So I tell my professor that I need to take my exams early since semester at my college begins at the end of August. Final exams here are held in September/October! He says he can do that for exchange students but I need some sort of proof that I'm in fact an exchange student and indeed need to return before August.
I head out to the international department and get a letter explaining my circumstances in German. This morning before handing the letter to my professor I decide to take a look. And it is addressed to the wrong professor! I read on and see that even my name has been spelled incorrectly. And to top it off, the name of my college is inaccurate. I decide to hand it in anyway, and although my professor remarked on the errors, decided it was adequate for the purpose. I was awfully thankful!
Getting things done isn't easy. It took me a few days simply to get the person I was supposed to talk to. Everyone has strict office hours. The staff might be at their offices all day but will only see you from like 9 to 12 for example. It's true for government offices too. You cannot just drop by during working hours. You actually need to check what hours and on what days you can visit the office and work your schedule around it. Sometimes the hours appear very arbitrary, but that's how things are. Should I receive a package in the mail, there are only two 15-minute slots each day during which I can pick them up. And the time-slots aren't consistent throughout the week either.
Also, some professors are so busy you have to talk to their assistants and setup an appointment. I was once told the next available appointment for one of my professors was over two weeks away! To be fair, the upcoming week was "excursion week" for the mechanical engineering department. The professor does have office hours for each course he teaches but these are very busy. I've been lucky to only be in small classes where the professors stay back after class to take individual questions. Otherwise student tutors are your best bet.
I had a rough idea of what I was going to write about on this post today but it ended up being about something totally different! Oh well...
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Monday, June 08, 2009
... Yep
I can't believe how lazy I've been about posting. Knowing how much time I have squandered religiously following late night talk shows (especially now that Conan’s on), I cannot pretend I was too occupied to update my blog either. No surprise here though, indolence can be counted among my defining characteristics. That and bursts of inspiration that keep me going for days without sleep. So I guess at the moment I am in an uninspired lull.
The lull can’t last very long though, as I am now entering the final phase of my time here in Germany. My final exam dates have been finalized and my flights have been booked. The thought that I have less than two months remaining stirs up a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. There is so much more I still want to do and see. I cannot go back yet! I have classes until the very last week of July and my exams are interspersed throughout the month. Not enough weekends to visit all the places I still want to go.
I can hear fireworks outside! I have no clue what it’s for. I didn’t see any celebrations today, and people don’t seem to be out and about as they would be when there’s a “fest” of some sort. Anyway, I can hardly see anything from my room. I do see others in the building next to ours bent over their desks working calmly though. Yes, if you leave your shades up in the evening and your lights on, there’s absolutely no privacy. But most are careful enough to have their shades down in the evening. Going by the stereotype of Germans and their privacy, the ones with the shades up are probably the exchange students!
There’s just so much I haven’t written about since my last post and I don’t have the urge to write it all down now. I have a class early tomorrow and I need to go to bed. I can sleep through alarms when I don’t get enough hours of sleep. That’s the reason I have setup both the alarm clock and my cellphone’s alarms. On important occasions I have a third alarm on my portable audio system thingy!
Anyway, I will hopefully post again tomorrow. Goodnight!
The lull can’t last very long though, as I am now entering the final phase of my time here in Germany. My final exam dates have been finalized and my flights have been booked. The thought that I have less than two months remaining stirs up a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. There is so much more I still want to do and see. I cannot go back yet! I have classes until the very last week of July and my exams are interspersed throughout the month. Not enough weekends to visit all the places I still want to go.
I can hear fireworks outside! I have no clue what it’s for. I didn’t see any celebrations today, and people don’t seem to be out and about as they would be when there’s a “fest” of some sort. Anyway, I can hardly see anything from my room. I do see others in the building next to ours bent over their desks working calmly though. Yes, if you leave your shades up in the evening and your lights on, there’s absolutely no privacy. But most are careful enough to have their shades down in the evening. Going by the stereotype of Germans and their privacy, the ones with the shades up are probably the exchange students!
There’s just so much I haven’t written about since my last post and I don’t have the urge to write it all down now. I have a class early tomorrow and I need to go to bed. I can sleep through alarms when I don’t get enough hours of sleep. That’s the reason I have setup both the alarm clock and my cellphone’s alarms. On important occasions I have a third alarm on my portable audio system thingy!
Anyway, I will hopefully post again tomorrow. Goodnight!
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Midnight rant
00:59. Almost 1. I am torn between going to bed and finding something amusing online to keep me from going to bed. I have no reason to stay awake at this hour. It's the holidays and there are no assignments to deal with. As a matter of fact, I am feeling a little on the drowsy side. I should just go plop down onto my cozy bed and drift into blissful sleep. But I know I won't. Why??
1:05. Perhaps it's a bad habit I've developed. If I think about my situation, the best decision would definitely be to abandon the computer and hit the sack. Not only do I not waste my time wasting time online, but I get to be up fresh and early the next morning. It's always a good feeling waking up early, feeling fresh and knowing you've a long, beautiful day ahead of you.
1:08. Or perhaps it's something I can't control, something inherent that craves impulsively for amusement. It's not about what tomorrow might hold for me, but about what all I can wring out of today. While it does sound like a noble thought, the idea does not hold when it comes to actual work. For work, it's about how long it can be put off until the concern that the deadline might not be met overwhelms the compulsive craving in the brain.
1:14. It's been 15 minutes since I began this article. Am I a slow writer? What's the pace of normal writing? Not for a classic or polished article, but for a blog post like this. Mine's probably average, depending on how much thought needs to be put into the article. If I'm recounting something without worrying about phraseology, I could probably speed it up. But a ponderous article can take long. This one's a tricky one, I'm thoughtful at points, but just breezing through others as I simply transcribe my thought process.
1:19. This is stupid. But I am a little more awake than I was when I first began this article. Is that good or bad? I'm not sure. Probably bad. I want to feel so drowsy that I drift away the moment I hit the pillow. Hmm. I dunno. Sometimes I use the time before falling asleep to dwell on interesting thoughts, or just on wild daydreams as I let my mind loose. My easily-distracted mind can keep me busy for hours. I do get bored on long train rides though. Or maybe I don't. I think it's when my chain of thought or my daydream is broken and I look at my watch and realize how much longer there is still to go, boredom sets in. And I'm lost in my mind again. But the combination of all those little punctuations of boredom create the feeling of a long boring ride. Maybe I am just making a case for my mind to make it seem more amusing than it might really be, I don't know.
1:26. Don't want to keep this up much longer. I've some tasks I need done by noon tomorrow. It would have been done today, if it were not for the fact that it's Easter Monday. "was". I didn't know it was a holiday until I got out on my bike to find all the shops closed! If it were not for the little shopping I did Saturday, I'd be starving now.
1:31 I took too long to write that last paragraph. I just didn't know what exactly to mention and kept debating things in my head. Thoughts are complicated things. When I'm not consciously thinking about what I'm thinking, I wonder if we even think in a language. The mind just knows to figure things out at lightening speed without the translation into language slowing it down. But as I write, my mind is thinking in sentences. Or perhaps it's being fed by invisible ideas from all around the sentences that form the main thought. I'm totally lost now. It's like one of those physics problems that you really need to think over before you can comprehend it.
1:35 So yea, ok. The vastness of the universe. It's vast, everyone knows that. But can we truly comprehend its vastness? I think we cannot, you can't multitask when thinking about these things. Just focus and try to fathom how minuscule and insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things. Then snap back and put our lives in perspective. Where do we stand? If there was a god who could observe the whole universe at the same instant, earth would still be so insignificant, he probably couldn't care less about it.
1:41. But some might say that life on earth is what interests god. If we are all this whole creation is about, what's the purpose of more than 99.999999999999% of the universe. Why would god create all the extra crap?
