My first time in Germany after 27 years!

It was a pleasure to be a part of the Erasmus+ mobility program in Stuttgart. The program was taking place in Volkshochschule Stuttgart (VHS). A huge school that has a large number of different language classes plus cooking, dancing, and yoga classes. As we were there representing our school, Escuela Oficial de Idiomas Alcalá de Henares so my partners and I as language learners joined various different language classes in (VHS) like German, French, Portuguese, Chinese, English, and of course Spanish. 

In my case, I joined A2, B1, B2 Spanish classes and intensive A2.1 German classes! Sunday 1st of May was our flight from Barajas airport to Frankfurt airport, I met two of my schoolmates Conchi and Gabrielle in front of the school doors then Conchi took us to the airport to meet up with the rest of our schoolmates and it was our first meeting of us all I think. After arriving at Frankfurt airport we managed to take a train from there to Stuttgart. Durning we were waiting for the train we sat in a cafe to have coffee and breakfast and started to know each other then ended up in Stuttgart to find our hostel we checked in dropped down our bags and we went to discover the downtown. 

Monday the 2nd of May we all met in the early morning to go to the VHS to meet up with
Andrea Bernert-Bürkle she is a Specialist for EU project advice and young adult education centers at the Adult Education Association of Baden-Württemberg, we met up with her in the VHS, she introduced and showed us the school then invited us in the school's cafe to drink coffee and to have our classes schedule, then Andrea took us for a short walk where we visited a very cool modern library the library of Stuttgart, later on at 18:00 o'clock fortunately I had a B2 Spanish class with two of our mates' Laura and Gabrielle, the teacher was Mrs. Pilar Rolfs, for me I enjoyed this class a lot I was a bit worried at the beginning of the class because it was B2 level and I'm still in B1 level but quickly I gained a lot of confidence when I realized that my speaking skills in Spanish are way more than a B1 level! The students were great as well as the teacher that allowed us to work on conversation activities in groups. 

Tuesday the 3rd of May I started the german classes and they were very intensive for me as it was long in duration and the level was A2.1. By the end of that week, I did more than 9 hours with two different teachers with the same mate Maria, two classes for four hours each and one class hour and a half. I studied German five years ago till B1 level but since then I hadn’t practiced any so it was a good chance to remember again what I have missed! On Tuesday at 18:00 Maria and I had a Spanish class with Mrs. Carmen, after our German morning classes. 

Wednesday the 4th of May was my favorite day in the school after I had four hours of intensive German lessons in the morning I had the opportunity to attend two Spanish classes one after one another A2 and B2 levels with the same teacher Mrs. Amaya Matas, these classes were my favorite classes there, they were unusual at least for me:) the plan was to
make two of Spain's most famous soups gazpacho y salmorejo in the classroom in front of the teacher and the students showing and describing to them the recipe. It was an amazing experience for me also as a non- native Spanish speaker on a cultural level joining Maite y Leonor my Spanish mates while they were preparing the soups I was helping them in the preparation as I knew the recipes. 

The first class was A2 level so Maite and Leonor were very advanced for the students and I played that role in simplifying their words to other simple words because somehow I understand them well on the other side I know how it could be difficult for the German students to understand all they were saying. Also, Leonor was describing the recipe for the student as a master chef on a T.V show, it was really good and fun so for me, it was an unforgettable experience! The second class was B2 level with the same great teacher Mrs. Amaya Matas, who gave us the opportunity to do these activities in their class. Maite started the class with her amazing salmorejo and left then I continued the class, the B2 level is my upcoming level, and when I was there I had reading and listening exercises and I was really good at them along with the great class group they were advanced students and I'm sure it was beneficial for both of us. I really enjoyed it and it was a pleasure to meet Mrs. Amaya. 

Thursday the 5th of May we all met with Andrea Bernert-bürkle at Treffpunkt, she took us on a tour up on the hills of Stuttgart where we visited the Württemberg Mausoleum while we were passing by the vineyards then we went to visit Mercedes Benz Museum and it was great opportunity to know about the history of Mercedes and the whole Region of Stuttgart. We went back downtown to have lunch. After that, I was supposed to have an Arabic class as I'm a native Egyptian but when I went to the school at that time I could not find any Arabic class instead I found a Spanish class B1 level at the same time so I decided to go to attend it after taking the permission from the class teacher she was very nice and acceptable, I joined the class after I introduced myself but it was not planned that I can't even remember the name of that teacher but I learned a lot in that class, I'm sending my greetings to her and to her students. 

Friday the 6th of May, all of us were free of classes that day so we decided to go to visit one of the most beautiful cities I saw. It's Tübingen about 30 km far south of the capital Stuttgart. The experience was amazing, I have fallen in love with Tübingen. 

Saturday the 7th of May was our last day in Germany so the plan was to spend the morning time at Frankfort Bahnhof before we go to Frankfurt airport to take our plane that was at 8:30 pm so we checked out from the hostel early morning in order to take the train from Stuttgart to Frankfurt. we arrived at 12 pm and it was very sunny and hot unexpected weather. We passed by the main river going through Römerberg square that full of beautiful buildings, then the city center. After that, the majority of the group decided to separate into little groups as every one or two mates wanted to do something different so I joined some mates to go find cold drinks as it was very hot at that time. after that, I took a long pass around and I enjoyed the city a lot! Met back with the schoolmates at the train station at 7:00 to take the train to the airport station. 

In the end in my opinion it was a very good trip and such a great activity. Many thanks to my school la E.O.I de Alcalá de Henares to give me the chance and thanks to our hosts in the VHS. 

Stuttgart 1-7-May-2022 Mohamed zaki