Travelling to Germany (Erasmus Yaiza Perera 2026)

DAY 0 (DAY BEFORE)

Hello, my name is Yaiza, I'm one of the selected Erasmus's students, and I've had the incredible opportunity to travel to Germany during one month, so I'll we be writing about this experience during that period of time.

Today is 8/01/2026, the day before travelling, we've already packed everything on my luggage with warm clothes and some food from my home country for my host family to taste some typical spanish food.

To be honest, I'm kinda nervous and pretty excited because of what I'm about to live, because it's a whole new experience, new people, new culture, new schedules... everything is new, and I would be lying if I say that Im not scared, because I am, but I feel like that "fear" is a good one, the one that pushed me to sign into this program, to make me do what I would never imagine, daring to travel to a new country completely different from my own, without my parents or anything that was part of my spanish daily life. I'm really looking forward to get on the plain and prove myself that I'm doing it alone, and that I'm capable of more things that I thought. This is Yaiza and welcome to my blog, hope you enjoy it.

DAY 1 (ARRIVAL TO GERMANY)

Today it was finally the day, I was traveling to Germany, I didn't even realize it, it didn't feel like it, it felt like a lucid dream, as if it wasn't real, not at all, but I knew I wanted to do it, so as soon as I sat on my seat on the plain I realized that it wasn't a way back, at first it felt scary, because Itvwas something new, something I never experienced before, but in reality, it was the cool thing, I was about to do something completely new for me and once you rethink it you realize that all that fear it's worth it, because I'm doing something that I would be remembering forever.

Right when we got to the airport I was shocked, it was huge, it looked like a mini town inside of an airport and it was so cool, the 5 of us managed to find the way to taking the luggage and go to meet our exchange students, it was kinda confusing but it was funny and exciting to work together for finding the way.

Later, I met my exchange student and my family, they were incredibly nice, me and my correspondent talked non stop on our way from the airport to gilching, and it felt like oddly warm and comfortable, because we were talking as if we knew each other of all time when we just met 10 minutes ago. Then, when we finished eating we spent all the afternoon talking about tv shows and movies we liked and we found out that we had a similar taste when it came to cinema, but I mostly loved it because it was a natural and fluent conversation.

DAY 2 (FIRST WHOLE DAY )

I'll never forget the morning I woke up and opened the window for the first time and I watched all covered with snow 

it was beautiful, the vibes and the colors, they made me realize that I really was on Germany, it was my first time watching so much snow after a long time.

Later, I went for a walk with my exchange student through Gilching and there was a lot of snow, the sidewalks, the top of the cars... It was really really cool

But what was my favorite moment of the day is when I met my exchange student's friends, that day I only met 3 of them, and I rember that I was really nervous, I couldn't even eat! 🥲 But the second I met them they started trying to speak Spanish and I felt really seen and known and inmediatly all my fears and nervous faded away. 

We went to an ice rink over 30 minutes away from Gilching, and it was one of my favorite moments of the Erasmus.

That day I didn't skate because I'm pretty lame at skating and I was afraid of breaking a bone on my first day, that's why I sat on a place while they skated but it was the best thing I could've done, because the view was incredible, it was already dark, they had disco lights and music, it was snowing and I heard the people laughing, it was like I was living on a movie.

DAY 3

That day I went to my exchange student's handball game, it was really cool because it was after having lunch, so on the last minutes, while they were playing I was looking at the sunset entering through the windows of the gym, they were like pink and orange rays of sun getting brighter and stronger.

When the game ended I went with my exchange student's team to play laser tag, it was my first time playing that type of games and It was really funny. I also laughed a lot because some parents were playing also and I sometimes had to team up with them, the funny part was that they didn't know that I was from Spain so they spoke really fast German to me and I just had to nod and laugh because they didn't know English 😅.

At the end of the game we all went to a burger restaurant which was really good.

DAY 4 (FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL)

I was shocked, I was really shocked once they gave me the tour through the school and I got to know the way that place worked. First of all the cafeteria and vending machines were something completely new for me, the cafeteria was really cozy and big, they had a lot of tables and a huge wall of windows that gave to the interior of the highschool, on the morning with the sunrise that was incredible.

Then I entered on my new class and it was complete opposite form Spain, the floors were covered by a type of grey rug that was very cool, the chairs and tables were white and grey, completely different from the green ones from my high school, it was like another world.

I was the first spanish student that arrove so I didn't go unnoticed for a few of them, it was really funny because they thought they were being discret and they were pretty obvious that they were surprised of watching a spanish person, but I understand them, I would've reacted the same if on some random Monday a person from other country appears on my class.

DAY 5 

It was a fun day, that day I had my first spanish and English class on Germany and I'm not going to lie, I had so much fun.

The first class that I had was the English one, the teacher once she saw me she started talking in Spanish so I froze for a second not knowing if I was imagining it or not, but it turned out to be that she lived in Spain for a few years when she was young so that's why she had a pretty good Spanish accent, she was really nice but it annoyed me a bit that she kept talking to me in Spanish when I asked her to speak to me in English because I was perfectly capable of speaking English, but it didn't change a thing on the whole month I was there.

Then it came the Spanish class, it was really cool to watch how they teach my language on other countries.

I was with the other Spanish student and we both were helping my exchange student and her friends, it was so entertaining and cool.

DAY 6 

Everything was still new for me, even most, the fact that 99% of the students there used iPads, I barely saw any pencil case or books, I only saw iPads and iPad pens, it was funny because I was used to teachers scolding students for using technical devices but then in Germany it's completely normal to use tablets.

