Hello everybody, my name is Paula and I am 19 years old. I am from Germany, Aachen and since August 2018, I live in India, Manoor-Padukere. I will stay here until the end of June 2019, and I live in a host family with 2 host sisters (16 & 18 years  and 1 very nice Grandma. I am working at Padukere Government Higher Primary School in Manoor, and every morning, I only need 5 minutes to go there.

I decided to come to India because I wanted to live in a different culture for 1 year, and my father, who was here for many times, told me so many nice things about India. So, when I came here, I was very excited because I did not know if I will come to a host family or not. Now, I am very happy and thankful that I may live in this lovely family.

When I came in August, it was very rainy because of the monsoon, and during the first days, it was not possible to go to school because of heavy rain. In those days, I had a lot of time to get in contact with my host family, and to spend time with them, as much as possible.

During the first weeks, I did not teach the students in school, because it was important to observe all the classes and get to know what I can teach there. Now, the teaching gets better and better, and it is really nice to see how the children learn.

In the first months, I went on many weekend trips with some of the other volunteers. One time, we travelled to Hampi. It is an amazing city, and when we walked around there, I recognised for the first time, that all places in India are different!

On another weekend, I travelled to Jog Falls. These are one of the biggest waterfalls in India. It is also a very nice place, and I really enjoyed my time, but I think when the monsoon starts in June, there will be more water which falls down.

After some weeks in India, I went to my first Indian wedding. Because of this, I bought my first Saree. It was so nice to see how different the ceremony of a wedding is, in contrast to Germany.

After 3 months, I travelled to North India for 3 ½  weeks, together with 3 other girls. Our first stop was Mumbai, and our last one was Darjeeling. In total, we travelled to 10 different places. We got so many new experiences, and saw India from many different sides.

Before I came to India, I did not know that this is such a varied country. The culture, the food, the weather, the people and so many factors change from place to place. In Jaisalmer, we went to the desert, and had the opportunity to go on a camel safari. In Manali (the Himalayas), we did paragliding and in Darjeeling, we bought the famous tea and of course, tried different sorts of it.

All these experiences made my life richer, and I am sure that every day I will get in contact with a new situation, and learn new knowledge about people. I really enjoy my time in this country with so many different cultures, and I am excited about everything that will happen in the future.