I began learning German in fourth grade. German isn't a very common language to learn in the United States, but it was a mandatory part of my school's curriculum. In ninth grade, I could decide to continue with German or switch to Spanish or French. I decided to stick with German because I enjoyed the language and knew that there was an opportunity at my high school to do a two-week exchange with a German high school. The first time I visited Germany, I was 16 years old. The two weeks spent in Nürnberg, a city in Bavaria (a state in the southeast of Germany) were the best two weeks of my life up until that point. I learned so much, my German improved, and I made friendships that I knew would last.
I moved to Boston, Massachusetts for college and studied international studies and German. During my time in college, I received funding and scholarships to travel to Germany for short periods to study and work on a documentary. The longest I have been in Germany before has been my six-month study abroad experience in Berlin, so living in Chemnitz for a year will be the longest journey so far.
I am living and working in Chemnitz. Chemnitz is the third biggest city in Saxony, a federal state (in German, this word is Bundesland) in the east. Saxony (also called Sachsen in German) borders both Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital city is Dresden. Chemnitz is the third-largest city in Saxony with 243,000 people. There is a university called Technische Universität Chemnitz. It specializes in STEM fields but also has majors in the humanities and social sciences. I hope to enroll there part-time.
