Only wish I stayed longer!

My 3 weeks at the Excellence Centre in Europe have been wonderful: it has allowed me to greatly improve my German, to widen my knowledge of refugee issues, and to meet great people from around the world.

The centre provided 3-4 1.5 hour German lessons for me and a small group of other students per week, which were consistently engaging, entertaining and educational. Despite coming from differing knowledge backgrounds and levels, we could all grow and bounce off each other, encouraged to stretch ourselves to new areas but without the pressure that comes from large classes. Furthermore, most lessons revolved around speaking practice which, although scary, was what I needed most - during my time here I have become far more comfortable and confident with using conversational German, furthered more through other volunteers sometimes joking and chatting in German in an inclusive way, meaning it was a true immersion into German and Germany which is exactly what I wanted.

My other main activity at the centre was teaching English; this is not an activity I had experience in. Despite initially feeling quite unsure as I was thrown into lessons without any guidance from the centre really, I quickly learnt how to lead a lesson, and as most are 1:1 tutoring, it is easy to tailor it to a student's needs. Teaching English definitely helped me to develop as a person, and it is something I intend to undertake again in future breaks from school, which is certainly galvanized by the eagerness and kindness of every single pupil I taught.

The atmosphere at the centre itself was by far the best part of my time here - being surrounded by the most friendly and outgoing people, from a range of backgrounds and experiences, undoubtedly made it the extremely fulfilling experience it has been. From the moment I arrived, everyone was inclusive, inviting me to social events outside of the centre and to explore Halle with them. Although the fact that schedules are mainly self-designed can lead to everyone coming and going during the day, the opportunity to all gather at breakfast every day (which was very delicious, and entirely vegetarian which was great for me!!) and joke and chat, really meant I began the day feeling uplifted. Despite a lack of events organised outside of teaching initially, in the second half of my stay this definitely picked up, and the hike we went on was a great opportunity to see more of Germany.

Halle itself is not necessarily the most thrilling city in Germany, but it provided everything I needed from it and I took the opportunity of having weekends off to see more of Germany, which Halle is well placed to facilitate. Halle does have some beautiful green spaces (some of which I annoyingly only discovered in my last couple days!), with the Peißnitz park being close enough to the centre that after work I often went with my friends to sit and chat, or even once to row down the river - incredibly entertaining. However, minus the art museum, there is not much to fill weekends with, so instead I visited Leipzig and Dresden for day trips and Berlin for a weekend with other volunteers from the centre - only an hour away!! The only issue I particularly had with Halle was that I was staying in Neustadt which was a 20 minute tram ride away - the tram system is very good and links the whole city but it did make it difficult to be flexible about meeting up with friends and there is an extra cost for transport which others staying in altstadt didn't experience. Yet, as I had another volunteer as a roommate, I was not alone in this, and I became very close with her which was lovely. The host family I was with were also very nice, and although mainly keeping themselves to themselves, they provided an extremely joyous atmosphere to arrive home to and it was a perfectly satisfactory base to stay in during my time in Halle.

Overall, my time at the Excellence Centre is an experience I will cherish - my only regret is not staying for longer. I greatly hope to stay in contact with the friends I have met here, and continue my learning of German to hopefully return to live here soon!