A visit to Germany

On June 30th 2011, we got ready to start our journey to Ahlen, Germany. The experience at the airports wasn’t exactly what we would have expected, we’ve been through many obstacles and faced many problems, starting with the security check at Ben-Gurion Airport, following missing our connecting flight to Düsseldorf, ending up without our luggage at Cologne Airport. To sum up, it wasn’t one of the best flights we’ve ever had, but believe it or not it was one of the funniest informative and invigorating days we encountered.

On July 1st at the early hours of the morning we eventually arrived to our destination by taxis that were provided for us by the airport itself as a compensation for the delay of our flight and not being able to get our train rides at that hour. During our way to school we had some worries and doubts about many things including our hosting families due to utter excitement mixed with exhaustion. When we arrived to our meeting point “Saint Michael Gymnasium School”, and after meeting the concerned families all of our worries and doubts vanished away through the warmest welcomes we have received from our hosting families. Our hearts were deeply touched and felt we were really between our families.

Even though we had no luggage, no clothes and not even a tooth brush, we were very delighted that the hosting families provided us with supplements and supports.

Starting on a fresh new day we began our 14-day adventure, seeing so many inspiring monuments and memorials, and visiting other remarkable cities and towns including the city that never sleeps , Berlin. We think that there was a huge difference between Berlin and Ahlen. Surprisingly, the majority of the Palestinian students preferred Ahlen to Berlin because it was calmer, safer and has that friendly atmosphere. In addition, we believe that Ahlen is our second home where we can say “Home Sweet Home “.
Honestly, when we first heard of Ahlen we didn’t have any expectations since it’s not that famous, but how can people not notice such a beautiful inspiring town with hospitable people. After seeing all of this, we stopped calling them the hosting families and we started calling them our family, and the relationship turned into a father/ son and mother /daughter one. Basically there was no feeling of strangers and you could notice the caring and the unconditional love which was born between both sides.

And after every tiring day we were relieved to find a warm meal, a relaxing bed to sleep in and a welcoming family.
We were anxious about the German food because it’s really different from our food but fortunately the food was healthier and more delicious than we had expected. After dinner each night, our hosting families prepared special programs for us such as going to parties and different places. We were never bored and never felt uncomfortable.

As a result this journey was mind-broadening and honestly it was one of the best exchange programs that we have ever experienced. And we were honored to be chosen for this fantastic program.

The participants