I studied abroad in Germany in July of my junior year in college through a nearby college in my town  Valdosta State University. For 20 days, I lived in a small village called Schwadisch Gmund, which is located in southern Germany right at the bottom of the lovely Alps.  

During my study abroad summer in Germany, I had the opportunity to travel to nearby towns and places all over German, such as Tubingne, Stuttgard and Heidelberg. I was also able to travel to other cities after my study abroad program in Germany, such as Munich, Berlin, and Zurich (in Switzerland).  

The study abroad program to Germany focused largely on business and finance, which is my major and all of my credits transferred back to my school (12 total credits.) 

Many people asked me how I did studing in a town as small as Schwabisch Gmund. I found that there was tons of things to do there. I love the outdoors, so I took many hikes with my host family into the Alps. We ate out in authentic, small, family own German restaurants several times a week with other students from my  study abroad  program . We went on plenty of field trips to art museums, cultural spots . I actually found that the five weeks I spent there flew by and I didn’t really think that I did enough! 

For students interested in studying abroad in Germany, I would advise living with a German family. You will learn some fun German customs and really have a chance to practice the language. If you go and just want to learn German, you will also be able to speak the language in half of Switzerland (the eastern half) and you will be able to understand many Slavic languages, such as Hungarian, a little bit.  

My favorite vacation while I was in Germany was my trip to Bern. Some other study abroad students and I rented a car and drove over the beautiful Alps into Switzerland. We didn’t even need a passport to skip countries! We went to the Bern zoo and saw bears and also got to see where Einstein lived. The streets had lots of lines for streetcars and it made me think about how far we have come with technology. 

I hope to go back to Germany soon and will never forget my study abroad experience there or my German family. 

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 8th, 2007 at 10:58 pm and is filed under Study Abroad Europe. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.