Something that’s great about Fulbright is that there is a community of people in your region that you’re able to reach out to to organize weekend plans and excursions, because let’s face it, there is a LOT of free time that just needs to be filled with doing something. There are about 14 of us teaching assistants from the United States in my Bundesland (state) of Lower Saxony, and one of my now great friends, Eddy, lives in a city only 20 minutes away from me by train.
During the orientation program, we were organized into smaller working groups to complete different exercises together, and they were divided up by Bundesland. That meant that I was able to meet all of the other teaching assistants around me. After having met the people who would be in the same region as me, it removed the awkwardness of simply reaching out to each other to organize weekend activities.
One problem that I face, and I’m sure other people face as well, is that even though Wolfsburg is a city, there isn’t really all that much to do, and ways to entertain yourself are exhausted quickly. I spend some of my free time training with the Wolfsburg Blackbirds, but in terms of doing other things with friends, my most convenient option is to go to Braunschweig (only 20 minutes away with the train) and hang out with friends there.
And not only are there English teaching assistants that are here working in Germany, but there are other language assistants from around the world teaching Spanish, French, Italian, and Chinese. In Wolfsburg, there is one other English teaching assistant from the UK, and a Spanish TA from Spain. But in Braunschweig, there are several teaching assistants from different parts of the world, and the PAD provides us with the contact information for the other TAs.
So, when it comes to having friends while in Germany, there’s really no need to worry. Before coming here, I worried about not being able to make friends with people here, and I worried about what I would be able to do on my free days. But with the size of the Fulbright program and the fact that the PAD encourages all of its teaching assistants to contact one another, I found that it was quite easy to get to know people here. Not only do I have my German baseball teammates to hang out with every now and then, but I also have my teaching assistant friends to spend time with or travel with if the opportunity arises. Getting to know so many different people and being able to share experiences with them is something I really appreciate about the Fulbright Program, and is, again, something which I believe they try to foster.
P.S. I’ll be going to Lithuania for the first time ever with Eddy to visit his friend (and my friend in a way now too) Abby. I’m really excited and am definitely planning on writing about my experience there.
P.P.S. I know I haven’t been writing as often, and I’m trying to get back on top of that. There are some other things that I want to write about, some travel, some Fulbright-related, and I hope to post about three more posts in the next two weeks!
Teacher Tommy's Travels 