Care Student – Your Information Survey on Health Insurance!
Hi, my name is Catalina Zamora, this is my report on the very first month spent in Kiel, the capital of Schleswig-Holstein here in Germany. I’m very happy to be in this place, I wanted to come to study for my master’s degree here since 2016 when I had to decide what I wanted to study for my bachelor, where I ended up studying engineer in energy and environment. Now I’m starting my master’s studies in Environmental Management. I had to take a plane from Chile to Paris and then to Hamburg, it all took around 16 hours, so it was nice to take a bus (KIELIUS) directly from Hamburg airport to Kiel. I concluded that it is the best way to get to Kiel when arriving in Hamburg because it is cheaper and faster than the train, it just takes an hour and it’s a beautiful ride. In addition, this bus was my first approach to how nice and friendly people in Kiel are, next to me sat an old lady that was curious about where I was from, so we speak in German the whole ride. She told me a little bit about Kiel, places to visit, and where to buy things and she left me her contact information if I ever needed help while staying in this city. I have been to other places in Germany before and I truly believed the people here in Kiel are the nicest people I have met in this country, everyone is open to having a chat with you, ready to help, and also they love to show this beautiful city to foreigners.
Master program
During the second week I got to meet my classmates, we are 26 students, 50% Germans and the other half is from different countries (USA, India, Pakistan, Czech Republic, Colombia, Poland, Nigeria, and Egypt). Everyone in the master is very friendly, we have become since the beginning good friends and it is nice that they are Germans too, because I enjoy talking in German and get to improve it. The faculty, international center and student organizations did a fun orientation Week, they did different activities to get to know each other and the program, like a potluck, campus and Kiel tour, treasure hunt, mini golf, bowling, etc. It was an exhausting but interesting, nice week where I got the chance to meet people from other programs too and coming from all over the world. I also started swimming in the swimming team at the university, they are all Germans, but like everyone here, they are very friendly.
Study Buddy program
When I started writing this report, I wanted to write about the Study buddy program only but then I realised I had to write everything from the past paragraphs to get to this point. The Studentenwerk from Kiel has a program called Study Buddy which aims to help international students with their lives in Germany, so they pair a German student with an international student depending on their interests and hobbies. I applied for a study buddy in August because I was concerned about not having friends and that there wouldn’t be any German in my master because I wanted to speak German on a daily basis. But as I already told you in this report, this wasn’t the case at all. I think I have made a lot of friends in such a small timeframe. However, I’m still taking part in this program, they pair me with a girl named Isabell, we are very similar, and she likes crafting things like crochet, pottery, etc. Also, she likes sports, so she helped me apply to the Sportcenter of the university. The first event of the program was a visit to some farm animals that you can touch, they were very curious. At first, we saw some goats and deer, this last one I was excited about because in Chile we have them in the south but for me is not that common to see them. Afterward, we saw some Long-haired cows, which I think I have never seen before in my life, they liked to be petted and also we saw a 2 weeks old calf. We ended this event with a picnic in the park nearby, eating pretzels, Haribo candies, fruit, and cookies, where we got to meet each other a little more.
All in all, although I feared having no Friends here, the very first month here has already been full of new friendships and activities. There is always something happening at the university or in Kiel. I can’t wait to see what Kiel has to offer next!
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