The last few days have been really strenuous with the work but also very great as I bond more with my german colleagues and get to know them better. It has been a time of helping out each other and coming closer.

I got hold of a complete set of used furniture for a fair price from one of the Professors in the linguistics department who was shifting to another city and giving away his furniture. For moving them into my new house, I needed help. My colleagues at the lab suggested me to hire a wagon from the University which was quite a cheap and sensible option – about 5 euros per hour and a small security deposit fee of 10 euros.

lars, me, daniel and philip

Then we (myself, Philip, Daniel and Lars) got on the job one Friday evening after finishing work at the lab. Philip offered to drive and the wagon was really huge and just about enough to fit in all the stuff. The moving was a really a back breaking job. I thanked them a lot and felt very grateful to have got such helpful colleagues.

The next week Philip had 2 things to worry about – an impending quarterly report on his work and a literature seminar. He asked me if I could help and I was glad to help him back in some way and we exchanged our seminars and so I had to do mine in short notice but I managed, since I had to present my Masters thesis project and I was quite confident about it. This took some pressure off Philip and he was quite thankful.

Over the next 3 years I would be needing help in many instances from different people and also helping others and working together, since there is nothing that could be achieved by someone all by himself and without depending on help from different people and more so for a PhD..

The end of the week was celebrated with a small party at Maurice’s WG where we made burgers and also had a deep discussion of vegetarianism, religious beliefs etc. since I don’t eat meat and they had got particularly for me, a vegetable-based burger filling. That was quite thoughtful of them!

I still had a few more things to buy and bedding material was one of them. At IKEA (where household goods are normally bought) I learnt many new words while trying to shop for bedding.

Last Friday, I made a sudden plan to go to the Schüco Arena here in Bielefeld with my colleague Thomas to watch a match between Bielefeld and Duisburg. I was looking forward to a personal first time experience of the german passion for football in the Stehplätze among the cheering crowds, where most of the action takes place, as informed by Thomas, who has no interest to sit quietly in the Sitzplätze seats.. It was a great experience to cheer among the fan crowds of the home team, and although sadly we lost the match 1:2, it was a wonderful experience overall

Both the teams were equally good and were trying to reclaim their positions in the first Bundesliga, as informed by Thomas.

thomas with his daughters and friend

I am looking forward to more fun as I get absorbed into this Arbeitsgruppe and work together as one with the people here.

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Since I had just successfully finished hunting for a room ( the one where I live is a temporary accommodation) I thought it should be interesting to write on this topic – though it’s a very very general and broad area that demands for itself a separate PhD study!

A roof above his head has been man’s natural desire from the early ages.. It applies a lot more to students who have moved away from their homes or homelands and come to distant places to study, so in a foreign land, a foreign language and different systems and practices, things are bound to be rough and you need not be surprised by them.

Ok, since this topic is something that cannot be written in the form of a set of instructions that are to be followed to guarantee that dream home, I am forced to keep this short and concise, as its very essential that one needs to pull up his socks and get into the field to actually understand the art of hunting for a room truly.

Ok, lets get the essential vocabulary first, note that this list is not exhaustive and you will probably learn more in the very first day you get into this.

Wohnung – house / room

1-Zimmer Wohnung (1-room flat).

EBK – Einbauküche – built in kitchen

Bad, WC / Bathroom , toilet

WG – Wohngemeinschaft – A shared house where individual persons have their own rooms, while kitchen, bath and cellar are shared. So technically there cant be a 1er WG and you understand what a 2er and 3er WG is.

Miete – rent

Kaltmiete – cold rent- the fixed part of the rent that you pay to the landlord

Nebenkosten – the variable part of the rent. These are the utility costs like electricity, heating, water, waste disposal, waste water disposal, cleaning of the areas surrounding the house etc. this is paid to the Stadtwerke.

Warmmiete – Kalt plus nebenkosten .. this may also be called the Gesamtmiete (total).

Kaution – Deposit (usually 2 -3 times the kaltmiete)

Mietvertrag – the agreement between you and the landlord

Vermieter – the landlord

Mieter – that’s you, the poor guy!

Wohnfläche – area of the room

Etage- floor

The cheapest and the most hassle free option is the Student hostel run by the Student services of each uni. Here, you have to share your kitchen and bath with the other inmates of your floor, but you save a lot of money and don’t have to worry too much about cleaning and maintenance. You do have to empty your waste bins yourself!

But unfortunately its not available for PhD students for long time stays. There are however private hostels that are available but have heavy competition and long waiting lists. So make sure, you contact them well in advance. These informations could be ontained from the Student Services of your university.

Next, WGs offer a mix of advantages. They are cheap and are usually a great opportunity to know and live with people from very diverse cultural backgrounds ( so, you have to be ready for this!). The downside compared to a own-flat is that you have lesser privacy and you have to be able to go well together with your flat mates.

