Student Exchange Journey : MY FIRST DAY OF CLASS!!!!

So, Hey!

Yeah, today is Friday, 6^th October 2017. It’s a special day for me, because this is my very first day in new class of International Business at DHBW!

I cannot believe that my long-time-ago dream is becoming true on this day. Before we start, I really want to say thank you to SWISS CONTACT (especially Kak Melissa and Bu Mercya); the organization that supports my fund during my exchange student program. And also, massive thanks to my school institution, STP NHI BANDUNG; for believing me to be your delegates here.

This morning, I started the “Seminar in Management” class at 9.00 AM; which means 14.00 A.M in Jakarta. I woke up at 6.00 A.M, so I got 3 hours to get ready. I felt so happy, utterly happy and full of spirit. I said “World! I’m ready for school!”, this was the first time I did that kind of thing in my entire life, sure. Then I jumped from my bed and took a bath. I only ate an apple and sandwich made by me for breakfast. I didn’t care about the taste anymore.

Then I walked to school. It was 10° Celsius. Whenever I exhale, I can see faded smoke come out from my mouth. I get used to it after being in Loerrach for more than a week. I wore my black hoodie which printed “BOSTON TERRIER” on the chest. And a blue jeans trousers, of course pairs of local sneakers. My favorite outfit all the day. So basic, isn’t it?   

It takes 15 minutes to get to school. I enjoyed the downtown. The downtown isn’t really crowd in the early morning. I passed a museum named Dreiländer museum. I don’t really know about their collection inside, but I plan to go there this month. I will let you know when I visit that museum. Besides museum, downtown area has a lot of shops and café. Even you can find some Asian food and some Turkish cuisine. Don’t worry about the price, affordable. There is also H&M, you might be popular with this shop. Downtown for me just like one-stop-shopping-recreation-area. Because you can find everything here, include Cineplex.

The unique phenomenon in this downtown is that you may find a lot of people from Switzerland! Living in the border of Germany give me a chance to meet a lot of people from different country. Wait, why are some Swiss cross the border only for shopping? The answer is…… the price of every stuff in Loerrach is extremely cheaper than in Switzerland. Moreover, Swiss will get some cashback in the border because of tax regulation that applied in this territory. I heard it from my flat-mates who study in Switzerland and live in Loerrach.

My campus located in Marrie Curie Strasse, close to Meeraner Markt. My class took place in K101. I have same class with Evita, my schoolfellow in Indonesia. We enroll for the same subject, but she takes more classes than I do. Harry and Laura were the first friends that I got to know in this class because we seated to each other. And my first lecture were Mr. Klaus Engke, he is a professional firm consultant that’s why he is very expert in management especially M&A (Merger and Acquisition) at work.

The first thing that the class do was introduction! Mr. Klaus Engke is the first person who introduced himself to the student. Then, all of the students followed, one by one. I had a very international class, because there were students who come from France and other part of European Country. It was really fun. The introduction took about 50 minutes. Then it continued to the main subject and learning goals of today.

The class was about the firm’s acquisition and merger. I read and learned this topics 6 months ago, so I could understand what this topic talking about. The difference was PESTLE analysis. I used SWOT analysis when I learned this topic. Well, now I know more than I used to.

Not only learn by reading text, the class also discussed together about PESTLE analysis. And applied the analysis method in real case. The class was divided into 4 groups, each group chose the topics that available, the topics were RETAIL, AIRLINES, PHARMA and AUTOMOBILE. My group chose Retail. I worked with Anes, Larisa, Chantal and Yaniq. I’m not sure if I typed their name correctly, I just typed what I heard. Group discussion took 30 minutes. After the time is up for discussion, every group needed to present their result.  Overall, all groups got positive feedback from the lecture.

My classmates are so incredible nice and kind. Especially Yaniq, Chantal, Larissa and Anes. They both respected me by not speaking Deutsch during the discussion session. We were talking in English. Once Chantal warned Yaniq when he spoke in Deutsch. Yaniq said “Ups, Sorry. Ya, lets talk in English”. Then I just smiled. Actually, I don’t mind if they talk in Deutsch. That’s pretty fine. This little action of respect just touched my heart. Thanks God for the lesson that you thaught to me today. I learned a lot from this experience, the differences make the world more colorful.

At 12.15 P.M the class is over. Some of the students were back home or hang out to somewhere. Meanwhile, Evita and I went back home and cooked for lunch!