Fed my Curiosity in Remagen

My name is Carlos Moreira, and I am a 21-year-old student from Porto, Portugal. I came to Germany for an exchange semester as a student of business communications.

I first arrived in Remagen on the 15^th of September, and from this day onwards I was sure that I would have a wonderful time here. The Wein Fest was a perfect starting point, where I had the opportunity to meet the other exchange students, as well as some of our professors. I never thought that my first meeting with a professor was with a glass of wine in front of us!

The first course I had was called International Studies I, and on this course, I got familiar with the way things are done in this University, such as handling assignments, the teaching methods. We also had the opportunity to explore Remagen and the Erpeler Ley, they are such amazing places!

A week later, I started my internship and my other classes. At the beginning, I was a bit nervous about the internship because it was my first one, but after It started all that nervousness went away and curiosity took place, I wanted to learn as much as possible from this experience. The other classes were very interesting, and I knew it from the moment I saw the teaching methods applied, they are very interactive! For instance, sharing experiences was one of the main parts in this classes.

Several seminars were held in this university, but the best one was Managing Cultural Diversity. People from different countries gathered in order to share cultural differences, to show different teaching methods and to raise our awareness for global crisis that are emerging.

The facilities in the university are also very pleasant, there is a lot of glass and natural light, which provides a good learning environment.

Through the semester, there were also had interesting excursions. I went to Cologne, where I witnessed the amazing view from the top of the cathedral, and I also enjoyed the gardens along the Rhein river. The Remagen Street Food Festival brought me food from all over the world, and they were delicious!

I also had the opportunity to travel, I went with a small group of international students to Copenhagen and we had a wonderful time there.

There were also some challenges, I had to learn how to handle a house by myself, how to cook several dishes and how to control my money, but in the end, I overcame these challenges.

When I look back at this semester, I am very glad that I chose to do this. You can explore a new country, a new lifestyle, a new language, new teaching methods, and you can also make great friendships with people from different cultures. Never in my life I had so many intercultural experiences as in these last six months.