My Monday Diversions for 10/25

Back with some diversions!


First you have to listen to this song by David Guetta [Ft. KiD CuDi]. It's called Memories and has been out for a while, but I kept listening to it over and over again today.

I love soccer, but when people commit acts like Dani Alves did in FC Barcelona's 2:0 win against Real Zaragoza, it gives the sport a bad name. It is really funny just how committed he was to drawing the call. Watch him continue to roll on the ground.

While using Stumble Upon last week, I found this huge game of Scrabble that you play with thousands of other users. Make sure not to swap tiles too many times or you will run out of lives. You can literally play this game for hours upon days.
Hint: If you form a word on a white star (which symbolizes the middle of the board, even though there are infinite amounts of boards put together), you can earn extra lives.


If you are a dedicated Fantasy Football player like me, I suggest springing a for this. It is a service offered by Bloomberg Sports that uses years worth of data to suggest which player is the best play in a given week. It does a direct comparison between two players you can choose, and will tell you how much risk is involved if you choose a certain player. Very useful indeed. I give it an 8/10 because I used it and I won in all 5 of my Fantasy Football leagues this week.

I want to give a final shout out to one of the YouTube channels I subscribe to. Ray William Johnson is the guy's name and he is absolutely hilarious. Usually once or twice a week, he will review a few of the up and coming viral videos hitting YouTube. I would watch at least a few of these if I were new to it, and then if you like it, subscribe. As you can see, he ends up getting more hits on YouTube than the videos he reviews.

Thats all my diversions for this week. Have a great week of class. I have so many hours of class tomorrow.....grrrrr

Adam

Class Schedule

Hi again,

As I lay on my bed eating a delicious pretzel and listening to Taylor Swift (Taylor, if you ever read this, marry me even though you aren’t Jewish), I write to everyone about my first week of classes.

As I last left my blog, I was scrambling to find classes to take and to set up my schedule. Well, I can tell you that I had some success and some failure.

The Failure? Having no idea for long stretches of time what the professors were saying. That might be a problem somewhere in the near future.

The Success? I made it to all my classes, I think…. Let me elaborate a little bit more

I also want to note a few things that are different about German classes. First, there are two different time distinctions in terms of classes. If you look on the course catalog, you will see either a c.t. or s.t. after the scheduled time of class. The c.t. means that class begins 15 minutes after the hour (and ends 15 minutes before if it is a two hour class). The s.t. means it runs the entire 2 hours. All of my classes are c.t. 

Secondly, there is something very unique and funny that accompanies the end of every class. In a university class, when the teacher says class is over, everyone knocks on the table with their fists. It lasts for about 5 seconds and is supposed to be like applause??? It isn't something we do in America and it made me laugh. In my first class, which I will talk about shortly, there are 200 people, so it was quite a loud noise. Germans are strange.

So, I woke up on a Monday for the first time in 5 months with the explicit goal to go to class. And I made it there. I only have one class on Mondays from 12 to 1 called, Einführung in die Linguistik (General German Linguistics). Even though it is a huge class (around 200 students), it isn’t easy to register for. After the first session, I talked with the professor about joining the class. The thing is, you had to register for it by the 15^th and I only found out about the class on the 17^th, and even then, I didn't have the ability to do so. I have to go meet with the German Advisor about this minor clerical issue, except I couldn’t get an appointment until the 2^nd of November.  BUT ANYWAY, the class was very interesting. The professor was funny and somewhat easy to understand.

I was born on May 22, 1990, which was a Tuesday for those of you who didn't know. It had therefore become my favorite day of the week. No longer is that the case. For the rest of the semester, I will dread Tuesdays, because I scheduled 5 hours of class within a 6-hour time period.

It wasn’t a disaster, but definitely fatiguing. The first two hours (10-12) is a class called Literatur der Nachkriegzeit (1945-1967) (Post-WWII Literature). While I find Post-WWII topics to be interesting, I absolutely hate Literature. This was only exacerbated by the fact I understood less than 10 percent of what the professor was saying. It shouldn’t be too bad, and this is one of the few classes that I actually need to get credit for. Reading whole books in German is going to be tough.

