My experience as an exchange student in Ireland

Hi guys!

My name is Felix, I'm from Germany and I was an exchange student in Ireland from 08/2024 to 05/2025. I stayed with a host family in a small town next to Cork City. My experience was absoliutely amazing for most parts. I was lucky enough to get a place in TY, which is an optional year in secondary school that doesn't focus too much on academics. Of course my first week was very stressful. I arrived on a saturday and my school started the monday after, so I didnt even havy my uniform for the first day of school. It's very awkward when you and only the other few exchange students are the only one's without a uniform on the first day of school. Since it was only an introduction day and I had the next day off, I had enough time to get my uniform the day after. 

On my second day in school everthing was very confusing. The way the rooms were numbered didn't make much sense in my school so I got lost pretty frequently at the start. I had a talk with the vice principal to get my school e-mail and thus was late to class. My class teacher gave the class a tour of the building on introduction day but not a lot had stuck so I was about 15 minutes late to class. The teachers were mostly very understanding when something confused me or other exchange students, except in some cases. There was a Spanish girl in my science class and the teacher would always give her shit for nothing at all, and sometimes teachers weren't aware of the fact that I was an exchange student, especially towards the end when I didn't really have a German accent anymore. One time that happened during a maths test when I didn't understand a word and my teacher said I should have learned that for my junior cert.

Going back to the uniform,

My coordinator told us Irish schools are pretty strickt when it comes to uniforms. He told us we couldn't have dyed hair or wear runners in school unless we have PE that day. Thus I bought a pair of black leather shoes that you would wear to a funeral. It turns out my school wasn't that strict about your appearance, in fact, most schools aren't. My school allowed dyed hair and heavy make-up, even some piercings. Your shoes didn't matter as long as they were plain black and weren't high heels or something like that. I recommend to check out photos from your school before you buy stuff.

Contacts

I found it very easy to find friends in Ireland. Irish people are a lot more open and talkative than German people so it's very easy to find people tp be around with. I found my friends right on my first day. I somehow managed to sniff out the queer people in my year and join them on my first day but even if you don't find a friendgroup right on the first day, you will eventually. My tipp is to befriend non-exchange students as much as you can. Of course I had 1 or 2 German friends, one of them left after christmas and the other one lived almost an hour away, but having friends from whatever country you're in really helps you getting integrated into the culture and language. Having a few close friends there also makes it easier to stay connected in the future. I still text with my friends every day and I'm going back to visit in autumn. One of my closest friendss is coming over in the winter.

How has it helped me?

I have been stuggling with anxiety and I'm a massive overthinker. I'm trans and have massive dysphoria when it comes to my voice, especially when I have to sing in front of other people. I was lucky to have an amazing and supportive friendgroup during my exchange year that has helped me a lot. I'm a lot more open now and even got a small solo in my school's musical. I'm not as scared to talk to people as I was before.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask me in the comments, I'll be happy to answer.