1:43. Talking about god is not very interesting. Anyway, I might have said how insignificant we are in the big picture, but it's amazing how something so insignificant has been able to scientifically comprehend the size of the universe. From this tiny corner of our galaxy among billions, we have managed to use the collective intelligence of several generations of our best thinkers to come up with a way to figure out what's out there, to graze the very edge of the universe, to dare to fathom it's history and its probable end in the future. As individuals, we bear little significance, but as humans we are definitely capable of leaving a mark. Our combined intelligence spans all four dimensions to their limits. That's not to say, a single stray meteor couldn't wipe planet Earth and all humanity off the universe in an instant! It would be a tiny poof that would hardly be noticed in the broad scale of the universe.
1:57. I have gone into a ramble now, I hardly even know what I'm talking about anymore. Oh and if Earth was destroyed, we'd still have that tiny group of humans in the International Space Station. The ISS would probably go shooting off into space. I wonder if the group inside would find a way to survive, reproduce, and keep the human race going!
2:00. The topics heading into sci-fi now! Goodness, it's been exactly a minute over an hour since I started this post. I need to end this incoherent rant now!
2:01 Goodnight!!!
[Added later: I was thinking about our inability to comprehend the size of the universe, and I truly believe we cannot, yet. The idea of the size of the world is different to a world-traveler than to someone who has never left his little village, even if the same number crunches of the dimensions of the earth are given to them. Numbers give you an idea, something to compare to. But when you run into the realms of light years, our mind cannot make realistic comparisons because nothing compares to the sheer numbers dealt with in astronomy. The nearest galaxy, Andromeda is 2.5 million light years away! Our longest flight is probably around 20 hours, and fastest jet travel is ~0.85 mach, which is less than the speed of light by several orders of magnitude. How then are we to grasp how far even our closest galaxy is, much less the vastness of the universe!!]
PS. If you're wondering, I know midnight isn't 1 am! But midnight can leniently be interpreted to mean middle of the night. So yea, my title isn't too far off! :)
1:05. Perhaps it's a bad habit I've developed. If I think about my situation, the best decision would definitely be to abandon the computer and hit the sack. Not only do I not waste my time wasting time online, but I get to be up fresh and early the next morning. It's always a good feeling waking up early, feeling fresh and knowing you've a long, beautiful day ahead of you.
1:08. Or perhaps it's something I can't control, something inherent that craves impulsively for amusement. It's not about what tomorrow might hold for me, but about what all I can wring out of today. While it does sound like a noble thought, the idea does not hold when it comes to actual work. For work, it's about how long it can be put off until the concern that the deadline might not be met overwhelms the compulsive craving in the brain.
1:14. It's been 15 minutes since I began this article. Am I a slow writer? What's the pace of normal writing? Not for a classic or polished article, but for a blog post like this. Mine's probably average, depending on how much thought needs to be put into the article. If I'm recounting something without worrying about phraseology, I could probably speed it up. But a ponderous article can take long. This one's a tricky one, I'm thoughtful at points, but just breezing through others as I simply transcribe my thought process.
1:19. This is stupid. But I am a little more awake than I was when I first began this article. Is that good or bad? I'm not sure. Probably bad. I want to feel so drowsy that I drift away the moment I hit the pillow. Hmm. I dunno. Sometimes I use the time before falling asleep to dwell on interesting thoughts, or just on wild daydreams as I let my mind loose. My easily-distracted mind can keep me busy for hours. I do get bored on long train rides though. Or maybe I don't. I think it's when my chain of thought or my daydream is broken and I look at my watch and realize how much longer there is still to go, boredom sets in. And I'm lost in my mind again. But the combination of all those little punctuations of boredom create the feeling of a long boring ride. Maybe I am just making a case for my mind to make it seem more amusing than it might really be, I don't know.
1:26. Don't want to keep this up much longer. I've some tasks I need done by noon tomorrow. It would have been done today, if it were not for the fact that it's Easter Monday. "was". I didn't know it was a holiday until I got out on my bike to find all the shops closed! If it were not for the little shopping I did Saturday, I'd be starving now.
1:31 I took too long to write that last paragraph. I just didn't know what exactly to mention and kept debating things in my head. Thoughts are complicated things. When I'm not consciously thinking about what I'm thinking, I wonder if we even think in a language. The mind just knows to figure things out at lightening speed without the translation into language slowing it down. But as I write, my mind is thinking in sentences. Or perhaps it's being fed by invisible ideas from all around the sentences that form the main thought. I'm totally lost now. It's like one of those physics problems that you really need to think over before you can comprehend it.
1:35 So yea, ok. The vastness of the universe. It's vast, everyone knows that. But can we truly comprehend its vastness? I think we cannot, you can't multitask when thinking about these things. Just focus and try to fathom how minuscule and insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things. Then snap back and put our lives in perspective. Where do we stand? If there was a god who could observe the whole universe at the same instant, earth would still be so insignificant, he probably couldn't care less about it.
1:41. But some might say that life on earth is what interests god. If we are all this whole creation is about, what's the purpose of more than 99.999999999999% of the universe. Why would god create all the extra crap?
1:43. Talking about god is not very interesting. Anyway, I might have said how insignificant we are in the big picture, but it's amazing how something so insignificant has been able to scientifically comprehend the size of the universe. From this tiny corner of our galaxy among billions, we have managed to use the collective intelligence of several generations of our best thinkers to come up with a way to figure out what's out there, to graze the very edge of the universe, to dare to fathom it's history and its probable end in the future. As individuals, we bear little significance, but as humans we are definitely capable of leaving a mark. Our combined intelligence spans all four dimensions to their limits. That's not to say, a single stray meteor couldn't wipe planet Earth and all humanity off the universe in an instant! It would be a tiny poof that would hardly be noticed in the broad scale of the universe.
1:57. I have gone into a ramble now, I hardly even know what I'm talking about anymore. Oh and if Earth was destroyed, we'd still have that tiny group of humans in the International Space Station. The ISS would probably go shooting off into space. I wonder if the group inside would find a way to survive, reproduce, and keep the human race going!
2:00. The topics heading into sci-fi now! Goodness, it's been exactly a minute over an hour since I started this post. I need to end this incoherent rant now!
2:01 Goodnight!!!
[Added later: I was thinking about our inability to comprehend the size of the universe, and I truly believe we cannot, yet. The idea of the size of the world is different to a world-traveler than to someone who has never left his little village, even if the same number crunches of the dimensions of the earth are given to them. Numbers give you an idea, something to compare to. But when you run into the realms of light years, our mind cannot make realistic comparisons because nothing compares to the sheer numbers dealt with in astronomy. The nearest galaxy, Andromeda is 2.5 million light years away! Our longest flight is probably around 20 hours, and fastest jet travel is ~0.85 mach, which is less than the speed of light by several orders of magnitude. How then are we to grasp how far even our closest galaxy is, much less the vastness of the universe!!]
PS. If you're wondering, I know midnight isn't 1 am! But midnight can leniently be interpreted to mean middle of the night. So yea, my title isn't too far off! :)
Thursday, April 09, 2009
Update
Ok I think it's about time I updated my blog! The more I wait, the more it seems okay to wait just another day... and it's a vicious cycle that given no deadline, seems worse than any procrastination. With procrastination you get things done last minute, but what if you don't have a last minute... you can procrastinate forever!
Anyway, what have I been up to since my last post? Oh yea, here's something interesting about my last exam. So I knew the last of my exams was on the 3rd of April so, not being fully prepared, I pulled an all-nighter the night before. Not recommended for whatever reasons, but if the difference is passing and failing, it has to be done. Maybe the fact that I don't get a grade on the course has something to do with my laziness to not go for it!
Regardless, the morning of April 3 arrives. I'm bleary eyed and decide I need to get out before I fall asleep and miss the test. I head out at 8 am thinking that will give me enough time to sort out seating problems like I had in my last exam. Then I could relax and finish studying for the 4 pm test outside in the building compound. My bike had already been stolen at this point, so I had to take the bus there. I live 15 minutes walk away but the bus schedule meant I got there at 8.30. I looked at the list outside the Fluid mechanics department that has the names and corresponding hall and seat numbers, and sure enough I wasn't listed again. Non-regular students have to register for exams manually as opposed to online so mix-ups seem uncommon.
