Winter Academy Part 3

The past one month of Winter Academy had been fun, I can’t believe it went by that fast, I had a great time learning German and get to experience the culture of Germany. There is always an end to everything, it is finally the time to say goodbye to my fellow friends (those who are not going to stay for the semester.)! We had many farewell events to say our goodbye to our buddies, which includes class pictures, Winter Academy at CUBES, and International Student Farewell Dinner.  

Thank you for making my Winter Academy experiences memorable! When I am with you guys, the month went by so fast and I can’t believe how closed I became with some of your guys! I am looking forward to go on weekend trips and parties with you all throughout the semester (only 5 more months left!). As for those that will be going back home after the Winter Academy, I will miss you all so much and hopefully I will have the opportunities to come visit you guys at some point in the future!

Meanwhile let’s enjoy the two-week break we have before the beginning of the semester, which I will be traveling to Prague!

Winter Academy Part 3

This post will bring back the city tours we went on during the Winter Academy along with one of my favorite museum (I actually am planning to go back there for the second time later!). I encourage those who are afraid to sign up for some events because your friends are interested to sign up for all the events that you are interested! When you are an exchange students, everyone became more open into making new friends, so you will make some new friends that have some common interest with you that’s different than your original group of friends from the beginning. It doesn’t hurt to have more friends when you are abroad (or in general!). Some of my best friends that I have now are from joining the excursions. Once you step out of the comfort zone, you will have rewarding experiences as the result!

Day Trip to Frankfurt

We spent an entire Saturday in Frankfurt on January 16th, it took us around an hour to go to Frankfurt (it only take 30 min to go to the airport if you take the fast rain, just as a references!). Frankfurt wasn’t really nice to us because it was cloudy and rainy the whole day, we did a city tour in the morning, and went to the tour for the entire view of the city.

Unlike other cities in Germany or Europe, it is very industrialized and modern. As someone who is a city person, the day was a break for me from small town feel Germany to a city that’s similar to Boston.

Day trip to Stuttgart

Growing up under my father’s influence, I always knew a little bit more car knowledge and history than most people expected me to have. Day trip to Stuttgart was the one that I was most excited for, partially because of the Mercedes-Benz Museum. The history behind this well-know luxury car brand is very fascinating. I spent most of the day there and only went through half of the museum (which means I need to plan another trip to Stuttgart once the semester start to finish the other half of the museum.). My friends and I grabbed an early lunch at a local German restaurant in the area before heading back to Mannheim. It is a typical German food, which includes currywurst and local German brewed beer (I was taking a break from döner.

After this trip, it made me more excited for the other car-related museums around the country. I am currently making a plan to cover most of them by the end of the semester.

p.s There should be one more post regarding on Winter Academy, it will mention the ending of the Winter Academy, the farewell party and the pub crawl hosted by the Winter Academy.

Winter Academy Part 2

Continuing from the ”Winter Academy Part 1”, I will continue to post some pictures about some other events from the excursion. This time it will be just the sports theme, so it is really short, but don't worry, I will get back to the city tours aspect of the excursion later! Stay tune for "Winter Academy Part 3".

As a country with excellent football (soccer) team, we had to go to at least a football game to show our spirit and passion for the German football. We went to a local football game (the Mannheim team!!!) and had a great time cheering with other local German on the behalf of the Mannheim team! We also had the chance to go to an Ice Hockey Game that was held in Mannheim! As someone from Boston, watching an ice hockey game might seem to be a normal Bostonian thing to do, but the watching ice hockey with all of your friends in a foreign countries while having a cup of local German beer and pommes frites will always be the best experience ever!

Winter Academy Part 1

The second day upon my arrival to Mannheim was the beginning of the 2016 Winter Academy. It is a one-month long program where I get to experience the German culture. Beside the couple hours of German class we have everyday, we can sign up for additional excursions to enrich our experience of German culture. There’s different types of excursions which includes tour of the surrounding cities, wine tasting, beer brewing tour, ice hockey, football, dance showcase, Black Forest. They are also great opportunity for you to make friends with other international students (so you can all struggle together!)

There will be more blog posts on Winter Academy, but I still haven't decide how many posts I want to break it down to, because it is impossible for me to share everything on the blog, but I feel like every moment is worth writing about, because they are all very memorable.

<- Heidelberg excursion city tour took place on January 14 (I believed it was the first city tour beside the local Mannheim tour!) We took this picture at the Heidelberg schloss (I think the Mannheim one still looks better!) It was a great time meeting new friends which a lot I am still in contact with!

P.s. We can go to Heidelberg via tram of S bahn with our semester pass

Speyer Excursion City Tour

Speyer excursion city tour on January 21, after German language class. The tour guide had private access to a high tower in the center of Speyer (importance of network!). This is the view after all the stairs we needed to climb, the view was amazing, and this picture definitely didn’t do the justice. I remembered a lot of my friends didn’t go that day because it was too cold, and I was sick for a couple days afterwards (don’t forget to bring some medicine!)

The view of the city of Speyer.

Speyer is a really small typical old German town (I remember it is one of the oldest city in Germany) and only have a population of twice the population of UMass.  

<-T