Exchange in Germany by Kadri

At the beginning of the long waited Christmas season begun my trip to Germany. It was going to be a relaxing and fun week in festive spirits. I had heard lot about how beautifully decorated Germany is in the winter season. My host was Melissa. We had already met last year because she was an exchange student for a month in our school.

Melissa was a really kind and lovable girl, she loved to talk a lot and was a very good companion. She lived together with her mother and father. Aside from two super cute and tiny dogs Melissa also had some other interesting pets. For example she had two bearded dragons. I had never before heard anything about these kinds of animals and I was a bit frightened at first. It came out that the scary sounding bearded dragons were actually really charming little lizards. However, that was not all of the animals in the house.

Melissa and her father were part of a dog walking club. They would usually go walking every day and there were around ten to twelve dogs in the club. I had a chance to join the dog walking club two times. It was both great to be outside and to be surrounded by so many different dogs.

The dog walking club

Melissa with her pony

Furthermore, I got a chance to go to a horse ranch because Melissa had riding lessons twice a week. She would ride a pony that belonged to the ranch keepers. Melissa told me that her pony is very lazy and doesn’t like to gallop or run. Most of the horses on the farm were Icelandic ponies an there were around sixty of them.

One of my brightest memories from Germany was the Friday evening when I went ice skating. Me and Melissa had invited Hanna and Kristiina together with their hosting students so there was quite a decent group of us. I had never before been to a skating rink but I started to like a lot. I was really surprised that I could actually manage some skating and became really enraptured by the whole thing. Me and Hanna decided we’ll start ice skating every month when we get to Estonia.

Me, Kristiina, Hanna and Melissa in the skating rink

Another really great place was an animal park near Bielefeld. It was really unique zoo because it is open every hour of the day throughout the whole week. We had a really great guide who spoke of lots of interesting things. It was very fascinating to hear new facts about animal species like bears, wolves and owls since I used to think that I know pretty much everything about them. The whole guide tour was really mind broadening and inspiring, I got a deep urge to read some books about wild animals.

Two wolves from the park

Male deer

View of the animal park in Bielefeld

To summarise the whole trip to Germany, it was undoubtedly a really good alternation to dull schoolwork and got me into the Christmas mood. I got to do many fun things, enjoy the great hospitality of Germans. I am really thankful to Melissa and her family for hosting me and being so kind.