive and unreliable. Depending on where you want to go tickets can cost upwards of 50-60 Euro one way and connections almost always have to be made. If one of your trains/buses is late, I’ve had 2 hour delayed trains, it can cause you to miss your connection and throw a wrench in your travel itinerary.
Other than the travel inside of Germany, I have been lucky enough to travel into other countries as well. So far I have traveled to Prague in the Czech Republic, Budapest in Turkey, and Malta. My favorite of the three was Budapest. It was in my opinion the cleanest of the three places and had the best food by a long shot. I did not travel alone on these excursions but with groups of friends I made here in Germany. These are experiences I will never forget and feel super grateful for having made these trips. Looking forward to continuing my time abroad and reading other CofC students’ blogs about their experiences. I am attaching photos of me in Prague, Malta, and Budapest as well as in front of the Ulmer Münster, with the tallest church steeple in the world.
