05/27/2017

After I arrived at the hostel the seminar was taking place at

( http://www.jugendherberge.de/de-de/jugendherbergen/koeln-riehl451/portraet),

which by the way was about a 10 to 15 minute ride for me because I live in Cologne, I met some other exchange students. I also saw some old faces who I already met 11/28/2016 on the ''Scholarship Day'' which was basically the day our organization chose the students who were going to get a scholarship, luckily me and my friends got one.

Tell me, if you want me to write a blogpost about the ''Scholarship Day'' only. I would be happy to do so.

 

Anyway, after we all arrived and talked for a bit, we were asked to go the big room where we were going to have most of  our meetings, we sat down and were given some basic information.

Note: It was VERY hot outside that day and there was not a single air conditioner in this huge room.

Also note: We were teenagers only, so yes we were all sweating.

 

Then we played some little games inside,got our fancy 'Ayusa shirts', did some roleplays and even went outside to play games and take pictures. All activities were related to spending a year abroad.

 

Afterwards we had dinner and free time. Because the weather was so nice, we decided to go outside, relax and listen to some music.

 

Then we went back inside, watched a movie and went to our rooms.

 

I shared a room with 3 other girls, one of which was my dear friend Denise ( aka www.denisemnx.jimdo.com) and some other girls spent their evening at our room as well ( for example www.charlyinamerika.blogspot.de), meanwhile I, wanted to take a shower. So, I went for it. I went inside, started shampooing my hair as, suddenly, the lights turnt off. There was no window in the bathroom, so it was pitch black, I could not see anything ,lol. By the way, the lights turnt off because there is a motion sensor in the lamp. So, do you think I stopped shampooing my hair, no, I continued, I do not know why. Oh, I also screamed for help. As youremember the room was full of girls. So what do you think they did first?

They laughed! I know, my friends are the best. ( hahaha I love you guys)

Denise wanted to help, so she slipt a post it under the door, hoping it would turn on the lights again. I know ,hahaha. Those girls are truly the best!

I finally figured out a way to turn on back the lights by simply stepping out of the shower and activating the motion sensor by doing that.

Obviously this had to happen to me! lol!

Then we finally went to sleep.

 

05/28/2017

We woke up, got ready and packed our things. Then, we had breakfast. I have to admit that the food at the hostel was actually pretty good! There were always some options for everyone and even if you are lactose/ gluten intolerant, vegetarian or vegan, there will be an option for you.

About an hour later our parents came and we had one final meeting, a looong meeting where we got important information, e.g. rules, information about the visa, the school, etc.

Then we were allowed to go home.

 

 

I want to thank Ayusa, my organization, for being so amazing and organizing such an incredible weekend. I am also very thankful that it took place in Cologne because there were some students who had up to 7 hour long rides!

Honestly, this weekend was so much fun, I got to see all of my American Gurls again and I met some new people too.

Everyone was super down to earth, open minded and nice. It was trly inspiring seeing so many teenagers in one place, all with the same dream- to spend a year abroad, on their own! Although we are all different people and we will spend time in completely different countries, we still had this one thing in common.

And the staff was super nice and helpful too!!!

Thank you!

 

And if you are still debating which organization is the best for you, then I can seriously  recommend you to take a look at Ayusa https://www.intrax.de/ .

They are the best!

❤️

xx, Laura