Hallo,
heute werde ich vermutlich das letzte Mal über das Thema “Möbel” schreiben. Morgen werde ich umziehen: wie cool! Gestern haben meine Kollegen und ich schon angefangen, meine Möbels aufzubauen. Ein Kollege hat schon viel Erfahrung damit, so dass es schnell gegangen ist. Allein hätte ich unendlich mehr Zeit gebraucht. Er hat kaum die lange Hinweisen gelesen und los. Ich hätte erst die Hinweise lesen müssen. Und heute Vormittag habe ich schon den großten Teil meiner Sachen mit meinem sehr netten Professor in meine neue Wohnung gestellt.
Jetzt bin ich sehr müde. Nicht wirklich wegen meines Umzuges, sondern wegen was mir neulich passiert ist. Vorgestern und die Nacht davor habe ich kaum geschlafen. Ich musste mich stetig am ganzen Körper kratzen. Und mein Körper ist rot geworden. Warum konnte ich mir nicht erklären. Einfach sobald ich mein T-Shirt angezogen habe, musste ich stetig kratzen. Die Kollegen haben mir gesagt, dass es wegen der Waschmaschine sein könnte. In Fuchspaß benutzen wir nämlich eine gemeinsame Waschmaschine und vielleicht hat jemand ein Waschmittel benutzt, den ich nicht leiden konnte. Das waren schreckliche Nächte. Wenn es bis gestern nicht aufgehört hätte, wäre ich zum Artz gegangen. Das habe ich in Deutschland aber noch nie gemacht: zum Arzt zu gehen. Ich habe keine Ahnung, wie viel ich dafür bezahlen muss. Das ist vermutlich günstiger mit der Versicherung von DAAD. Das muss ich auch noch klären. Jetzt juckt meine Haut nicht mehr, aber ich habe Halsschmerzen. Und ich bin wirklich müde. Aber morgen ziehe ich endlich um.
Viele Grüße,
Hery

I need to work upon my brains. Tell them not to be so perfectionist, so perceptive. An excess of cognitive activity. The less you think, the better.

I dreamt of you yesterday. How I wish I hadn´t.

I need to work upon my body. Tell it not to be so lazy. An excess of modern commodities. The less you move, the better.

I was full of sweat yesterday, after dreaming. How I wish I were you.

I need to work upon my soul. Tell it to exist, rather. An excess of believers in the non-perceivable. The less you perceive, the better. So many more things that you cannot see and that can be there. The more you believe, the better.

I was full of trust yesterday, after cleaning off my sweat. How I wish I believed.

I need to work upon my stains. The stains that accumulate and grow and make me cry and remind me that I have a past. Don´t try to clean them off my dear, they will never go away. Without those stains, you would not be yourself anyway. So be glad that they belong to you, for they are only yours. The dirtier you are, the better.

I was all clean yesterday, after believing. How I wish I were not.

This week marked the end of my Deutsch language course at the Goethe Institute and marked the beginning of a three-week break before the actual start of my course in October and two years of practicing Deutsch. I believe that the future is much brighter now after being armed with the necessary tools to effectively acclimatize and adapt to the life ahead. It has been two months of fun not only learning a new language but also learning about the German culture and people and I must point out that without the support of DAAD it would have not been possible. Thanks to them I now have a language certificate and I hope to get one more when my course officially starts.

This past Thursday our Deutsch teacher invited us for the proverbial ‘last dinner’ to culminate our language course; it was an offer that one could not afford to miss. The event was held at Worpswede situated approximately 45 minutes from the Bremen Hauptbahnhof by bus 670. And as usual, when travelling to a new place it takes long and at one point I actually thought that we were lost until we saw the happy face of our teacher waving at us at our final destination. The mood of the dinner was jovial, who wouldn’t be? With all the delicious food and wonderful company not forgetting the beautiful arts and antiques that created a perfect ambience for the occasion. For dinner we were treated to two different samples of chicken, the first one from Ethiopia locally called ‘Doro Wat’ a spicy Ethiopian chicken dish made with a spice mixture and the second dish from Thailand not very sure of the name but sure of the taste.

