Final Takeaways

Here are some photos from my final weeks in Freiburg. I can't believe my study abroad experience is complete, it is something I have looked forward to for a long while, and it did not disappoint, being a time of both personal and academic growth.

One of the best things about being in Freiburg for the month of December are the Christmas Markets. Beautiful lights, cute nick-nacks from local vendors, steaming and comforting gluhwein, and scrumptious snacks.

I will never take for granted the ease of the public transportation in Germany. It will be so weird getting back in a car again. The trams were truly such an integral part of my experience in Freiburg.

Left Freiburg with the city covered in snow, the Black forest turned a Winter Wonderland. This photo was taken on a Sunday so nobody works(lol) but usually this area surrounding the main cathedral of the city is flooded with wurst stands, fresh produce, and other market finds. I will never take for granted how special it was to live in this precious and adorable German city.

These are just some of my favorite parts of living in Freiburg. These experiences, while different to what I am used to made Freiburg feel like home, and I am so grateful for the ability to find comfort even in what is unfamiliar.

My academic experiences in Freiburg and throughout the European Union have also been equally unique and exciting. One of my highlights was with my social entrepreneurship and innovation class. We spent the entirety of this class working on our own social entrepreneurship business proposals, which I found to be very challenging but also rewarding. I worked on a proposal to link low income communities to community based renewable energy models. Something you really notice when living in Germany is how much more society is geared towards operating in a 'green' manner.

Beyond working on our projects we also had the opportunity to visit and speak with local social entrepreneurs in Freiburg. One of my favorites was visiting p3-Werkstaat(linked below), a social enterprise that works to provide carpentry and other vocational trainings to people of migrant of refugee backgrounds. They provide education, both the vocational training as well as German and math, and then sell the products that the team works on. I found there business model to be truly remarkable and fit in with German context, and it definitely made me realize in my career I want to work in a more socially-guided business. It also connected a lot to what I was learning in my class on migration, ethnic minorities, and multiculturalism in Europe. I ended up doing a lot of research on integration processes in Germany, and I can totally see how social enterprises like p3 fit into this overall picture, especially with integrating migrants into the workforce.

I also believe my German fluency improved a lot while I was here, which was kind of a given, but through both my German courses and just daily life things I am happily leaving with more confidence in my German abilities. Last but not least, something I will never forget about this study abroad experience was getting to visit various EU institutions like the Parliament in Strasbourg and the Commission and Council in Brussels. These experiences I never would've had without this program and it provided me with a deeper understanding of how political systems work, how it is even possible for a union of 27 countries to make any sort of unified decisions, and why economic and political unions like the European Union are important.

One final photo of one of my favorite views of the Black Forest from right next to my apartment. Golden hour!!!

These last four months have been a part of my life I will never forget and I'm glad I got to share at least some of it with you via this very different blogging/ unique mode of sharing experience I attempted.

A final Aufwiedersehen / Tschüss / or in Freiburg they also say Ciao a majority of the time!