From 12 to 1 is the second session of the week for Einführung in die Linguistik. It was pretty much the same on Tuesday, but I felt like I understood less. Not really sure if I have homework….small problem.

Then after a 1 hour break for lunch, I have Finanzwissenschaft I (Financial Studies) from 2-4. While it was very interesting, I was clueless because many of the complicated words that are used in economics talk are very hard to understand. I spoke with the professor, Dr. Wolfgang Eggert, after class and told him I am an exchange student. He seems very understanding that it is a difficult subject. At this point in time, I don’t need this class. I may drop it pending difficulty.

That was my dreadful Tuesday.  Listening to professors talk really fast in German about difficult topics can really wear an exchange student out.

Wednesday was solid. I got to my European Union Economics class that I have with my friend Tobias, see Digital Adventure post, and who teaches it? Dr. Wolfgang Eggert

This class was much easier to understand than the first economics one and it was also more interesting. Not to mention, the textbooks used in the class are in English. I am pretty sure that exchange students get leniency during the grading period, so having the same professor twice will be positive.

Thursday is another one of my important classes that I need to get credit for UT. It is called, Krieg, Recht und Gesellschaft der 20. Jahrhundert (War, Justice and Society of the 20^th Century) and is from 12 to 2. It was difficult to understand, but from what I gathered, the class will mostly be about victims of war and organizations that help them (Red Cross).

And that is it….sorta

Those are my planned classes, but most of them have scheduled tutoring sessions and practice sessions. I haven’t looked that up yet, but it adds a significant number of hours to my school week. Each economics class has a two-hour session for practicing problems and my linguistics course has two hours of optional tutorials and two hours of mandatory extra sessions per week. That doesn’t make me a happy camper.

What makes up for that?

For the first time in my life, I DON’T HAVE CLASS ON FRIDAYS!!!!

NOTE*** While writing this, I had to look up a few easy words (like an antonym for mandatory and a synonym for to detail) in the thesaurus. I think I am forgetting English, if I even really knew it in the first place.

I also did some ridiculous thing tonight that I will post eventually. I have photo and video evidence. And it is hilarious.

Have a nice weekend,

Adam

P.S. Just wanted to note that I watched the videos of the “Propaganda” event that occurred this week at UT. I like how the Youtube videos had the word propaganda to describe the event, when indeed the video was propaganda. Just saying.

P.P.S. I am a conservative and I am highly amused by the mess of things that have occurred following Bill O’Reilly’s appearance on The View. While he wasn’t being PC, he has a point (even the liberal NPR guy, who got fired after statements about being afraid of Muslims every time he gets on a plane, tended to agree with O’Reilly. The US is about to change sides, when the Republicans will take over both the House and the Senate. Can’t wait for Election Day!

It’s been a while…

 Hey everyone,

I know I’ve been a slacker (at least on my blog), so I apologize.

But, I have been productive in other facets of life. I’ve registered as a student. I’ve purchased my semester ticket for the local public transportation. I’ve cleaned up my room and hung some stuff up. Hell, I even did laundry today.

Here are some pictures of my room and our little TV area:

I finished all my appointments. I opened a bank account. I picked out classes….oh wait, still haven’t done that. When does school start??? TOMORROW!!

Priority 1, besides writing this blog post and fantasy football, is making sure I have a viable class schedule for this semester. And while I am not exactly sure how the system will work tomorrow, I’m not too worried about it.

Priority 2 is paying rent, but that can wait.

From what I have deduced, the beginning of the semester is very different than what it is like at UT. For the fall semester at UT, you register for your classes back in the spring and then you just go.

Germany is very last minute in my opinion. I am supposed to look online which classes I want to take, and then go to the class on the first day and register in class. The whole process doesn’t really start until the first class day (tomorrow).

So at this point in time, I have no idea what time I am going to class tomorrow. I guess that is what the next few hours before the NFL starts are for.

