Ichigo Ichie and the Train Ride

Ichigo Ichie and the Train ride

When I first began dating my girlfriend, she told me about her rather unusual hobby. She would sit on the train, regardless if it’s an ICE or IC, or S-Bahn (as long as it has a window that one can see out off) and see the view outside. “Ichigo Ichie” was the Japanese phrase she answered me with when I Asked for the reason of her peculiar hobby. “Imagine only being able to cross paths with someone or something once in your life and no more than that” she explained further. What my girlfriend said lingered in my head for a moment, and then only one word came to my mind: Abstract. So like many things I don’t understand, I just chucked it into the back of my mind and continued to talk about what we should have for lunch that day.

As I’m writing this, I’m on an IC on my way back from visiting my cousin in the Netherlands. Listening to my playlist on headphones, I stare out of the window pondering about nothing in particular. My eyes graze past the verdant fields; some freshly trimmed, others inhabited by cows and sheep, all blending together to become a blur outside the window. It is a green river of shrubbery and plantlife with the occasional red dot of the, presumably, farmer’s brick house. I begin to feel melancholic, yet peaceful, like Vincent Van Gogh as he drew his artwork in a sea of sunflowers. I can imagine that his minimalistic art style; undefined lines and overlapping colors, was perhaps an imitation of the winds that blows past the fields and playfully invites the sunflowers to dance along to its whimsical breeze. It was indeed such an ephemeral thing, both in terms of its literal nanoseconds of existence and how it is always relates to an ubiquitous word always accompanied it: Beauty.

“Ichigo Ichie”

A moment that only happen once and then disappears. If destinies make up the fabric of life, Ichigo Ichie is the final strand of that fabric, where it frays and splits apart from its stem. And as helplessly poetic as it is, it makes me happy that I have found my own definition of Ichigo Ichie. Perhaps I should ride to more places on trains the next time round…

The German “Semestergebuhr”

Semester-what ?

Simply said, a Semestergebuhr is the German equivalent of a tuition fees. Most higher educations in Germany requires students to pay a sum of money so that they can be re-enrolled for the coming semester.

Now I know, I know. ” You said that German University are free !”. Okay you got me. You do have to cough a certain amount of cash for these uni but they are minuscule in comparison to other well known and more popular destination for higher education ( notable to mention is the UK).  To further illustrate this, let’s take tuition fees in Birmingham University in UK. According to it’s tuition website, an international student can expect to anywhere from £16,740  to £38,100 (€18,804 to €42797) depending on the major he or she is taking. In my university (Technische Universität Hamburg Harburg) one can expect to pay €328.60 per semester which equates to €656 per year. The reason why the tuition fees in Germany is so cheap has been previously discussed in the article “Why I choose to go to German University” and thus will not be covered here. However it would be interesting to present the breakdown of my university tuition fees. Also note that in Germany, they call these types of fees as a semester ticket because the fees are used for multiple purposes.

1. €13 for the student body representative funds
2. €85 for services provided by Hamburg student organization (Studentenwerk) such as discounts and subsidy on cafeteria food
3. €177.60 for a 6 months transportation ticket for public transports in Hamburg (that includes the ferries too woot!)
4. €3 for hardship funds (organized by Studentenwerk)
5. €50 for administrative services at the university

Actually, looking over the breakdown, tuition fee is not included in the cost of the semester ticket. As such the claim that German higher education has no tuition fees is true. But students  still need to pay for various things that will be used in everyday student life.

source:

https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/International/students/finance/fees.aspx

https://www.tuhh.de/alt/tuhh/education/students/organisational-details-about-your-studies/financing-your-studies/costs/semester-contribution.html

 

Why I choose to go to Germany for University

oh boy, here comes the flashback…

The year was 2016 and I was in my first year of international Baccalaureate (iB). Like most other 1st year iB student, we were going trough our first ever mock examination (or in iB lingos, mocks) as well as cobbling together our first ever challenge week plan (another distinct part of iB and a potential blog post for another time) . Besides studying for the mocks (or at least pretending to be), all of us were also busy thinking about our future; to be exact, we were all thinking about uni.

Confused about uni ? This cat’s too

To me uni was like what the iceberg is for the Titanic. I can see it from the distance, and the closer it comes, the more I can see the possible impact it will have on me. Unfortunately for the Titanic, it’s collision with the iceberg sealed it’s fate down to the bottom of the Atlantic ocean. For me however, the ramification of my uni choice was the kind of future I would have.

