Marie from Sweden (Internship at RheinAhrCampus)

My name is Marie Nilsson and I am a 23 year old student from Sweden. This summer I am doing a 2-months-Internship in the department of "Sprachen/Internationales" (Language and International affairs) at RheinAhrCampus, Remagen. In Sweden I live in a town called Umea, which is situated about 640 km up north from the capital, Stockholm. I study at the "International Business Administration and Economics" study programme at the University of Umea. The Internship will be a part of my Diploma as the course: "Internship Abroad".

I arrived here in the end of June, which means that I had the chance to see Germany in summer time. I must say that it is incredibly wonderful here. I like the nature, the culture, the people and my work. Of course this is in many aspects quite different from Sweden and what I am used to, but I think that is what I like about it. I have met the nicest and most friendly students who took me in to their circle of friends immediately. Even though most of my stay here is during the semester break and almost everybody goes home for the holidays, I am sure that we will stay in contact. I am really thankful for meeting these people as I believe they contributed a lot to the nice impression that I got of Germany. Before I arrived I thought that the language barriers might be an obstacle in the understanding between me and the German students, but since they all are very good in English and I try to learn more German, we understand each other perfectly. I just wished that I could stay a little bit longer than these 2 months so that I for example, would have time to enhance my skills in the German language. :)

Remagen and Sinzig (where I live during my time as an intern) are rather small towns but they are both very nice and charming. Whenever I would like to visit a bigger city it is easily done by taking the train for example. Coblence, Bonn and Cologne are close by. I have already made a short visit to all of these towns as well as other cities in Germany. Since I am almost in the middle of Europe, it is very close by if I would like to visit places in other European countries as well. As I live in Sinzig and not in Remagen, where campus is located, I take my bike here every morning and it is always a nice tour. Some mornings I take the tour along the Rhine and (as I learnt you would say in German): "Alter Schwede", what a beautiful scenery!

When I was about to leave my home for two months, I was excited and somewhat nervous about what was waiting for me out there in the "big world", but I have only been pleasantly surprised. I am glad to say that I will go back to Sweden with new experiences, a lot of nice memories and new friends.

So Remagen: Tschüß;, Ciao, (Pfiat di) und hoffentlich; Auf Wiedersehen! //Marie