Lv Jianxun

How time flies. As a exchange student from Beihang University, I have spent more than 5 months in university of Paderborn in Germany. It is a good experience for me. Thanks to Prof. Mertsching, Prof. Böcker, and Prof. Jiao, Prof. Yuan that give us such a valuable opportunity to study and live in German. Thanks for the supports from DAAD. Also thanks to Zhiyu Cao and Manli Hu, who help me a lot not only in my study, but also my daily life. Also thanks to Hanguang Mi, Lian Zhang, and Chenxi Li, who share the good time with me in German.

Here, I am glad to share some experiences to others who may want to attend the exchange program, and I hope it will be helpful.

Choose the lab you go:

There are two labs we can choose, One is GET lab, another is LEA lab. You can find the different research field in the introduction, you should know what you want to learn, what you are interested in, so you can choose which lab you want to go. The knowledge you can learn in two labs are so different, so make your own decision before you go to German.

Accommodation:

There are two kinds of accommodation, one is dormitory of University, another is one room in Wohngemeinschaft(WG). I choose the dormitory, and I recommend the dormitory. You will share a kitchen with other 3 persons, and have your own bathroom, it’s convenient. I think you will like it. Also there are many Chinese in the dormitory. If you have some problem, just find them, they will help you, I had made some good Chinese friend in Paderborn. You will enjoy your life in the dormitory.

Transport and air tickets:

First, the air ticket. If you know the exact time of departure and return journey, I advise you to buy the round-trip ticket. It would be cheaper, but usually, we don’t know when to come back to China, so I just buy the single ticket, it’s more expensive.

Second, the transport in German is so good. After your arrival to German, you can get a semesterticket. This semesterticket is so nice, you can use it to take bus, subway and train (except IC and ICE) in Nordrhein-westfalen. So you can easily go to Köln, Dortmund, Düsseldorf and so on. Buses always come at the exact time, you can check it in Internet. And for train, you can find detailed information on the Internet, which train to take, when the train come and leave, which stop to change the train, the platform of departure and arrival. It is very convenient to travel by train.

Eating , drinking and shopping:

The University just offer lunch for student, so the breakfast and dinner you should cook yourself. So bring the tools you need to German. Also you can buy pizza, fried chip, salad, various of bread, cheese, sausage in the supermarket. Pizza is not so expensive, but easy to cook, I like it. The soft drink is not expensive in German, also there are some special drink and many kinds of beer, you will certainly find some that you like.

The supermarket and other shop will be closed on Sunday and holiday in Germany. So remember to buy something for eat and drink before weekend.

Tourism:

It is easy to travel around Germany and European (except England).You can find very cheap air ticket, some company provide low cost airlines, such as Ryanair, Easyjet, Germanwing, etc. Eurobiz also organize some trip for exchange students, I go with other exchange student to Bonn, Bochum, Dresden, and Detmold. It is very nice, we will have a guide tour around the city. Someone will introduce the city for us, but always it is the day-trip, so we don’t have much time to see something more. So you can arrange some trip yourself with your friends around German or abroad. It will not be expensive if well organized, so go out for trips.

Party:

There are many parties in the university, some are organized by Eurobiz for Exchange students, some are organized by the school itself. Also we can organize party ourselves, we hold a China Night for other exchange student, Provide dumplings, spring roll, pancake, fried noodles, and the white wine. Also we attend French night, Turkey night and so on. And every year, it will have a very big Christmas market, so many people and so many special things in it, not only the food, but also some adornment and cloth. You will like it.

I have a good time in German, I like it very much, and hope to have the opportunity to be there again. And I think you will like it, I wish others who will go to German can also enjoy themselves in German.