As mentioned in my previous blog post, May 12, 2012 was Open Day at the most awesome public policy graduate school in the universe i.e. University of Erfurt’s Willy Brandt School of Public Policy. It was in my estimation a very organized  occasion that commenced at 10:00am. On my way to the venue, I met [...]

We live in a world fraught with inequities and injustices and if we are not careful we may tend to focus on the negative alone whiles being blind to hope. Meditating on the former has the potential to cast a spell of despair, dejection and demotivation on us. Every once in a while, Providence gives [...]

Greetings dear reader from the enchantingly beautiful city of Erfurt in the heart of Thuringia, Germany.  If you have been following my posts, you will remember the post titled Lecture-free period and fun activities which briefly discussed the period between the Winter and Summer academic semesters i.e. the vorlesungsfreier Zeit which losely translates to ‘lecture-free [...]

Lectures terminated sometime in February (end of the German winter semester) and it is supposed to start again in mid-April i.e. the beginning of the summer semester. Needless to say, my supposed semester break has been anything but a break. It has been busy, busy, busy with loads of Hausarbeit literally translated as House work. [...]

A couple of weeks ago, I experienced my first Christmas market in Erfurt, Germany also known as Weihnachtsmarkt. In other regions such as south Germany, it’s called a Christkindlesmarkt. These markets supposedly originated in the middle ages. It’s a very beautiful sight scattered all around the city center. There are two epicenters. One is situated [...]

On the 16th of November 2011, a welcome reception was held for the new students of my department at the University of Erfurt, called the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy. It was a grand occasion and present were many distinguished guests. The location was the Erfurt City Hall—a very lovely setting indeed. The program [...]

There is a lovely, really beautiful city in the middle of Germany that I have wanted to write about for quite some time now but have not seem to make time to do so. It is a really beautiful city, a refreshing contrast to the busy and congested character that has come to be associated [...]

This blog entry is probably the ‘fondest’ I have had to write to date because it regards a trip I took at the end of September 2011 to meet the department at the DAAD handling my scholarship. Up until this point, I only knew the staff in this department via e-mail and snail-mail correspondence. The [...]

It has been quite a while since my last blog entry because the last couple of months has been a very busy but enlightening time of transitions for me. The content of this blog entry is an update of what I have been up to. As part of the requirement of the DAAD scholarship I [...]

Yesterday the language school where I study Deutsch organized a summer festival and invited students and residents of the city. The weather and the locational setting was beautiful. It took place on the back-lawn and there were many guests. There was free food and drinks and a live band that played international music. It was [...]