• Jonathan Schneider
  • Jonathan Schneider

Students of the World

Six schools, three countries – our biggest adventure! In Malaysia, India and the Outback we followed students’ daily lives, met inspiring people and captured stories that show how much more there is to life than the classroom. Leia mais
  • Inicio da viagem
    10 de agosto de 2025

    Abflug mit Turbulenzen

    9 de agosto, Alemanha ⋅ 🌙 24 °C

    Heute war bis um 15 Uhr ein sehr entspannter Tag - bis ich für den Flug einchecken wollte... es kam die Meldung "Check-in nicht möglich, Flug liegt in der Vergangenheit" 🤯

    Und tatsächlich, ich bin felsenfest davon ausgegangen am Sonntag um 13:30 Uhr zu fliegen, hatte aber einen Flug für Samstag 13:30 Uhr gebucht. Wo auch immer mein Gehirn ne falsche Abzweigung genommen hat, obwohl ich vor fünf Tagen alle Buchungen noch einmal auf Richtigkeit überprüft habe, ich habe ganz entspannt und ohne Stress meinen Flug verpasst...

    Nach einem ersten Schock habe ich schnell eine Lösung gesucht und auch gefunden: Neuer Flug um 22:20 Uhr von Frankfurt. Ich habe also extrem schnell gepackt, alles in meine zwei Rucksäcke gestopft und bin mit der Bahn nach Frankfurt gefahren. Jetzt bin ich am Gate, etwas entspannter und die Reise kann losgehen ✈️
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  • Tolles Frühstück und Fahrt nach Penang

    11 de agosto, Malásia ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

    First day in Malaysia - The adventure begins! I missed my plane back in Europe so I arrived around 12 hours later than originally planed...

    Before brekkie I picked up the hire car. Breakfast itself was delicious with heaps of choice! The drive to Penang took longer than expected thanks to traffic everywhere…
    Once in Penang, we met up with Siang Ching, who’s been organising everything for the coming days. She is super nice and we felt in good hands right after our first meeting. Afterwards we checked into the hotel, explored the neighbourhood, and enjoyed a tasty dinner 😊
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  • Penang

    11–18 de ago., Malásia ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

    We spent a full week in Penang with Adam and Renee at their schools, and in between we were always out and about – sometimes in George Town, sometimes in the hills, around our hotel in Air Itam, or just at the beach 😊
    The island’s beautiful and has so much to offer. The best part is how affordable everything is – though of course you’re always hoping you don’t pick up some strange bug 😅
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  • Adam - Penang Free School

    12–13 de ago., Malásia ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C

    Our first school on this trip was Penang Free School – the oldest English-medium school in Southeast Asia, founded in 1816.
    We filmed with Adam over two days, following him both at school and at home. On the first evening we had dinner with him and his family, with his mum cooking a spread of his favourite dishes 😋
    At school we joined different classes, watched him at archery and in his duties as a School Prefect. The best part though was the canteen – more like a street food market, with about 20 stalls selling all sorts of food. All of it was organised by Ching, our local producer, who gave us such a warm welcome 😊
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  • Renee - Sin Min School

    14–15 de ago., Malásia ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C

    The night before our first shoot with Renee we met her for the first time, staying with her family since they live on the other side of the island – that way we could start filming straight away in the morning. Once again, both her mum and the school gave us such a warm welcome 😊
    We had lunch with the principal and even tried durian (awful). On the second day, along with the interview, we filmed at a nearby night market – the perfect ending for the shoot 😃
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  • Penang National Park

    15 de agosto, Malásia ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C

    We were told to check out “Monkey Beach” in Penang National Park. Our producer said it’d be an easy 40-minute walk – it wasn’t… it took us about 1 hour 15, over rocks, mud and through water. Alana only had Birks on, so she ended up with blisters and took the boat back with two nice Americans we met on this trail. I ran the trail and made it back to the car park in just 28 minutes 😊Leia mais

