This summer I had a unique chance to take part in DAAD Summer scholarship program «Open Germany for yourself» and to live in a small, but very cosy, city of Ilmenau (Thuringia, Germany). Before the trip there were many things to prepare including documents, visa, tickets and others.
Фото – DAAD Summer scholarship program «Open Germany for yourself»
In Ilmenau we were met by German students who were our supervisors and helpers in all things. They helped us to feel the atmosphere of the German university, opening for us new opportunities of the student life in Germany. We visited a lot of museums, went to bowling, had evenings of the German cinema, tried folk dancing to the live Thuringia music and cooked dishes for the international dinner where each country presented something special. Belarus, of course, was represented by draniki. In our free time we communicated with people from different countries, who represented different religions, had different skin colour and eye shape. It was great to taste salty bananas and mulled wine cooked by Mexicans, listened to Arabian songs and spoke Belarusian more than I used to do it here. There were 66 students from all over the world – China, Mexico, Chile, Columbia, Greece, Moldova, Czech Republic, Uzbekistan, Albania, Lebanon, Ukraine, Egypt, Croatia, Bulgaria, Estonia and Russia.
Apart from that funny and exciting time we had classes where we practiced grammar, pronunciation, worked in groups and even made our own projects. If I needed to describe my classes using just three adjectives I would say «warm, exciting and cosy». We liked our teachers a lot who helped us to pass successfully our final exam.
For a month in Germany we have visited seven cities in Thuringia and, of course, Berlin. We climbed the Kickelhahn where Goethe had tried to find the inspiration; visited old book shops in Weimar, walked along the bridge-street in Erfurt, visited Eisenach and Buchenwald.
I certainly could «open Germany for myself» as it was planned by the organizators of the course. I’ve found close friends who I contact with through social networks; have improved my German knowledge and felt that I’ve become more adult taking into account that experience I’ve gained at the Summer course in Germany.
Sophia Slizhikova, Humanities Faculty, Romance and Germanic Philology