by Anushree Modi, Volunteer, Germany Volunteer Service Program, 16-17
“I am having a wonderful experience on my program. Every month here is better than the last month.
In February, we celebrated the Chinese New Year. I presented a song, Thousand Years, for which I was complimented. I got a chance to work and sell in the student kiosk. I also visited the Carnival in Munster and spend a wonderful day collecting lots of chocolates and having a good time. In Loburg they had organized a photo shooting for all the staff members of 2016-2017, and since they have many international employees so we had an amazing photo shoot.
In March, it started with our AFS seminar. The theme of the Seminar was politics and we were to talk for a week and that was all we were going to talk about. I was pretty excited to see my batch mates again and also to see new groups there from different organizations. And it turned out to be more than what I expected. People I met there were simply amazing, we discussed about our countries, our politics, security, education, corruption and people. Those topics were very intense but interesting. I learned a lot in this one week. I was talking about the current affairs that took place in India.
After such great seminar we all decided to take a small tour to France.
One of the most interesting activities I did with students here was a visit to South Indian temple. Said to be the biggest temple in the continent of Europe. And of course I went with our students to see how it really is. Even though coming from India, there was so much new things I was getting to know. It was indeed very interesting to be there!
Winter is gone and now I am so happy to have spring here and soon to have holidays!!
The month of April was full of excitement, because my Easter holidays were scheduled in April and I had some amazing plans for my holidays. It is rightly said AFS gives many hidden benefits. And I realized some while I was on my holiday to Italy to visit my host sister, Amelia hosted in Ahmedabad. First of all Italy is one of the most amazing places I visited. That place made me so happy just to see how beautiful it is. I visited Maximillian. He showed me around some really cute places in Italy and we spent lots of time talking about his time in Ahmedabad.
It was simply amazing. Later I went to see Amelia and I was pretty excited to meet her family for I had just heard about them. Going at her place and meeting her family was not any different than “going home” I was so beautifully welcomed and they treated me like one of them.
Her grandparents, her parents all were thanking me for hosting Amelia and I couldn’t stop feeling blessed to have such a relationship with the people from other end of the world. It was so nice to meet her after such a long time and I was enjoying every tiny second with her and her family
Here we finally have summer and it is making me just happy after such long winter.
The month of May was very beautiful. It started with the celebration of the Labors day on 1st of May. We decorated the castle with the flags of all the nationalities,
studying/working in my project and people were invited in the castle for coffee and cake! It was long, busy but a great day! Sanjana Rastogi, came to visit me and we had an amazing time meeting after months. We talked a lot in “Hindi”, watched a Bollywood movie and also ate some homemade Indian Food. It was a great feeling. The last weekend I worked with my boss’s sister-in-law Mrs Nidoestadek and we baked some cakes pops with our students. In the end I and my mentor, Hubi, had our monthly counseling. The month of May was unbelievably fast. I’m sure June is going to be more awesome and exciting.”