So as I walk towards the secretary's office to get things sorted, I see the assistant teacher for my class entering the lift with a bunch of students. Struck me as a bit curious! Then I see my professor talking to someone in the hallway, so I go up to him and ask, "Professor, what time's the exam?". He looks at me amused, and says "9 o'clock"! I began to panic... it was 8.40 now and I had no idea where my hall even was!
The secretary seemed slow as she tried to find my name in her list. Thankfully I was there so she wrote down my seat number, my candidate number and my hall on a post-it-note and handed it to me. I didn't know where the hall was so she showed it to me on the map. "It's in that Hochhaus, about 5 minutes walk from here."
8.45. I have enough time I think. So I walk towards the Hochhaus (literally translates to "high building", generic name for tall buildings). But the hochhaus is surrounded by little buildings and I have a hard time finding the entrance as it does not lead directly from the street.
8.50. I realize I don't even know what floor the damn hall is on! I summon the lift but wait for someone to show up so I can ask. Finally I find someone to ask, and she gives me a vague answer, somewhere on the 2nd floor. I run up the stairs and find two people chatting, they tell me they think it's around the corner at the end of the hallway. There's nothing there! I go a floor down and find someone seated on a couch. He seems unsure but points me in a direction. I'm panicking now, I don't want to miss this exam. They're pretty strict about punctuality, late and you can't get in!
8:58 There it is!! I see the sign "Gäede Horsaal". I walk in the door and sigh in relief as I see the student-teachers calmly chatting behind the desk at the front! It's a little past 9 when they even begin distributing the papers, and they go through each question in german! When we actually began the test it was 9.15!
Anyway, the test went well. If it were not for me getting out of the house randomly at 8, there was no way I was going to make the exam! For some reason I thought the exam would be at 4 pm like my other one! I'm stupid like that!
Ha! I seem to have written longer about the incident than I thought I would.
What else? Oh yea, Budapest! But this is hardly a travel journal and I don't think I had any interesting encounters that I want to blog about.
Then we come to yesterday. I hadn't played football in a while because I'm not a fan of playing in muddy conditions. It had been raining quite often. But the weather now is perfect. I can go out in my tees, no jacket! Anyway, I decided to go play some football. Since a lot of german kids are home at the moment, there were only 7 of us. We played in a smaller section of the field. I hadn't played in a while but I was feeling pretty good. The passes were connecting, I scored a few, and the only problem I saw was my decreased stamina. But I decided to go for it as we got towards the end of the game.
I was at midfield when I got a perfect through ball. I ran for it and it was then just between me and the goalie. The ball was moving fast and I had to keep up with it. The goalie decided to come forward for the ball too! I ran as hard as I could and just as the goalie got to it, I flicked it towards the post, then tried to get out of the way, but WHAM! The goalie had decided to avoid me by going in the same direction. We collided pretty hard. I could feel the blood pouring out my nose the instant we collided! I was down for a while trying to stop the bleeding but it wouldn't stop so I called it quits for the day. After getting the bleeding somewhat under control with my head tilted upwards and some tissues, I biked home. But as I showered back in my dorm, my nose kept dripping blood throughout! It was disconcerting, but people donate blood all the time so losing a little shouldn't be a problem I assured myself!
I then took a rest and woke up with little blood clots in my nose! Hehe! It wasn't as disgusting as it might sound! At least I'm all better now, as long as I don't press on my nose that is!
Looking forward to another game of football later this week! :D
That's it for now then. Hopefully the next post isn't too far off! Ciao!
Anyway, what have I been up to since my last post? Oh yea, here's something interesting about my last exam. So I knew the last of my exams was on the 3rd of April so, not being fully prepared, I pulled an all-nighter the night before. Not recommended for whatever reasons, but if the difference is passing and failing, it has to be done. Maybe the fact that I don't get a grade on the course has something to do with my laziness to not go for it!
Regardless, the morning of April 3 arrives. I'm bleary eyed and decide I need to get out before I fall asleep and miss the test. I head out at 8 am thinking that will give me enough time to sort out seating problems like I had in my last exam. Then I could relax and finish studying for the 4 pm test outside in the building compound. My bike had already been stolen at this point, so I had to take the bus there. I live 15 minutes walk away but the bus schedule meant I got there at 8.30. I looked at the list outside the Fluid mechanics department that has the names and corresponding hall and seat numbers, and sure enough I wasn't listed again. Non-regular students have to register for exams manually as opposed to online so mix-ups seem uncommon.
So as I walk towards the secretary's office to get things sorted, I see the assistant teacher for my class entering the lift with a bunch of students. Struck me as a bit curious! Then I see my professor talking to someone in the hallway, so I go up to him and ask, "Professor, what time's the exam?". He looks at me amused, and says "9 o'clock"! I began to panic... it was 8.40 now and I had no idea where my hall even was!
The secretary seemed slow as she tried to find my name in her list. Thankfully I was there so she wrote down my seat number, my candidate number and my hall on a post-it-note and handed it to me. I didn't know where the hall was so she showed it to me on the map. "It's in that Hochhaus, about 5 minutes walk from here."
8.45. I have enough time I think. So I walk towards the Hochhaus (literally translates to "high building", generic name for tall buildings). But the hochhaus is surrounded by little buildings and I have a hard time finding the entrance as it does not lead directly from the street.
8.50. I realize I don't even know what floor the damn hall is on! I summon the lift but wait for someone to show up so I can ask. Finally I find someone to ask, and she gives me a vague answer, somewhere on the 2nd floor. I run up the stairs and find two people chatting, they tell me they think it's around the corner at the end of the hallway. There's nothing there! I go a floor down and find someone seated on a couch. He seems unsure but points me in a direction. I'm panicking now, I don't want to miss this exam. They're pretty strict about punctuality, late and you can't get in!
8:58 There it is!! I see the sign "Gäede Horsaal". I walk in the door and sigh in relief as I see the student-teachers calmly chatting behind the desk at the front! It's a little past 9 when they even begin distributing the papers, and they go through each question in german! When we actually began the test it was 9.15!
Anyway, the test went well. If it were not for me getting out of the house randomly at 8, there was no way I was going to make the exam! For some reason I thought the exam would be at 4 pm like my other one! I'm stupid like that!
Ha! I seem to have written longer about the incident than I thought I would.
What else? Oh yea, Budapest! But this is hardly a travel journal and I don't think I had any interesting encounters that I want to blog about.
Then we come to yesterday. I hadn't played football in a while because I'm not a fan of playing in muddy conditions. It had been raining quite often. But the weather now is perfect. I can go out in my tees, no jacket! Anyway, I decided to go play some football. Since a lot of german kids are home at the moment, there were only 7 of us. We played in a smaller section of the field. I hadn't played in a while but I was feeling pretty good. The passes were connecting, I scored a few, and the only problem I saw was my decreased stamina. But I decided to go for it as we got towards the end of the game.
I was at midfield when I got a perfect through ball. I ran for it and it was then just between me and the goalie. The ball was moving fast and I had to keep up with it. The goalie decided to come forward for the ball too! I ran as hard as I could and just as the goalie got to it, I flicked it towards the post, then tried to get out of the way, but WHAM! The goalie had decided to avoid me by going in the same direction. We collided pretty hard. I could feel the blood pouring out my nose the instant we collided! I was down for a while trying to stop the bleeding but it wouldn't stop so I called it quits for the day. After getting the bleeding somewhat under control with my head tilted upwards and some tissues, I biked home. But as I showered back in my dorm, my nose kept dripping blood throughout! It was disconcerting, but people donate blood all the time so losing a little shouldn't be a problem I assured myself!
I then took a rest and woke up with little blood clots in my nose! Hehe! It wasn't as disgusting as it might sound! At least I'm all better now, as long as I don't press on my nose that is!
Looking forward to another game of football later this week! :D
That's it for now then. Hopefully the next post isn't too far off! Ciao!
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Painting!
