Freie Universität Berlin (FU BERLIN)

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While I honed some language skills through living with a German family, the members of the family were not exceedingly social and remained mostly quiet during meals, leisure time, etc. The adults did not make much money as sustainable developers, and were terrible alcoholics. The histrionic behaviour of their two children demonstrated how neglected they felt by their parents. Yet, the location was great and by the end I was spending more time out in the city practicing German and less time at the home.

The Deutsche Bahn was quite expensive, yet I was able to get a German Railpass from the U.S. to cover individual trip costs.

When you choose to be an internationally-oriented person, you must endure all aspects of a foreign culture, whether or not they agree with your own cultural sensibilities. SIT gives you the chance to go to another place, experience an unfamiliar culture in a homestay while avoiding the heterogeneity of Western university life, and become far more independent. The excursions to Poland, Austria, Croatia, and Serbia & Montenegro gave me a firsthand perspective on both societies that have grown immensely since large scale conflicts, and those that are still in the aftermath. While my homestay might not have been subjectively the most enjoyable part, it allowed me to expand my consciousness about class in German society and how this manifests on the familial level.

The homestay portion of the experience was designed to bring students directly into the host culture. Yet, as I stated before, my host family was not very social and did not make time to speak with me at length, which enabled me to go out more and speak with locals, which had its own problems. The majority of Germans speak some if not perfect English, thus attempting to practice with them was often futile. Ultimately, I feel that after four months in Germany, my language capabilities did improve.