Maggie (Without) Borders: My Year in Germany

You've probably volunteered in the U.S. before, and in many different ways. US Americans love volunteering, and they make it easy to do. After all, who doesn't love free labor? The Germans, that's who.  Okay so maybe that's dramatic. But! It really is drastically different in the Vaterland. As part of the CBYX program year, we were all required to do 40 hours of Ehrenamt  (volunteer service) during the university phase of the program. This didn't mean "show up and volunteer," this meant find places that accept volunteers, figure out who to contact, schedule an introductory meeting, figure out if there are issues with insurance, then  show up and volunteer. I recall hearing discussions about how difficult it was to find volunteer work, but I figured that there would be plenty of opportunities in Hamburg due to the size of the city. In large part, I was right. My friends and I in Hamburg really had no issues finding places to volunteer--they worked a...

So I've been wanting to write about making mistakes for a long time, but I kept forgetting and writing the wrong post. Ba-dum-tish.  --- I've been making mistakes for six months now. (For those of you keeping track at home, that is indeed  how long I've been in Germany, good on you for noticing.) I've gotten really good at it. It's like I think something, and it's incorrect. Without even doing anything, I've gone and made a mistake. At this point, I've come to think of it as a talent.  Okay, so maybe it isn't that bad. But I do think that I've made more mistakes in the past 6 months than I have, say, my entire college career. I wish that part were a joke, but between the new culture, language, schools, cities, families, friends, transport systems... there's a lot to mess up.  At some point in my life, someone made it very clear to me that making mistakes was entirely unacceptable (everybody wave to my dad as I inte...

So, as of checks watch fourteen days ago, I completed the second part of my year as a PPPler: the university phase. I had my fair share of adventures, mishaps, and stress during the last semester, and so I figure it's probably worth talking about. Buckle up--it's a long one, and I recommend not reading if you have literally anything else to do. Why/How to Study at a German Uni So, PPP is a cultural exchange and the point is to get to know the various German institutions with which a young German professional would regularly encounter yadda yadda yadda. It therefore makes sense that we would be required to study at a German university, since most German young professionals complete some form of higher education. That said, unlike the US, they have a few different options, so here are some handy infographics to help you understand the German system: Clear as mud, right?  To Americans, this system is hopelessly complicated. Even though I feel lik...

On my second day in Germany, I posted a photo on Instagram of some trees, noting how they were different than the ones in the US. One of my former coworkers, an international student herself, commented that she had noticed the same thing when she came to the US, and then welcomed me to life as an international student. This made me pause. I’m an international student? I thought,  I don’t feel any different. While at language school in Cologne, I was able to let this go. Given that I was surrounded by [mostly] Americans day in and day out, my status as an international student went largely ignored. This changed immediately once I arrived in Hamburg and started attending university. It’s amazing what a language barrier can do to you and your personality. At home, I was self-assured. I didn’t worry about people talking to me, and I didn’t worry about having to talk to them. Asking for help wasn’t a chore, and getting to know others wasn’t a source of anxiety. Now that I’...