Done with one of my exams! And I'm leaving for Budapest tonight. I was trying to pack for the trip when I realized I didn't have many clean clothes. So while I did my laundry, I decided to do some painting as well. Took me a couple of hours, but not bad for my first painting of a man! Moreover, I had no reference image for this, just painted it right out of my head. No wonder the face has little detail. Not that I could have done the face any better had I a reference image! He has no shoes either, but I didn't feel like putting any extra effort into those. Anyway, I will still not be posting regularly because right after my 3 day trip to Budapest, I've to start studying for my other exam. :( That's the final one thankfully!
Later!
Friday, March 13, 2009
comic?
so my restless mind decided that it was time i drew a comic. not a bad idea except for the bad timing. anyway, i began wondering what character i might use if i started a comic. what about a nepali character? so i began drawing and after about an hour i came up with this generic daura-surwal wearing nepali dude. i dunno if he has enough personality to make it as the main character in a comic though. i'll worry about it later in April... if the enthusiasm lasts that is. i've too many ideas, but can't stick to one.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Chirbir
I haven't updated my blog in a while, my argument being that I need to study for my exams. The fact is I would probably be making better use of my time if I did blog! Hulu is slowly but surely making short work of my brain cells. I am renouncing Hulu for a while and getting on an all-study diet starting today. But I don't want to abandon my blog so I decided to jump on the Twitter bandwagon. Twitter is the right tool for a time-strapped blogger like me. My updates should show up on the right. Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for any resultant boredom from following my activity (or inactivity) on Twitter.
Cheers!
Cheers!
Saturday, March 07, 2009
procrastinaton
it's killing me. my final is days away and carries 100% of the weight of my grade. it's a lot of pressure but i'm finding it hard to study for it. i'm used to studying only a few days in advance, and if given more than a week, it's inevitably wasted. i just can't concentrate! the extra time would help me a great deal if i actually studied. but why can i not motivate myself enough to stay focused. i'm constantly distracted, and bore myself to sleep if the computer is not turned on! i spent an hour looking up motivational quotes to help me, but it was just another hour lost because they were ineffective. reading the quotes was like eating candies - the taste does not linger for long afterwards. reading the quotes i get all motivated and ready to go, until the boost begins to fade with every minute of study.
it shouldn't be this way. i should love what i'm studying. i love my major. but some courses required for its fulfillment are not where my love lies. it's especially not fulfilling because it's a theoretical course on a practical subject. why am i not doing this in the lab and instead studying about it? i know for a fact that this course involves labs and a final project back in my college in the US. i guess the huge classes here makes lab participation impractical.
enough with the rant. i need to get back to studying. but hold on, i also forgot to mention some things in the last post that i had meant to include. i don't feel like writing very long so i'll just be quick. i'll list 'em:
* "MIND THE GAP"... an announcement you'll hear constantly repeated in the tube. it's memorable because of the it's said, as well as the frequency with which it's said. it'll begin when a train comes into a station and be repeated loudly and persistently until it leaves!
* ATM's were labeled as "cash machine"s.
* You are required to wear a seat belt even as a passenger on a bus. It applies only for long-journey buses, and many disregard the rule anyway.
* The English really do love their tea. I was offered tea all the time at my cousin's friend's place and there were a myriad of choices to pick from.
alright, i'll get back to the studying now. or rather hope to get some studying done! ciao!
it shouldn't be this way. i should love what i'm studying. i love my major. but some courses required for its fulfillment are not where my love lies. it's especially not fulfilling because it's a theoretical course on a practical subject. why am i not doing this in the lab and instead studying about it? i know for a fact that this course involves labs and a final project back in my college in the US. i guess the huge classes here makes lab participation impractical.
enough with the rant. i need to get back to studying. but hold on, i also forgot to mention some things in the last post that i had meant to include. i don't feel like writing very long so i'll just be quick. i'll list 'em:
* "MIND THE GAP"... an announcement you'll hear constantly repeated in the tube. it's memorable because of the it's said, as well as the frequency with which it's said. it'll begin when a train comes into a station and be repeated loudly and persistently until it leaves!
* ATM's were labeled as "cash machine"s.
* You are required to wear a seat belt even as a passenger on a bus. It applies only for long-journey buses, and many disregard the rule anyway.
* The English really do love their tea. I was offered tea all the time at my cousin's friend's place and there were a myriad of choices to pick from.
alright, i'll get back to the studying now. or rather hope to get some studying done! ciao!
Monday, March 02, 2009
England
This post is long due. I should write it before my memory begins to fade.
Let me begin with the flight. Well, I've flown Ryanair many times before but never talked about it here. It wasn't any different this time. If you have never flown Ryanair, let me tell you about it. Ryanair is the cheapest airline in Europe, and it's obvious why when you fly it. Ryanair's fleet only consists of the Boeing 737-800, that means all crew have to only be trained on one type of aircraft. The seats don't recline. The "in case of emergency" pamphlet is stuck to the back of the seat so they can't be lost or stolen. The overhead carriages are all painted with ads. No meal or drinks are served, but you can purchase them. Even announcements include ads, selling lottery tickets and all. Extra cost for check-in baggage, extra cost for even airport check-in (online check-in is free). Extra costs add up fast! But if you manage to incur none of these, the tickets are damn cheap! On my flight you could even use your cellphone while in the air, but I'll be damned if that didn't cost you extra.
Anyway, mine was a night flight to London, so when I landed at London Stansted, the customs area was thankfully empty. Unlike when entering the USA, all I had to do was present my passport and fill in a landing form. I got right through after a couple of questions about my intention of visit. I'm sure having a German residence permit helped a great deal!
The first thing you notice is definitely the English accent. It's just different when everyone around is speaking with the accent. In any case, I then had to take a bus to central London. I got down at Victoria Station at well past midnight only to hear an announcement for the last train in the Underground. I wasn't sure I wanted to take a chance with the public bus, so I decided to take a cab. It was really dark outside and the cabs looked like from a different era! I got a cab at the front of the taxi rank
but when I tried to open the door, it wouldn't open! I finally figured out that you had to push a button beside the handle simultaneously to open it. When I finally got to my hostel, I tried to open the door and I again couldn't find the handle! It was even darker inside. The driver had to instruct me to put my hand through the glass like thingy and pull on the handle. And it was one of those doors that open the wrong way!
I checked into my hostel and went straight to bed. The next morning after breakfast I got a map from the reception desk and headed out. I needed a simcard so I found a phone shop. The pakistani guy working there was very friendly and looked through a whole bunch of simcards to find me one with an easy to remember number. At the shop I also happened to meed a lady who was flying to Nepal in a week! She was telling me she would be going to Kathmandu and Ponkra. I told her it was Pokhara and taught her how to say it!
On the back of the London map I found an ad for a free tour of London so I decided to take it. I headed to Hyde Park near where the tour would be starting. It was a free tour but the guide was very 
enthusiastic and knowledgeable. The guides work on tips so the better they are, the more they're likely to make. In any case, I learned a lot of history as we walked through green park, past buckingham palace, other palaces, pall mall, waterloo place, trafalgar square, westminster abbey, london eye and so on... basically the main touristy places of London.
We learned a lot of history about the place, but I don't want to discuss that here. It is very evident how much history London has. It is dotted with memorials of war heroes, dukes, soldiers and what not. I got lots of photos but the conditions were not very suitable. It was a gloomy day with rain seeming imminent. In any case, it's pointless to post photos of the touristic places, which are only too common. Here's a few anyway! :)
One of the four Trafalgar Square lions. Apparently the sculptor had never seen a lion and sculpted it using a postcard that had a lion's front. The back was apparently modeled after a cocker spaniel but no one found out until much later.
On the second column from the right, there's a little nose at a height reachable by people on chariots. It was apparently squeezed by soldiers on chariots when going to war etc. No one really knows whose nose it is or what it signifies.
I can't not write about the london underground or the tube. The one here is a Central line. It was a cramped train with two rows of seats facing each other on each side of a wagon, and barely any space for people to stand in between. This one seemed like one of the newer lines though. The others were more spacious but prone to delays. I made the mistake of traveling at morning office hour on my last day there. It was difficult to move. Everyone was going one way and I the other, it was almost like the swarm of black-clad people traveling together. The trains were packed and almost bursting through the door.
