Pretty much 16 years ago, there was this little girl who just loved horses so much. Fortunately for her, her mom’s hobby was horse-riding which allowed her to start taking riding lessons on a little white pony. She loved spending her time in the barn grooming and taking care of the animals. That is how it started back then, and today she is quite tall and almost 22 years old, however still having the same huge passion.

As you might have figured, this girl is me, Saskia Dewitz. I was born in Hannover in 1985 and 4 years later got a little sister, Carola. We had a very nice childhood playing often outside with friends in our garden or trying to take care of our guinea pigs or our dog, and of course, horse-riding!

I went through the normal German school system, however when I was in 11th grade I had the great opportunity to go to the US for a year. I lived for 11 months with a host-family in Mesa, Arizona, pretty much in the desert. It was one of the most intense experiences I’ve ever had, especially witnessing September 11th. In summer the temperatures were above 50°C sometimes and during winter rarely colder than 15°C (which was quite a change for me being used to the weather in northern Germany). I still had a host-brother who’s 2 years younger and my wonderful host-parents treated me warmly just as if I was their real daughter. I made lots of friends and at high-school I often felt like in one of those stereotypical teenage-movies…

For graduation my real family came over to pick me up and we did an amazing trip along the west-coast.

I came back in 2002 and still had to complete 2 years of high-school in Germany.In spring 2003 I got accepted in a youth delegation to represent Hannover in its partner-city Hiroshima. The trip included both, formal and informal parts. On the one hand we had formal meetings with the majors of both cities and put down a wreath at the peace-ceremony on the occasion of the drop of the atomic bomb. On the other hand we also traveled through the country and stayed for a while in host-families. It was a great trip, diving into a complete different culture. The food was a bit hard to get used to, especially when it was still moving on the plates…and the Japanese always got shocked at my height (sometimes even the beds were too short).
The year after it was our turn to be the hosts for a Japanese delegation.

By that time I had to make up my mind concerning my plans after high-school. Coincidentally I read an article about IUB in our local newspaper and, to cut it short, this is how I ended up here, studying Integrated Social Sciences in my 6th semester now. Ever after my stay in Japan and the US it was clear to me that I want to work and live in an international environment which makes IUB the perfect place to study for me. As already said above, Horses play an important role in my life and I’m lucky to have my own one, “Glückstag” :-). That means that I’m trying to go home and riding as often as possible. During summer I love going on competitions especially when we are successful ;)

I’ve been living in Mercator for more than 2 ½ years now and all I can say is that time just flies by here. The whole time I have been living with the same room-mate and I want to use this to thank her for all the great times we’ve had together, talking, ordering Pizza, watching stupid series, partying, discussing our courses and professors, and chatting on msn even if both of us are at home…
It never gets boring here, the various events create a very diverse atmosphere. It will be very hard to leave at the end of this semester and I will miss everyone a lot.
In addition to studying, hanging out with friends and partying, I’m working in the Social Psychology Lab as a student assistant. I help recruiting new participants and conduct studies with them. It’s a very nice job, since it never gets boring and there are always new tasks to do.

In September I will start my Master’s Program at the University of Bath. It is called “Euromaster” and the first 3 months will be in Bath (UK), followed by 3 months in Seattle at University of Washington, finishing with 6 months in Berlin at the Humboldt University. Thus I have a very exiting time ahead of me, at the same time wishing that my IUB time is not yet over.

I wish everyone a wonderful spring semester (with hopefully lots of sun) and all the best for their next semesters at IUB or at graduate schools or wherever they might be :-)

My room	Sylt (Northern German Coast)
Some of my friends	Arizona this Summer

With my sister shopping