NEW OWL IN THE NEST!

Dear readers,

I’m Tania, a new owl in the EULe nest. If you are regulars you already know Steffi, Monique, and Sarah. If not, you’ll have the pleasure of reading some of their beautiful articles soon. Together we fly around the campus looking for interview prey and listening attentively to your true opinions, achievements, problems, and rare or memorable situations. You surely know that this blog exists to give greater importance and depth to our experiences as students in Bremen. With each article, we aim for you to find points of connection, new interests, and perhaps your own experiences and needs reflected in our hoots.

It’s not that I want to keep my identity anonymous, or that I think my life story is zero interesting to you. In fact, I wanna say I’m as active, cute, and interested in education matters as Jess Day (New Girl). Here are actually a couple of details linked to what you can expect from my writing —after all, this is a presentation article: the first is that I’m still learning German, so I’ll be writing in English most of the time. The truth is that although 87% of the students at Uni Bremen are German and speak German, another 13% of students like me still don’t feel completely confident with the language. Our Uni has about 25 English-language and international study programs. I hope that my articles will be interesting especially for those people. This brings me to the second aspect: I am a student with a migration background.

The place that used to be my home. (My best friend took this photo).

I come from Mexico City, an absolutely chaotic and beautiful place in its chaos; a space that I would like everyone to visit at least once in their life. However, I must admit that I like my new city a little more (sorry compatriots who might read this): Bremen and its almost perfect distribution, its greenery, the lake and the river that I keep confusing all the time … and, of course, its university. Here I study the Master in Romanistik International, a program with the option of a double degree with Madrid. Hence, my last two semesters were spent in Spain learning literature and linguistics: writing and reading a lot.

So, you can rely on my experience as an international student dealing with scholarships, bureaucracy, new study styles, and gray areas. Also trust my tips on writing academic papers with style 😉. Before coming to Bremen I completed a first master’s degree in Natural Resources Management and Development in Cologne. I do think research is exciting.

Adapting, learning to overcome self-doubt, and exploiting the opportunities that student life offers here has become my full-time occupation since four years ago when I decided to study in Germany. There have been many setbacks and moments when I have wanted to throw in the towel (in my favorite anecdote my biometric photos are rejected at the Ausländerbehörde and I end up sitting in front of a machine that I do not understand and that refuses to take a useful picture of me: I am crying I have no coins and I have lost my turn if this does not come out in 5 minutes). The point is that I want to share stuff like that with you, because it doesn’t make me ashamed anymore, but proud of what I can overcome. That’s why I’m interested in directing an owl’s gaze specifically at all colleagues who have migrated or dealt with multiculti situations, or to anyone interested in the process.

This is not a biometric photo.

Stick around if you also want to know more about other worlds that coexist in our space. Let’s see … what else … oh, yes, I am 27 years old.

Hope you rock winter semester 22/23. Good luck with this new beginning (too)!

See you soon,

Your Tania.