The escalator to the tube. This is obviously during off-peak hour. But one great thing was how everyone just stood to the right so anyone in a hurry could just sprint through on the left. This was also especially evident during rush hour when everyone on the right is standing still while there's a steady stream of people running up or down on the left.
Enough of London for now. I'll add anything later if it comes to mind. Oh yea, the clichéd red telephone booths and double-decked red buses were also everywhere! :) I took a ride on one of the buses but it was nothing special really!
After London I visited my cousin at Norwich. It was a lovely old town but it was one of those towns the essence of which you can't capture in a few photos. It had old churches everywhere. You could see a couple of churches from one church! The cathedral was magnificent too but I've seen enough of those! It was here that I had my first taste of an English pub.
Then I took another expensive train to Southampton. It's a port and a very industrialized town, none of the old city charm, except perhaps for an old city wall that once enclosed it. Here, I stayed at a friend's place right in the center in Ocean Village. It pays to finish college in three years and get a well-paid job! Anyway, we went clubbing at night, but nothing struck me as out of the ordinary.
We then drove to Salisbury. This was another little typical English town. We went to a pub here and got more of a taste of the English pub as we watched Man Utd beat Blackburn. Unlike a bar, the pub also served food, had couches for people to hang out, a pool table and a big screen tv. The pub in Norwich was similar but the night we went it had some singer singing hilarious parodies. And pubs close by 11 or 12 at night.
The next day we went to Stone Henge, but stupid me forgot my camera. It was such a gorgeous day and the Stone Henge had a magical charm about it standing enchantingly in that wide open meadow in the light. The Stone Henge had just closed so we couldn't get in, but I got a photo using my cellphone's camera from outside the fence. Even if you were to pay the 10 pounds to get in, you wouldn't be able to go near enough to touch it!
We were also passing by an American Football game between Southampton Uni and Portsmouth Uni and heard an announcement saying Portsmouth were displaying their FA cup for everyone to see! (I don't know why a soccer trophy would be out during an American football game!!) So I went and took another photo of the FA cup with my cellphone. Maybe I should invest in a cellphone with a better camera after all!
That's it for now. In fact I will probably be posting less frequently as I study for my exams! Also, studying all day does not really provide me much material to work with for a blog post anyway!
Okay then, I'm off.
Edit: There's one thing I forgot to mention about London, the heavy presence of CCTV. There are cameras EVERYWHERE! According to our guide, the average Londoner is caught 300 times on camera every day. The only escape from constant scrutiny is perhaps the loo.. but I still wouldn't bet on it!
Oh also, if you notice the sign in the tube, it says "Way Out" rather than "Exit". Isn't exit the more space efficient way of saying it?
And please excuse the formatting which was difficult due to the constricted layout of the blog. Thanks for reading!
Let me begin with the flight. Well, I've flown Ryanair many times before but never talked about it here. It wasn't any different this time. If you have never flown Ryanair, let me tell you about it. Ryanair is the cheapest airline in Europe, and it's obvious why when you fly it. Ryanair's fleet only consists of the Boeing 737-800, that means all crew have to only be trained on one type of aircraft. The seats don't recline. The "in case of emergency" pamphlet is stuck to the back of the seat so they can't be lost or stolen. The overhead carriages are all painted with ads. No meal or drinks are served, but you can purchase them. Even announcements include ads, selling lottery tickets and all. Extra cost for check-in baggage, extra cost for even airport check-in (online check-in is free). Extra costs add up fast! But if you manage to incur none of these, the tickets are damn cheap! On my flight you could even use your cellphone while in the air, but I'll be damned if that didn't cost you extra.
Anyway, mine was a night flight to London, so when I landed at London Stansted, the customs area was thankfully empty. Unlike when entering the USA, all I had to do was present my passport and fill in a landing form. I got right through after a couple of questions about my intention of visit. I'm sure having a German residence permit helped a great deal!
The first thing you notice is definitely the English accent. It's just different when everyone around is speaking with the accent. In any case, I then had to take a bus to central London. I got down at Victoria Station at well past midnight only to hear an announcement for the last train in the Underground. I wasn't sure I wanted to take a chance with the public bus, so I decided to take a cab. It was really dark outside and the cabs looked like from a different era! I got a cab at the front of the taxi rank
but when I tried to open the door, it wouldn't open! I finally figured out that you had to push a button beside the handle simultaneously to open it. When I finally got to my hostel, I tried to open the door and I again couldn't find the handle! It was even darker inside. The driver had to instruct me to put my hand through the glass like thingy and pull on the handle. And it was one of those doors that open the wrong way!I checked into my hostel and went straight to bed. The next morning after breakfast I got a map from the reception desk and headed out. I needed a simcard so I found a phone shop. The pakistani guy working there was very friendly and looked through a whole bunch of simcards to find me one with an easy to remember number. At the shop I also happened to meed a lady who was flying to Nepal in a week! She was telling me she would be going to Kathmandu and Ponkra. I told her it was Pokhara and taught her how to say it!
On the back of the London map I found an ad for a free tour of London so I decided to take it. I headed to Hyde Park near where the tour would be starting. It was a free tour but the guide was very 
enthusiastic and knowledgeable. The guides work on tips so the better they are, the more they're likely to make. In any case, I learned a lot of history as we walked through green park, past buckingham palace, other palaces, pall mall, waterloo place, trafalgar square, westminster abbey, london eye and so on... basically the main touristy places of London.We learned a lot of history about the place, but I don't want to discuss that here. It is very evident how much history London has. It is dotted with memorials of war heroes, dukes, soldiers and what not. I got lots of photos but the conditions were not very suitable. It was a gloomy day with rain seeming imminent. In any case, it's pointless to post photos of the touristic places, which are only too common. Here's a few anyway! :)
One of the four Trafalgar Square lions. Apparently the sculptor had never seen a lion and sculpted it using a postcard that had a lion's front. The back was apparently modeled after a cocker spaniel but no one found out until much later.
On the second column from the right, there's a little nose at a height reachable by people on chariots. It was apparently squeezed by soldiers on chariots when going to war etc. No one really knows whose nose it is or what it signifies. 
I can't not write about the london underground or the tube. The one here is a Central line. It was a cramped train with two rows of seats facing each other on each side of a wagon, and barely any space for people to stand in between. This one seemed like one of the newer lines though. The others were more spacious but prone to delays. I made the mistake of traveling at morning office hour on my last day there. It was difficult to move. Everyone was going one way and I the other, it was almost like the swarm of black-clad people traveling together. The trains were packed and almost bursting through the door.
The escalator to the tube. This is obviously during off-peak hour. But one great thing was how everyone just stood to the right so anyone in a hurry could just sprint through on the left. This was also especially evident during rush hour when everyone on the right is standing still while there's a steady stream of people running up or down on the left.Enough of London for now. I'll add anything later if it comes to mind. Oh yea, the clichéd red telephone booths and double-decked red buses were also everywhere! :) I took a ride on one of the buses but it was nothing special really!
After London I visited my cousin at Norwich. It was a lovely old town but it was one of those towns the essence of which you can't capture in a few photos. It had old churches everywhere. You could see a couple of churches from one church! The cathedral was magnificent too but I've seen enough of those! It was here that I had my first taste of an English pub.
Then I took another expensive train to Southampton. It's a port and a very industrialized town, none of the old city charm, except perhaps for an old city wall that once enclosed it. Here, I stayed at a friend's place right in the center in Ocean Village. It pays to finish college in three years and get a well-paid job! Anyway, we went clubbing at night, but nothing struck me as out of the ordinary.
We then drove to Salisbury. This was another little typical English town. We went to a pub here and got more of a taste of the English pub as we watched Man Utd beat Blackburn. Unlike a bar, the pub also served food, had couches for people to hang out, a pool table and a big screen tv. The pub in Norwich was similar but the night we went it had some singer singing hilarious parodies. And pubs close by 11 or 12 at night.
