Cultivating lust for life

Hello mates :)

My name is Carlos and I am a Computer Science student from Brazil. I arrived in Germany in the middle of September 2021 with racing thoughts through my mind and passion in my heart  –  I had given the first step of my internationalization journey and this experience was about to start. Needless to say, I fell in love with life in Remagen and therefore decided to stay for a second semester as an exchange student at RheinAhrCampus and as an intern for Sprachen / Internationales. Now, I can confidently say that this was one of the best decisions of my life, and I will tell you why.

Through the experiences I lived in my first semester abroad, I could better understand what I desired to achieve both as a person and as a professional. Therefore, I was able to choose more wisely my tasks as an intern, according to what I wanted to develop on myself, by defining what skills I wanted to improve from the beginning and evaluating the result afterwards. This allowed me to be more efficient, do a good job and still have time to experience life on the outside with no remaining thoughts about work or studies.

During summer, I could definitely meet another side of life in Germany. For the first time in my life, I started to feel connected with nature, by doing a lot of hiking, exploring the woods, swimming on lakes, chilling in natural parks or simply admiring the Rhein. However, the warm weather and the vivid nature were not the only things which allowed me to live new experiences: in the beginning of the semester, I could take part in an intensive German course and I kept studying the language, which allowed me to develop my communication skills and better connect with the natives.

In the past few months, I became closer than ever to the Germans, made new friends and even started an international love story. With these new connections, I could explore different parts of the country and enjoy life around these regions, which made me realize how diverse and beautiful the country is. However, I also became more international than ever, by traveling to four new countries and spending a ton of time with my closest international friends.

From the most intense year of my life, it is safe to say that I had more than a handful of special experiences, but I am proud to say that, more than anything, it has opened my eyes to how joyful life can be in such a beautiful and diverse world.

Kind regards,

Carlos Henrique Ferreira Fuch