The dessert was great, what I can remember is that it was Italian and it provided a perfect ending for the dinner, a lot of effort must have been put into it to have such a taste and I guess the taste must have borne witness that indeed we were a sweet class and we had a sweet teacher. One thing is certain, if a bill would be brought at the end of the occasion I would have not been able to afford this. That is the unique thing about true generosity and friendship, it cannot be purchased neither can it be valued and if it would be possible to value it in my own words we wouldn’t be able to purchase it.

With the language course completed, I am now looking forward to the new experience ahead. I am still not sure how I am going to spend the next few days before class starts so if you have some great ideas please share them with me so that I have something interesting to write about next week. One thing that I have appreciated since I came to Bremen is that I find most of the people here very friendly, could be just the people that I have interacted with but as they say ‘first impressions count’, I have come to conclude that people here are generally friendly. Not many people would open their houses for a group of 10 students and treat them to dinner and chauffer them to and from as if they were part of the family. And so if I keep repeating this same point in my subsequent articles please don’t complain, as I am just appreciating the role that each and every person has played to ensure that my stay in Germany is comfortable and pleasant. Therefore, if you are considering coming to Bremen for studies and still have problems or negative attitude towards the place or Deutschland in general, my advice is that please don’t include your attitude as part of your baggage lest you be charged for excess baggage!

Werte Blogleser und –leserinnen,
Liebe Constipendiaten,
Es ist mir eine Freude Sie und Euch allen nach diesen vier Wochen wieder begrüßen zu dürfen. Gerade am Mittwochmitttag bin ich wieder in Deutschland nach einem 10-stündigen Flug gelandet.
Die Heimatferieen waren ganz schön. Während der vier Wochen hatte ich die Gelegenheit wieder zu Hause zu sein, und mich dort, in der geliebten Heimat, von dem Studium auszuruhen. Verwandtenbesuche, Museen- und Stättenbesichtigungen, sowie auch Spaziergänge, ein Stierkampf, und eine Inlandreise zur großelterlichen Farm zogen sich innerhalb dieser Zeit.
Die studentische Arbeit hörte aber nicht gänzlich auf. Ich habe noch ein bißchen an meinem jetzigen Projekt des römischen Rechts gearbeitet. So las ich weiter von meinen actiones im gemütlichen mexikanischen Wetter, im Vergleich viel kühler in dieser Jahreszeit, als das extrem warme Baden.
Seit gestern bin ich wieder lebendig im Seminar der Juristischen Fakultät begraben. Ich arbeite jetzt nämlich an der Hausarbeit im Öffentliches Recht zur Erlangung des sog. „kleinen Schein“. Die Recherche und Redaktion sind mühsam, aber doch sehr amüsant.
So, verabschiede ich mich von Ihnen und Euch, während ich wieder zu den Gesetzgebungskompetenzen des Bundes, ein paar Tage vor der Bundestagswahl, zurückkehre.
Bis nächstem Freitag!

Hello readers,

It was a great trip to my University in Erlangen last week and I had a very successful time overall. The comfort of travelling by Deutsche Bahn is something that has to be experienced. The automatic doors, the unfailing Reiseplan always at your seats, the beautiful landscapes whizzing past you at more than 200km/h, the clean toilets and the almost always unfailing punctuality – these are things that make me want to travel more with DB, but the cost involved is enough to convince me to give up the idea instantly!

This time I wanted to make the stay longer so that I could do my things more comfortably. I arrived on Wednesday evening and checked into my reliable Jugendherberge and simply relaxed. I would recommend the Jugendherberge to anyone travelling to any other city and staying for a short duration. The rates are cheap but the service is pretty neat. This time around I got a better room but without WC and Bath attached. But the common WC and bath for the floor was just opposite to my room and I was really lucky to get that comfort for just 23 euros per night (breakfast included). The lift was quite creepy though with a very small confined space and very very creepy outdated metal doors that, when shut, made an impression as if, the person inside is being taken into some torture chamber!

For dinner I tried some really wonderful Spaghetti near the Arcade complex and it was great. On returning to the hostel I discovered one could receive wireless internet signals from the dining hall area and it was free! I was quite lucky to be able to stay connected to people and check my mails from the comfort of my laptop at the youth hostel.

The next day morning I had a good breakfast at the hostel and I really love a good German breakfast for the sheer variety of things you can choose from. So, though I have a tough time at the Mensa everyday trying to eat German lunch, the breakfast is always good to enjoy. I got ready for my meeting at the Zentraleuniversitätsverwaltung (Central university administration) for my Immatrikulation – the process wherein I apply myself to be taken in as a student who wants to do his Promotion (Phd work).

