When I chose my courses in the Technical University of Schweinfurt-Würzburg, I was a bit sad to learn that they didn’t offer any courses aligning with my HVAC studies, at least in english. But I chose to take the opportunity to learn something new and interesting. I took courses that would perhaps later on help me create international connections. The courses and studying style was quite different from what I had used to in Finland, so as expected, I felt a bit lost at times. Especially the exam period was quite taxing. At times, I felt hopeless, that the choice to go study abroad was a big mistake. But after the exams were over, the stress melted away. In the end, almost everything turned out to be fine. And also, I feel like I learned an important life lesson. That human isn’t a machine, we can’t just continuosly push forward and expect to turn out fine.
Despite my challenges with studies, I enjoyed my time in Germany. Although the city wasn’t huge, there was a lot of see and experience. I absolutely fell in love with the old architecture which was preserved quite a lot. When the studies started to feel too much, I often took walks to ease the stress. The city center was about 20-minutes walk away, but there were parks and other sights to see closer as well. One thing that I was happy to discover, was that star were visible, even in the streets of the city center. The buildings weren’t too high and the lighting was dim enough to make observing stars possible in the evenings.
Another thing I liked about the culture was the food. It didn’t differ that much from Finnish food culture, but still, it was something different. Eating at restaurants was a bit cheaper compared to Finland as well.
As last, but not least, are the connections I made during the exchange period. All the people made the exchange period so much lively. And I still keep in touch with most of them. Before the exchange, I feared that I would be lonely, not having the courage to network with the other students. But right from the start, I connected with few students, making it so much easier getting used to the new environment. But perhaps mostly I connected with my roommates and their friends through a shared interest, Dungeons & Dragons. They instantly took me into their sessions and those brought a lot of comfort and much needed change to the hectic studies. And we didn’t stop playing after my exchange period was over, though we moved to playing online, so everyone was able to attend. Even countries apart, we are connected.
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