The costliest but obviously most comfortable option is a flat for yourself.

Step 1: Sometimes, old and time tested methods work really well than anything else.

All you have to do is to get your german friend to write for you on a paper, that you are looking for a room of so and so specifications, range of rent, room area etc. and include your mobile number and email and put it and copy it and put it up at the Mensa, the university notice boards and wherever you think its effective( and it should be allowed to stick an ad there!). Now charge up your phone and wait for the calls! Yes, time-tested, simple and effective, this is the most popular method especially among students. This also goes for used furniture, books etc. From used writing tables to gold fishes anything can be bought/ sold on the notice boards.

Step 2: Use WG-gesucht and forget your worries!

This is an amazing website and though there are many others like Immobilien Scout, I would recommend this one for all. It has all the useful parameters to set like range of rent, moving in date desired, location, etc. and very good interface overall. When you find something interesting like a cheap room near the university, get the person’s number , and just call up immediately, one second that you think about it could mean someone else calling up before you. But don’t take hasty decisions in finalizing anything. You can first make an appointment to visit the place and then think and consider in peace later.

Step 3: Networking

Word of mouth works really well that you would think. Talk to you colleagues, class mates anyone.. That dream house you seek in the centre of the city, or in a peaceful location or close by to the uni, could all be just a single phone call away from someone known to your friend or colleague. You just have to make sure everyone knows, you are seriously searching for a room. Right information at the right time, is everything.

Step 4: You can’t think too much too.

You may have 10 options in your hands, each with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Typically its like, the room near to the uni is comfortable to reach uni, but very costly; the cheap one is attractive, you could use the money saved to buy some nice furniture, but its in the other part of the city and public transport takes around 40 minutes to an hour..

If you weigh your options for too long a time, you could actually be losing one by one to other room-seekers! So don’t be hasty, think and decide, at the same time understand you can’t have all of the cake, you need to make some adjustments and be flexible , what that exactly could be, only you can decide. Ask parents and friends and other Germans for guidance if you are not sure. But don’t sign anything with the Vermieter unless you are finally sure about it.

Step 5: Stay away from those agents as much as possible

My opinion is that, though its tough you can do the room search yourself and you don’t have to pay around a 1000 euros to the estate agent for this job and then find yourself bankrupt for the next few weeks.

To round up here are some of the most important parameters.

1. Proximity to Uni. (use the website of the local transport to find travel times etc.)
2. Living space area
3. Rent per area (use Kaltmiete)
4. In case of WG, how many other people.
5. Proximity to the city ( you could be paying a dirt cheap rent but you don’t want to live in the middle of the forest, do you?)
6. Whether any furniture is also included (mostly no ) and if so, how much would they cost. Note that kitchen is also a furniture. Compare the prices with the original prices from IKEA. But again don’t think too much too.
7. Hope.. you will soon get a room!

Finally for an average Germany city – you could be paying around 10 euros per sq.m area for a location in between city and uni. Obviously this could be even double for cities like Munich and far lesser for smaller cities.

Happy room – hunting!

So, after a rather long break I have now made time to write down my next article. Firstly, I wish all the readers a warm and prosperous new year 2010, though ‘warm’ is a word that is currently least applicable in Germany. Yesterday the mercury sunk to -10 degrees, which is something everyone has got used to here but what made things worse was a terrible wind that blows the snow and sends it crashing onto your face.. It makes you feel that there is nothing so beautiful or pleasant about the snow. Yes, its beautiful to look at and enjoy when it just starts to fall, but from the last week of December, snow is something you wouldn’t want to see in the morning when you try to get ready and go to work.

The Winterdienst is constantly at work with their special type of vehicles that clears the snow from the front while spilling grit (a mixture of sand and rock salt, granular in nature, used to improve friction) from behind. The trees look ghostly with their withered branches and snow covered trunks. Life is nowhere to be seen outside, everyone is safely tucked in the comfort of the room heaters, as early as 6 p.m. I can remember, in the summer there used to be daylight till around 9 pm and cafes do good business with their beautiful chairs and tables put outside and people enjoying a relaxing drink, or cakes and coffee and a chat with friends till as late as 10 pm. What an extreme contrast one can find here!

I would like to add to this post an interesting bit of info. Anyone going to Nuremberg, should not forget to check out the Deutsche Bahn museum there. I had come here with my friend Harish (from Heidelberg).

It’s a commendable effort to have put together the real train carriages, engines, machinery and interesting models that depict the history of the railways that span more 150 years. Almost everything is covered here, and one can learn a lot – the founding of the German railway system with help from the British inventor George Stephenson, how it was developed during the time of the kings, the Eisenbahn before the war, the crucial role played by the railways during the war, the crash of the economy and the railways after the war , the separate entities Bundesbahn of west and Reichsbahn of the east were united and later its rebuilding, modernization into the DB AG of today – everything. From the humble carriage to the Inter City Express the german railways have come a long way. One can also learn about signals and communication systems, engines and their functioning, how the King’s royal carriage looked like, the important people involved in the development of the railways and so on.