I have a general idea what I need, but the specifics are mostly up to me. I have a degree plan that I brought with me. I have to correspond with an advisor whether or not I can get credit at UT for certain classes.

Tomorrow should be an interesting day. I hope to write again soon. Hopefully school doesn’t take over my life.

For those of you keeping score at home, my last day of class last semester was May 14^th. Tomorrow is October 18^th. That is 5 months since I had class. I might be a little rusty.

Anyway, enjoy the rest of your Sunday. Go Texans!!! And send money Mom!!

Adam

Digital Adventure

It has also been a fun few days.

Ever since I arrived on Sunday, I have been meeting people from around the world and settling in.

My apartment is shared between 7 people. We have 5 guys, 2 girls, one kitchen, one small TV area and two bathrooms (sorta). So far only 6 of us are here. Four (Thomas, Raphael, Catherina and Sarah) are from different parts of Germany and one (Richard) is from Sydney, Australia. The missing tenant is Olli (I think) and he is also from Germany, but hasn't moved in yet. Everyone is very nice and we interact only in German, including my conversations with Richard.

In fact, I understand Richard's German better than his Australian accent.

Besides my apartment, I have made a few international friends who live in the same complex. There are a few Brits, another Australian (Tobias), a couple of Finns, and a few others. Tobias and I already had a few adventures in the past couple of days.

On Tuesday, Tobias and I saw each other in the same internet cafe before a day of orientation. I talked to him for a minute, printed something out, then left for orientation. I came back that way an hour and a half later and he is still on the same computer skyping with his girlfriend back in Australia.

He then explains to me that he ordered a laptop to be delivered to an electronics store in the southern part of the city, called Media Markt. I had nothing better to do, so I met up with him a bit later and we took the street car down there.

Since I don't have the semester transportation ticket yet, I didn't want to pay so much for rides so after the street car, we walked the rest of the way instead of the bus. We finally get to Media Markt to buy the laptop and we have trouble getting helped. After looking around at stuff and finally getting attention, we are told it will be 15 minutes until it is available. It's a huge electronics store, so that is not a big deal at all. We listened to music and it was fun.

Fifteen minutes pass and the laptop comes. Tobias goes to check out, BUT his Mastercard doesn't work at the register. He goes to the ATM in the store to withdraw 800 Euros, but it also doesn't work. We then have to schlepp out to a bank all the way near the street car station, about 1.5 miles away. We get there and he uses the ATM, but can only get 760 Euros out of the 800 he needs. Luckily, I had enough to lend him (he already paid me back, mom).

We walk all the way back to Media Markt and finally pays for the damn thing. Instead of having to walk again to the street car, we took the bus back all the way to a connecting bus station we needed to take to get back home.

It ended up taking 3 hours and was a lot of walking, but I tend to like these mini-adventures. We had fun with it, and now Tobias doesn't have to sit in an internet cafe all day. He repaid me also with help on all my bureaucratic problems described in the last post.

I also went out a few times, but you can look forward to reading that stuff later

Adam

Bureaucracy

It has been a stressful few days.

Today is my 4th full day in Freiburg and I have passed a few of the opening "tests" for registration. Everything is very complicated to master to prepare to start school. I thought I had already finished the hard part when I filled out my study abroad application at UT, but was I wrong.

My welcoming packet came with a list of 8 steps to complete in order to enroll in the university. 8 steps doesn't seem so bad, except instead of steps, it is more like tasks. All I can say before I describe my trials is that juggling every one of these things together has been very difficult.

Not to mention, a slight language barrier.

