Carlos Gomez Bravo

Hey there my new telecollaborative co-students,

I´m Carlos, 24 years old, education student in Heidelberg but born in Offenbach am Main which is a different state than where Heidelberg is located. I guess for you and your understanding of distances it is just down the road.

My father is from Spain but he predominantly grew up in Germany. I'm not just Spanish but also German because my mother is German. Asking me to which nation I feel more connected has one simple answer. Connection is not just defined about the nationality written on your passport. It is more what you feel and what you think you are. About the things we experience in our lives and the connection to our ancestors. I like both countries (even the weather in Germany is mostly not the best ;)) we have beautiful castles and a beautiful landscape. You can use Heidelberg as an example. In Spain I love the warm ocean, smell of pine trees and the music and language full of life. Hence I feel very connected to both countries. I used to live five years in Alicante, Spain when I was a toddler. My parents decided to move back to Germany and so did I. Therefore I spent most of my life in Germany. Nevertheless I saw quite a bit from our world and what I can tell you is that travelling is one of the most educating and fascinating things we can and should do. You learn about new cultures, experience new wonderful places, global things are more clearer, life shows other different perspectives and you make good friends all around the world! After my high school degree I spent three months in Santa Barbara, California. Fortunately I had the chance to travel to different cities and states and also over the border to Mexico. Other countries I´ve visited are for example all the countries bordering Germany, Egypt, Cuba, New Zealand and Australia. In Australia I spent my last semester studying abroad at the Australian Catholic University and with an internship at a school where many different cultures got together which was amazing! Further practical experiences would be my integrated semester internship here in Hockenheim, Germany and the exchange program with the University of Education in Olomouc, Czech Republic for my additional qualification I want to achieve which is called German as Foreign Language.

I´m glad to have the opportunity to study at my University because we have the chance to experience more real-life-situations and a lot of practice if we want it.