James Crummey - Augsburg University of Applied Sciences, Augsburg, Germany

Erasmus Study 2022/23

“A defining chapter of my life, that has undoubtedly altered the course of my future!”

Memorable moments

There are countless memorable moments from my Erasmus but the most special moments would have to be the travelling and day excursions. Augsburg is essentially in the centre of Europe and Germany borders 9 countries so it is really easy to travel around and many students took advantage of this.

I myself was lucky enough to visit Salzburg with around 40 other Erasmus students as well as Munich, Nuremberg and I even got a week away in Croatia with a group of Argentinian exchange students I met on Erasmus.

Making foreign friends was also one of the best memories. At the end our friend group consisted of people from all over Europe. Sharing the Erasmus experience between us all is something I will never forget.

Experiencing a new culture

German culture is very similar to regular European culture but some of the biggest culture shocks for me was how safe and rule orientated the city was. I mean, if German people were waiting at traffic lights and there was not a car in sight they would still wait for the pedestrian lights to turn green.

In terms of Germany and Ireland, there is a very large beer culture in both. In Bavaria (The region of Augsburg) nearly every city had their own brewery and nearly all Bavarian events were based around beer and pretzels.

One thing to be sure about when visiting Germany is if you are invited to an appointment for 9am, they actually mean 9am and not a minute late. All in all the people are very well natured and pleasant, if you're walking down the street and make eye contact with someone they wouldn't be afraid to say 'Hi'.

Challenges

Obviously for me one of the biggest challenges was leaving home to live in a country where the rules, culture and language was completely different. Thankfully, I had a strong interest in German and pushed myself to become as proficient as possible in it.

As well as this, I lived in a single apartment so loneliness was occasionally a problem (missing the family and friendship bubble you grow so accustomed to). Of course socializing and attending as much of the Erasmus events as possible made the transition much easier.

Taking care of yourself is also no simple task. If you live at home, it is common to have your family hand dinner to you, wash your clothes and clean up after you. Once you get your own place you are completely on your own. This is a great time to build good habits and improve your independence.

Making friends

For me, this part came really naturally and I am massively interested in other people's stories and cultures! The great deal of nights out and parties in the first month as well as the University planned weekend trips made this seamless for many of the exchange students to get to know each other better.

Traveling while studying abroad

I was lucky enough to visit three new countries in my travels. There were Austria, Czechia and Croatia! I was really excited to see new places on Erasmus and was one of the main reasons I wanted to travel away for the semester in the first place.

Salzburg was absolutely breathtaking, like somewhere out of a movie with the castle on the mountain and the beautifully curated gardens.

Prague in the Czech Republic was brilliant for the nightlife and even boasted clubs with multiple floors as well as all night trams. Split and Dubrovnik in Croatia had absolutely beautiful, Roman Empire style, old stone towns and culture.

Advice

It is going to take a while to settle in in the beginning. It is completely fine to feel out of place, a bit lost and nervous. The most important thing is to not let that hinder you.

Try your best to branch out and make friends with people from different cultures and from different countries while your there. It will massively help you develop as a person and will give you so many different and interesting life perspectives.

Also try and immerse yourself in the local culture, this will enrich your experience and give you more of a sense of belonging in the place your visiting.

And take as many opportunities as you can whilst there ( if they interest you of course), you may never get the chance to have this much time and freedom again and I can guarantee it will be one of the defining points of your life!