This summer program in Germany was absolutely fantastic! I wasn’t sure about going at first, but I’m so glad I did because it was such a great experience.
Our group was made up of 37 engineering students and 2 Calvin professors. We lived together and did pretty much everything together for 6 weeks in Berlin- we rode the buses to and from class 4 days a week, we worked together on our homework, we went to various churches AS A GROUP (as Professor De Rooy would always stress) each Sunday, we rode long-distance trains all around different parts of Germany each weekend, and we just did life together. This built up such a rich community that was awesome to be a part of and that didn’t end when we got back to the States, as a lot of us are still in many of the same classes this Fall semester!
I learned a lot while in Germany, and not just through the engineering and German classes I took there. We were able to see so much of the country- stunning cathedrals and old cities as well as a concentration camp and Holocaust museum. I leaned a lot about history and had many good conversations with local people about politics as well as what their jobs, educations, and lives in general are like. I got to see even more of the world when I went to Geneva, Switzerland; Munich, Germany; Salzburg, Austria; and Prague, Czechoslovakia during our last week, which we had free to travel. This trip has changed the way I look at and think about the world and I could not be more grateful.