BEN

The Lucius boarding school is high school in a small town called Echzell, which impressed me with its fascinating landscape and peaceful atmosphere when I arrived. This high school is at the end of a street. The most different thing between this school and my former school in China is that this school is based at a large forest. This forest is very helpful in learning biology and in outdoor discovery. Apart from that, the fresh air here seems completely inexhaustible.

The whole school is divided into five blocks - forester's house, new house, castle, teaching area and playground. The forester's house is the core of the Lucius boarding school. Because not only all boys from sixth to eleventh grade are accommodated here, but also the tutoring rooms, the president's office and the cafeteria. The classroom includes classrooms for art, music, chemistry, biology, and physics. This is also where the stadium and classrooms for the sixth to twelfth grade are located. New house and castle are student dormitories. The New House is the dormitory for boys in tenth grade and girls in sixth through eleventh grade. However, the castle is only intended for girls and boys who are in the twelfth grade. Therefore, lower class students are not allowed to enter the castle. It is only open to people during the holiday events or by special invitation. The playground is divided into three parts: a basketball court with volleyball court, a soccer field and a tennis court with another soccer field (there are two soccer fields in the school).

In general, Germans are very friendly, especially my headmistress, my teachers and my classmates. You can always tell them about any problems and approach them. Usually they are always friendly to you! I ran into tons of problems, the hardest part for me being the cultural shock, the language and the personality differences. At school you meet a lot of foreigners born in Germany, the thing is, everyone speaks German as their mother tongue! Hence, no one would talk to them any slower just because they look Asian. But don't worry, everyone was very nice. After getting to know each other better, they tried to adapt to my language level and my way of communicating. Nobody here would treat you as a “foreigner”, so it was even quicker to integrate me into the group.

Then it comes down to the difference in personalities. In China, I thought I was already very open-minded compared to people my age. Since I've lived in Germany, however, I've found that most German young people are even more sociable than I expected. In China, for example, we usually hug the opposite sex when we're in a close relationship. In Germany, however, it is common to hug friends too. For Germans, this is an opportunity to show friendliness and to bring friendship closer. I wasn't used to it and always felt shy at the beginning of my arrival, but soon I gradually got used to it as I understood more and more about German culture.

I realized that I wanted to redefine myself and adapt to the German lifestyle. No matter how much preparation I had already done, there were so many more things that surprised me and I know that there will be many more things in life that I will learn during my stay here. Finally, I would like to share the difference between the food and the culture I came across. In China, I heard a lot about Chinese students studying abroad and barely getting used to Western food. I ate congee, steamed meat rolls, and other Chinese breakfasts every day in China. Suddenly the choice changed to bread with jam, cereal with milk or sandwiches. It is definitely not an easy thing. On this point, I personally think that the food that my school offers is really perfect! Not only do they offer European food like spaghetti or bread, but also American hamburgers with fries, hot dogs, or sometimes even Chinese noodles and rice pudding. Due to the variety, it wasn't difficult for me to adjust to the food here.

Z.G.