  • Cameron Highlands

    18–20 de ago., Malásia ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    Cameron Highlands was right at the top of my must-do list in Malaysia. We spent two nights there, though sadly only had one full day. Most of it went into a trip to the Mossy Forest – stunning, up at 2000m with an amazing view 😊
    Alana took some amazing pictures in Mossy Forest - one of them made it to become my phone background because it´s that perfect.
    Overall it’s much cooler in the mountains, which makes it really relaxing for me who is truly not build for hot weather (around 17°C–21°C).
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  • Kuantan

    20–22 de ago., Malásia ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C

    After a very busy first week, we’re now spending two nights by the sea at the Hyatt Regency Kuantan Resort. Thanks to my long stay in Washington for ZDF two years ago, I’d racked up so many Hyatt points that we’re practically staying for free in the King Suite – a once-in-a-lifetime experience 😃🤗
    On our only full day in Kuantan, we went completely phone-free, so not many photos. In the Club Lounge there was evening food and all sorts of drinks (all free). Alana even said that the Mojito at the beach bar was one of the best she ever had - and it was for free because I just payed with his signature (quote Alana)😋
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  • Kuala Lumpur

    22–24 de ago., Malásia ⋅ ☁️ 33 °C

    New York City is huge, but almost all the skyscrapers are packed into Manhattan – unlike Kuala Lumpur. From our hotel roof, which also has a pool on the 54th floor, you could see skyscrapers 360° all the way into the distance. Now I get why Alana wasn’t impressed by Frankfurt at all…
    Overall, a really impressive city with lots of cool markets, great restaurants and bars, and soooo many skyscrapers. On the first night we went bar-hopping and bought some shoes at a market, haggled well… and then left the shoes in a bar 😅
    On the second day, our tour guide Alana had the perfect city tour planned, with stops at amazing restaurants 😋
    On the last day, before flying to Jaipur, I took the train out to Batu Caves and afterwards we relaxed a bit on the rooftop 😊
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  • Jaipur

    25–30 de ago., Índia ⋅ 🌧 29 °C

    Jaipur – the first city in India for Alana and me. After a really terrible flight (way worse than Ryanair), which was an experience in itself, we landed at 10 pm. The drive from the airport to the hotel was… adventurous. Traffic in Morocco feels organised, structured and calm compared to India 😅
    Everyone drives everywhere, lanes, signs and traffic lights are mostly ignored, horns constantly honk, and every now and then a cow just stands in the middle of the road. The first two days we explored the city on our own. Then we spent two days filming with Gunjan, and on our last full day in Jaipur we went a bit outside the city to explore the palace and fort complex with forests and lakes.
    Overall, an incredibly exciting, crazy and amazing week in India: Delicious food, wild spontaneous encounters, a city-wide Ganesha street festival, thousands of photos taken by locals with us, and loads of unforgettable memories 🤗
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  • Gunjan

    27–28 de ago., Índia ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    We spent two days filming with Gunjan, a Year 7 student at a very typical Indian school. The impressions we gathered, both at her home and at school, were striking. We expected conditions similar to Malaysia with Adam… but experienced something completely different. The gap between men and women in India is extreme, and the divide between rich (valuable) and poor (worthless) is visible and felt everywhere. What we saw at school can’t really be called discipline anymore (last video) – it’s about loyalty, love and attachment to India. The atmosphere is often harsh, and the students are told exactly what to do and when. At the same time, the children laughed a lot, and Gunjan and her sister seem, given the circumstances, happy with their lives. At home, everything is organised by the two sisters and their mother, as both parents work. On the first day, we went with Gunjan and her sister to a temple, where we were warmly welcomed – something we noticed everywhere: Everyone is incredibly friendly 😊Leia mais

  • Amber Palace und Natur

    29 de agosto, Índia ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

    On our last full day in Jaipur, we explored the Amber Palace and some spots around it. For the palace itself, we spontaneously hired a very friendly guide for 400 Rupees (€4), who showed us around for almost two hours. Afterwards, we walked through the nearby village to a reservoir with a fort, experiencing real nature in India for the first time – very relaxing after so many days in the city 😊Leia mais