The first steam hauled Bavarian Ludwig Railway was run from this very same city on a distance of 6 km from Nuremberg to Fuerth. Stephenson had sent his assistant to help the businessmen George Platner and Johannes Scharrer in the initiation and construction of the railway line. The Englishman was too amazed to see that the concept of railways was still in its infancy in Germany while Britain was already many years forward and he felt he was back by almost half a century. He expressed these feelings to his German associates, in whatever little German he could talk. It was mostly a mix of English, German and Germanized English words and at the end he closed by asking something about the Bahnhof (railway station). Scharrer remarked (obviously astounded at that confusing mix of languages) , “Ich habe nur ‘Bahnhof ‘ verstanden!” . (“ I just understood ‘railway station’”.)

This funny incident was played in a short movie clip detailing the founding of the german railway. I am describing this here because, it reminded me about my german classes and I think I have now found the origin of the german phrase “Ich habe nur Bahnhof verstanden”. We came across this phrase during our classes and our teacher said that it’s a phrase mostly used by students when they don’t understand anything in a lecture and find everything vague and unclear, they remark that all I could understand was railway station! Meaning he couldn’t understand a word. We didn’t know the origin of this phrase then, but I think it should be from here in this incident in 1835.

Ok, till next time and be careful while walking in the snow, I just had my first slip yesterday!

The christmas markets in Germany are a great sight to see and a major attraction. They start off well 1 month before Christmas and hence they make a wonderful option to go out on a weekend to relax and have fun in an otherwise cold and dull winter..

The market in Erlangen has been put up near the old university building in the Innenstadt. The usual shops are all there serving würstchen and Glühwein. The Glühwein is something really funny, served hot, in cups resembling tea cups and tastes too sweet to be called wine. There are also shops selling interesting chocolate or vanilla dipped fruits. Then you have many shops selling interesting small articles like toys, dolls, gift sets, ceramic figures etc . all related to the Christmas theme like santa claus (who is everywhere in all sorts of shapes and sizes), angels, elves, etc. and even witches ! There are also special shops selling small Christmas trees.

There are fun rides for the kids and sometimes I even see very small kids (as young as maybe 2 years) enjoying the rides without any fear or crying. There are interesting people on the roads playing superb music and requesting alms. When you pay them a coin, they stop the music, say ‘danke’ to you and continue to play again, but do the whole thing so masterfully that neither the song, or the beat or the continuity of the rhythm is spoilt.

Some people say that Christmas has been too much commercialized these days, and the season has been used by businessmen to urge on the common people to spend more, but I find these markets very beautiful and relaxing, especially to take a beautiful stroll and visit the shops in the weekend and maybe buy something what you like to eat or to gift someone.. that wouldn’t be too bad!

The past week has seen some really wonderful moments happen in my workplace. To begin with, one of my colleagues was leaving as her contract comes to a close and she is moving to Munich for another job. She threw a party at the Kegelbahn (bowling alley) at a place called Tennenlohe near Erlangen. And it was an amazing experience overall. Around 15 of us turned up, all colleagues in the lab – students , research workers, secretaries  and also one of our profs.  The atmosphere was warm and good, the service from the alley managers was splendid . We had some Asian food ordered from a nearby restaurant. There was a round of drinks then and later we started to bowl. We grouped ourselves randomly into 2 different teams  and played different varieties of games against each other  and paused in between to take pictures, drink some more and had a lot of fun.

Later after an hour, only the youngsters were bowling while the elders had retired to the seats for a relaxed evening chat among themselves. I had 3 other guys in my team and we played against the other team many more different variants – the one I enjoyed the most was where each team  goes for a hit one after the other in their own alley, but try to avoid scoring 11 points or multiples of 11 (22, 33,etc.) the aim is to reach 100 before the other team. It was real fun when one team would reach up to 87 and then someone would hit and make just one pin fall , and bring their team score to 88. And they have to start from 0 again!

Then it was time for her to open her gifts – we had packed it in a big plastic barrel from our labs and filled it up mostly with some waste papers and stuff ( to build up the surprise). Actually it turned out that I was the one who got surprised – by the choice of gifts here – Bockwurst, Bier and Amazon gift vouchers!

We went on bowling again till little after midnight and then I took a bus along with my friends back home .

The earlier day I had cooked a popular Indian dish called dosa (which strangely never appears in any of the menus of the Indian restaurants in Germany) along with sambar (a side dish) in my office kitchen and shared with my colleagues. They found it great but I was surprised as they said they expected some thing more spicy. In my enthusiasm to adjust it according to their tastes, I had made the sambar  considerably weaker by gong a little easy on the masalas. Later, I added some more of the spices and set it right and we all enjoyed a great lunch. They were obviously no strangers to Indian cuisine I understood. Particularly, I enjoyed sharing it with our secretary Ingrid, who is always very curious to know more about India and would google extensively about  anything I would narrate her! She said she would remember the word ‘dosa’ by associating it with the german word ‘dose’ (a box) to do her search on google at home.