The next day we went to Stone Henge, but stupid me forgot my camera. It was such a gorgeous day and the Stone Henge had a magical charm about it standing enchantingly in that wide open meadow in the light. The Stone Henge had just closed so we couldn't get in, but I got a photo using my cellphone's camera from outside the fence. Even if you were to pay the 10 pounds to get in, you wouldn't be able to go near enough to touch it!
We were also passing by an American Football game between Southampton Uni and Portsmouth Uni and heard an announcement saying Portsmouth were displaying their FA cup for everyone to see! (I don't know why a soccer trophy would be out during an American football game!!) So I went and took another photo of the FA cup with my cellphone. Maybe I should invest in a cellphone with a better camera after all!That's it for now. In fact I will probably be posting less frequently as I study for my exams! Also, studying all day does not really provide me much material to work with for a blog post anyway!
Okay then, I'm off.
Edit: There's one thing I forgot to mention about London, the heavy presence of CCTV. There are cameras EVERYWHERE! According to our guide, the average Londoner is caught 300 times on camera every day. The only escape from constant scrutiny is perhaps the loo.. but I still wouldn't bet on it!
Oh also, if you notice the sign in the tube, it says "Way Out" rather than "Exit". Isn't exit the more space efficient way of saying it?
And please excuse the formatting which was difficult due to the constricted layout of the blog. Thanks for reading!
Friday, February 27, 2009
cooking
Today I cooked my lunch by myself. It shouldn't be, but it is a milestone for me!
To be honest, I did attempt to cook some vegetables last night. But it was so horrible I had to trash it, so I choose to not let that be my milestone attempt! And let me just clarify something, I have cooked before, just never by myself. Ok, I've cooked noodles and omelets by myself, but that doesn't really count does it?
Anyway, I was talking to my friend about how living costs ate into the money I could use for traveling. But comparing costs, he seemed to be saving so much more by choosing not to eat at the Mensa (the university cafeteria). Moreover he pointed out how it had also helped his cooking skills.
So I decided I needed to try that out. I'm an expert on instant noodles but sadly this skill has become so common it's a non-skill. In the US I have helped cook chicken numerous times so I'm pretty confident about that, but that wasn't something I wanted to tackle on my first time by myself. We also had a friend who cooked delicious pasta and we always left the task to him. But I remember most of how he did it and I've seen pasta being cooked other times too and it doesn't seem all that difficult. So I chose pasta.
I had already bought the spices yesterday to cook the vegetables. They were supposed to be sauté-and-add-spices sort of vegetables. But apparently, I didn't have the skill necessary. The mushrooms tasted so bad, and incredibly saulty! I don't rule out the possibility of the mushrooms being ruined beforehand. I had cereal for dinner because the Mensa was already closed by then.
In any case, back to today. I decided to try my cooking at lunch. I got the spiral pasta, fusilli and some fresh mushrooms. Also got a can of tomato purée because I didn't find any pasta specific sauces. Or perhaps I didn't understand the german translation of it! In any case, I had enough ingredients for a simple pasta. The first one need not be too fancy.
So at about half past 2 I set out cooking and was impressively done in less than half an hour! I'm prone to adding too much salt but was careful this time and what do you know, the pasta was delicious! I loved it! This is exam review time for me so I have ample time for some cooking. I should get more adventurous with the pasta and cook two meals at a time. Though I'm sure when exams are near, I'll probably just switch back to Mensa and good old german food!
I'm off then. Will be a boring friday night for me. No plans, exams suck out all the fun. Especially exams that are extended for over a month for no reason but to torture you!
To be honest, I did attempt to cook some vegetables last night. But it was so horrible I had to trash it, so I choose to not let that be my milestone attempt! And let me just clarify something, I have cooked before, just never by myself. Ok, I've cooked noodles and omelets by myself, but that doesn't really count does it?
Anyway, I was talking to my friend about how living costs ate into the money I could use for traveling. But comparing costs, he seemed to be saving so much more by choosing not to eat at the Mensa (the university cafeteria). Moreover he pointed out how it had also helped his cooking skills.
So I decided I needed to try that out. I'm an expert on instant noodles but sadly this skill has become so common it's a non-skill. In the US I have helped cook chicken numerous times so I'm pretty confident about that, but that wasn't something I wanted to tackle on my first time by myself. We also had a friend who cooked delicious pasta and we always left the task to him. But I remember most of how he did it and I've seen pasta being cooked other times too and it doesn't seem all that difficult. So I chose pasta.
I had already bought the spices yesterday to cook the vegetables. They were supposed to be sauté-and-add-spices sort of vegetables. But apparently, I didn't have the skill necessary. The mushrooms tasted so bad, and incredibly saulty! I don't rule out the possibility of the mushrooms being ruined beforehand. I had cereal for dinner because the Mensa was already closed by then.
In any case, back to today. I decided to try my cooking at lunch. I got the spiral pasta, fusilli and some fresh mushrooms. Also got a can of tomato purée because I didn't find any pasta specific sauces. Or perhaps I didn't understand the german translation of it! In any case, I had enough ingredients for a simple pasta. The first one need not be too fancy.
So at about half past 2 I set out cooking and was impressively done in less than half an hour! I'm prone to adding too much salt but was careful this time and what do you know, the pasta was delicious! I loved it! This is exam review time for me so I have ample time for some cooking. I should get more adventurous with the pasta and cook two meals at a time. Though I'm sure when exams are near, I'll probably just switch back to Mensa and good old german food!
I'm off then. Will be a boring friday night for me. No plans, exams suck out all the fun. Especially exams that are extended for over a month for no reason but to torture you!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
handy
i lost my simcard. i bought an English simcard for my week in England, so i put my german one in my pocket. once i got back here and checked, it had disappeared. must have fallen out during the many times i pulled stuff out of my pocket. i knew i should have put the tiny simcard somewhere safer.
it's not the cost of the simcard that annoys me, but rather the inconvenience losing one entails. all the forms and documents that required my phone number had that number on it, like for my insurance, city registration, bank etc. now i'll have to get a new simcard and have my new details sent to them. i think i'll only bother with the insurance company and the bank, really. plus, there's telling your contacts about your new number. but thankfully i don't have as many contacts here in Germany... although i'm not sure if that's something to be thankful about!
so yesterday i went to the phone store to get myself a prepaid card. i found one with very cheap call charges but expensive initial cost. i still have quite a few months to go so i got that. but what i really began this topic for was to discuss what happened in the store. now that i think about it, it isn't all that interesting, but i've written too much to go back now.
anyway, this old man walks into the store. he brings out this really fancy cellphone from his pocket and says that it stopped working. he asks the store guy if he can fix it. the guy behind the desk takes it and opens it. it's dead. he tries to power it on. nothing. then he asks the old man if he had charged it. and the old man looks confused.. the phone hadn't been charged! so the store guy had to explain to the old man that the phone needs to be charged so it can work!
and i just found out that i'm a bad story teller! haha.. it was a pretty amusing incident. moreover it was in german and so made it doubly amusing for me for some reason! :D oh and the germans call the cellphone, "handy"! kinda weird!
also, i sincerely hope there has been some glitch in the blogger thingy, otherwise i seem to have scared off all my followers!!
it's not the cost of the simcard that annoys me, but rather the inconvenience losing one entails. all the forms and documents that required my phone number had that number on it, like for my insurance, city registration, bank etc. now i'll have to get a new simcard and have my new details sent to them. i think i'll only bother with the insurance company and the bank, really. plus, there's telling your contacts about your new number. but thankfully i don't have as many contacts here in Germany... although i'm not sure if that's something to be thankful about!
so yesterday i went to the phone store to get myself a prepaid card. i found one with very cheap call charges but expensive initial cost. i still have quite a few months to go so i got that. but what i really began this topic for was to discuss what happened in the store. now that i think about it, it isn't all that interesting, but i've written too much to go back now.
anyway, this old man walks into the store. he brings out this really fancy cellphone from his pocket and says that it stopped working. he asks the store guy if he can fix it. the guy behind the desk takes it and opens it. it's dead. he tries to power it on. nothing. then he asks the old man if he had charged it. and the old man looks confused.. the phone hadn't been charged! so the store guy had to explain to the old man that the phone needs to be charged so it can work!
and i just found out that i'm a bad story teller! haha.. it was a pretty amusing incident. moreover it was in german and so made it doubly amusing for me for some reason! :D oh and the germans call the cellphone, "handy"! kinda weird!
also, i sincerely hope there has been some glitch in the blogger thingy, otherwise i seem to have scared off all my followers!!
