Building Bridges

and trying over and over again. Ms. Alberti loved her exchange year and
says she would definitely do it again.
During the year, she found lots of friends, learned much about Denmark
and the lifestyle there, and made many memories. While abroad, she
noticed that Danish culture puts a big focus on spending time with family
and enjoying the small things are important in life: “It´s called hygge," she
explained. Ms. Alberti also found that Danes are tend to be relaxed and
mostly positive about things, as opposed to Germans, who she thinks are
more structured. In her opinion, the health and education system is also
much better than in Germany. Overall, she explained: “I would rather
choose Denmark over Germany," an impression that sums up both her
exchange year and Denmark very well.
When asked how the exchange year affected her, she replied: “This year
had a bigger effect on me than anything else in my life." Various
completely new and different situations caused Ms. Alberti to grow so
much as a person. She learned to handle difficult situations and
developed new skills and personal traits.
She shared that she would definitely recommend doing an exchange
year, an au pair job, studying or living abroad, or something like that,
because you can only gain from the experience. Even if the year or new
part of your life does not go as you wish or planned, in every case you will
learn and earn something new – experiences, lessons, memories and
maybe even friends for a lifetime.
Ms. Alberti spent a year abroad to “come out of my comfort zone and
grow as a person," as she put it. However, she also talked about Pakistani
classmates that came to Denmark because of war in their home country.
There are several and different reasons for going to another country.
Some conditions are pushing people out of their country like war or
politics, and other reasons are pulling people to a country, for example
family members, or the ability to practice one´s religion freely.