Student Blogs/Jasmine in Germany
Time for a little update!
There have been many ups and downs in the past few months, encompassing of the German university exam season—which lasts roughly two months—and one too many run ins with German healthcare! Also, I cannot forget about the few trips I managed to squeeze in between studying for my exams, all of which worth a hundred percent of my grade.
Christmas came to an end, including the two weeks of vacation time that I spent in England with my extended family! It was a big decision to make for me, as it meant that I wouldn’t be seeing my immediate family for almost a full year… except for my mother, who came to join me in Manchester with my grandma! It was a nice break, but eventually it came to an end, and suddenly the German exam season was lurking in the distance.
At the time, it didn’t even occur to me that I had six exams coming up, all of which worth my entire grade. I was a bit too busy enjoying the city, and the friends that came to visit it! I wasn’t alone with this mindset—all of us exchange students had the same dilemma! But we still had a month, so all was okay!
I did manage to have a weekend away before the real learning started, where I whisked myself away to Strasbourg with a little detour to Freiburg! I was fortunate enough to have a friend, who had a friend on exchange in the city, so it made the whole trip much more cost efficient for me—something that everyone on exchange can relate to!
Arriving home from this trip was also the turning point regarding my stress levels, as I immediately had to start thinking about studying for my many exams. Although I had already written and completed one course before Christmas, I still hadn’t received a grade for it, so I was ‘flying blind’ regarding what to expect.
At this point in time, it is mid January, or also known as a very popular time for illness. I had hoped that I would be able to avoid any illness for the entire time abroad, as I had to set up a German health insurance account in order to be able to stay in the country and that was much harder than it needed to be! Based off that ordeal, I decided that I would do my best to avoid having the go to the doctors!
The stress of my upcoming exams was starting to hit me, and in my stressed state I somehow managed to get sick.
So, there I was, three days before my first exam, knowing that I most likely needed to take something else other than the Tylenol I brought with me from home, but I had no time to figure out how the world of German healthcare worked!
I managed to complete two exams before I decided that it was time to make a trip to the doctor, but unlike Canada, there is no such thing as a 24-hour walk-in clinic! I realized quite quickly that most doctors offices are only opened a few hours a day. I found that ridiculous in my current state, as I realized that I had another exam the next morning, and the only office that was still open was 45 minutes away. Naturally, you can guess that my stress levels went through the roof as I realized:
The German healthcare system was a bit confusing to me at first. Like I said, they do not have walk-in clinics like Canada. I had asked around a bit to see what I had to do and wanted to make sure that I didn’t get charged a lot of money just from speaking to a doctor! I was told by one of my German friends that there are two types of doctors: public and private. The public ones are free and the private ones cost a lot of money, so I had to make sure that the doctor I saw was public!
I walked in to the doctor’s office, and asked the receptionist if the appointment costs money. It didn’t, so I knew I was all clear and it would be covered by my German health insurance! I was a bit apprehensive, as I didn’t know if the doctor would speak English, and I didn’t know if I could describe what was wrong in German. I sat there in the waiting room translating my symptoms in case my thoughts were true, as until that point, everything was in German.
I found out about 10 minutes later that they did speak English, so the panic over for me! They were also very friendly and welcoming, asking me about Canada and the healthcare we have here! All in all, it was a good experience, and I now know exactly how to go about seeing a doctor in Germany!
I have definitely learned my lesson from this little ordeal, and I can happily say that I am also very much accustomed to the Healthcare system here in Germany!
Although, this is only the first event that lead to this gain of knowledge.
A few weeks after my last exam, a few friends and I decided to go skiing at a nearby ski club in Garmisch Partenkirchen. Munich is really close to the alps, so it only took a 5:00 a.m. wakeup and a two hour train to be amongst the snow and fellow skiers! As most people know, skiing can be a dangerous sport, and all it takes is one wrong move to turn a what was supposed to be a fun day, into a hectic one.
My friends and I ran into some bad luck, where one of us had a bit of a collision with another skier. Before I go on, my friend is perfectly fine! All it took was a snow mobile down to the bottom of the mountain and an ambulance to the closest hospital to find that out.
Let’s just say that I am now more accustomed to the healthcare system here than I ever thought I would be! And I can now say that I have taken a trip in a German ambulance and had to make use of my German language capabilities in an entirely new setting, which I think I will always be proud of! There’s nothing like the feeling of knowing you were able to help a friend in need in a completely foreign language!
Even though this particular day ended a bit roughly, we were back two weeks later for another round of skiing, where there were no accidents (apart from a slight sunburn) and we all enjoyed ourselves immensely.
Exams were now finished, results back and everything, and I had a lovely two months of travelling to look forward to! Having finished my first semester, I noticed many differences between the German and Canadian University system. They say that in university, no one is there to tell you to learn, and I believed that completely at Carleton, that is, until I started my exchange year.
The biggest difference between the German and Canadian systems is that here in Germany as a business student, you do not have to register for classes. All you have to do is show up. This puts all the pressure on you as the student to take initiative and learn the material, as there is nothing making you do it, whereas at Carleton, you have to sign up for classes, you have attendance grades, you have weekly assignments or midterms or presentations. Here you have nothing, except an exam at the end of the road worth everything! This is something that takes a long time to get used to.
The semester is over, I have quite a few fun things planned for the next few months! Here are some pictures of my day trip to Innsbruck. That’s another thing that is great about being in Europe, it is very easy to travel around and also can be very inexpensive!
Innsbruck was a lovely city, and also a great place to go skiing!
From reading this I am sure you can see that it has been a great experience so far here in Munich, and I encourage everyone who has a chance to go on exchange to do it, you will not regret it!
That’s it for this time! Tschuss!
Jasmine is a third-year Bachelor of International Business (BIB) student studying abroad in Germany.