Hamburg-Vigo Exchange 2016- 2019

„ Hi I’m Sarah. I´m 16 years old and a few weeks ago I was a part of the Erasmus-Project.  Today I will give an overview about my experiences during the Vigo-Hamburg exchange.  First of all I will start about the intercultural differences between Vigo and Hamburg and my experience with it. When I arrived in Vigo I was surprised about the fact that nobody of the Spanish students go to school by bike. Some of them take the bus and others are brought by their parents by car. In Hamburg most of the students go to school by bike and the parents drive to work by car. I think the different is also there because of the fact that in Vigo are a lot of hills and it´s hard to ride to school without arriving exhausted. In Hamburg there are nearly no hills at all so you can easily take the bike. When I was in Vigo we used the car every morning, but when my exchange student, Mario, visit us in Hamburg we had to take the train most days, because he didn´t ride the bike very often before ...

I personally love the spanish culture and language and I was really lookig forward to this trip. Even if I knew already quite a lot about it from school and from my personal experiencies, I also learned new things during this exchange. For example I didn't know before that the students in Vigo actually speak two languages – el castellano (the usual spanish) and the gallego, the native language of Galicia (the Province of Spain were Vigo is located). I also find it a bit strange, that students there go to school in the afternoons or sometimes even in the evenings, but therefore don't have lessons in the morning. Well, not everybody of course. I think they were kind of sepperated in different groups and some of them had school in the mornings and some of them in the afternoons.  In the lunchbreak we always went home to eat – which was quite unusual for me too because I rarely do that here in Germany. At least not if I still have school afterwards :) Alltogether I really like...

One day we did the project „Graffiti“ in the school yard of the spanish school. We all were really excited and happy to get the chance to try this activity because there weren't a lot of us that tried it before. We got a big pattern with the skyline each of Hamburg and Vigo and the school gave us a big wall for our painting. So the first step was to get this pattern on the wall – which wasn't that easy! But after a lot of thinking, trying and using a lot of two-sided tape we finally succeded and started with the actual work: the painting. Everybody that wanted sprayed a little part of it so that in the end it was a great teamwork and we all had our fun :) Around this big painting we also left our personal marks. Everybody sprayed the outline of his hands at the wall and could design them individually. That was really fun!

I think this experience has helped me a lot to learn how to take care of myself on my own a little more, to see beyond everything else, looking at the little details and in trying new things (l learned how to ride a bike in Germany! –that’s something that not everyone can say-). I really hope to keep on touch with Jasmin, my buddy! She has been really amazing, I really appreciate her good ways to me and making everything she could so that I could be happy! I think that I practiced my English a lot and improved a little bit, which is always a very good thing! I had lots of fun and I would completely go on this experience again. Really touched, Amelia.

My experience in Hamburg has been one of the best things I’ve lived before! I completely loved the city, and my family there is amazing! One of the things that really amazed me about Germany is that things there are very practical. I don’t know how to explain it, but I found myself a lot thinking “Wow, they really think of everything!”. I was actually amazed by tons of things, like having books in the bus to read freely, and that system of just buying a ticket and being able of using every single type of transport we needed.  I also loved the school, it is huge, and having a piano that everyone can play every time they need is completely charming and useful. Not only they make sure there is always music playing (which I personally think is very important), but also they make other kids interest in music, and everyone can learn how to play the piano because there will always be some who want to learn and some who want to teach. Really excited,  Amelia ...

. These photos are from the day we did a tour of Hamburg by groups. It was a fun day but we ended up very tired. I choose these photos to represent the student role, since that is what taught me the most culturally and how to take me practically alone in a foreign city. The truth is that you learn a lot with this type of trip and, although at the beginning it is scary to arrive and not know anything, then you do not want to return. Without a doubt an experience that I will never forget and recommend to all those who want to learn. We had a great time knowing all the corners of the city and in my opinion it is a beautiful and very interesting city, I would go back Talking on a personal level, it was a trip that made me discover many things, although it can be very little time to do them. At first I arrived with a little fear for not knowing what to do, but the days passed and each time I had less desire to return. What I had was a dream since we were doing activities all ...

The best thing from this experience is not only visiting new places but knowing the people who lives there and their kind of life. It's great meeting people from cultures that, even though, are too similar to ours have different things that makes them interesting.  My host family was very kind to me and they took me some places, like the dancing party were I was Friday night. It was a great experience with them and my schoolmates, and I'm happy that besides a good experience I have a new friend.