The first experience that I had arriving in Düsseldorf, Germany was not at all what I expected. It was raining: mud everywhere, my suitcase dripping, cars splashing dirty water over my shoes. It was not the sunny, cheerful Germany that I remembered from my previous experiences. I arrived at my student housing room, only to find that I didn’t have the proper hook-ups for the internet on my computer. I felt overwhelmed, tired, and ready to go home… and it was the first day!

Several days later, I began my work in the Institute of Microbiology at the University. I met my supervisor and the rest of my colleagues and found them to be extremely kind and helpful, but I was worried. I had only ever worked with human specimens at my lab at home, and certainly had never worked with fungi. I kept learning as time went on in the lab, but found that when I would go home at the end of the day, I continued to worry about if I was going to mess up the next day, or if I was doing a “good enough” job. Research is a very hard thing to judge yourself on because so many experiments just don’t work! It may not be anything you did, and it might be just that the science doesn’t work, and you may never find out the truth. Because of this, it is very hard to always be confident in your actions because it is hard to know if you messed up or not.

However, after several weeks of elevated anxiety, I realized that I was there to learn, and was not expected to already know everything! Once I accepted this, I began to have a lot more fun. I met lots of friendly people in my lab and started using German with them instead of English so that I could practice more (I have six years of German experience). I was starting to find my groove. I began to travel on the weekends and had some really amazing experiences.

One of the most memorable places that I visited was Amsterdam. This hub of culture and people was simply awe-inspiring. With beautiful architecture and winding canals, the city came together in a way that was clearly a result of hundreds of years of precise cultivation. The feeling that you get knowing that people walked and lived and laughed in a place so much longer before you is something that I have never experienced in the United States.

I also took the free time that I had on the weekends to travel around to a multitude of cities in
Germany that are not huge tourist cities. I found that I was able to practice my German a lot more in these areas and felt as though I was really a resident of the country.

One of the best things about my study abroad program was that I was able to fulfill requirements for my degree while learning about both the topic of my degree and about life itself. It is an experience that I will remember forever.

Name: Jayna Lenders
Status: Senior
Major: Genomics and Molecular Genetics
Hometown: Plymouth, Michigan
Program: Molecular Biology Research in Duesseldorf, Germany