Earlier our lab group had taken a 1 day tour of Nuremberg which I had forgot to mention in the previous article. I enjoyed it a lot and we had a great day. I took my cycle along in the regional train and you have to pay for the cycle through a child ticket (costs half as the adult ticket). We checked out the interesting castle and towers of Nuremberg, caught up on its history in the city museum (called Fembo house) and then visited a traditional house brewery and were taken on a guided tour of the beer cellars underground, then had lunch at a traditional inn, visited the Albrecht Durer (medieval time artist famous for his printed works and self-portraits) museum and rounded up the day with a relaxing drink at a small pub. Nuremberg is an amazing city – almost 70% of the buildings destroyed in the World War 2 but today it has been restored to such an amazing level that one can really not believe this city was in total shambles 60 years  ago. The city wall that covers the entire span of the Old City runs many kms long and is one of the main icons of the city. The trams, underground train networks, magnificient buildings, supermarkets, amazingly resotred medieval time churches, houses and castle towers all tell a wonderful tale of human spirit. I was amazed how people have built this city back to its historical glory, yes Nuremberg was a very very important trade centre during the medieval times, and popularly remarked as the place where goods from all over the world can be bought or sold.

Wednesdays and Thursdays are very hectic at the lab with many of the Masters students turning up for the practical sessions and it gets a bit crowded. I work around this situation by turning up early for the lab and finish my work as much as possible and then staying at my office with the studies and other paper work while the practical session is on.  I also see the buses crowded with school students at around 7 – 7:30 in the morning.  Friday was a long day at work with my colleague Christine. On the weekend I completed 2 things long pending – cleaning my room and getting a hair-cut. I found out that Friseur (hair dresser) could also be sometimes spelt as Frisör.

Hallo dear readers,

The last 2 weeks have been very hectic and also very very exciting for me. Now, I’m fully into my experiments in the lab at BVT, Paul Gordon strasse and also there have been some wonderful moments in my hostel. I found out that the place I live, Wichernstrasse, is actually a hotspot for many other Indians who were either studying here or working. We had a Diwali celebration in our hostel and I was thrilled about it. Diwali, also called as the Lichtfest, or the Festival of Lights, is a traditional Indian festival that is celebrated with great fervor during this period in India. I had never thought I would be able to celebrate it the same way here in Germany, but thanks to many old-timers in my hostel, we were able to organize a great show and pull it off. There were around 30 of us gathered in the party hall on Saturday evening and we had earlier in the day decorated the room with coloured papers, hangings, lights, traditional Indian floor drawings (called ‘kolam’ in my language) etc. Diwali has many interesting legends. It is celebrated to mark the return of a King called Rama many centuries before, (who is also worshipped as a God) after 14 years in the forest and then killing the Demon King Ravana. It is also celebrated to signify the killing of a demon called Narakasura by God Krishna, thus lighting the day with many lamps means, the end of darkness and the beginning of light or wisdom.

The triumph of good over evil.

We had also invited a few German friends and they were very interested to know more about this Lichtfest! We had lighted up the room with many lamps and it looked great. We began by first watching a movie called Rang de Basanti , and then we started off. We worship the Goddess Lakshmi on this day for prosperity and well-being. We had a traditional prayer called ‘Arthi’ where we show a lighted lamp to the picture of the Goddess while praying that everything should turn out well from this moment onwards. And everyone took turns to do that, including our german friends too!

Then we had some games like Dumb-charades and we were guessing the names of movies. Fireworks and crackers are a big part of the festival in India on this day and obviously I knew it wouldn’t be possible to do that here without scaring the neighborhood. But I was surprised again to know that we were actually allowed to have fire works that were without any noise and went not more than 3 metres high, and that was enough for us to have a great time.

Then we had our traditional Indian dinner ordered from an Indian restaurant (called Curry house, so you know its Indian) and then it was time for a Bollywood dance floor. The party was a real blast overall. And as if all this was not enough, I was invited by my friend and fellow DAAD stipend holder, Harish, from Heidelberg for the Diwali celebrations there in Heidelberg, next week.

It was a more bigger affair as it was organized by the HISA (Heidelberg Indian Students Association) and the format was like a programme with a large audience including many Indians (I had never seen so many here before!) and an equally large number of their German colleagues who were very curious and were expecting something interesting here in the Indische Lichtfest.

