Lili Jiang (Sichuan, China)

Exchange Student of the “Euroculture" programme

Lili Jiang

I am a Master’s student from Sichuan University (China) majoring in Applied Linguistics. Last year, I was lucky enough to get an Erasmus Mundus scholarship and have a chance to spend two semesters at the University of Göttingen. Those were amazing 10 months; now that I am back in Sichuan University, I am missing Göttingen every single day. Here are four things that I miss most about the city:

1. Inter-cultural spiritual discussion every Tuesday night

Göttingen is such a spiritual spot, I realized, as it offered me enough time and energy to be able to reflect and refresh myself every day while I was there. My German friends and I held an inter-cultural discussion every Tuesday night in order to reflect on the inter-cultural communication we experienced every day in Göttingen, and also to discuss how to advance our spiritual perception by developing ourselves and serving the local community. People from different cultural backgrounds came and we enjoyed tea or coffee together, while sharing various ideas with each other. The Tuesday night discussion is still carried on by friends who are still in Göttingen. Every now and then, I join them sitting in front of my computer using skype from Sichuan.

2. Local people in Göttingen

It’s always true that it’s the people that make the place. What I miss most are, again, the people back in Göttingen. I visited lots of locals in Göttingen when I was there, and they offered me their best gift: friendship and love. Every time I came back to Göttingen after traveling to other European cities, I felt at home.

3. The Botanical Garden

Close to the city center, you’ll find the Botanical Garden serving Persian tea. Best tea ever! My friends and I always went there for a nice chat or for a brunch. It’s another thing I fell in love with in Göttingen. It’s a small place, but you get everything you need around you and enough time to relax.

4. German class

I miss my German classes. The language classes the university offered were very helpful. I liked my German teachers and they really encouraged me to speak the language, even though I can barely continue a proper conversation for more than 10 minutes with a German person ever since I’ve come back to China.

Göttingen is such a cute place of Europe especially because it holds many sweet people. It’s always peaceful, which allows you to slow down your life, to study and to work. I am extremely thankful that I have spent a year in Göttingen and that I found so many good friends, not to mention my own self, through the whole journey. I am hoping to go visit Göttingen next year. Prayers and love to all my friends back in Göttingen, until then.

Educational background: Bachelor in Applied Linguistics, Sichuan University, Master student of the Sichuan University