I was able to make contact with London via internal colleagues, but I had to keep at it, as it was sometimes very difficult to get an answer from London at all. But after a number of emails, phone calls and reminders, I was finally accepted for my internship at Wayra UKa subsidiary of Telefónica. This promotes innovation in the field of new information and communication technologies by setting up, developing and continuously supporting start-ups with the help of financial resources and qualified coaches and mentors.

The Acceleration team is responsible for working directly with startups and coaches. For me, this meant attending meetings with startups to find out their problems and develop solutions, organizing coaching sessions to generate the greatest benefit for the startups and monitoring the coaching activities, such as time, quality, etc. I was very well received by the Wayra team. The Wayra team welcomed me very well and assigned me many tasks after a short time.

… because you worry about how the German accent will sound and whether you can think of the right vocabulary. But this fear subsided on the very first day when I realized that the team is very international and that every imaginable accent is accepted without comment. I got to know employees from Peru, Spain, Greece, America, Romania, Russia, Ghana and other countries around the world, which made it difficult to understand everything perfectly, but also eased the fear of not speaking perfect English.

Wayra is located in Piccadilly Circus – right in the heart of London – so I was able to experience a very authentic insight into one of Europe’s most important economic centers every day. Unfortunately, this insight into English working life also included the experience of the hopelessly overcrowded Central Line at rush hour. But you soon get used to these rather unpleasant tube journeys, as I had to travel 45 minutes to my apartment in Stratford every day.

I lived in a large student residence at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, which was only built in 2012 and was therefore still in very good condition. The rooms were very small and the kitchen was a bit of a mess as I had to share it with nine other people, but overall I really liked the student residence. The location right next to the large Westfield Stratford City shopping center was also a great advantage of the hall of residence for shopping.

At the weekends, I tried to discover as much as possible in London and the surrounding area. Of course, I visited the typical tourist hotspots – Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, Hyde Park and Tower Bridge are all part and parcel of London. But I was also very impressed by less popular sights such as Covent Garden Market, Portobello Market and Borough Market, Primrose Hill, Barbican Conservatory, the very exciting museums and the numerous very well-maintained parks. I was also able to take day trips to Cambridge, Oxford and Brighton at a low cost, which gave me an authentic view of England outside the big capital.

My absolute highlight of my stay abroad was the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, which I watched live in Windsor. I set off on the train early in the morning and, like tens of thousands of other people, made my way to Winsor Castle to watch the wedding on the big screens. Thousands of people with flags, pennants and other souvenirs erupted in cheers as soon as a member of the royal family appeared on the screen – the atmosphere was simply breathtaking. And when the carriage with the newlyweds finally drove past less than three meters away from me, I couldn’t stop myself from cheering either.

The only disadvantage of London, as is generally known, is the high cost of living. I am all the happier about the financial support I received from the Erasmus+ programme and the administrative help from the International Office, which helped me a great deal with the organizational work involved in my stay abroad.