Back to 2018 and now, I am typing a blog post in a heated room set to toasty tropic temperature, in the dark evening of Hamburg Winter. So why did I ended up in Germany for my uni ? It boils down into 3 reasons:

1. It’s free
2. Renewable Engineering
3. It’s not clichee

Education in Germany seems to be perceived by many as basic human rights. Therefore, many public university offer free education for everyone.  And they do mean everyone, even Internationals. However, there’s a catch: one have to learn German. Many of these free courses are offered in  public university and although they accept international application, a majority of the courses offered are taught in German. Some of the most coveted courses such as mechanization, engineering, laws and medicine uses German as a language of instruction. Even the timetables, announcements and emails will largely be in German. Although there are exceptions to this norm (take Environmental Resource Management course in BTU Cottbus for example), they are few and far between. Not too mention that the ability to speak German will enable one to stay and work in Germany after their bachelor or master.

To be honest, the second reason could easily be the flimsiest as to why I study in Germany. I remembered that I read an article about how Germany are pioneering expert in the renewal energy sector. Since my aim to study renewable technologies and Germany’s technical know how with renewable energy overlaps, there’s no reason for me to not go to Germany.

The third reasons might seem frivolous, but it’s actually one of the most relevant to me. After graduation, many of my friend looks to the US or the UK for their future uni. I did the same way as well until it clicked to me that I wanted to be different than the rest of my friends. It seems silly but I held the fact that I am able to learn German in 3 years and study in Germany as a sign that I’m different than my other high school classmates.

And that’s how I ended up in Hamburg *insert anchor here*

Widi signing out

This Year in Words

I started this blog in the year 2017; the year that I entered into a German university. Back then, my best friend and I decided to make this blog to share our University experiences; from choosing our university to our day to day life. Since then, not much has been posted on the blog as school work piled up for both of us and negligence grew. But that said, I kept thinking about this blog last year and how much benefit it would bring to other people if I was willing to invest more time to make informative and interesting content. So hopefully, I’ll be posting more stuff over the coming weeks. I may also post my experiences of last year with the tag “This Year in Words ” because the experiences that the first year uni have given me were some of the best  of my life.

-Widi signing out

sorry cat is sorry

 

 

 

The 5 W’s of Studying in Germany

This is a classic trick for planning presentations, or essays, or just about anything that needs to be broken down into bite-sized information. So, what are the what, where, who, when and whys of studying in Germany ?

What?

Err, studying in Germany duh?

 

Where?

Higher education is equal in terms of quality across all of Germany. Therefore a business degree in Frankfurt am Main can be as good as the same degree in Cottbus. There are small variations granted; for example, ship building university courses is better in cities with access to water such as Rostock.

 

Who?

Actually everyone.

 

When?

Depends really. Most people immediately go to university as soon as they are done with high school. However, to study in Germany, or even to just get approval for a german Visa, one has to learn the language up to level A1 at least. This itself will take 250 hours according to the Goethe Institute (another major player in the journey to studying in Germany) This shall be explored in depth in the coming weeks.

 

Why?

Because of 2 main reasons.

One is that Germany has a very robust higher education system, especially in the field of engineering. So for courses that concerns cars, wind turbine, or just about anything with a bearing and can roll/turn, Germany is a good place to study it.

The second reason is because education is virtually free. German universities do not charge tuition fees as they are mainly funded by the government. There are caveats to this however.

• Every semester one has to pay certain amount of money to receive a semester ticket. This cost on average somewhere between 250 – 350 Euro depending on the university. These tickets allows you to purchase discounted food from the university’s canteen and acts as a pass to use the public transport(for free? Or what?). In the case of my university (Brandenburgersiches Technische Universitaet Cottbus-Senftenberg) the card allows me to gain access to 1.5 euro lunch menu (that is incredibly cheap by German standard) as well as taking trains or busses to anywhere in Berlin and the Brandenburg area.

 

The Basics: Rice

Coming from a South East Asian background, rice is basic life. No rice, no life. I ate them for breakfast, lunch and dinner back when I was still in Indonesia and Singapore. On the European side of the world though… they’re not so integral to a German’s daily life. But what can one do if sudden memory burst of fried rice, or rice with fried chicken and prawn paste chili comes to mind ? Worry not ! There’s no need to be tormented by such cravings. Luckily there are ways to find and cook rice in Germany

Step 1: Try the Supermarket

Despite bread and potatoes being the staple of German diets, one can also find rice in the supermarket. A few of the common ones includes Langkhorn Reis, Milch Reis, Brasmati Reis and Risotto rice (Reis is German for rice). However, for best enjoyment (and for the sake of not over complicating this post) we are going to look for Jasmine rice. This type of rice is less common in big supermarket. However, they do sometimes pop up from time to time and usually is priced anywhere from 2-3 Euro per 500 grams. If the local Rewe or Edeka don’t sell them (god forbid Netto, Penny or Aldi. They don’t really offer much rice choice), one can go to step 2.

Step 2: To the Asiamarkt !

