Check Mark On My Bucket List-Murray Dale – Germany Exchange
Travelling to Germany has always been on my bucket list. I truly have got the ultimate trip through being selected Junior Farmers’
Association of Ontario exchange delegate with the Land Youth organization in Germany. Although my involvement with JF has been only a mere three years, I have truly been privileged a chance to see a different culture through the agriculture medium.
I come from a small cash crop farm with a few hundred acres outside of Clinton, located in Huron County. I have dedicated myself to the electrical trade, in the Electrical Engineering Technology program at Georgian College, which I completed in December. Choosing to apply to Germany was not only due to my interests in their progressive agriculture, but as well as their electrical progressiveness. I feel they have such a thriving electrical grid as opposed to Ontario.
I am now spending my fourth day here in Germany and I can honestly say this trip exceeded all my expectations, as it has been amazing so far with my first host family. I started my trip with a flight from Toronto to Frankfurt where I had spent one night there to see the city.
Then I hopped on a train for 3 hrs to Braunschweig where my first host Vanessa Meyer was able to pick me up. In two days I have already seen a number of farms, towns and soccer games in the brief time I have been here. The Germanic people are overly warm and welcoming while their food is on point and the beer is cold.
Future plans are not set in stone, but tomorrow I will be able to see one of the largest factories in the world by the biggest auto maker in the world. The Wolfsburg Volkswagen plant.
I enjoy being part of an organization that represents the Canadian agricultural culture, heritage, and future. In doing this, I am able to network and make lasting friendships with people who you would never normally meet through normal vacations and that’s what makes this experience so unique. The funny story with this is I have already met Germans who have been to Huron County to work and even a former JF exchange delegate. This has all been by chance just in the brief time I have been here. The bar has already been set so high for the rest of the trip, and I still would not be surprised if and when it gets better.