We started off with the traditional ‘Arthi’ and then a South Indian dance by one lady whose name I don’t remember (I was introduced to more than 20 new people that day). Harish, sung 3 songs and made a great hit with his first song called ‘Maa’ and was asked for a repeat. It was a stunning show overall, again with many games, lots of surprise gifts to people from the audience and great food, Indian of course and everyone dressed up in traditional Indian clothes. The finale was again a dance floor and I was amazed to find so many germans joining us there, particularly there was one guy who didn’t stop for a minute for almost 2 hours and was extremely well-versed in all the dance steps for Hindi songs! Me and my friends, who were mostly studying in Heidelberg or nearby Mannheim had a wonderful time and it was great fun.

I returned to my room late Sunday night and after such a Indian cultural treat, I was totally out of my usual form and it took me quite some time to get back into the german setup again, so when my colleagues asked me on Monday, “Hi Ram, Wie war denn dein Wochenende?”, it took me a long time to understand what they were actually asking.

Anyway, now I’m back to the lab-office-room mind frame and I hope things will go smoothly this week. It’s an important stage of my experiments and I must also report the results so far, to my supervisor. Ok, then I wish you all too a great and successful week ahead.

Till then..

On the 8^th of this month, I attended the International Week organized by the Fachhochschule (Technical University) Dortmund. It was a week-long event, but the DAAD South Asia division had a lecture to be delivered by its chief Dr. Dorothea Jecht on this particular day about opportunities for students to pursue higher studies and research in India. I was invited as a guest and also to interact with the students there and give them more information about what it is like to live in India as a student.

I arrived by noon at Dortmund after a long journey through unheard of towns like Warburg and Soest and had the opportunity to travel in a beautiful train called Euro Rail Bahn and also saw countless number of small villages , beautiful fields, cattle and farmhouses all along the way.

At the Dortmund Hbf, I waited for a short while and then Ms. Dr. Jecht and Ms. Susanne Assmann (her colleague) and Ms. Karen Schoch (who is shortly flying to India to work at the MMB, New Delhi) also arrived by another train and we took an S-Bahn to the University Dortmund station. Ms. Assmann was quite efficient in being able to buy tickets, reach the train that was 1 level higher, then go down again to stamp them and still being able to make it back to the train. It was quite stupid of me not to buy the S-Bahn tickets during the time I was waiting for them – it never struck me..

Once we reached, we were received warmly by Ms. Hösch and others and we made our way directly to the FH.The event was jointly organized by Ms. Gisela Mojer and Ms. Dagmar Hösch both from the International Office of the FH Dortmund. We also met Prof. Knust Potter who was the Leader for the exchange programme between FH Dortmund and Delhi University.

It was a beautiful campus and I was fascinated. Dr. Jecht informed me that it’s a typical 70s campus, in that all the buildings were modern styled ones and it differs from most other german universities which have a long historic past and at least one main building is a historic styled architecture.

The Technical and the Applied universities were different buildings but all together on a large – sized area that resembled a large garden. The most impressive thing I discovered was the suspension train or H-Bahn as they call it that link the university’s North campus to the South. It simply flew over my head , when I was talking to a guy and I was shocked – well a train is the last thing you would expect to fly over you. Ms. Assmann further informed me that Wuppertal is the most famous German city for Suspension trains (called here as Schwebebahn). I also met an interesting German guy who said he was a freelance worker for the university and he could talk a few words in Tamil- my native South Indian language! Apparently, he has been to my city a few years back for some work.

The lecture by Dr. Jecht started at around 12 noon and it went smoothly. She clarified many points about the economic, academic and cultural facets of studying in India and it was quite interactive with some people actively participating in a discussion. The main theme of the lecture revolves around a new programme started by her section called, “A New Passage to India” to actively promote the opportunities for students so that they consider taking up studying in India as a unique option. It was also to encourage them to try the cultural and other differences to be experienced as an interesting challenge. Usually Asia is only seen as some exotic land with wide variety of cultural differences but students hardly have any solid information about the actual prospects that exist for them to take up studies there, and Dr. Jecht’s lecture was particularly about that – how DAAD is trying to support and encourage forays into India for students. I also had some interactions with the audience and I was thankful to Dr. Jecht for not putting me into a fix with some complicated question in German – most of what she discussed was quite simple.

Then we had some snacks and we were presented some mementos. I was given a bag that was made from the banner material that was used for some campaign and woven around the dome of the Dortmund church. That was something splendid!

We then setup a small table and handed out information pamphlets to people interested in knowing more about this programme of ours and studying in India. Particularly in focus were the renowned Indian Institutes of Technology and a few other old and very strongly established research centres. I then took a walk around and saw what students from other countries had to show. We then walked around and checked out a new auditorium in the FH. It was quite impressive.

We came back for a discussion session by Dr. Wolff – who had brought together many students, teachers and other workers who had spent time studying or working in different Asian countries like Vietnam, Japan, China (Dr. Wolff himself) and India. So, a small gathering of German students there could get first-hand information about living in different countries in Asia and what are the interesting cultural differences. We participated actively in the discussion giving out our experiences from India ( Dr. Jecht and Ms. Schoch have worked in MMB, New Delhi before and Ms. Assmann had studied in Japan).