The first step was to register for an apartment, which I had already done months ago. Step 1 (Check)

The second step was to register for residency in the city of Freiburg at the international office. This was very troublesome for two reasons: (a) I didn't know where the office was and (b) I didn't understand which documents I needed to have. Turns out I had to print a few things out, but I had no printer. Thank god for internet cafes. I needed to have my passport and proof of apartment reservation. I thought that I needed a visa, so I started to semi-worry. I made a few phone calls back home and got my parents more worried than I was. Turns out I didn't need it to do a future step, so everything is alright. Step 2 (Check)

The third step is to open a german bank account so I can pay rent. I attempted to do this today. I went in with the necessary documents: Passport, the Residency Registration Confirmation (that I received in Step 2) and the proof of acceptance into the university (Zulassungsbeschied). Big words still confuse me; that's why I was very unaware of how to complete all the steps. I went to the Deutsche Bank location nearby, but they were unavailable to help me today, so I set up an appointment for tomorrow morning. Step 3 (In Progress)

The fourth step is to get proof of health insurance. You have to go into an agency and either sign up and pay for insurance or prove you already bought it and get an exemption from the student insurance. I brought in my Passport, Zuassungsbeschied (see step 3) and my insurance card from the US student insurance I already bought. Step 4 (Check)

The fifth step is where everything gets a little bit dicey. You need to have an appointment in the International office of the city in the Foreign Study department. I called in this morning and made my appointment, but the earliest they can see me is on the 14th, a week from today. I took it, but the deadline for Step 6 is the 15th. It's gonna be close. In order to get my Aufenthaltserlaubnis (Student Residence Permit), I have to bring my Passport, 1 passport photo, my Zulassungsbeschied, my health care exemption form and proof of financial payment (I still don't understand what this document is, but I have a week to figure out). Step 6 (In Progress)

The sixth step is to matriculate in the university. It isn't a difficult thing to do, but you need to have everything else first. I need the Zulassungsbeschied, Passport, Proof of Higher Education entrance qualification from my home university (?!?!?), Confirmation that I did Step 5, Application for registration, the health insurance exemption form and 2 passport photos. It's so many things, but I'm getting there. Step 6 (Incomplete)

The seventh step is easier. I have to go into town and purchase my Semesterticket (Public Transportation Ticket for the whole semester). It costs 73 Euros, which is pricey, but you save a TON of money. I'll explain. Every time you take the bus or street car, you have to pay 2,10 Euros. It adds up, I would know.  You can purchase a 24 hour ticket for 5,30 Euros, which is a sweet deal if you ride 3 times, and I normally do. I have blown so much money on transportation because it is so difficult to get the semester ticket. At least I know how to use the ticketing machine now? Step 7 (Incomplete)

The eighth and final step is a formality. I need to give my bank account information from Step 3 to the Student Social Services so they can withdraw rent every month. Step 8 (Incomplete)

I don't know why this has to be so complicated, but it is. My theory is that this bureaucracy is a test, that if you can pass, you can survive. I'm treading water, but I'm almost back on the dock. By the time I finish this test, it will be time for classes to start.

Looking forward to everything the future holds,

Adam

P.S. Don't think EVERYTHING has been stressful, the post about my fun and adventures is coming up next

My Monday Diversions for 10/4

Hi,

I've been in Freiburg for just over 24 hours, and everything is great. I will do another post later about that. But first are my Monday diversions.

I love watching the NFL, but nothing makes watching football as amazing as hearing Gus Johnson, a play-by-play guy for CBS, call the game. During the Broncos 13-7 victory over the Bengals, he makes this call on what was one of the plays of the 2009 NFL season. My new favorite video (WATCH THE OTHER FIRST FOR REFERENCE), that I have watched over and over again, is a reenactment of the now famous call. Basically, I love Gus Johnson.


If you don't know this next game, you probably are stuck in a different universe. Even my mom plays Text Twist!!! I'm sharing this link because it is great for in class gaming and you probably haven't played in a while. It takes me back to my high-school-computer-science-class days.


My song of the week is The Ghost Inside - Broken Bells. I unfortunately can't watch this particular video, because Germany doesn't have the copyrights to watch some music videos. It isn't what I usually listen to, but it is really catchy and enjoyable. And I'm listening to it now.

This "Article" is hilarious and sort of applies to me. It in no way portrays my current life or lifestyle.

That's enough for now. I will do a normal post later today or tomorrow.

Adam