If you go as an exchange student, you can get a scholarship (about $5,000), so I chose that school to go without financial help from my parents. This is equivalent to tuition for one semester. ===> . . . which was equivalent to a semester's tuition fee, so I chose to go to that school without any financial help from my parents. 
I went to the Oktober Festival with my exchange students by hitchhiking.  ===> I attended the Oktober Festival with other exchange students by hitchhiking. To be honest, I didn't think I could hitchhike without transportation in one day. It didn't matter if I could do it or not, because hitchhiking was already a special experience for me. ===> To be honest, I didn't think I could ever hitchhike but we did and for me, it was a special experience. 
I learned that I can do anything if I don't give up and work hard. This is a big driving force for me, and that I have been able to apply to this co ===> Thus, with that being said, I know I can do anything as long as I don't give up and work hard on it. It is the driving force that keeps me in this field.