We left around 6 pm and reached Dortmund Main station with S- bahn. And then our excitement started. Ms. Schoch just normally went into a Bakery at the station and asked for something to eat when suddenly all of us were forced back out of the shop and out of the station. People were asked to leave the station and there was a little confusion. Some people were coming up into the station without knowing, some with knowing what was going on and most others like us were completely in the dark. We just knew we had to leave and we had to rush. I felt an adventure on the way and with Deutsche Bahn and me, its always so. After Karen enquired with a few cops we came to know that apparently they had found an unattended suitcase in one of the platforms and they were isolating the whole of the main train station – leaving out only a couple of platforms of the S-bahn. So, we made our way back to the S-Bahn platforms wondering what was going to happen next. Outside, Polizei special personnel were piling in and some of the cops were giving instructions to the confused travelers – we heard what we expected – platforms 1 to 16 are being evacuated and isolated. So it was clear that it was no more possible to have a normal return back home. I knew either I’m going to reach early the next day morning or I was going to stay in a hotel.

But it never really mattered to me and I was thinking about the others – Dr. Jecht and Ms. Assmann had to go to Bonn while Ms. Schoch had to leave to Erfurt and she had some heavy bags too, for her flight later next week. So we were contemplating our next move and the Polizei guys were getting impatient after answering so many people – they just asked us to back off and were clearly not in a mood for any further discussions. Ms. Assmann took out her phone for technical support from her colleagues while I was hoping and praying that I shouldn’t suddenly hear some nasty blast anywhere or people running out in a stampede. But the situation was quite under control and the Police deserves credit to have handled it efficiently. We then decided to take a regional train to Düsseldorf with no clear plans as to where to go from there but we knew we had to take this train that was available before it was too late to go anywhere. A lady in the train who was well informed helped us a lot and had immediate answers – which route the train would take and when it would reach a particular station. Ms. Assmann with help from her friend on the phone had our plans made out and I was very thankful to her and also Deutsche Bahn website for not crashing in this time of confusion. Finally, it was decided they would get down midway and reach Köln and then Bonn. Ms. Schoch would eventually travel to Düsseldorf with me. I was thankful to all of them and we discussed for sometime as to what could be the situation now. Then we bid them goodbye and wished them to reach safely.

Thanks to the good alternate plans that were given to me I could hope to reach Erlangen by around 1 a.m. Instead of Dortmund – Köln – Nürnberg – Erlangen, I would be taking up Dortmund – Düsseldorf – Frankfurt Flughafen – Nürnberg – Erlangen instead. So it wasnt a big change and hopefully it should work out, I thought.

I reached Düsseldorf with Karen and I rushed to my next train only to find it 20 mins late. Ms. Schoch decided to check into a hotel since her connecting trains would be very late. Finally I got into my IC train and ordered something to eat from the Bistro Café. Then I spoke to a DB officer on board and he told me he received information that it was just a suitcase forgotten by someone. I wanted to meet that sweet gentleman who forgot something and made a mess out of thousands of people’s travel plans but still I was happy with whatever happened because it showed a strong action and security plan in place when an emergency occurs. I reached Erlangen by 1:30 a.m and took a taxi to my room and fell down on my bed. What a trip it was – almost 11 hours of travelling, almost a dozen trains changed, so many new stations seen, countless villages on the way, a students event at FH Dortmund and to top it all a bomb scare at the Dortmund Hbf by someone who forgot to take his suitcase!

Hello readers

I had been away from this blog for quite a considerable length of time as I was busy moving to Erlangen and settling in. So many things have happened in the past 2 weeks that its impossible to describe everything in detail without making this article an endless essay. But I shall still try my best to narrate all the exciting things that have happened till now.

So, finally me and my friends had to leave Marburg and we left with a heavy heart. The night before, I visited the Oberstadt for one last time and had a good dinner with some friends. The next day by noon the train to Frankfurt arrived and as always Deutsche Bahn never fails to thrill me. My friend had got in and I helped transfer 2 of our big luggages in. When I turned back and fetched the remaining of my luggages, the doors closed and wouldn’t open from either inside or outside. Well, yes Marburg isn’t such a big city for the train to stop for more than 1 minute. So, I watched in horror as the train left, my friend’s shocked expression partially visible through the glass doors. The fun part was that all my tickets were in the bag I had given in ! Then I went to the DB officer in the station and narrated her my plight and she was kind enough to give me an acknowledgement to travel by the next train to Frankfurt. Luckily, we had set our next train leaving from Frankfurt quite a while later, in foresight, and I would also advise others the same. When you have much time to spare in your travel, then always keep quite a comfortable time gap between changing trains.