  • Mit dem Zug durch Indien

    31 de agosto, Índia ⋅ 🌧 27 °C

    From Jaipur we took a 9½-hour train to Phalodi, so a whole day on the train. It started 55 minutes late and we arrived about 30 minutes late, late in the evening. The train was eeeever long, around 30 carriages from first to fifth class. We were in first class with air-con, which was still quite an adventure. The train doors are always open, people constantly walk through selling food and drinks, and sometimes the train just stops in the middle of nowhere for half an hour or an hour and everyone gets out. The food on the train and at stations was way too spicy for me, and at some point Alana said, “Stop buying all this food that you only take one bite of, and then I have to eat the rest because it’s too spicy for you!” 😂Leia mais

  • Cheela

    31 de ago.–3 de set., Índia ⋅ 🌧 27 °C

    Late in the evening we arrived in Phalodi, where Satish picked us up super reliably. He then drove us to his village, Cheela, where we stayed for three nights. At first we thought, “Oh wow, where have we landed?” (see the first photos after the nice ones), but it turned out to be a really lovely few days with a genuinely kind family. We visited several villages, saw beautiful dunes in the desert, were shown traditional clothing, and had lots of amazing food (for me, always too spicy).

    While Alana got henna on the first day, I had a long chat on the roof with Abishek, Satish’s 22-year-old cousin. Over the days we talked a lot, and I heard many critical opinions from him: “India has a big racism problem,” “Out here in the countryside, the government in Delhi doesn’t care about us,” “Modi is a bad president,” “If you’re born in a village, you die in a village because you have no chance to study at a good university – that’s reserved for people with connections,” “If we had a different government, we’d probably be friends with Pakistan. A few weeks ago we saw rockets coming from Pakistan.”

    Alongside all the criticism, we also had so many wonderful experiences with everyone here. When we left, it was clear they didn’t really want us to go 🥲
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  • Dorfschule Shivsar

    1 de setembro, Índia ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    Today we visited a village school. (I almost wrote “a small village school,” but there are 350 kids attending…)
    After Jaipur, we really didn’t expect a school like this… no chairs, no tables, no doors, no windows, just sand as a playground. The principal’s office is a tiny shed with the only table and chair in the whole school. We played a few sports games and took photos with the children, and despite the tough conditions, they were all cheerful and happy. Talking to the teachers made it clear they’re not happy with the school or how the government handles its funding… Overall, it would have been amazing to film here, but since the school is nearly an hour south of the village where we stayed, we decided against it for logistical reasons. But the school will definitely appear in the India episode 👍🏼Leia mais

  • Rohitasow

    3 de setembro, Índia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    In the village, we decided to film with Rohitasow, the son of the family we were staying with – simply because it was easiest to organise. He was suuuper nervous with every question, and when asked to describe his house, he just listed everything he saw at the moment: “We have a kitchen, chairs, rooms…” So we filmed the obligatory interview at the end on the school bus on the way back to the village, which was shaky and noisy but he spoke much more freely 😊

    He goes to a private school, much better equipped than the village school we saw on Monday… but the teachers are aware of other local students’ situations, so every year there are more scholarships funded by people in the region. At school, like with Gunjan, we visited almost every class and also held a small Q&A with the older students, where, as in Germany, one boy and one girl asked most of the questions. The rest were rather quiet 😄
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  • Zug nach Jodhpur

    3 de setembro, Índia ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    I could write a whole book about every train ride in India, the flight to India, and every tuk-tuk trip – but one footprint for this train ride will have to do. Even on the platform, a thousand eyes were on us as the only Europeans. In India, people approach you every five metres, asking questions and wanting photos. At the station, some locals just stood ridiculously close… very weird.

    Before departure, we grabbed snacks and drinks in a little shop, basically becoming extra staff ourselves, taking whatever we wanted. The ride itself cost a crazy 80 cents per person – because no seat reservation was left. So we had fifth-class tickets. Our friends told us to just hop into second class with air-con, tell the conductor no seats were left, and slip him a bit of cash. In the end, he didn’t care at all 😅

    Apparently it’s very unusual for a man and woman to play cards together in India, so everyone passing by stopped to stare, and suddenly three staff members plopped down on the bench next to us, watching like it was a wildlife documentary…

    The train just stopped somewhere, and everyone got out in the middle of the line. In Jodhpur, we jumped off a station early – literally. Exciting 😁
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  • Jodhpur

