Important things to consider when organizing your year abroad
Getting there:
Initial journey there can be deceptively expensive. When deciding which airline your are going to fly with and from where to where you are actually going to fly, always keep the following in mind:
a.
The cost of any connecting trains and buses. Train travel within Germany can be particularly expensive. It might be easier and almost as cheap to get an internal flight rather than a train or bus to your final destination.
b.
The time of arrival at your final destination. The chances are that you will have to stay in a hostel until you find accommodation, or if you are staying in student accommodation, until you actually get to meet the Hausmeister. Book this in advance. Find out if there is a meet and greet service offered by the college to new arrivals – this can make things a lot easier.
c.
If considering travelling with Ryanair, beware of combining flights (i.e. flying to London and then getting a connecting flight to Germany) Firstly, this can work out quite expensive on top of taking longer. As well as that, you have no comeback if you miss the second flight because of a delay in the first. It might also happen that, if this flight isn't going to your final destination, that you arrive in Germany at a time of the day when there are no connecting trains to your actual final destination. Ryanair are also quite strict on luggage weight. Many Ryanair airports are a couple of hours of a bus ride away from the actual city they have in their name (i.e. depending on traffic, it can take almost 2 1/2 hours to get from Hahn to Frankfurt.
Accommodation:
Privat or Studentenwerk
Prices vary from city to city but generally speaking, official student accommodation is probably at the more expensive end of the scale for what you get.
Official accommodation comes furnished. A private room does not. You may be lucky and move into a private apartment where your flatmates have cooking utensils, washing machine, fridge etc. already. This means that the contents of your room are your only concern. However, if unlucky, you might have to reckon with initially spending quite a bit to make where you are living habitable. If going private make sure to find out if your rent is warm or kalt, as Nebenkosten (utility bills) can sometimes put a different slant on a "cheap" room.
It is sometimes the case that you are required to repaint a private flat before leaving. Find out if this is the case and keep it in mind when choosing.
Money:
It is advisable to bring about €1000 with you initially. Expect to have to pay a month's rent in advance along with a deposit for the same amount. You may have to buy basic furnishings, kitchen utensils etc. Textbooks may be required for college. It can sometimes take a while to set up a bank account owing to the bureaucracy that permeates German life. I believe that it now costs nothing to have money transferred from on bank acc. to another within the EU.
Travel
A Bahncard 50 is relatively cheap - undertake even one moderately long journey and you have it saved already. A must have if anybody is intending to see a bit more of Germany. Even if the only traveling you do is to go from wherever you're flying to your final destination, it has already paid for itself. This can be bought online, and from what I understand, you don't have to be either living in Germany or a student at a German university to avail of it. Might be worth checking out if it can be got in advance of travelling. The full details about how and why to get it are available on www.bahn.de
Telephone
Mobiles - beware of contracts. Always keep in mind how long you are staying when signing any. Pay-as-you-go is always a safe option, although somebody told me that there are now contracts that run for at least three months and can then be cancelled at any stage with a months notice.
Festnetz - check out www.billiger-telefonieren.de for the best rates and prefixes
Other stuff:
One of the main reasons for going to Germany as a student of German is to improve their spoken German.
Expect difficulties in understanding and making themselves understood at the beginning. It's the difference between learning a language in school and living it.
Making friends among native speakers
Sometimes it can be quite difficult to get to know people in a new country/university because they have an established circle of friends and don't particularly need any more. It's always easier for Erasmus students to hang out with the Erasmus crowd, but in terms of improving your German, this isn't the best policy. You have to make more of an effort socially than
you normally would. It can be hard work sometimes but it pays off .