A work placement abroad. For me, during the time before it was a great feeling. Having that as part of my apprenticeship I understood as chance. A chance to combine my everyday learning experience with another environment in several aspects. A chance to integrate to that other environment and continue getting work experience. It was my second educational stay abroad on my own. I could also count it as my second longest stay abroad generally. For that reason, our general situation and concerning the accommodation was not new for me: Not to speak your mother tongue but to communicate in English nearly all the time. To live with a host family and to have also host siblings. Another aspect was to get used to a new local environment including the neighbourhood and the local public transport. But also some circumstances like driving on the left and to be less as pedestrian than in Germany: Drivers do not wait for you to cross a street parallel to them before turning off. And to be honest, I expected something else thinking of a host family: A nice community to chat, eat and live with. And contacts for some tips of what to experience in or around London. Well, at least I was provided a park nearby, a long public meadow next door and public fitness devices outdoor. And I was not far from a train station.
My work placement took place in a company which is a copy shop. But not only that they copy folders of documents and paperworks. They also scan them for e.g. archivement purposes or to create a digital duplicate. Vice versa, they offer printing of documents but also magazines, mugs and T-shirts.
Our task of configuring a server worked quite well thinking of our result. We thought of all the aspects which are meant to take into account. And thanks to nice employees and especially a nice chief, communication with them was easy. And that was important to make sure that our work is done according to their purposes and expectations. When I was asked whether one and later another group mate could join me to work together with I agreed without hesitating. We completed our project successfully and that was most important for us.
But our stay gave me another great opportunity which I used as often as I could: Going on a trip to discover different cultural or general sights in London. On top, I could take enough time to visit different towns of Great Britain and I met nice people – randomly and not – who I had interesting conversations with.
All in all, I had a time full of experiences. At the end, some of them taught me quite something. Thank you to whoever took part of the organisation or who took some time to do some activities with me or supported me in another way.
I am looking forward to having other stays abroad.