We met at Frankfurt and took the next train. I hopped down at Nürnberg and took my local train to Erlangen – finally arrived. I checked into my hostel room that I had already reserved and set my things. The room was pretty good and as usual – a common washroom and kitchen for the floor. I am at the ninth floor and there is a spectacular view of the city from my window. I then took a short trip outside and checked out the bus stops, bus routes and timings for the next day. Later that night at around 1:00 a.m I woke up for no reason and looked out the window. There is a big junction of 2 important roads nearby. There was a single car at the signals and there was absolutely no other car in sight. It was middle in the night but he was still waiting for the green! I was hugely impressed by this display of traffic sense but when I narrated this to my colleagues in my lab, they just said, its because all signals are watched by cameras and he would rather lose a few minutes rather than a lot of Euros..

The first day getting to my lab was quite good but hectic as expected. The bus prices are slightly higher here I found. A week–ticket costed 10.80 Euros and I also needed something called a Zone ticket. I didn’t know about this and neither was I informed. This would lead to an interesting encounter but that comes later.

I had to change at the city centre and I got into the next bus through the middle since I already have a ticket. The driver really embarrassed me by stopping the bus a few metres ahead and turning around and pointing to me and calling me to him. I proudly displayed my ticket to him but he was as cold as before and spoke in a highly Bavarian accent – “Immer vorne einsteigen, und die Fahrkarte zeigen” . I could just manage to mumble an Alles klar.. “Hmm.. Bayern,” , I thought to myself, yet another difference from Marburg where you could always get into the bus from the middle.

I reached my lab and met all the people. I had a small chat with the secretaries and they were very kind in explaining the necessary formalities in the department. Also, all the people address each other by their first names and use ‘du’ instead of ‘Sie’! And that includes the Head of the Department too. I had been given my working table, computer, printer, phone and all required things like shelves, stationaries, etc.– Perfect. I loved my office and this is where I would be spending my time studying papers or mailing suppliers for materials required for my experiments.

Later that evening when I thoughtfully got into the bus from the front and showed the driver the ticket, he had yet another way of taunting me. He asked for the Zonekarte about which I had never heard of in my life, but yes I saw printed on the ticket that it was required. I simply asked him to give me one and he was annoyed for no reason. He said he doesn’t have any Zonekarte but did say where I could get one, but I couldn’t understand him thanks to his accent. I asked him again and he almost went mad! “Das ist kein Fahrausweiss”, he repeated and I said ok, relax , I will pay up if anyone comes checking for tickets and I went to a seat wondering whether I had given him his worst day at work so far.

That night I met a couple of Indian guys at my hostel and we cooked together. The next day I learnt about the ticket and got the required Zone card thing from the Deutsche Bahn office – its simply to show that I would be travelling only within Erlangen and not anywhere outside of it.

The next day in lab and we discussed our previous results with the cell cultures and documented them. We also made brief plans for the next set of experiments that would also mark my beginning as I would be trying to do them alongside my colleague Christine who is extremely helpful in teaching me the necessary things. There are 2 other groups – one working with Algae and another with Animal cell cultures – the latter in a separate facility called IZMP – Innovations Zentrum für Medizin und Pharma. There was a guy called Peter who worked with electrical stuffs in the work hall and he was celebrating his birthday, so we enjoyed it the traditional german way – coffee and cakes.

I completed my registration in the Erlangen city authority at the Rathaus (the office is called Einwohnermeldeamt or residents registration office). The process was fairly simple and fast and they didn’t need anything from me other than my passport. Probably because I have already been living in another german city for 4 months. I then visited the Ausländerbehörde (foreigners registration office) and finished registering there too. Everything was smooth except for the Bavarian speaking guy in this office who directed me to room no. 214 by saying “Zwoferzen” which was supposed to mean “Zweihundertvierzehn”!

The first weekend was special as I decided to go to Munich for the Oktoberfest. Initially I thought it wouldn’t be worth it since I had heard nothing about it other than people gathering in thousands to drink like crazy and then wait impatiently at the queues outside the urinals. I still decided to give it a try after one of my colleagues urged me to. I bought a Bayern ticket single which is a very useful option for travellers. It enables a person to travel all through Bayern and use all its transport services for one day, like regional trains, buses , s-bahn, u-bahn etc. everything except ICE, and all for just 20 euros . and it gets even better with a group of 5 persons – 28 euros. Such tickets are available with each and every state in Germany but the prices between them differ.

There were a group of 7-8 youngsters in the train who were all dressed up in traditional costumes and were singing and making merry all the while. Absolutely noisy but it was really fun in the festive time – everything was fine until one of them hit upon the idea of lighting up a cigarette. Within minutes everyone was smoking and the smoke was starting to fill up their area of the wagon– I wondered whether I was still in Germany! They then started opening up their bottles and drunk till one of them fell down and tore his lips while another had thrown up near the toilet. Another girl was starting to behave inappropriately and a few of the passengers near them moved hurriedly to other seats. I was finally relieved when I reached Munich station without getting noticed by them. The usual quiet and polite journey on a german train, to which I was used to , was radically changed that day. Well, exceptions are there everywhere..

