{"id":6334,"date":"2019-05-24T11:03:23","date_gmt":"2019-05-24T01:03:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.qut.edu.au\/qut-exchange-students\/?p=6334"},"modified":"2019-05-24T11:03:23","modified_gmt":"2019-05-24T01:03:23","slug":"finding-friends-and-falling-in-love-on-exchange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.qut.edu.au\/gone-global\/2019\/05\/24\/finding-friends-and-falling-in-love-on-exchange\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding friends and falling in love on exchange"},"content":{"rendered":"

Declan, S. Bachelor of Business<\/em><\/strong>
\nUniversity of Mannheim, Germany. (Semester 1, 2018)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The thought of going on student exchange never crossed my mind. But one day I was just procrastinating, scrolling through the QUT website, and I came across a link that said: \u2018Applications for student exchange in semester 2, 2017 close TOMORROW\u2019. I decided to have a look and see where I could go. I had been learning German out of personal interest for about a year so I thought, why not Germany? I rushed to get my application in on time and hoped for the best, but never really gave it another thought. Then the time came to find out whether I had been accepted and I found out I was headed to the University of Mannheim! I knew it was going to be a challenge but I had no idea what was going to be in store for me, or that I was about to have the best and probably more important time of my life.<\/p>\n

Firstly arriving in Mannheim, a small(ish) university town in South-West Germany, was quite daunting. I had to find my way to the student accommodation and check-in, all in a language, that up until that point, I had actually ever conversed in. But I managed. The reality that I was now on the other side of the world had not yet set it, but after my first few days I started to have my doubts and thought to myself, what the hell am I doing here? I was yet to make any friends and the start of the semester was still a couple of weeks away.<\/p>\n

But the following day my luck changed. I was sitting in a cafe taking advantage of some free wi-fi when a group of people made their way in and sat next to me. They were all speaking English with various different accents and I figured they must also be exchange students. One of them asked me where I was from, and if I would like to join them. I of course agreed. After our coffees, two of the guys, one from Ireland, one from America, asked me if I\u2019d like to come and play basketball with them. I thought to myself, this can\u2019t be real life? Basketball is my favourite sport, which I\u2019ve been playing since I could walk. So played I did, and continued to hang out with these guys, who have since become two of best friends, for the rest of the semester.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Playing my favourite sport<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In addition to the busy university scheduled, the following six months were filled with countless nights out, parties and weekend trips to Amsterdam, Berlin, Munich and Prague. I met so many people from all over the world, fell in love with a girl from Norway, and just had so many great experiences that I will never forget.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Exploring with friends<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I think it\u2019s important to get out of your comfort zone and experience different cultures sometimes. I am so happy with my decision to go on exchange and with my time in Mannheim. I learned so much, not just the about world, but about myself. As clich\u00e9 as it may be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Declan, S. Bachelor of Business University of Mannheim, Germany. (Semester 1, 2018) The thought of going on student exchange never crossed my mind. But one day I was just procrastinating, scrolling through the QUT website, and I came across a link that said: \u2018Applications for student exchange in semester 2, 2017 close TOMORROW\u2019. I decided<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1513,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[207,6155,213,450,226],"tags":[207,213,5248,1630,403,450],"class_list":{"0":"post-6334","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-adjusting-to-uni","7":"category-first-impression","8":"category-friends","9":"category-student-life","10":"category-travel","11":"tag-adjusting-to-uni","12":"tag-friends","13":"tag-germany","14":"tag-making-friends","15":"tag-sport","16":"tag-student-life"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFinding friends and falling in love on exchange - QUT Gone Global<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.qut.edu.au\/gone-global\/2019\/05\/24\/finding-friends-and-falling-in-love-on-exchange\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Finding friends and falling in love on exchange - QUT Gone Global\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Declan, S. 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