Pre-Departure:
As soon as I had received confirmation from the Postgraduate & International Office that my application had been approved to attend the Winter School at Humboldt University in Berlin, I was ecstatic to have this chance to be going to Germany. I would be going to Berlin to complete a three-week language course where I would learn German and various aspects of the German culture, especially that of Berlin.
Not wanting any undesirable situation regarding my travelling and the issue of a visa to arise, I applied for a Schengen visa soon after being informed that the University of Stellenbosch would send me to attend this Winter School. It took quite some effort to get all the necessary documents required for the visa application, since I needed to provide a lot of information: travel insurance, bank statement, purpose of visit, travel itinerary, letters of invitation from my hosts/friends that I would be visiting shortly before the Winter School started, etc. After having gathered a fair stack of paper in its own right to submit along with my visa application, I did so approximately three weeks before I departed and was hoping that everything would be processed in time. To my surprise, however, the processing of my application was finished over the course of a weekend and a day and I was even refunded with the money that I paid for the application. This was also the last big requirement in my preparation for the trip, so from then on I could think calmly, yet expectantly, about the trip that was due to start soon.
Since I was expecting the winter to be extreme and very cold when I would be there, I made sure to pack sufficient clothing to keep me warm, especially since I would also be in Austria and various other parts of Germany during the cold winter for a few days before the Winter School started.
For the time that I would be travelling on my own, I had to arrange my own transport, but luckily I got some tips from some German friends. It is relatively cheap to travel with the bus and I utilized these for a few of my trips. Car-pooling (Mitfahrgelenheit) is also very common in Germany and one will almost certainly find a ride with someone else on the day that you need it. By making use of this I could find a few quick rides in-between various cities and of course one can also have some nice conversations with the people you’re driving with.
Experience at the Winter School:
By the time that I arrived in Berlin for the Winter School I had already been in Germany and Austria for approximately one and one-half weeks, so I was fairly well acquainted with general way of living that I had seen while I was visiting some friends whom I got to know while they were in Stellenbosch in 2013 for exchange semesters.
Another important thing that helped a lot to be accustomed to was the public transport in system. Since I arrived in Berlin late one night, I had to take various trains to get to the university accommodation, but this worked out fairly straightforward. The only problem however was that, although I already understood the maps for the train routes, I mistook “Tiergarten” as my destination and not “Tierpark.” Subsequently I ended up in the wrong side of Berlin, but that was nothing to be anxious about. Soon enough I arrived at my accommodation and was warmly greeted by my one roommate, Tom, from Australia who happened to still be up late by the time I eventually arrived.
The next day I went to the official welcoming session with Tom and a few of his Australian compatriots, where we got to meet all the students who were there to attend the Winter School. The participants came from far and wide: Russia, Canada, Thailand, Brazil, and Japan to name just a few.
After the welcoming and all of us getting a bite to eat there, the students who were registered for the language course (like myself) had a campus tour and our student tutors showed us where our classes would be. To my surprise, we had to take the train two stations farther and from there we would have to walk a little way to get to our classes. This is vastly different to what I got used to in Stellenbosch where the entire Stellenbosch campus is very localized and everything is close to each other.
After the campus tour which ended at our classrooms, the students who were attending the language course had to write placement tests, so that the approximately fifty participants could be divided into three groups (beginner, intermediate, and more advanced) to simplify the work for the lecturers.
My class was the smallest of the three, so that gave all of us ample time to get to know each other and share about our nationalities: Dutch, Swedish, Australian, etc. Of course I was thriving to boast about all the amazing things in South Africa, especially the marvelous scenery and the uniqueness of our national diversity in terms of culture and language.
The Winter School endured for three weeks and in this time the university planned a lot of excursions for us so that we could get to know Berlin better. Some of these excursions included a visit to the Topography of Terror museum and Potsdam. There were more than enough museums and art galleries to visit on Museum Island and of these I found the Pergamon Museum fascinating, since it had scores of archaeological collections from Assyria, Babylon, Rome, and various other ancient civilizations. Two friends who study in Berlin and whom I got to know in Stellenbosch last year were also very keen to show me some of the worth-while sights in the city and I was delighed to get advice from them as to what the things are that one should see and go to.
In all, the three weeks that I spent in Berlin were a remarkable experience! All the students who were attending were very friendly and open and hence we would always do everything together, whether it would be to go sight-seeing in the city or to eat Kurrywurst or Döner together. If we weren’t together out in the city, then we would always be together in one of the apartments at the university residence to cook or to enjoy some kind of national dish that someone would prepare or to have a party. On two of these occasions we had a Russian and an Australian party. The Australians especially made a lot of effort with their party, since it was just a few days before Australia Day, hence they decided we should all celebrate it together with everything Australian and this included the legendary Tim Tams.
We all had one last party together on the last day of the Winter School which was arranged by the university. By then you would have known most of the people and hence everybody was very relaxed. Of course this was also our last opportunity to exchange phone numbers and e-mail addresses so that we can stay in contact.
Return:
Those three weeks in Berlin had felt long, yet short, because there was so much to do with all the students from all the various countries. Spending time with all of them has given me a bigger desire to see more of the world and has made me so much more proud of South Africa and Stellenbosch. We have so much here to be thankful for, even when it comes to the weather, literally. The sights around Stellenbosch are some of the most remarkable in the world and now that I’ve seen other sights in Germany and even picturesque Austria, I want to take as much time as possible to see everything here.
Every student enrolled at Stellenbosch University has the most amazing opportunities in terms of education and using that to be able to go abroad. I will definitely make use of those opportunities for my post-graduate studies with which I am starting this year. Whether my planned exchange might be for one semester or a whole year, I’ll be ecstatic to be able to go to several of the destinations that the PGIO has on offer.