The Immatrikulation process was relatively simple for the following reasons – Firstly, DAAD had given me all the important supporting documents and papers along with which I only had to show my Visa and my earlier educational certificates and it was all done. Next, I had already made a trip to this office in July and met a few people. So, they could recognize me and I had already submitted copies of my educational certificates (DAAD does that too) and they had sent me a letter that certified that my Indian Masters degree was equivalent to a German Diplom degree. This equivalence certification is very important so that I’m permitted to start my PhD work as a student here. I wish to specially thank DAAD Ref. 425 for their kind help and support all through. Finally, the secretaries and staff at this office were very kind and helped me a lot in filling out the forms or directing me to different rooms etc.

Then I have something very important also to narrate. How the spoken or written word is very important here in Germany and everything is meant exactly word to word. I had reserved a room for my stay in Erlangen in the Studentenwohnheim, from next month beginning from the 1^st. of October. I simply assumed that the room would be ready even by the previous evening and booked my train tickets accordingly i.e I would arrive by evening of 30^th September. When I told this to the Chief of the house, he wasn’t really amused and simply told me there has been a misunderstanding. Well, yes I do realize his position, when he says that the previous tenant has the right to choose to stay till 30^th Sep. and after which the room has to be made ready for me. These are certain things I’m learning and also feel are very important to know for newcomers in Germany. Always clearly speak what is required and define everything involved in any deal /plan/ transaction clearly including the most minute details. There are no blurry images or automatic pre-assumptions here!

On the way between the Studentenkanzlei where I did my paperwork and the Youth hostel is the Kitzmann Brauerei (brewery) which throws up a really enchanting aroma of the best Bavarian beer all along the street. Incidentally, the Bergkirchweih in summer is an important beer festival here in Erlangen.

I then returned to my room and prepared for the meeting with my Professor the next day. Came down to the dining hall late in the evening where it was calm and peaceful and I surfed the net for a while.

The next day I had a wonderful meeting with my Professor and a colleague about the project we would be starting and also met many other co-workers. We had a discussion on how to start the cell cultures of the plant system and what difficulties we could be expecting through the course of the work. Then we had a go through the results of the preliminary tests (different seed cultures) that my Professor had carried out last month. I had been feeling very nervous all along the previous day, thinking about how this meeting would turn up, but surprisingly my Supervisor was totally cool and also made me feel comfortable. That helped me focus on the job at hand and we had a fruitful discussion and made some definite plans about the work for the next 2 months ahead and also a few ideas about the long-term goal of the project. We then visited the lab and she showed the photobioreactors, with which she had carried out her latest published work – involving scale –up of the process of cultivation of plant cells to a higher volume. I pictured myself reaching that stage of work at some particular point of time not very immediate but not too far either.

Most of my colleagues are comfortable speaking in English when I ask anything to be explained so, but normally revert to Deutsch very quickly. I was able to still understand most part of it including the technical terms and discussions, but sometimes it becomes too much technical to handle and I ask them to repeat in English. But mostly, even the technical terms can be easily understood if one is good in basic vocabulary and then applies the meanings of the words to context.

I would advise anyone planning for the DAAD scholarship to concentrate and do the language course sincerely. It would be far better to be able to understand and speak basic German, since we can’t always ask our colleagues to talk to us in English for every single ordinary thing like basic technical stuff discussed in the lab. For example, my colleague told me something about VE-Wasser and I was sure it was something close to distilled water used in the laboratories. I checked later and found out it is the short form of Voll Entsalztes Wasser – or fully demineralised water! This would definintely not be taught in any language class but the basics should be made strong during the course which would help one grasp technical words like these very easily.

We had lunch at the Siemens office canteen and it was splendid. I chose an Asian speciality which had steaming rice with spiced up vegetable sauce . As I said earlier I would love a german menu for breakfast but when it comes to lunch, I’m satisfied by nothing less than a plate of rice – the Asian touch!

