My experience with AFS was extraordinary. Like every other AFSers, my experience was unique. Many might not understand what we had experienced. What I’m trying to say here is that every one of us learnt a precious lesson and had priceless experience even though we might not really enjoy the process of learning it sometimes. However, I had enjoyed mine a lot.
As soon as I finished my SPM, I attended my first orientation camp with AFS. It was a great experience, and filled with joy and laughter. At that moment we were confident that we were well prepared for the exchange program. The excitement continued for another 3-4 weeks, until the day we (those who went Germany, =)) gathered in KLIA and flew to Germany. Our excitement was at the maximum level upon arrival in Germany.
For the next whole month it was always a good experience. Everything seemed new to us. Right after the camp (LOC, late orientation camp), I went to London with my class. London is a cool city. Although it was the capital of England, the air wasn’t as polluted as it is in Kuala Lumpur. I also went on a trip to Berlin during the first month. It was a 4 days 3 nights trip and it was excellent. We had a tour around Berlin but too bad I cannot understand everything because it all in German.
After 3 months when I was thankful that I had “survived” for 3 months, but was the most boring part of the program. Because everything is settled, I had nothing else to do. I started to read books and also watched televisions to overcome my boredom. I also played with my host brother with his video games console. It was always fun to have a little brother that had the same interest with me. I picked up some drum from him (Too bad both my hands cannot synchronize. :/), and also learned some guitar from him. Apart from that, I hung out more often with friends during weekends.
It was summer holidays in July during my stay in Germany. It was the happiest time in my whole experience. I had a 6 weeks holiday and I went on a mid-stay camp (not with AFS) for 3 weeks and had a lot of fun during these 3 weeks. It was organized by another organization and the participants were international. We stayed in an open-air museum in Cloppenburg. The museum itself is surrounded by walls, where all the 18th, 19th century buildings were moved from all parts of Germany to this little town.
During the work camp, we had the river cleaned up, cleaned the wells, built some house to cover logs. We stayed in an old German house which had at least 100 years of history, and cooked our own food in a kitchen. During weekdays after working, we had the chance to learn about German history, for example, how people lived in middle age German, how they cook, write, etc. During weekends we would go around the large cities nearby, like Hamburg, Bremen and Bremenhaven. It was a good experience, and it was also a turning point in my experience. After the summer camp ended, I became more outgoing, I started to visit the other exchange students and cities, and I picked up some guitar from a friend, and started to read German stories and articles.
After 1 week the camp had ended, I moved to Berlin for 2 weeks. As I arrived in Berlin, I met my second host family, which is only for two weeks. While in Berlin, I was on top of the Berlin TV-tower (radio tower, like KL tower.), it was amazing to look around Berlin from the top, especially for the sunset. It was pretty but too bad my camera’s battery died at the time. For the next two weeks, I enjoyed myself to the max. Berlin is a good choice for a holiday. Of all of the places of interest, I like Madamme Tussauds and the river the best. I also had a free tour to the Mercedes Benz factory. It was located right behind the apartment my host family was living in. It was huge and fun because I got a free tour by the manager since he was also an exchange student and since he was generous enough. This is actually the first time I am proud of my German because I did not use any English words throughout the whole tour, and yet I understood everything. 2 weeks passed really fast, and I enjoyed my 6 weeks summer holiday in Germany.
The time flies. It was then the last 3 weeks of my stay in Germany. It was the first white Christmas I ever had. It was really cool because I have never seen snow in the past 17 years. Now that I have a chance to experience it, I made a snowman, of course, and also played snow wars with my host brothers. They were good. I am always the loser if we were to fight against each other alone. However, I will always cooperate with my younger host brother against the other because he is seriously too good at it. There was once that I actually ate some snow by accident. Nevertheless, we had a lot of fun. Also, I decorated the Christmas tree and exchanged Christmas present with them. One week after was New Years. It was a pleasant experience to celebrate New Years with my family members. We played poker the whole day, and even though I suck at it, I had a lot of fun.
Throughout the whole year, I experienced joy and laughter, sadness, anger and so on. Even though some of us did not have an entirely good experience, we actually enjoyed it because no matter what happened, we learnt a lot of things that are useful in our future. If you are exchange student in the future, and also, I wish you all have a good and pleasant experience and all the best in the future.
Yau Guo Xian
AFS YP Germany 2010/2011
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