Time Flies So Fast..

Honestly, where did the time go? It feels like I came to Germany just “yesterday”, and now I have handed in my final assignments, I passed all exams, and will spend my last weeks along the Rhine remembering my best moments from the last 11 months in Germany.

In these 11 months, I have achieved so many things which will affect my future. I am saying “Guten Tag” to every second person in the street on my way to the university because I have made so many new friends here, most of them during events for exchange students that put us in contact with Germans. Together we celebrated Oktoberfest, Costume Carnivals, and visited Christmas markets. I experienced my first complete Ramadan outside Azerbaijan. Here at RheinAhrCampus Turks, Jordanians, Moroccans and other Muslim students were doing “Iftar” (breaking of the fast) together, and even some German, Spanish and Finnish friends joined in, fasting with us for some days.

As my new friend and roommate Rafael from Brazil would say: “Without good friends, no place can be called home.” I am happy because I made strong friendships in Remagen. We shared good and bad moments. I learnt facts about South Korea, Portugal, Jordan, Spain, Lithuania, Finland, and Germany that I would never ever have learned at home. Remagen was a good starting point for travelling to France, the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Poland which was an amazing place with amazing people.

Germans are cold and not smiling? I do not think so! If you make friends as I did here in Germany you will think that German students are very sociable. Perhaps not all, but my new friends were amazingly friendly and outgoing. They also made me see things from a different perspective. This is one of the exciting aspects of an exchange semester abroad.

I really enjoyed most of my classes at RheinAhrCampus and loved the practical approach. Professors were always willing to help me and give me good advice. I really like that we did not have so many exams at the end of the courses but we were able to pass courses by writing final essays or presenting our projects. In my opinion, this was better than final exams.

In Sprachen/Internationales, each and every person is helpful. Laurent Borgmann taught us lots of new aspects about intercultural behavior which will definitely help us for our future working lives. Barbara, Andreas, and Rashimah would always assist us kindly and help us with all our questions. Student assistants Tatjana, Tanja, Christopher, Dennis, Sabrina, Jan also spent a lot of their time with us to show us Remagen and the surroundings. They were doing everything to make us feel at home at RheinAhrCampus. The time which I spent with or for Sprachen/Internationales team is the time which I spent for my future. Doing my internship here I acquired new skills and developed the skills which I had before.

I really experienced campus student life to the fullest. I also loved going down to the River Rhine and observe the beautiful view of Remagen in the evenings. But then there was also Bonn, Koblenz, Köln (Cologne) – all close to Remagen and my student ticket got me there for free.

I won’t finish my report with “Auf Wiedersehen”, I will finish with “Bis bald” because I am sure: before long - I will be back…

“Hələlik Remagen, sən xoş xatirələrimə ev sahibliyi elədin…”

“See you soon Remagen, you hosted my happy memories…”