In July of this year, I was extremely lucky to take part in the 2018 Pädagogische Austauschdienst scholarship trip, which took me on an all expense paid, 5 week trip to Germany.

I travelled around Germany in a group of 12 other young people from around the world; three from the USA, two other students from New Zealand, two from Russia, two from France, two from Costa Rica, and one from Germany, alongside two group leaders. 

We began by staying in Bonn for five days, visiting places such as Cologne and the United Nations campus in Bonn, we then moved on to Mühldorf, a small town in Bavaria, where we stayed with host families and went to school for two weeks. After leaving our host families, we moved on to Hamburg, where we stayed for five days, and then Berlin for six days, before leaving to return to our home countries, which was incredibly sad for all of us. 

My trip was a very large challenge for me, as the entire trip was in German, with German being the only common language among all of the participating students. However, it was a fantastic opportunity for me to improve my language skills while at the same time travelling around Germany and learning about what it’s like to live there. By the end of my trip, I had made life-long friends from all over the world, who I can’t wait to go and visit in the future! 

I am so grateful for the opportunity, and would like to especially thank Ms Riethmaier for being my first German teacher and always encouraging languages at Columba, and Mr Moore for pushing me to interview for this scholarship even when I didn’t want to!