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
carnival!
i came back last night to a food-starved room and had to order delivery for dinner. so this afternoon i thought i would go get some groceries. but as i rode my bike, i saw people dressed in ridiculous outfit and/or with face paint. something was going on somewhere for sure. then i saw a whole side-street lined parade-like with people and floats and loud music. everyone seemed to be partying. i watched for about a minute with some other people from the overpass, then continued on my way.
everywhere i looked the stores were closed. the chances of the grocery shop was diminishing the closer i got. and sure enough, the shop was closed. but i could hear and see all the people gathering on the main street twenty-five meters away. i locked my bike and decided to take a look. they were indeed waiting for a parade! there was a
carnival atmosphere and hundreds of people lined both sides of the double tram track. the main street has very wide pavements, and two tram tracks run down its length along the middle, no road for vehicles. it was perfect for the parade in that it provided enough space for the spectators and since the pavements are slightly elevated compared to the tracks, it provided just enough width for the parade without the need for barriers. moreover it's a very long and straight street. moments later it started.
it was amazing to watch almost the entire town come down to watch the parade. people were drinking beer, the children with costumes and jumping around, others dancing. the parade began with two police cars leading the parade, and even they were covered in Silly Strings and confetti and what not. i had come unprepared so i couldn't take photos. then after a few minutes of stupidity, it occurred to me that i had my phone camera. so got that out and took a lot of photos, some of which i have included in this post. there were quite a few floats that belonged to carnival clubs. i didn't even know such clubs existed!
there were trucks, tractors, convertibles, trains, pull-carts, push-carts, you name it! a lot of people wore wooden masks and scary looking clothing. there perhaps was a theme to it i'm unaware of. but there were also people just partying, and few groups of drummers and musicians, a whole group dancing salsa, a group of what looked like red-indians, people dressed as hexes and... you get the idea! there was even one wit middle eastern people in turbans dancing in a stage made to look like a desert complete with palm trees. but the great 
thing was the way the parade greeted the spectators and vice versa. they'd sweep one of their arms in a wide circular motion, and say "hellooooooo" in an exaggerated voice. and while the parade did this motion, they'd throw candies at us. the kids would also do the same to get their attention and have candies thrown at them! and the street was literally littered with candies of all sorts.
and at the end of the parade, the cleaning trucks followed closely! it was amazing how by the time i had walked to an ATM, retrieved some money and gotten out, the tram tracks had been cleared of all the confetti, pamphlets, sweets, wrappers, bottles, and the trams were beginning to run, although a bit slow. the cleaning of the pavements was going on vigorously... the germans sure don't like to take their time on these things!
anyway, it was much more fun day than i thought it would be. it's impossible not to be dragged into the carnival mood when everyone around you is in one. but that still leaves me with no groceries. there were food stalls along the way, but as much as i love bratwurst, i wanted a meal. so i got a Turkish take-out for dinner, even though i had to wait patiently for a group of kids to get their orders first. i almost left halfway through the waiting after i found out the three kids were ordering 15 Yufkas, but after some point it was like i would have wasted the time i spent waiting if i left early. so i stuck it out and got my warm meal!
that's it for today. i'll be posting about my trip later this week so don't leave! i noticed a 40% decline in the number of my followers! :( but oh well... thanks to the ones believing that i would post again! ciao!
everywhere i looked the stores were closed. the chances of the grocery shop was diminishing the closer i got. and sure enough, the shop was closed. but i could hear and see all the people gathering on the main street twenty-five meters away. i locked my bike and decided to take a look. they were indeed waiting for a parade! there was a
carnival atmosphere and hundreds of people lined both sides of the double tram track. the main street has very wide pavements, and two tram tracks run down its length along the middle, no road for vehicles. it was perfect for the parade in that it provided enough space for the spectators and since the pavements are slightly elevated compared to the tracks, it provided just enough width for the parade without the need for barriers. moreover it's a very long and straight street. moments later it started. 
it was amazing to watch almost the entire town come down to watch the parade. people were drinking beer, the children with costumes and jumping around, others dancing. the parade began with two police cars leading the parade, and even they were covered in Silly Strings and confetti and what not. i had come unprepared so i couldn't take photos. then after a few minutes of stupidity, it occurred to me that i had my phone camera. so got that out and took a lot of photos, some of which i have included in this post. there were quite a few floats that belonged to carnival clubs. i didn't even know such clubs existed!
there were trucks, tractors, convertibles, trains, pull-carts, push-carts, you name it! a lot of people wore wooden masks and scary looking clothing. there perhaps was a theme to it i'm unaware of. but there were also people just partying, and few groups of drummers and musicians, a whole group dancing salsa, a group of what looked like red-indians, people dressed as hexes and... you get the idea! there was even one wit middle eastern people in turbans dancing in a stage made to look like a desert complete with palm trees. but the great 
thing was the way the parade greeted the spectators and vice versa. they'd sweep one of their arms in a wide circular motion, and say "hellooooooo" in an exaggerated voice. and while the parade did this motion, they'd throw candies at us. the kids would also do the same to get their attention and have candies thrown at them! and the street was literally littered with candies of all sorts. and at the end of the parade, the cleaning trucks followed closely! it was amazing how by the time i had walked to an ATM, retrieved some money and gotten out, the tram tracks had been cleared of all the confetti, pamphlets, sweets, wrappers, bottles, and the trams were beginning to run, although a bit slow. the cleaning of the pavements was going on vigorously... the germans sure don't like to take their time on these things!
anyway, it was much more fun day than i thought it would be. it's impossible not to be dragged into the carnival mood when everyone around you is in one. but that still leaves me with no groceries. there were food stalls along the way, but as much as i love bratwurst, i wanted a meal. so i got a Turkish take-out for dinner, even though i had to wait patiently for a group of kids to get their orders first. i almost left halfway through the waiting after i found out the three kids were ordering 15 Yufkas, but after some point it was like i would have wasted the time i spent waiting if i left early. so i stuck it out and got my warm meal!
that's it for today. i'll be posting about my trip later this week so don't leave! i noticed a 40% decline in the number of my followers! :( but oh well... thanks to the ones believing that i would post again! ciao!
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
haiku
It's been a couple of days since I last posted and I feel compelled to write another one despite not having much to say. I am flying to London tonight for the week so my next post will probably be a week later, another reason for this post.
umm... haikus anyone?
here's one i did for my interdisciplinary science seminar where we had to quickly come up with one that used a scientific term (i can't remember the first line verbatim though):
a walking stick slips
center' gravity disturbed
crippled lady down
it's fun, lemme try some more...
a post do i post
or an entry i submit
what is the difference
knock knock who is there?
a haiku. a haiku who?
haiku to you too!
curiosity
a feline execution
inevitable
ok, the third one made no sense whatsover. but the fourth one, lemme see if someone can figure that out! and give the Haiku (5-7-5 syllabic) a try, it's more fun than it appears, or perhaps as fun as it appears... depending on how it appears to you!
have a great week!
umm... haikus anyone?
here's one i did for my interdisciplinary science seminar where we had to quickly come up with one that used a scientific term (i can't remember the first line verbatim though):
a walking stick slips
center' gravity disturbed
crippled lady down
it's fun, lemme try some more...
a post do i post
or an entry i submit
what is the difference
knock knock who is there?
a haiku. a haiku who?
haiku to you too!
curiosity
a feline execution
inevitable
ok, the third one made no sense whatsover. but the fourth one, lemme see if someone can figure that out! and give the Haiku (5-7-5 syllabic) a try, it's more fun than it appears, or perhaps as fun as it appears... depending on how it appears to you!
have a great week!
