Joseph Ritter

I visited Canada before and I had only good impressions and memories of this country. So it was not really a hard decision to come to Canada when the opportunity arose. Additionally, it will never be that easy for me again to visit the North American continent in comparison to other European countries. 

My home university provides very detailed information about any partner university and Trent was no exception.  After talking to my study abroad advisors in Germany and connecting with Alumni who also went to Trent or Canada at least, I could make my decision quickly.

I fortunately do not have difficulties in adapting to different environments. Probably the biggest challenge was the way the academics are built up. I am not used to having weekly assignments, midterms or even participation/attendance grades. It took a while, but I could figure it out eventually. 

Because I was lucky with the way my schedule was structured, I had a lot of free time, which allowed me to travel a lot. My biggest journey was all the way to the west coast to Vancouver, which was an absolute highlight of my time here. I was lucky enough to find a time in which flights and accommodations were quite cheap. Other more accessible destinations were Niagara Falls and Algonquin National Park, which are both recommendations from me. For those trips I would also recommend renting a car, getting there by public transportation is quite the challenge. Toronto is an obvious city to visit where I have been multiple times, for example to watch an NBA game of the Toronto Raptors. 

Living in residence was not problematic at all. Although I was not used to sharing an apartment with other people the experience was very nice. But that may also be due to the fact that I was lucky enough to live with people who know how to take care of an apartment.

• Meeting new and very kind people
• Exploring nature
• Watching an NBA & NHL game