My Favorite Study Abroad Course!

I’m currently sitting in a train on day five of my favorite field trip I’ve ever been on for a class. The Wadden Sea: Intertidal Ecosystems endangered by human impact (BL/ES 370) is a course available to students in the Environmental Science and Sustainability program in Freiburg. The goal of the course is to introduce students to concepts like tidal patterns, climate change, human interactions with coastal ecosystems, food chains and energy transfer.

The instructor, Michael Anstett, is really fun and designed the course around students’ interests. We choose our own topics for large reports and presentations, and he allows us to dive deeper into discussion topics that we want to learn about.

The highlight of the course is a five-day field trip to the Wadden Sea, which is bordered by Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands. The sea is unique because of the coastal mudflats which provide habitats for organisms like mussels, clams, crabs, and worms. The Wadden Sea is also a critical stop in the East Atlantic Flyway, which is a long path of migration for birds coming from the Arctic. Some of the bird species that pass through include the arctic tern, which has the longest migration of any bird, traveling up to more than 50,000 miles in one year.

There are islands on the mudflats called Halligen, where people live and work. Some are employed through government contracts to stabilize the coastline by building walls to break the waves and reduce erosion.

The Wadden Sea also has beautiful sandy beaches. One famous beach is Sylt, a famous vacation destination for Germans, particularly wealthier families.

Day 1:

Day 1 of the field trip was a travel day from 7:30 A.M. to 5:45 P.M. The distance from Freiburg Germany, to Breklum, the small town where we stayed, is just about the longest distance one can drive through Germany. We lodged at a guest house that served us dinner and breakfast, and there was also lots of sports equipment available for guests. We played frisbee, table tennis, soccer, and badminton.

Day 2:

The most anticipated part of the trip was walking across the mudflats during low tide. Our instructor Michael is friends with a ranger at the Wadden Sea National Park, so he guided us across the sea. It can be unsafe to cross the mudflats without an experienced guide because there’s only a short window of low tide, and the water level rises very fast when the tide flows back in.

We started walking at around 12 P.M. and reached the Hallig for lunch at around 2:30 P.M. It was definitely one of the most unforgettable things I have done while studying abroad. We saw sea grass, crabs, mussels, clams, lugworms, and jellyfish. We discussed how these different organisms play a role in the ecosystem and how they are impacted by the tides.

After lunch we hiked back to the mainland and got dinner at a seafood restaurant. (One of my favorite parts of going on field trips with IES Abroad Freiburg is that dinners are typically sponsored, and I am able to try different yummy foods from various regions of Germany).

Day 3:

I wasn’t expecting to enjoy the activities of this day as much as I did. In the morning we traveled to Beltringharder Koog, which is a low area of salt marsh land surrounded by raised dikes. We hid out in bird blinds and watched birds with binoculars. Michael helped us to identify bird species and told us fun facts about them. After that we visited a museum called the Multimar Wattforum, where we explored some of the concepts we learned in class. I was especially excited because the museum had a tank with seahorses, which are my favorite animals.

Day 4:

Beach day! We traveled about one-hour to the northernmost point in Germany: Sylt. We walked through the sand dunes and learned about dune formation and where different plants grow, then had plenty of time to frolic on the beach. We made a sand castle, collected shells, and splashed at the edge of the shore. The sand was super soft and white, and the beach was almost empty. It felt like we had an entire private beach for ourselves. After our excursion, we went back to the town and everyone got to order an icecream on IES Abroad Freiburg.

Day 5:

Another 11-hour travel day…that is the least exciting part of the field trip, but in my opinion the distance is worth it for the destination. Also, trains go by faster when you’re with friends (and when you are writing a blog, of course). IES Abroad offers a lot of courses, and this is absolutely the coolest I have taken! I would highly recommend it if you are planning on doing this program!