- Constanze Borchert -

After a semester in Leiden I am now back in Stuttgart and I wonder if something is different now than for my exchange semester. I am back in my old room, meeting the same friends and not much has changed when I look at my world. But I feel different now. For half a year I saw many new things, learned a new language, met new people, lived in a different culture and during this time I was away from my German routines. Now I wonder: what do I want to change? What still suits me? What should I do, especially because I notice in my German life and routines that something really happened in my exchange semester and now I see the world a little differently.
I think there are many parallels between my experience and Pentecost. That event had also changed Jesus' disciples, not so much outwardly but spiritually. They learned a lot from Jesus, and experienced Easter and Ascension Day. Now they can finally go back to home and go back to work and routines. But they don't. They begin to tell about Jesus and his story, and they shape a new routine and task in their lives.
An exchange semester may not be such a big event. But it is an event in my life and I would like to be changed by it and adjust my routines. Just as my experience with God has changed and will change my life before.