I’ve spent the last six weeks traveling around La Réunion, and it continues to amaze me how much there is to see on this island that is the size of Saarland. It has also given me time to reflect back on my semester here.

My plan to avoid the bubble of Erasmus students and instead to get to know Réunionnais society and culture up close and bring my French to a new level – all that failed horribly.

On the one hand, five months is hardly enough time to really immerse yourself in a new culture. On the other hand, I underestimated how easy it is to meet other people doing an Erasmus exchange and form close friendships with them, too. I didn’t want to deprive myself of that – even though there were a lot of Germans in the group. I would like to thank all of my friends here for making this such a wonderful time and for expanding my mind in so many ways and directions.

I got a new sense of my own body after taking a dancehall dance class. I discovered a love for hiking and for the peace and quiet of the mountains. I am now the proud owner of a diving license and spent a crazy day scrambling, jumping, and drifting down a river. But all in all, I still gained a lot from being a visitor in this Creole culture even for just a short time. The island’s history is marked by slavery, which produced a métissage, a special kind of diversity that, for me, disrupts the sweeping stereotypes behind terms like “Indian,” “African,” or “European” culture that are so present in our world.

It was a bit naive of me to think that over the course of just one Erasmus semester I could really live in a foreign culture and feel like I knew it thoroughly afterward. Still, my time here was very intense, and I learned an incredible amount about myself and the world, which is so valuable.

And now it's just one adventure after the next: I'm leaving on a four-week trip to the neighboring island of Madagascar. Take care!