What I didn't understand at all it's that if they had tablets why they they banned mobile phones if they are literally the same but I don't know, maybe they had a particular reason why to allow tablets but ban mobiles

DAY 8 (FIRST DAY IN MUNICH)

Right after we finished school we went to Munich, my exchange student had to go to somewhere related to handball so I went with one of the Spanish students, it was really funny and I felt really proud of ourselves because we were able to find our way around muncich. We went to some shops that were new for us because we didn't usually see them in our city such as Starbucks or the Lego store 

we also visited marienplatz for the first time, the building was incredibly beautiful, I loved it.

DAY 9

the next day I had to wake up early because my host family was taking me to a the mountains and it was incredible.

Over 2 hours away from Gilching there was a mountain covered with full snow but it wasn't a common mountain. There was an already made path that circled the mountain; it was about a 40-minute walk to reach the top of the mountain,  it was really tiring because me were getting really hot because of the effort but It was worth it. Once we reached the top we went to eat to a typical German restaurant with incredible views. 

But my favourite part was when we went down, because there were slides to go down the mountain.

But one thing I learned it's that I always had to be opened to new things and new opportunities and not reject them because I'm scared, because I was terrified of going down the slide through a snowy mountain but I knew that probably I wasn't going to love that again, al I did it, and it was the funniest thing ever.

DAY 10

That day I went to see another handball game from my exchange student in Weẞling, the game was very good and interesting because on the other team they were people from our school and class, so it was a match between known people.

The funny part came when we went to a frozen lake. I mean, the only times I've seen frozen lakes were in movies, al going to a place that it's normally pure water and liquid, and being able to step in and slide through it was very cool 

DAY 15

After two weeks, I perfectly knew my way round the school I knew my schedule even without looking and it was a very comfortable routine.

That day I went for the 4th time to Munich, and it was one of my favorite days in Munich because I went with my friend Adriana to music stores. 

I completely love music and everything related to it, so for me, entering on a shop full of vinyls and CDs made me so happy. 

The first store we went was about older music, older groups so that's why I don't understand so much about the artist there, but as soon as I saw ABBA I got super excited 

Later we went to another shop and there I bought a vinyl from the artist Tyler, The Creator

DAY 17 

That day we went to another frozen lake, but in this case it was for skating, I gave my host family the idea of going ice skating so on Sunday we went to skate to a frozen lake. Not gonna lie, the views were incredibly beautiful, they made me feel like I was on a movie, but the ice was terrible 😭. I laughed a lot because I kept falling over and over again because of two reasons:

1.-The ice had a lot of bumps and holes

2.- I'm a terrible ice skater

But fortunately I didn't get injured and they were just dumb falls

DAY 22 

It was definitely a tradition, every Friday I went with my spamishbfrisn Adriana to Munich, we already knew our way around Munich, we knew were we wanted to go and we didn't even have to open Google maps.

But we went to the coolest place ever, a cat cafe. 🥹

It made me so happy, the cats were sleeping or on their own world, but then, a cat sat next to us and my heart completely melted, he played on the chair next to us and started sleeping, she was so cute.

DAY 24

That day I went to the zoo with my host family, and it was honestly incredible, I saw animals I've never seen before, such as giraffes, polar bears, even elephants. 🤯 I felt really shocked because I've never seen them before so It was incredibly cool, but those animals weren't the only ones we saw. We also saw a rhino, sloths, orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, basically all kinds of monkeys. But I was mesmerized by the monkeys part, I mean, I knew monkeys and humans were similar basically because it's basic science and because of some documentaries I've seen, but seeing them acting similar to us in real life was incredibly mesmerizing. The way they stretched, how they played, how they reacted to different things, incredible.

DAY 28

And here it  comes one of my favorite days on my Erasmus time.

On the afternoon the dad told me if I wanted to go to a heated and indoor water park, at the start I thought it was going to be kinda simple because there's no way you can do on Germany in winter on an indoor place, but I was COMPLETLY wrong. I don't have absolutely nothing to say because even almost one month after im shocked 

On one part it was a water park, which was really cool by the way, but the incredible part was the enormous swimming pool they had, because it wasn't only inside, the swimming pools went out of the place going outdoors, and I wasn't even cold because the water was very warm, so the contrast was amazing, because when you go outside you see a lot of smoke going out of the water and fading onto the night, I have no words to describe the amazed and impressed I was, and I definitely want to come back one day.

DAY 33 (COMING BACK TO SPAIN)

I literally had no words to describe how thankful I was with my host family for treating me as their third kid, saying goodbye to Martha, my exchange student, wasn't that hard because I was going to see her two weeks after, but it was hard for me to say goodbye to her parents, her sister and friends. Because they all made me live an incredible month that I'm not going to forget ever, her friends made me another one on the group and her family another one on the family, I felt seen and included and that is one of the most beautiful feelings ever.

Thanks to this program I've learned so much and I've seen that I'm capable of doing more things that I thought. It made me see that there's more world apart from Spain, which was obvious, but living on another country for once month it's like a dream, like once day you go to sleep on your country, you live a whole month full of new experiences and then you wake up. Also I'm really thankful with the people that made possible this type of things, it's literally the best thing a student can do. 

Well, so here it comes the end of my Erasmus blog, I hope you liked it and you enjoyed it as much as I did. Goodbye!