The first few days were a bit daunting- the day after I arrived we all went to IBH- which is where all our classes were. I didn't know until I got there that we would be starting off with tests and an interview to put us into classes based on our ability. But we did the test, and the interview, and then a lot of us went and sat to have a coffee, and we chatted about who we were, where we were from and what we were doing here. Because we were all in the same situation- none of us knew each other- it wasn't scary or weird. It was tricky though, in the first few days- being on my own with a family meant that it was quite hard to meet up with the other people on the course.
However, we quickly started to form friendship groups and we started going out- to the Reeperbahn particularly! We had quite a few eventful nights- one resulting in me losing my camera, and other people losing their phones, and one weekend we stayed out until 6 am both Friday and Saturday- we went to the Hafen and looked at the sun rising, and the Fischmarkt to get Fischbrötchen (not me). That part of Hamburg was pretty mental especially- the Reeperbahn is a very weird place, lots of sex-shops and prostitutes on the streets, and also loads and loads of clubs (a lot with high entrance fees and rubbish music). I think it would probably be a better city to go out in when the students were still around!
We also had a really long 'Stadtrundfahrt', a city tour, where we saw all the historical landmarks and looked at the interesting places in Hamburg for tourists. I found the amount of water in Hamburg amazing- not only the Elbe and the Alster, but loads of parks with lakes, the Elbstrand where you can swim and there is a beach, but it's opposite the port, and huge container ships go past. We went swimming loads when we were in Hamburg, considering it isn't by the sea! I found that Hamburg's a really diverse city- there's so many different areas, and it really is huge- it would feel like a capital city if it wasn't so friendly and welcoming.
I had so many amazing experiences in Hamburg, whether it was going on a train at 9am to Lüneburg hungover, or one to Copenhagen at 7am without any sleep the night before, or the day we went to Cuxhaven and then all cooked tagliatelle together and watched Friends. Playing kicker (table football) in the ground floor of the hostel, celebrating people's birthdays, drinking in loads of different streets (luckily that's legal in Germany), the Mensa. I could go on... More importantly, I met some pretty amazing people- people from all corners of the world, and I really miss all these people still. I really wish I was still in Hamburg, with every single person I met on this summer course, because it was one of the best months of my life.
P.S. we spoke a lot of German too.