I expected the Fest to be one grand pub filled with ‘high’ flying drinkers all over the Theresienwiese (that’s what the place is called) and very soon I realized I was mistaken – yes, it was a grand sized pub all right but there was so much more to it. I found people dressed in traditional Bavarian dress everywhere – Guys in Lederhosen and the ladies in Drindl. They looked splendid and I’m always impressed by anything that’s historic and traditional. There were countless number of shops to eat and shops to play some fun games – I tried my luck at shooting stars with a rifle and I managed around 6 out of 10. I got some plastic roses as my prize that got me so annoyed that I wanted to shoot those roses instead!

My colleague Sabine had brought her friends along and we had a tough time finding places to sit at the Augustiner bier tent – which was said to be the best there. We had our round of beers served in the usual 1 litre Masskruge mugs and the giant sized mugs in the hands of some high flyer who has gone through 4 rounds, could be a dangerous proposition, I thought. There were many such guys around there actually..

The urinals are marked by funny statues pointing towards them and the urinals themselves looked so funny with people on the verge of falling down as they were relieving themselves..

I then enjoyed a few thrill rides and bought a T-shirt as a memento before finally rushing to the train station since the Bayern ticket is valid for one day only. There were special trains from Munich to accommodate the crowd and I had a good trip back home to Erlangen. During the return I had a good chat in German with some girls who had also been to the festival and learnt some German slang from them.

The next week went particularly well and I got into the lab atmosphere. I have begun my experiments and hope it turns out well. In any case, I need to learn a lot and train myself more during my stay here. The path is quite long and I have just begun.

I just told Christine that I needed to buy a bike so that I wouldn’t have to depend upon the buses. She immediately took the help of Dr. Andreas Perlick her boss, and also an avid bicycle enthusiast and he gave me an address of a cycle shop in a village called Möhrendorf, about 8 km away and made an appointment for us. We then drove to the village along with Peter and Susanne our other colleagues. I must say I was deeply thankful to them for taking so much interest into my needs and helping me out. This is particularly important since German bicycles are technically quite complicated and it takes a cycle enthusiast like Peter to critically analyze each and every component before selecting a cycle. They were also helpful to me in another important way – the lady at the bicycle shop would understand nothing other than German and spoke with such a rustic accent that I was so thankful that my colleagues came with me to do the talking. I was mostly looking around and test driving a few cycles. I was easily impressed by each and every cycle I tested, while Peter was far more informed and it takes a lot to impress him.

my colleagues helping me select bike

He said he took almost 2 years to find the right cycle when he wanted to change from his old one, so I knew I had the right guy to select for me as he explained me about the different makes of gears, brakes, body frames etc. and how one manufacturer differed in quality from another. It is required to strike a balance between the essential requirements of the buyer, the minimum required features in the bike, its components and value for money and of course the maximum amount the buyer is willing to spend. We zeroed in on one particular model, but only reserved it, so that we could see other types too. Later the next day, we visited a very large cycle shop (actually they sell motor cycles and accessories too) called Stadler which was selling at 20% discounts since they were going to close down and renovate. There were more choices here and the prices were far better. Again, Peter warned me not to get carried away and showed me clearly how one component may be of best quality (gears for example) while others may be of lesser quality (brakes, body, chains etc.) and a person who looks only at the gears and decides, may be mistaken. Obviously, there were also bikes that were made fully of the best components that would cost nearly a 1000 Euros. I checked out some really amazing cycles like a racing model costing 9990 Euros and many mountain trekker bikes costing higher than 800 Euros. There were also some funny bikes like one that was modeled on the Harley Davidson style and another that was so high that only someone atleast 2 meters tall could ride it.

stadler shop

I needed a bike for daily use, within the city and for a long time and that was the primary reason why I did not opt for a used one. We finally selected a model after 4 hours of test driving nearly 12 different models. Its called a Pegasus and has 8 gears in the front and 3 in the back and I found it awesome to ride. It costed quite a large amount (300) but I decided on it. I also bought a good lock, though Peter joked that the lock was only for our satisfaction as no bike is safe when parked outside here. We then brought the cycle back in our van and I felt very excited and wanted to drive it all around the city right from that moment but it was quite cold and I put my excitement under check. My colleagues congratulated me for the purchase and I thanked them profusely.

Riding a cycle on German streets is a pleasure since all the roads have special pathways marked for cyclists and so there are no problems to drive. The really amazing thing is that your cycle is just like any other possession like suitcase or bag when you board a bus or local train – you can take your cycle along for no extra cost.

And so, I’m driving my cycle now and it feels great. In my next article I shall describe what an exciting time I had during the International Week organized by the FH Dortmund.

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!

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!