Always trying new things and gaining new skills

Hi guys! My name is Esjona Musta. I am from Albania and currently, I am doing an Erasmus exchange semester at RheinAhrCampus as part of my Master’s studies.

My story in Remagen starts on a winter day when I was browsing the announcements of my home University website and I saw that the applications for doing the summer semester in Remagen have started. Immediately, I started doing some research on RheinAhrCampus. I found out many reasons why I had to come here.   

One of them has to do with the fact that the location of Remagen is in one of the most dynamic areas of Germany. This guaranteed me that I would finally fulfill one of my dreams of meeting many people from different cultures. I have already been five months in Remagen and I can say that this dream came true. I know people from all around the world now. Remagen is like a small globe where each country has its own ambassador, and I am so happy to be the ambassador of my country here. I learned how to work in an international workplace. We come from different cultures and have different nationalities, but it is amazing how well we understand each other.

Another reason that pushed me to do my exchange semester at RheinAhrCampus is the academic internship in which I am taking part. This was an amazing opportunity to mix theoretical knowledge with practical skills. Back in Albania, I was working in a bank as a Financial System Administrator, while here I started working on completely different tasks from those that I had at my previous job. This helped me to know more about myself. I understood that I always like to try new things and to gain new skills. Challenges didn’t scare me at all, they only motivated me more. The first task, which I started to work on, was producing the podcast. I always listen to podcasts with pleasure but until I came here, I had no idea how they are produced. I started by being a member of the podcast team and now, I am the chief editor of the podcast team.

Another task that I work on with pleasure is being part of the social media team. I started working on the social media team as the leader of it. This really helped me to improve my leadership skills. By being part of the social media team I improved also my marketing skills and my English writing skills, since I had to prepare and publish the content of the Facebook posts. Other tasks that I worked with are managing and updating the Student Blog and the Typo3. By working on these tasks I gained new IT-related skills. In the future I would love to teach the newer generation the skills that I am learning now, and of course, my experience as the course assistant of the class Project Management will help me to achieve this goal of mine.

My semester abroad helped me to improve my German skills as well. I came here on the 6th of March with only a notebook with some translations in German that my dad gifted to me. I started by only knowing to say Hallo in the market and now I am taking the B1 German course outside the University, which means that for less than 6 months my German skills improved very fast. One big reason for that is because my German friends are very friendly, and they always tried to make me feel comfortable with my German, even though it was not good. This made me fearless and I always spoke to the native speakers in German. I learned new vocabulary and every day, I wrote the new words that I learned in my notebook.  

Of course, the highlight of this semester was the time that I spent with my friends outside the Campus. We shared our traditional dances, food, and celebrations with each other. Without understanding it, we were each other’s families for these six months. With joy in my heart and a little bit tearful from the Farewell to my friends, I can say that I am ready for the new challenges that the next semester will bring.