EPA Berlin: Bundestag Internship

I absolutely adored my three months in Berlin. This was my second internship with EPA (Madrid 2015) and, I can easily say, a much better experience. I must admit that I am biased to love Germany, though, because my mother is German and raised me bilingually, so there were essentially no language barriers for me.
Hartwig, the program director, is an absolute darling. He really cares about making the experience valuable and enjoyable. For instance, during orientation in Bonn, he arranged to have me join American students there for a few Carnival activities and movie nights so that I wouldn't feel lonely as the only person in my program. The orientation period is not strictly educational but also a lot of fun. Hartwig was also very helpful in getting me situated in my apartment and checked in with me almost every day of my first week in Berlin. I always knew that I could turn to him with any questions or concerns.
I was extremely nervous before starting the program because I knew that I would be living alone and receiving one-on-one lessons. However, being the only student to Mr. Guido Mathes proved to be to my advantage, as it allowed us lots of flexibility in scheduling our weekly meetings. He was very gracious in accommodating my internship and social schedule. I also had no difficulty making friends, thanks to Facebook group for Bundestag interns, which organized weekly dinners (Stammtisch). Stammtisch made it easy to make contacts and form WhatsApp groups with other interns to coordinate weekend excursions, so I could really experience the social scene in the city.