Flashback to 2014 by Shantira Ayusha R.

I’m going to share with you my past experience. I participated in an International exchange program, which was organized by CISV during summer 2014. We were a group of 6 delegates from Indonesia, accompanied by one team leader, visiting Germany for 3 weeks. The reason why I was interested to join this International program was because I want experience a new culture, and I wanted to improve my-self confidence.

The first day we landed in Hannover on 25 th of July 2014, we were being greeted by our respective host families. My host family was very kind and I was introduced to my partner whose name was Lyra Steigmann. I felt comfortable right away with my new family as they welcomed me so well into their home. They actually don’t live in Hannover but in the city of Hamburg which was located 2 hours from downtown Hannover. My host family consist of my partner (Lyra), her parents (Dirk & Sabine) , and her little brother (Lars). They are warm hearted, fun, and caring family. Their house is quite small but cozy and I shared the room with Lyra.

I really liked Hamburg because it is one of the largest industrial city in Germany with a third largest port in the world that makes it a harbor city. It has many historical sites such as historic warehouse district, the baroque church of St. Michaelis, and many others, and it is famous for exclusive shopping. Also, it’s quite interesting that Hamburg has few mosques around the city. As we arrived nearing the end of Ramadhan month we had the chance to do our Ied Prayer at the mosque there. What I have been learning is that Germans have a good tolerance towards other religions and I can see muslim people are well accepted in the society.

One of the things that I really had been enjoying in Germany is that I have been taken to a funfair and amusement park. One of the name of the funfair is Hamburger Dom. The Hamburger Dom is a large funfair held in central Hamburg. With three fairs per year (spring, summer and winter) it is the biggest fair throughout Germany. The things that make it different from the others is that we have to pay each attraction. I felt really happy and grateful because I’ve been given the opportunity to have an international experience with a German family who shared the same family values as us in Indonesia.