Later in the evening, my colleague Christine explained more about the lab practices and the normal techniques used and I understood most of it pretty well. My earlier stints in various labs during my college days would all come handy but I would be needing more skill, patience and dedication to work with plant cells since they are very fragile and easily contaminated. She then dropped me back at the hostel and I packed my bags to the train station. The trains arrived and travelled without issues and I was back in Marburg on time – late at night. I had planned my travel in such a way so that I could spend the maximum time in Erlangen.

As I am back here, there is another very disturbing thought. The Autumn is setting in and the leaves are falling down, dead brown. It draws a very disturbing parallel to the last week I’m going to stay in Marburg. Suddenly, things seem too dreary and paled down. After 4 months of fun at the language school, its now time to say good bye to my kind teachers, the sweet secretaries, our language school Chief and most sadly – my friends at the school and so many more at the Wohnung. The calm and conserved people of this city, the royal Old Town near the Schloss, and so many more.. I am going to miss this beautiful little city very much..

But I am still looking forward to more enriching experiences in Bayern henceforth, where I am going to stay for a long time next month onwards.. So, Grüß Gott (Greet God, Bavarian greeting) to all of you there until next time!

Hallo,
wie versprochen, rede ich weiter über das Thema Umzug. Letzem Samstag habe ich Möbels bei Somit gekauft. Dabei hat ein Kollege der Uni mir viel geholfen. Wir sind mit seinem Auto gefahren und die Möbels wurden mit seinem Auto transportiert. Das hat wirklich meine Bemühungen erleichtert. Ansonsten wäre ich gezwungen worden, eine Lieferung mit Somit zu vereinbaren. Und manchmal trifft man dabei auf Schwierigkeiten. Ein konkretes Beispiel ist die Lieferung meines Betts von IKEA. In den Lieferbedingungen bzw. dem Kataloge bzw. der Webseite von IKEA steht es, dass die Lieferung innerhalb 14 Tage nach der Bestellung stattfindet. Und heute ist der 14. Tag. Deshalb habe ich IKEA gestern mit meinem Handy angerufen. Das war eine 01 80 Nummer und der Anruf hat mich insgesamt mehr als 5€ gekostet. Dabei hat IKEA mir gesagt, dass meine Möbels nächste Woche geliefert werden. Gut zu wissen, dass meine Möbels überhaupt geliefert werden. Ich hoffe aber sehr, dass ich sie vor meinem Umzug empfangen werde. Ansonsten wäre ich  gezwunge, auf dem Boden zu schlafen.
Schöne Grüße,
Hery

We live in an f generation. F for frustration, for forbidden, for family, for. You know what I mean I guess. I am tired of guessing, of knowing, of doubting, of wanting. Of not having enough. Cos one can never have everything. The f generation is just a consequence of our being pampered, of our having everything we want. As though we had asked for it. For. If you see what I mean.
The problem, I guess -and, I repeat, I am tired of guessing, of repeating, of being (tired)-, is that we have too much. We live in an f-too-much generation. In a pampered Europe which cries out loud for its not having all toys of the shop, all tea types of the rain, all time of the world.
The Carpe Diem f generation is a new advertisement strategy. CPF. C for Cent, P for Pamper, F for Faint. Pampered cent that faints with time. Just put a little bit of cinnemon in the recipe, you´ll see that it works. C for Cinnemon, P for Pain, F for Fun. A self-sufficient interdependent generation which turns around in circles, around itself of course, an egocentric, overstimulated sense-centred nebulose. Let it taste, let it hurt, let the joy begin. Cinnemon, pain, fun. A pampered generation.
I guess –and I am tired of guessing- that I am, once again, being the little hypocrite. The little hypocrite who criticizes a group she belongs to. Although, I guess –and I am tired of guessing, did I say that before?- that one needs to belong to a group in order to be able to criticise it properly, since it is only from within that one can perceive what is going on rather than just talking about the unknown. The unkown f generation.
Pamper, guess, repeat, within, group, senses, fun. Frustration. Oh yes I am so happy to belong to the current f generation.

Pic: Flickr/ Goldstern82

Wow, it’s already been a year since the first article of this blog has been posted! For me as the admin of this blog it’s been 12 month of great fun and I’m also proud of the great people I was able to convince to write for the DAAD. It’s almost like having a real baby and watching it grow and learn new things every day because this blog also took it step by step and is still in a constant learning process.

