The exchange I did to Ireland for 10 months was the best year of my whole life. You learn a lot about yourself how to deal with certain situations on your own and you learn a different style of life. During my first months I started meeting loads of people from the school. I got really close to the exchange students that were in the same town as me. We were all from different countries around Europe so it was great to know about how their culture was and to see that there are really similar people to you all over the world.
It was easy to make friends over there, even though I was pretty scared about the language barrier. At first I only went out with the other exchange students but later, I got closer to some Irish people so I started hanging out with them. A really good way for having a great time when you go abroad for an exchange is to do extracurricular activities. In my case, I joined my host family’s musical society and I enjoyed my time doing it. I’m not a fan of musicals or plays but it was nice to try new things because you don’t know if you’ll have the opportunity to do that again.
It’s a really good way to start knowing yourself in a way you couldn’t know before.
It has been definitely such a experience!
