Brenna Baker, Moving the Cities: Germany Fall 2023
I am a person who loves to travel and each time I travel to a new place, I get to experience the different ways that locals interact with foreigners. It is fascinating to me how different countries have different tendencies and feelings towards people from other countries, especially people from America. The main thing I noticed in Germany was how friendly everyone was. Every interaction I had with locals either when out shopping, having discussions with other students, or even just on the street, was very positive. This is very different from other countries, for example France, where the locals tend to look down on Americans and are overall much less friendly.
One time when I was walking with a few of the other students from Pitt to the bus stop, a man walking by overheard our conversation in English and asked if we were from the United States. When we replied yes, he became very excited and started asking us more questions about where we were from, finding it very interesting that we go to school in Pennsylvania. Interactions like this made the transition into the local community much easier and helped me to not miss home while I was away.
It can be hard to adjust to a new country especially in a program like Moving the Cities because you are meeting so many new people from all around the world. Going into the program, I really did not know what to expect. I was thrown into a group of 70 other students from completely different backgrounds and countries to my own. And, to make things even more intimidating, I was also one of the youngest people in the program. I was worried that the differences between me and my group members would create tension and stress as we worked together throughout the week, but I was wrong.
In my project group at the university, there were two students who were from the university in Germany. They were so kind and open to showing the rest of our group the ropes. They even tried to teach us some German. Although it was not very successful and I am still terrible at speaking German, the effort to share their culture with me was greatly appreciated. My group talked in-depth about many of the differences between our home countries. These conversations really opened my eyes to some of the inherent variances between our respective countries. We talked about our experience in school growing up and that is where many of these differences became apparent.
Although we uncovered many contrasts between the countries we grew up in, our conversations also led us to realize that we are not as different from each other as we initially believed. We found many common hobbies and interests between members of the group and formed very close bonds during that short week. It is so amazing to have friends who live around the world because they can teach me so much about where they are from and help me to be a more informed member of society.
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