The timing of the academic calendar in Germany is very different than in the US. Here, there is a winter (October to February) and summer (April to July) semester rather than fall and spring. Furthermore, there is a two month pause between the semesters, which is most often utilized by students to conduct research, write term papers, travel, and/or participate in an internship. In my case, a bit of all of the above occurred. 

Rather than having final exams, all of the courses I took in the winter semester instead required me to write a term paper called a Hausarbeit. For a couple of these papers, I was required to conduct fairly extensive research on my topics. By far the longest and most challenging Hausarbeit for me to write was for my literature course, in which I did a literary analysis and comparison of God-figures in two different short stories. The paper ended up being 24 pages long by the time of completion, and was the first time I had ever undertaken such a long and difficult project in German. Writing is probably my personal weakest language competency when it comes to German (my comprehension, reading, and speaking are all stronger in comparison), but it has undoubtedly improved during my time abroad, and I received a good grade on all of my Hausarbeiten. 

Aside from writing my papers, I also took part in an internship during the semester pause. For two months, I worked with the Sprachschule (language school) department of the DAI (Deutsch-Amerikanisch Institut) here in Heidelberg. The DAI language school offers group and individual language courses in English, German, and Spanish in addition to hosting a number of clubs, workshops, and social events for all age groups. Outside of the language school, the DAI in Heidelberg also contains the largest public English-language library in the region and hosts an exciting series of speaker events. As a broader institution with multiple locations throughout Germany, the DAI fosters cross-cultural friendship and promotes culture, communication, and education. 

During my internship, I helped with a number of tasks around the office. I often worked on writing and designing promotional material for upcoming events for the website, posters, and social media, thus gaining experience with graphic design. I also helped with creating lesson plans and preparing materials for courses among many other things. However, my main and personal favorite assignment was aiding during the children’s holiday camps. For major public holidays, children in Germany have an entire week or two without school. During these times, the DAI offers a program of camps, workshops, and intensive language courses. For children in first to fourth grade, the camp offers days full of crafts, games, experiments, and playtime — all while learning English! I assisted with this camp for three weeks — one week for Faschings in February and two for Easter. Each day of the week had a different theme (for example, Winter olympics, Chinese New Year, STEM, etc), and me and one or two other teachers would work with and supervise a group of 14 to 18 children. While the camp days were long and tiring, I did very much enjoy doing them, the children had lots of fun, and several parents asked us at the end of the week when the next camp would be. As a whole, I gained lots of valuable experience during my time in this internship.

During the STEM-themed day, the children made their own lava lamps and competed to make the biggest, most complex tower out of tooth picks and jellybeans