Starting with Max, Veronica and Nienke only the last one mentioned is still aboard and writing every Monday about her studies in Freiburg. Especially during the in general quiet summer months taking care of the blog felt like sticking a finger in a busy bee hive with all the RISE people dropping in and out in those three month. Come the middle of September things have calmed down a lot with various new faces building a reliable team of six very different bloggers from all over the world.

I know, it’s said that if you tell the wish you had while blowing out the candles on your birthday cake it doesn’t come true. That’s why I’m telling you what this blog has achieved:

• 20680 unique users in this past year
• 211 articles
• 169 comments
• A total of 17 bloggers – six active at the moment

I am really looking forward to the blogs second year. Now that there is a solid foundation we can construct the first floor. Also I would like to take this oppertunity and say “THANK YOU” to all my bloggers. I have learned a lot about living in Germany as a foreigner due to your serious, funny and entertaining insights about my home country!

I thought that this week’s article would be the easiest to write after spending the weekend in Berlin, and then it dawned on me that you have probably read a dozen or so articles about the various trips’ to around Germany. Well, personally am not so much of a traveler but if the opportunity arises I prefer embarking on longer trips that last for at least a week, to give me enough room to learn more about the people and their way of life and not just to get a short preview of everything in a hurry due to limited time.

Well, despite being only a weekend trip, I decided not to miss the opportunity and so we set out on Friday evening after the language class with a group of 15 students drawn from different parts of the world; that’s the beauty of such trips, that you get to meet and know someone different from another part of the globe. We left the Bremen Hauptbahnhof at 19:18 hrs and arrived at Hannover for a change over at 20:38 hrs, there wasn’t much interesting apart from the chatting in the Zug and being that it was a Friday evening most of the students were either dosing or trying very hard to stay awake and I am not an exception. We arrived in Berlin at 22:55 hrs and it took us another one and half hours to arrive to our hostel after travelling in one of the longest Straßenbahn that I have ever seen in my life. We were accommodated at hostel ‘’comebackpackers’’ in Adalbertrstaße and from the name it sounded like a place worth coming back to until I saw the bed that was meant to usher me to slumber land. It was a short and slim bed and so for me to enjoy comfort I had to lower the mattress down on the floor and forget the comfort of the bed.

Come Saturday morning as the other students were going for their tour around the city, I decided to visit the local church in Berlin and had a wonderful service with the Ghanaian brethren for the whole day and therefore did not have much to share apart from the warmth and blessings of the worship. My main attraction in Berlin was the zoo and the aquarium visit on Sunday morning, in as much as the weather wasn’t that favorable it could not dampen my spirit. On entry we were first greeted by the sight of an Indian Rhino that is completely different from the Rhino that we have in Africa due to tier flexible skin and the presence of only one horn.

The other animals were quiet familiar to me such as the African lion, which looked bored in its cage, and the leopard which kept on treading up and down its cage perhaps uncomfortable due to the many uninvited guests who were trying to get a shot of it. The birds observed ranged from the hornbill the vultures and the crane birds, I did not have enough time to visit the ostrich stand but that would have been an interesting encounter.

We were ushered in the aquarium with this massive stature of what looked like a dinosaur, well I have never seen one before so I guess that if its not the one then it must be one of their relatives.

The aquarium located in the first floor offered a diverse sample of aquatic organisms from the different continents ranging from the fresh water and marine species such as the trout and the carp and the groupers just to name a few that were familiar and of course the unforgettable miniature coral reefs. The second floor had the reptiles ranging from the crocodiles the tortoise and the geckos and lizard family and the third floor had a sample of the insects and amphibians. However the highlight of the zoo was the white polar bears that I have only seen in the documentaries. We were lucky to get one of the playful cubs entertaining observers with its diving tricks and tossing a carton up and down as it splashes water amid the cheers it was a pity I could not get a shot of it but I guess the parents were not amused.

