My motivation to exchange
It was my fourth semester on my bachelor’s degree. I couldn’t let this opportunity pass. I thought about it a lot, but felt the ideal moment was over for me. But it wasn’t at all. I heard from my friend how he wanted to exchange, to almost all the countries I wanted to. Also mostly the same type of cities I wanted to try. So we decided to exchange together. And exchanging together was a great choice for both of us for different reasons. I was nervous about how money wise it would go. He was nervous about being in a new country. So together we could ease each other worries regarding the exchange. I only exchanged for one semester but if it was possible I would exchange for one year. But due to do the time schedule here crashing with the one at home I couldn’t do that.
Arriving in Bremen
We drove by car me and my friend, because we decided we wanted to drive to make it easier to choose when we arrived in Bremen and when we wanted to leave. Which was a nice choice since we could take the drive as a road trip. We got to see some parts of Sweden and Danmark on the way. Once we were there, we had the car to go around Bremen and other cities to explore around. Before we got to know and learn the public transport in Bremen/Germany.
About the school, professor, classes/lectures and so on
The campus itself is nice and once you know where the maps are it’s quite easy to navigate around the different levels of the building. It was clean and quiet, but it didn’t have any group rooms for student groups to work in. But there where solutions to those problems. The lectures/classes where nice once you got in the groove as to where and what time they where happening. It was quite difficult in the start to figure out when and where the classes where. But once I got some guidance on how to navigate the site it was so much easier to find/figure out when where my classes where. The professors seem genuinely interested in what they teach the students and are motivated to help and find solutions. Which was nice cause if help was needed, they would help me or people around me without either asking or they just wanted to help people.
Where we lived, how it was to live there, who lived there with us
We lived in shared flat with two other people so in total we where four people living together. This was okay. We were kind of lucky in this situation since both of us were living in the basement and the other two lived upstairs. We also had upstairs neighbours that lived in the second-floor apartment. And one of them was unofficially the buildings handyman. So, he was the person we contacted if something was broken or not right, or
we weren’t able to fix it ourselves. It was nice to live there quiet but still mainstream enough that you can find everything you need withing a walking distance. It was nice to have everything whiting walking distance and everything I wanted I could get withing six minutes tops.
Social activities, what I did and my social school week
I tried hard in the start to socialise but after I while I slowed down on trying as hard and just focusing on spending time with the people I liked. And I fell back on some balanced socialising ways I have. My focus later was studies and motorcycle activities. The first “proper” school week of the semester they had planned a social week where we meet all the other students at the school through different activities and socialised with them to get friends or to just to socialize.
Nature and what you can see
The countryside outside of Bremen is beautiful and got some nice scenic places and some fun roads to drive on if you like to drive motorcycles or cars. Or places to view the countryside from afar or high up to get an overview of it and it is so scenic and worth to take a drive through at least once. If you like nature and scenic and calm roads and places to go to.
The 17th of May and how it was there
Me and my friend went to Hamburg on the 17th of May to celebrate Norway’s national holiday. Cause my friend likes to keep this tradition going, so we went so I could see how a “traditional” celebration was done. It was fun, I highly suggest it even if you are not that into it. It will still be a nice experience with a lot to see and look at in Hamburg.
What I did (For example taking pictures of other bikers and their bikes)
What I mostly did in my free time was to drive my motorcycle and take pictures of my motorcycle and other people’s motorcycles for fun. But quickly realized how much fun it was to do and have kept up with it my whole stay in Bremen. To take pictures of other people’s motorcycles or them on their bike. It was fun to do something completely unrelated to my studies to just take pictures of something. I really like riding my motorcycle and hanging with other bikers.
The mc vacation week: About the driving who and what we did and where, Schwartzwald for example
One of the last weeks off my stay I went on a week-long motorcycle vacation. It was so much fun and an experience I would do ten times over. It had been planned to do this even before we left for Bremen. The experience of driving the whole day through Germany and seeing more of Germany was so much fun and a great adventure to go on with the motorcycle and my friends.
Summary
So overall a great stay with great opportunities and possibilities for every type of person and whatever they are looking for in an exchange semester. If you are thinking about doing it. I just say you should just do it.
The end
Overall, it was a good experience and fun, but there was some frustration in the start with the exchange team giving mixed messages. It felt like they weren’t as in tune as they should have been. I would have done it again and I would like to do a year even if that makes it hard or impossible to do. Cause six months is too short of time to experience and explore a country fully. But you shouldn’t let that stop you from going cause those six months will be the best and most fun months in you study time. I want to exchange again. Maybe even longer or take my masters in Germany.