Being Cultural Aware

Hello, my name is Marina Jimenez. I am from Leon, a little city in the north of Spain and I am 21 years old. I am going to talk about my experience at RheinAhrCampus. It is going to be hard to talk about these months’ here, the time has gone so fast, but if I think about all the things I have done here, I will remember this experience forever.

I arrived in Remagen at 2 in the morning and the train station looked really scary for me, but after some days I started to getting known Remagen also I began to visit the cities nearby like Cologne, Bonn, Koblenz and I made new friends. And then, the train station started to look like the place for starting all the adventures and it was not scary anymore! I started to like Remagen much more, the tiny houses, the kind people…

I overcame all the problems that I was worried about before coming. I was able to make the Spanish dish tortilla for an international dinner and before coming I was not able to cook it at all, I have learned to be more organized with my room and even with the house. I feel that I am more independent now.

I visited more places in four months that in four years, I knew that people during Erasmus semester travel, but I was not expecting traveling so much, it was incredible. I visited Switzerland, The Netherlands, Brussels, Denmark, and Hungary. Also after meeting all the students from all the different countries, I know more what is happening in the rest world, I was living in a bubble. This experience has taught me to appreciate all the things that I have and to not take anything for granted.

Moreover, I had the opportunity to work in the international office and that helped me to grow professionally and personally. People that work here are going to help you to become more successful. They always encouraged me to take risks and responsibilities and they always appreciated and thanked me for my work, I honestly think that when I come back to Spain nobody, in the work environment, will be as good as they are.

I will always keep in touch with friends that I made here, and now I feel that I know much more about Portugal, Georgia, Azerbaijan, USA… than I knew before, all my friends had introduced me a little about their home countries and their cities and even if I have never been there (yet) It felt like I have already been there. I know that I will miss Remagen, it was definitely a life-changing experience.