Pre-departure:
I decided that seeing as I was going all the way to Europe anyway, I may as well do some extra traveling on my way to Germany. This meant that I had to make sure I applied well in advance for my visas (plural, because I went to England too). My British Visa was a breeze to get, and I got it within 4 days of applying, however I had to apply for my Schengen visa from the German Embassy and they are extremely strict! I had neglected to book train rides and such between different Schengen countries for example, and they said this could cause a problem, so they told me to sort it all out and come back when I was more prepared. This was a problem, because I was now cutting time to my departure rather fine, and what with writing exams, it was rather hard to find time to get through to Cape Town. So I would suggest sorting Visas as soon as possible to ensure that you are actually able to get to your Summer School in the first place.
Traveling before my Summer School was really so worth the extra cost and organisational effort, experiencing so many different countries and cultures within such close proximity of one another is really indescribable to the Wonderluster’s heart. However, if you are traveling beforehand, make sure you have access to your emails and the internet, just to check if they have sent through any extra information. I made the mistake of only checking my emails and not the summer school website, and that resulted in getting very lost when I arrived in Stuttgart and realised I didn’t know which hostel we were staying at.
Experience at Summer School:
I got to my hostel two days before my course started, my roommate and I hit it off really well and we went off exploring with some of the others that were also doing our course. And that night we met most of the other students for our course. I really recommend spending as much time as possible with the people you will be studying with, you make some of the most amazing friends and from all over the world.
Our first day of Summer School, our student supervisor, Sina, fetched us and showed us which train and bus to catch to the University. We had a few introductory lectures and a tour of Campus from Sina, then our lecturers and course organisers threw us a welcoming barbeque (yes, we told everyone it is actually a Braai). All the lecturers were really wonderful people, it’s really worth it to get to know them.
We had just under three weeks of lectures, because I prefer larger animals to microbes the lectures were not as interesting to me as they were to those studying Parasitology and other similar courses. All the lecturers we had were fluent in English due to the fact that they offer courses in English at Hohenheim University, they were all extremely knowledgeable on their topics, and there was a very large diversity of content to the lectures.
There was also an included trip to a lovely little village where we had a walking tour of an old Ammunition testing area where we were taught about Pathogens and parasites in their natural environment.
Sina informed us of all sorts of fun things to do when we had time, so needless to say, every night we would experience the true German culture at summer festivals and the likes, as it stayed light until well into the night it was a wonderful time to see the city.
There were also optional weekend excursions organised which were also well worth the time and extra cost.
At the end of our two and a bit weeks of lectures we had to do group presentations on specific topics of our course and that counted as part of our mark, we also wrote an exam which is really not too hard, due to the fact that the course coordinators are aware that all participants had varying background knowledge of the topic as well as varying grasps of the English language.
The course was then closed with a wonderful farewell braai and certificate ceremony.
Return:
When I got back to South Africa, I had already missed more than two weeks of University and I had to still move back into res and catch up with friends and family I hadn’t seen for two months. Then I had to get back to classes and sport and needless to say there was plenty to catch up for both. But this experience has taught me so much about so much more than the topic of my summer school. However, I do find myself already applying some of what I learnt to my subjects back in Stellenbosch.
This trip definitely opened my eyes to cultural differences between us as South Africans and the rest of the world, and it really help me to appreciate our people and our diversity and our “gees” so much more, but it really gave me the taste that makes me want to go back for more, so I will definitely be taking the next opportunity I can get to head back into the big wide world!