Exchange students from Brazil in Handrup, Germany

There’s no time for homesickness as their time in Handrup has been too exciting so far: Since January Heloisa Medeiros, Carolina Tamanini, Vitória Gomes, Isabella Dorow und Gabriel Comandoli have been in Germany, more precisely at Gymnasium Leoninum in Handrup. Most of the time they participate in the regular lessons and sometimes they have special German lessons. In the afternoons and on the weekends, they discover the region and the country together with their host families.

“I have always wanted to take part in an exchange”, Vitória says. But she had never imagined that this would really happen, also due to financial reasons. “Luckily, we only have to pay for the flight, not for the organization”, she tells happily.

The reasons for the five Brazilians having applied for the exchange are the same for all of them: They want to learn the language, get to know the culture and embark on an adventure.

Heloisa, Carolina, Vitória, Isabella and Gabriel are from Brusque, which is a city with about 140,000 inhabitants in Brazil’s south, where they go to a Dehonian school. They say that in their home country there is not a big difference between a public and a private school and that they are happy that they can go to a Catholic school. Cathesis is part of their everyday life at school: They deal with questions of faith in general or the meaning of a good life.

The young people are fascinated by Handrup and the places they live in with their host families as well as by Germany in general. They all agree that they like German architecture. And they are lucky to be able to participate in the exchange at all. Moreover, similarly to their German hosts they are glad that they all get along so well and partly have the same interests or hobbies even though they have only met online a few times or written some e-mails before meeting in reality in Germany.

The exchange students soon noticed the many differences between Germany and Brazil and everyday life in school: “It is cold here and the days are short because the sun rises late and sets early.” This is probably the most striking difference.              

Furthermore, the young people are not used to being able to drop certain subjects in high school at some point. Likewise, they were surprised that students can raise their hand if they have an answer to a question during a lesson. “In our school the teacher decides who has to say something”, Vitória says.

What else is there that they like about Handrup? “That they have Brazilian Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus”, they agree. “This makes us feel secure, especially if there’s something unknown or unusual for us.”

(Texts and pictures adapted according to www.scj.de, website of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, published on 3^rd February 2023)