One semester is not enough time

At the beginning of the year 2022, I came up with the idea of doing a year abroad. At that time, I had decided to do the year abroad in Germany because I had always wanted to live in Germany. I already had experience, because my family is from North Rhine-Westphalia and I already had friends nearby. I probably would have come sooner, but because of Corona it wasn't possible.

The Global Exchange Team was very helpful in that they always sent emails with information, for example, what you need to do before and after your arrival. Without this help, everything would have been a bit confusing because I wouldn't have known that you have to register with the city, or how to get health insurance, and so on.

At the beginning, I lived in an apartment from the Studierendenwerk, because I couldn't find anything else at first. But I realized pretty quickly that this was not optimal for me. One advantage of the apartment was that I knew another exchange student who also lived there, and we ended up being very good friends. But the disadvantages were that the apartment was very far from the university and from the city, and the area (Auerberg) was not so nice. The room was also very small and barely had a kitchen, and since I like to cook, that didn't fit so well. But it was inexpensive for what it was. When I moved in the second semester, to a shared apartment in Endenich, my life improved immediately, because I was then simply closer to my friends and my lectures, and my everyday life was therefore more flexible. If I had known that at the beginning, I might have made more of an effort to find an apartment that was closer to the center form the beginning.

I have mainly chosen math courses, and then a few German courses on the side. I hope that my home university (University of British Columbia, in Canada) will give me credit for those. I have made a very nice circle of friends through my math courses. We go to lunch together every day in the dining hall and have also been on a few trips together. Most of my friends are doing their complete studies at the University of Bonn and are not exchange students.

I liked life in Bonn very much, and I was particularly pleased about the fact that you can get almost everywhere with public transportation. The fact that you can travel everywhere in North Rhine-Westphalia for free as a student is something special, and you should take advantage of that. The city of Bonn itself is also a beautiful city and good for cycling. I was glad that I rented a bike from Swapfiets. The company Nextbike is also very convenient, as their bikes are around everywhere, and as a student you can borrow a bike for 30 minutes every day for free. I also signed up for a tennis club and had practice every week and sometimes matches on the weekends. The university itself also offers a lot in terms of sports. With university sports, it is important that you know exactly when you have to register, because there are not very many places for some activities and they fill up quickly.

I am very happy with my experience during my year abroad, and I would say that it was better than I expected. I could even imagine moving back to Germany to do a Master's degree here. I'm also glad that I did a full year and not just one semester, and I would recommend that as well, because one semester is not enough time to adjust to everything.