    3–6 de set., Índia ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

    Jodhpur is completely different from Jaipur (and the village). The old town is full of narrow streets, with the huge Mehrangarh Fort towering above it. For breakfast we went twice to the neighbouring hotel because they had a buffet, and for dinner we tried various great restaurants. Overall, the city has loads of rooftops, where you either get asked for a photo, have beer poured into cups on the floor, or just get seated on a mountain of cushions 😄Leia mais

  • Mehrangarh Fort

    5 de setembro, Índia ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    Jodhpur’s biggest tourist attraction: The Mehrangarh Fort. Overall, we saw more tourists here than in the previous two weeks combined. The fort consists of three palaces, built by three different rulers, each with very lavish rooms. Another highlight: Flying Fox 🥳

    The tour was especially worth it for the amazing views! On the way to and back from the Flying Fox, we had to go through a bat cave, with sooo many bats staring at us 🦇
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  • Nervig!

    5 de setembro, Índia ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    There are three reasons we’re glad to be flying to Australia tomorrow: 1. The country is totally littered and cleaning seems to be a foreign concept. 2. You’re never left alone, constantly stared at, and approached every five metres. 3. Loads of people (mostly men) just take photos of you. Some even ask… Today we decided to take photos of the people who were taking photos of us without asking – everyone looked pretty confused 😂Leia mais

  • Caroline Springs / Melbourne

    7–13 de set., Austrália ⋅ 🌬 19 °C

    A week in Melbourne. We actually wanted to film at a school here… but sadly couldn’t find one willing to take part. Well, we did, but no Australian wanted to help us 😅 In the Outback we film with a school where a Canadian and a French person work, and in a few weeks in Melbourne at the German school.

    Still, a few great days in a city that reminded me a lot of Toronto. Alana lives in Caroline Springs, a Melbourne suburb where we also did the drone aerial shot 🤗 Besides Aldi there’s Hungry Jacks (Burger King), a huge stadium with over 100,000 seats, H&M in old buildings, parks, lots of food and good drinks. And Alana went with me to a film museum 😊
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  • Werribee Gorge State Park

    8 de setembro, Austrália ⋅ 🌬 17 °C

    On my first day in Australia, we went to Werribee Gorge State Park, about half an hour from Caroline Springs. We hiked a 7 km loop through eucalyptus trees and saw lots of birds—and a snake, right next to us, which gave me a proper fright. For Alana, it was the first snake she’s ever seen in Australia. And what I realised in the end: Snakes are pretty fast…

    On the way back, we drove through a small town that actually was really nice and we stopped at a very cute farm shop.
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  • Mt Buller

    11 de setembro, Austrália ⋅ ☁️ 7 °C

    Skiing in Australia 🥳
    While it’s summer in Europe, it’s winter here, and even though there hasn’t been much snow this year and spring is already showing, there was still enough to ski on Mount Buller. 15 lifts were open and about 30 km of pistes (some really poorly maintained). We had lunch at “Koflers Hütte” with lovely sunshine and a great view, then tackled a super steep run where Alana slid half the way down on her bum. In the end, we actually rode every lift at least once and went several times to the top at 1,800 m 😊

    Dinner was in a traditional country pub in Yea, which was really tasty 😋
    Prices here are basically the same as in Germany 👌🏼
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  • Geelong

    14 de setembro, Austrália ⋅ 🌬 20 °C

    Geelong ist die erste Stadt in der ich bin, die nicht zum Großraum vom Melbourne gehört. Hier saß ich erst in einem Café am Meer und habe bisschen was gearbeitet, dabei eine heiße Schokolade und Sprite getrunken, was ich dann am Ende nicht mal mehr bezahlen musste (die Chefin hat einfach gesagt, dass es schon okay ist und so passt) ☺️
    Danach bin ich die Strandpromenade entlanggelaufen, bin Riesenrad gefahren und war im Meer in einer Art abgezäuntem Strandbad (damit keine Haie reinkommen). Abends bin ich noch einige Kilometer gefahren und habe mir in einem Sushiladen drei Rollen Sushi gekauft - und weil die kurz vor Schluss waren, hab ich noch vier gratis dazu bekommen 🤗
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