This is a special store in Germany where one can buy any food that comes from Asia. Do note that Asiamarkt in bigger cities like Berlin would have more items on sale compared to a small city like Cottbus. So I suggest for one to go to one of the big cities to get Jasmine rice. Price also differs from shop to shop. However one can expect anywhere between 2-3 Euro per 500 grams of Jasmine rice. While in the Asiamarkt, it is also wise to grab any ingredients that would never make it to the isles in Rewe or Edeka. I’m talking about oyster sauce, sweet soy sauce, fish sauce, chili sauce, etc.

Step 3: Cooking an aromatic  jasmine rice

There’s 2 way to do produce that aromatic rice that mom used to make back home.

One is to use a large pot to boil the rice:

a) prepped a large pot with lid

b) water ratio usually go as follows: water (cup) to rice (cup)

1:1 for rice below one cup

1.5:1 for rice above 2 cups

c) put the water on boil first while you wash the rice. This removes some of the excess starch from the rice (you can see this from the water becoming milky white once the rice is washed)

d) out the rice inside the pot once the water boil and leave it for 30 minutes or until the water has run out

Another step is to cook the rice in a rice cooker. The rice cooker itself can be found in most Asian store for around 30 Euro.

repeated steps a) and b). This time, pour the water inside the pot that comes with the rice cooker and switch the rice cooker from warm to cook mode.

c) wait 30 minutes and Presto ! Your rice is ready

Studying in Germany

Imagine a land where you can learn how to construct robots or learn how the human body works. Where you can explore the pristine natures; the Alps, the Black Forest, Lake Konstanz. Where the history, thousands of years old, can be seen littered in the architecture of cities. This is Germany. A land of ideas (according to their slogan) and for many years, it has been hiding one of the greatest secrets of all time: free university. Regardless whether one is German, european, or from any parts of the world, Germany offers university courses free of tuition fees. However, there are some things that one must know before being able to study in Germany. I will be posting a series of blogs focused on giving guides and tips to start studying in Germany.

-Widi

 

Black Friday Bonanza in Germany

Once every year, a day will be held to incentivise the common men and women  to trample and fight over each other over insanely discounted items at a store. Yes, it is the infamous Black Friday.

 

Fig.1 The typical crowd at Black Friday 

Now if you frequented 9gag (like me), you won’t be surprised to see such chaos which has a become a regular phenomenon of Black Friday such as fights over LCD screen tv and game racks that are empty (except for Star Wars Battlefron II).

But what surprises me (and in a pleasent way) is that in Germany, Black Friday is still a relatively new concept. Malls and shopping districts were full of people and posters and flyers claiming “x amount of discount” are stuck on billboards, lamp posts and shop windows. But there was no riot, no stampede, no flood of people fighting and punching over a $12 toaster (or more likely, LCD TV’s). From my experience, I was able to shop at a factory outlet in Berlin for shoes and got a nice pair for 36 Euro (that’s about 42.96 USD).

If there is a tip that I can give for sales in Germany, it would be to shop at factory outlets. In times such as black friday, factory outlets here in Berlin (for example) have a tendency to give discounts on top of their already discounted factory outlet price.

So thankfully Black Friday didn’t give me a black eye.

Widi

To my friend in the far East

Hey

It is me again

the person who has known you from high school

the person who sits next to you in the library

the person who used to order Dominos when exam time was near

 

Hey

I know that you are busy

I know that I am too

I know that homework are piling, datelines are closing, parties are going

Lectures are boring, group member sucks

 

And little time left to

 

Sit on the park benches and admire the greeneries

How still the water is as clouds lazily drifts above

Patches of blue and white that morphed with the greens and the silvers

The skyline of the city, reflected on the dark waters of the harbour

And distorts as water swish and bubbles

following the movements of propeller through water

 

Hey

Here I am again

writing this poem

to make you believe in better times

to tell you that life is more than just easy or hard;

it’s intricacies to be enjoyed and learned from

But most importantly

I am here to wish you to have a pleasant day

 

Background info: I was in one of my so called motivated mode after watching V for Vendetta. Rather than wasting all this energy in sleeping, the creation of a poem would indeed be a useful utilization of this motivation.

 

 

Mid Week Madness

I am tired.

Exhausted, burned out.

The German has a saying for this: “Man hat sich überfördern” or one have overexerted oneself.

But then what do I expect when there’s 2 test in the week one day after the other ? Of course one studies. Coming from a pressure cooker environment like Singapore where one is no stranger to mugging and long study hours, I expected myself to be able to survive a measly 2 days full day study session.

Boy did I died on Thursday.

The worse feeling was when my body felt like it is very slowly evaporating. Like ice on a really hot summer day. Or on a frying pan…

Tips for the day: Studying is for naught if one wrecked one’s body