With only two hours to visit both the zoo and the aquarium I could not visit all the stands and the drizzling rain did not make it any better and off course we still had to check out of the hostel before 12:30 hrs. After the check out we did not have much time so we immediately left for the central station for the journey back home (Bremen) as the Zug was leaving at 13:09 hrs. This is the part of the journey that I don’t want to talk about, why? I had to bear three hours of standing; we had to take a longer route with a changeover at Schwerin and that was the only time I was actually seated from Berlin. However, from Schwerin to Hamburg and Hamburg to Bremen we had to stand, and being a weekend the Züge were filled to capacity and and getting even a place to lean on was a dream. Therefore when we finally arrived at the Bremen Hauptbahnhof at 19:30 hrs there wasn’t much to do apart from heading straight to the room, taking a hot shower and heading directly to bed hoping that it was all a bad dream! In my dream I dreamt that I was heading back to Berlin and this time not just for a weekend but at least a week.

The past week has been quite good and I have now got used to the new place but still getting used to taking the bus to my language school. Being at the bus stop within the right time every day is a good exercise at practicing punctuality and blending into the German system and I would say, well yes I’m taking some really sincere efforts towards that goal (hmm.. ). There is a clearly perceivable change in the weather pattern. We have colder mornings and evenings, which would get even colder as I move towards the dreaded winter.

The atmosphere for this last month has been more relaxed in my language class – which means we get to hear German songs, play more activity-based games aimed at improving our vocabulary and watch a few films.

There were 2 very interesting songs that we listened to this week. The first was a classic by Marlene Dietrich called ‘Sag mir, wo die Blumen sind ‘ (Tell me, where the flowers are.. – its an Anti-war song). I later came to know that she is a very famous singer here. The next song was by a band called ‘Die Toten Hosen’ (meaning -the dead pants- obviously the tendency of music groups to call themselves by unworldly names is universal), the song was called ‘Zehn kleine Jägermeister’ and it was quite funny and entertaining. We also saw a film called ‘FC Venus’ in our class but I didn’t find it great, since it was supposed to be a comedy but was funny only in a few scenes. It is about a football challenge between the football-crazed husbands (the stereotyped guys who still want to be boys) and their irritated wives (the underdogs) in a village and you would get no points for guessing who the winners would be.

On the monetary front it has been quite a pleasant time for me since I had received reimbursements from DAAD (for the trip to the Bonn seminar) and from DB. The latter is quite an interesting story about which I had not written since it is about my trip to Hamburg and Berlin and I didn’t really want to add another travel based- article and anyway Berlin is probably already a thoroughly discussed subject in these pages. Well, on our return, our first train at Berlin was late which meant we had to miss the next 2 connections. We then had to take a train to Hannover and from there another to Göttingen and then a taxi to Marburg. The reimbursement included the taxi charges and a small difference amount since the travel plans were changed into different trains. They had taken only 4 weeks for processing our claim and I must say I was quite impressed! So, though we ended up reaching Marburg by 2:30 in the morning, the trip from Göttingen to Marburg on the Autobahn at the comfortable back seat of a Mercedes taxi and in the middle of the night at a stable speed of more than 150 km/h was amazing and I didn’t really want it to end..

Schools have reopened after Sommerferien and I see lots of school kids on the roads in the noon and also many school buses. School kids in the buses I take are mostly too noisy and naughty and keep pulling pranks on each other and are very much fun to watch! The bus frequency has also been considerably increased in this month.

There was one interesting incident in the Bus no. 7 that I take to my class every day. Two days back, on a usual morning in this bus, suddenly midway the bus had to be stopped since one of the back doors (automatic) failed to stay closed. It kept opening repeatedly and was out of the driver’s control (probably a faulty circuit). I expected him to just drive on after trying for a few minutes to set it. But he gave it a sweet 15 minutes trying to set it back under control and some of the passengers were starting to groan while a few had already stepped out. I couldn’t believe it since, punctuality is very important in the transportation system here but I learnt that the door staying under control was even more important. Finally he let the door as it would be and started the bus, made me relieved, but only to pull over a few metres ahead and ask us politely to take the next following bus!

I returned the Asterix, Tintin and Calvin & Hobbes comics that I had borrowed a few weeks back, to the Stadtbücherei. I have had a great time reading them as its more fun to learn a language like how a kid would. After typing the last sentence and reading through it I feel I’m now constructing English sentences with a German touch to it!

I met Hery our co-blogger yesterday at my place. From the photo of his new residence that he had pasted in an earlier blog I could recognize the building in the background. Turns out that he lives just in the ground floor of the hostel where I live in the 3^rd floor!

My next blog will be about the trip I’m making to Erlangen this week and the meeting with my Supervisor. Bis dann!