Midstay: Köln & Düsseldorf

During my year in Germany as an exchange student with AFS (the American Field Service), one of the requirements was to participate in a Midstay program. Normally you would get to choose a week long seminar and stay with another family for another week near the location of the seminar. However, my scholarship required that I attend the seminar on Islam that was in Cologne, not far from where I was currently staying.

The German-American Solidarity Fund was set up after the terrorist attacks that happened on September 11th, 2001. This scholarship only lasted a few years, and was awarded to only 10 students a year. I originally applied for the Congress-Bundestag exchange program, but after that failed, I was encouraged to apply for the solidarity fund. I uniquely qualified. You had to live in New York City, Western Pennsylvania, or Washington D.C.

Without my family’s knowing, I mailed my essay for the scholarship, and was later awarded. So myself and 9 others joined the 100 Congress-Bundestag students, but with one qualifier - the 10 of us GASFer’s had to attend the midstay conference on Islam. So, for a week in March 2005, we left for a youth hostel in Cologne, and immersed ourselves in studying the religion of Islam. At that time, Cologne had a large Muslim population, mostly immigrants from Turkey, which made it the perfect location for our studies. Overall, it was an incredibly unique experience and was helpful in understanding my own belief system. During that time we had the opportunity to meet the mayor of Cologne, we saw many different parts of the city, we visited Mosques, and our tiny group formed friendships that still exist today.

By the time the Midstay came, it was a nice break for the host student from their host family and vice versa. I was incredibly fortunate to have such a great host family, some of my fellow exchange students switch families a couple of times during their stay.

Many of us ended up with Midstay families in Düsseldorf, so after our seminar we all boarded a train together to go discover a new city. Once we arrived, most of the students were immediately greeted by their families on the train platform, while a few of us were still waiting for ours to arrive. I waited and waited and when the one other student left of the platform parent arrived, I ended up alone on the platform. Eventually my temporary host mom arrived.

My Midstay family was rich and mean, although my host brother Jannik, was nice. They had a beautiful, fortified home on one of the most expensive streets in the city, and I got to sleep on the floor of my host brothers room. I tried to spend as much time out of the house as possible. I would meet up with my fellow exchange students and we would explore the city.

I happened to be in Düsseldorf during Nacht der Museen, an annual event where all of the museums in the city are open to the public for an evening of arts, culture, and entertainment. That night, my host mother was having a dinner party with important guests. I had to help prepare and they insisted that I serve the meal (they thought it was funny that an American was serving them). It was late in the evening, around 10 pm, that she finally gave me permission to leave and experience a little bit of Nacht der Museen. I was happy for the Midstay to end and get back to the Bettgenhausers, my host family in little old Neitersen.