A semester of transformation

My name's Igor, I'm a 22 years old computer science student from Brazil and am finishing my exchange semester in RheinAhrCampus, Remagen. While preparing myself to come to Germany, I tried to not have too many expectations, in order to allow myself to be surprised by all the experiences I could have and anything that might happened. It worked a bit too well - so many new things already in the first few days! It was hard for my mind to process everything, even. During my exchange semester, I was able to make friends from all kinds of different nationalities, visit places I never thought I would, and most importantly, learn a lot of new things about the world and about myself. Studying in RheinAhrCampus I was able to not only excercise my language skills in both English and German, but also work on soft skills and think about my skills, weaknesses, working competences and professional goals in ways I never did before. I had to leave my comfort zone. I felt all kinds of strong emotions due to my experiences this semester, and it made me realize how much I could, and maybe still need to, improve myself. Both in the university and in my life outside of it, I found out a lot about myself and the world - RheinAhrCampus is a very multicultural environment, so I always had the chance to learn more about other cultures by interacting directly with the people from these places. I feel more confident taking initiative, talking to other people and taking action to solve my problems. Life in Germany is very different from that in Brazil and having to get used to doing so many things differently improved my ability to deal with change - shopping, weather, studying, social etiquette, I had to adapt my way of doing everything. Thankfully, I made great friends who helped me through all of that, mostly the other international students - I will have a place to stay if I travel to so many other countries now! My friends from this semester will always have a place in my heart and I hope to keep in touch with them. The staff and professors at RheinAhrCampus were also very helpful on all these matters, and I thank them so much for everything. I hope to be able to use the knowledge I gained here to help other people in the future. Maybe others who also want to go on exchange, or who might need tips on dealing with intercultural settings. I believe this is an experience everyone should have an opporunity to be part of.