Odyssean Scholar: Time Flies….

Each year, UNC Charlotte awards one student the Odyssean Scholarship. Through generous donors, this scholarship is awarded to a student who has a demonstrably high financial need as determined by the Financial Aid office and who could not otherwise study abroad without the support offered by the scholarship. Each Odyssean Scholar blogs during their experience abroad to share their experience with the UNC Charlotte community. This year’s recipient, Shamim Chowdhury Sajid, who is studying abroad on the UNC Charlotte Exchange with the University of Mannheim in Mannheim, Germany, continues to update Education Abroad with his experiences abroad!

“Time flies when you’re having fun”. This semester in Mannheim went faster than any of my previous 6 semesters in college. My life in Mannheim is pretty fast-paced. From going to lectures and studying in the library to hanging out and cooking with friends is what my daily life consists of during weekdays which makes days go by with a blink of an eye. One of my favorite study spots on campus is the Schloss library. The fall view from the library and so many other motivated students make me productive enough to get my school work done. During the weekend, I mostly travel within Germany or nearby countries.

Being away from home and settling in a foreign environment without family is not an easy task but the people I met during my exchange helped me make Mannheim my home away from home. Going from strangers to good friends is the best part of exchange. I was surrounded by many other exchangers from all across the world. Learning each other’s background, cooking and eating together made my semester exchange journey even better than I expected. I wouldn’t want to trade my Mannheim friends for any others.

Hamburg. When someone hears this, they can only think of one thing, “hamburger”. Hamburg has been a top destination on my list to visit prior to arriving in Germany as one of my favorite German soccer teams is from there. I was fortunate enough to watch my team, Hamburg SV, play in their beautiful home ground, Volksparkstadion. Even though the game ended up being tied, I was able to experience the home ground atmosphere with 75,000 others. I instantly fell in love with the city because of its international environment, street art, and numerous attractions such as Blankenese, making it one of my favorite German cities.

German cities are some of the most beautiful cities in Europe but neighboring countries aren’t any less. From Hamburg, I took a bus trip to Brussels, Belgium. While the journey was exhausting, the friendly people and the attractions made it all worth it. I didn’t have any plans on where to visit in Brussels, but the locals were generous enough to suggest places to visit when I asked. Because of suggestions from locals, I ended up going to a farmers market that is only open once a week and had freshly squeezed sugar cane juice, authentic Moroccan food, Belgian waffles, and local Belgian sweets, all for an unbeatable price!!