My student exchange at Gut Warnberg 

06.12.2022

I am Molly Perkin and I am fifteen years old from Cape Town South Africa. I came to Germany for a seven-weeks-long student exchange at the Realschule Gut Warnberg. I arrived on the 28th of September and will be leaving on the 14th of November. While I am writing this I am about to have two days left , which makes me very sad even though it means, that I can see my friends and family back in Cape Town. It also means that I have to leave my new family away from home. Here, I am staying  with Diabla A. Odrcic (grade 10) and her family. Diabla came to stay with me for six weeks in June and July earlier this year and it was al lot of fun having her staying with us, because I am an only  child and so it was almost as if I had a sister for a little bit.  Since I have been here in Munich, I have learnt that German culture and South African culture are different in the best ways possible.

Here in Germany I have had so many amazing experiences and have been to some incredible places with incredible people. For example, I went to the Oktoberfest which was much bigger than I thought.  People from all over the world come to see it and it is certainly worth it.

Munich is an amazing place to do an exchange and Gut Warnberg is an amazing school to do it, because there are only 23 students per class, so everyone knows each other very well. 

I got treated so well and was accommodated equally as well. I was very touched that they made an individual timetable for me so I could also do lessons’ work from my home school.

During my time at Gut Warnberg we have also had a week of holidays, where we went to Vienna, Budapest, Virovitica and Zagreb, which was an absolutely amazing trip, that I am so thankful for. Some of my favorite moments from this holiday were going in a horse carriage around Vienna, going on a boat tour on the Donau and walking around the beautiful old town of Zagreb. 

We also went to the Zugspitze on a weekend to see the snow. This is one of my favourite memories of my whole exchange, because we went up with the gondola and down with the train. While we were at the top we used mini sleds and sled down parts of the mountain, had snow ball fights and just had a great time. Now I can officially say, that I have really felt the cold, since Cape Town winter does not compare at all.

The biggest highlight of my exchange was the sailing trip of class 10 in Croatia for a week. This was one of the best trips I have ever had and I will never forget it. I had the flu while sailing, but most of all, I made new friends.

These seven weeks in Munich had been some of the best weeks of my life. I have no regrets coming to Munich for my exchange. 

My stay with the Odrcic-Babic family was the best thing ever and I want to thank them so so much for all of my amazing experiences!