"The culture shock was real and it was all a bit crazy, but I will never regret my decision to move here!"

Claudia Christensen Garcia reports: "It all happened so fast. One day I was sitting in my parent’s home in California gathering documents, and a couple of months later I was admitted and looking at flights. I had never been to Germany, did not speak the language, and knew very little about the historical context I was stepping into. My master’s program, Ecosystem Services, started in October of 2019. I met my cohort of classmates from around the globe and slowly got to know the students from the other programs that are also based in Zittau, Germany. Together we began exploring the “Dreiländereck” where the countries of Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic meet. We took train rides to places like the large botanical garden in Liberec, Czechia or the Christmas market in Wroclaw (“Breslau”), Poland and biked to the small lakes that dot the landscape throughout the region which I soon learned were all former coal mines. My greatest skill in the German language for the time being was my ability to order coffee with Milch and Zucker.

My primary interest in the study program was the diversity of classes and focus areas. Our first semester our schedule was arranged for us, and I especially enjoyed our time spent in the nearby town of Görlitz. There we took classes with the Senkenberg Museum, whose large collection of plant and animal species formed the basis of our key taxa class. Additionally, we attended a weekly speaker series at the museum where we heard a range of topics from both museum staff and visiting lecturers. Simultaneously, our classes in Zittau laid the foundation for the concept of Ecosystem Services, a systems-thinking approach to understanding our relationship to nature which has been gaining traction in the last few decades. By the end of the first semester I was feeling familiar with the landscape around me and the cultural context in which I had thrown myself into. I even found myself branching out from my usual coffee order and practicing the language with my German classmates who seemed both skeptical and encouraging at my efforts to immerse myself in this new country.

I’m sure it goes without saying that the global pandemic impacted my studies and gave the world a lot to think about in terms of our lifestyles, sustainability, and the future. However, with my first semester having took place before any of the uncertainty the pandemic brought us, I felt determined to continue my international experience. I selected my specialty in forestry, continued to enjoy the Senkenberg museum through a field ecology trip to a local biosphere reserve, and fell in love with Zittau in the summer. I watched the swifts screech through the air outside my kitchen windows, jumped into the lake during study breaks, and got soft serve ice cream in the town market at every possible chance. My friend and I hopped on our bikes in Dresden and biked to Prague, and I joined a group of German students on a hiking route from Southern Germany to Northern Italy. Before I knew it, I was searching for apartments in Dresden and moving to a new spot by TU Dresden’s main campus. From there, I could easily get to Tharandt where my forestry classes were based the third semester. We had a mixture of both present and online lectures and I did my best to stay sane like the rest of the world as winter 2021 came about.

Currently, I find myself in the midst of my master’s thesis where some of my days are spent in the forest, and some are spent catching up on deskwork and logging into my B1 Deutsch Kurs. Living in Dresden now feels like getting to know a friend; this city has so much to offer from the banks of the Elbe to the myriad of cultural events taking place daily. I find myself wondering how this program has gone by so quickly, and whether I have time to get to know all the historic places in this part of the world. Additionally, I find myself looking at the world differently, considering the management styles of the forests I pass on the train and eagerly following the news on the radio in my kitchen where I wonder what direction our world moves in next. It is difficult to succinctly tell you what this educational experience has meant to me: the people I have met, the culture I’ve become (somewhat) accustomed to, and this program which is giving me a degree that I hope allows me to make a positive impact in the global scientific community. I think back to my parent’s home in California where a university degree can mean a lifetime of debt, and how the fear of change made me wonder if moving to a new country sight-unseen wasn’t a bit crazy. Well, let me tell you the culture shock was real and it was all a bit crazy, but I know I will never regret my decision to move here two years ago and start this adventurous chapter."