[He chose Mexico because of its people, culture, because he likes to travel and explore interesting places across the country.]
Philipp Kosman studies International Economy at Georg-August-Universität Göttingen in Germany, but he has already spent one semester in UPAEP and chose Mexico and Puebla in specific due to the fact that his classmates had already been here.
“I have been here one semester and from the beginning I felt a warm welcome, I liked the orientation week a lot because it helped me to get to know more exchange students. My friends come from USA, and France. However, most of them are Mexicans”.
He chose Mexico because of its people, culture, because he likes to travel and explore interesting places. Besides, even though he was previously living in Spain (two or three years ago); nowadays, he gets to practice Spanish more, something he did not have the chance before.
“I have traveled a lot since getting adapted to a new environment is not a big problem for me. Here is a little different, not only because of the people, the spaces, but also the lectures”, he confessed because according to him, classrooms in Germany can have around 400 or 500 people; which makes the students a little bit more unknown if you compare it to UPAEP where the professors know their names, get to know them and even can get closer to them in case there are questions.
His major focus in the European country and tends to be a little bit more technic for the reason that it involves a lot of mathematics, statistics, among other topics. Here in UPAEP, he gets to talk more about politics and history; a little bit better because he has the opportunity to be more aware of his host country.
“After my exchange, I plan to travel around Mexico since I have only been so far in Cancún and Guadalajara. My plans are also to be in the south like Chiapas, Yucatán and later on to Guatemala or something like that”.
When it comes to the food, Philipp said that although he is vegetarian, he has eaten Al Pastor tacos and he found them really good. Nevertheless; not eating meat is not a problem. In Germany, vegetables and tofu might be expensive, but here are really cheap and in restaurants he has a good variety to choose from.
Between the differences he has been able to find, punctuality is the highest one; sometimes he has waited for his friends up to an hr later, Mexicans tend to be more open minded to get to know people; however, their culture is a little bit more traditional and close minded.
One of his hard to forget anecdotes he shared with us, was that one time; after taking a shower, he went outside only with a towel on his waist and suddenly, the door closed. Henceforth, he asked for help to his neighbors since his roomies where not in the house and will come back much later. The neighbors called a locksmith that arrived 3 hrs later. “It was something funny for my neighbors but for me it was pretty embarrassing until I was able to go inside the house and get dressed”.
Some of the things he misses the most are his family and friends because the contact is not very often; adjusting to another country, its culture and its language is usually very easy form him, especially when he is not around his love ones. Finally, he encouraged everybody to study abroad in any place in the world. On the other hand, never forget to visit Hamburg or Berlin if you ever go to Germany.
“It is a very valuable and rewarding experience. If you are interested in getting to know other traditions, to study abroad is an ideal option. The fact that UPAEP and Göttingen have an agreement, made it easier for me”.
Click here to read the text in Spanish.