Saturday, February 14, 2009
My Language Class and my Identity
My language class is very international in its student composition. During classes we also discuss German culture, and that inevitably turns into discussions on how it is different in our respective countries.
I love learning about the culture in other countries, but when it is my turn, sometimes I find myself questioning my knowledge! There was this one time when we were discussing children's tales. The teacher asked me to talk about a famous character from children's tales in my country that every Nepali child would know about. I thought, and thought some more but only characters from English fairy tales would pop into mind. It was sort of embarrassing not being able to come up with anything, so I made something up that I don't even remember now! My parents never read Nepali tales to me, and when I read, it was always English fairy tales. I wonder if it had anything to do with the glossy paper they were printed on and all the colorful pictures they carried.
But, we did read a lot of Nepali stories in our textbooks. The one where a thirsty crow drops pebbles into a pot with very little water in order to elevate the water level to an accessible height, for instance. (I just did the whole story in a sentence! haha) But these characters never had names! Or maybe there were characters with names but I was just too dumb to remember.
Then there are times when where I come from makes me the odd one out. We were talking about what color certain things are in different countries. It was going fine until I was asked what color the telephone booths are in Nepal. I told the teacher that telephone booths aren't very common in Nepal. Then she said, "Ok then, what color are the public telephones at the airport for instance?" I had no clue, but said white. Ultimately it was about learning the language through discussions rather than about facts, I reasoned. I have never looked for public telephones at the airport and so have no idea if they exist, and if they exist, what color they are!
Another time there was this exercise where the instructions told us to translate the fifty or so German words into our own languages. I was the only one who did not follow the instructions to the word. The teacher seemed rather surprised that I was using English instead of Nepali. The Japanese used Japanese, the Spaniards Spanish, the Italians Italian and so on. I even tried trying to translate some of the words into Nepali but drew a blank, especially when it comes to translating words that have to do with modern technology. "Staubsauger" means a vacuum cleaner, what is it in Nepali?
The language classes definitely put me on the spot multiple times, and made me question where I stand with how much I know about my country and language. More so, the language. In the US, it was always taken for granted that I spoke English. In my language classes here, however, German is the medium used. All my classmates have dictionaries translating from their languages to German. An Australian and I are the only ones with English-German dictionaries, and are the only ones who take notes in English!
Nepali texts hardly ever find a way into my daily reading, and I think this has begun to catch up to me in the form of a stagnant knowledge of the Nepali language. In fact, it might be eroding away, and perhaps taking with it a bit of my identity itself.
[edit: rereading it, the post does not appear very well thought out, as was indeed the case. but the topic is too boring for me to make me want to redo it! :)]
I love learning about the culture in other countries, but when it is my turn, sometimes I find myself questioning my knowledge! There was this one time when we were discussing children's tales. The teacher asked me to talk about a famous character from children's tales in my country that every Nepali child would know about. I thought, and thought some more but only characters from English fairy tales would pop into mind. It was sort of embarrassing not being able to come up with anything, so I made something up that I don't even remember now! My parents never read Nepali tales to me, and when I read, it was always English fairy tales. I wonder if it had anything to do with the glossy paper they were printed on and all the colorful pictures they carried.
But, we did read a lot of Nepali stories in our textbooks. The one where a thirsty crow drops pebbles into a pot with very little water in order to elevate the water level to an accessible height, for instance. (I just did the whole story in a sentence! haha) But these characters never had names! Or maybe there were characters with names but I was just too dumb to remember.
Then there are times when where I come from makes me the odd one out. We were talking about what color certain things are in different countries. It was going fine until I was asked what color the telephone booths are in Nepal. I told the teacher that telephone booths aren't very common in Nepal. Then she said, "Ok then, what color are the public telephones at the airport for instance?" I had no clue, but said white. Ultimately it was about learning the language through discussions rather than about facts, I reasoned. I have never looked for public telephones at the airport and so have no idea if they exist, and if they exist, what color they are!
Another time there was this exercise where the instructions told us to translate the fifty or so German words into our own languages. I was the only one who did not follow the instructions to the word. The teacher seemed rather surprised that I was using English instead of Nepali. The Japanese used Japanese, the Spaniards Spanish, the Italians Italian and so on. I even tried trying to translate some of the words into Nepali but drew a blank, especially when it comes to translating words that have to do with modern technology. "Staubsauger" means a vacuum cleaner, what is it in Nepali?
The language classes definitely put me on the spot multiple times, and made me question where I stand with how much I know about my country and language. More so, the language. In the US, it was always taken for granted that I spoke English. In my language classes here, however, German is the medium used. All my classmates have dictionaries translating from their languages to German. An Australian and I are the only ones with English-German dictionaries, and are the only ones who take notes in English!
Nepali texts hardly ever find a way into my daily reading, and I think this has begun to catch up to me in the form of a stagnant knowledge of the Nepali language. In fact, it might be eroding away, and perhaps taking with it a bit of my identity itself.
[edit: rereading it, the post does not appear very well thought out, as was indeed the case. but the topic is too boring for me to make me want to redo it! :)]
Friday, February 13, 2009
Official Admonishment!
take a look at this letter I found in my inbox today!
========
Dear Mr. Braindead,
It has come to our attention that you have failed to comply with the third Amendment of the 2004 Blogging Etiquette Act and as a result, we have flagged your blog pending final assessment in three weeks. With this letter we wish to outline why our committee flagged your blog so you can take the necessary steps in time to avoid permanent termination during final assessment.
First and foremost, your posts display a severe lack of any grasp of the usage of capitalization. English might be a complicated language in many ways, but we fail to comprehend how capitalization of the first letter of the first word of every sentence could be so problematic.
The committee also noticed that the posts on your blog very often lack any discernible theme that ties each one together. A random excerpt of your thoughts, we are sorry to say, does not and will not pass for a post. Blogging is a much-respected tradition, and as the upholders of this holy institution, we resent such impudent transgressions as an attempt against the very soul of Bloghood.
Our field researchers have reported feeling very lost at the end of your posts. They reported trepidation at the end of every paragraph, never quite knowing where the post would lead them to next. One of our researchers never recovered after finishing one of your posts, and he is currently undergoing serious mental therapy to bring his mind back on track. Another brave soldier lost in the fight for blog etiquette.
Another one of our researchers undertook the arduous task of mastering the German language to investigate if the better-formatted looking German posts held any substance. The time he spent away from his family that resulted in a divorce was all in vain, for the German posts held even less merit. They were riddled with so many errors, he still has nightmares about them.
It was after much deliberation that the committee decided to allow you to continue blogging for the time being. Possibility of technical problems hindering your ability to blog with correct capitalization compelled us to give you the benefit of the doubt. We encourage you to organize your thoughts before you write; your misguided sense of what you believe the world wants to hear has us astounded.
Despite the committee expressing limited or no hope at all for any improvement, we present you with a three-week time period within which to clean your act. We sincerely hope you fail.
With insincere regards,
Chairman,
Blog Etiquette Enforcement Committee
===========
i don't know about you but i have a sneaking suspicion the letter might be fabricated!
========
Dear Mr. Braindead,
It has come to our attention that you have failed to comply with the third Amendment of the 2004 Blogging Etiquette Act and as a result, we have flagged your blog pending final assessment in three weeks. With this letter we wish to outline why our committee flagged your blog so you can take the necessary steps in time to avoid permanent termination during final assessment.
First and foremost, your posts display a severe lack of any grasp of the usage of capitalization. English might be a complicated language in many ways, but we fail to comprehend how capitalization of the first letter of the first word of every sentence could be so problematic.
The committee also noticed that the posts on your blog very often lack any discernible theme that ties each one together. A random excerpt of your thoughts, we are sorry to say, does not and will not pass for a post. Blogging is a much-respected tradition, and as the upholders of this holy institution, we resent such impudent transgressions as an attempt against the very soul of Bloghood.
Our field researchers have reported feeling very lost at the end of your posts. They reported trepidation at the end of every paragraph, never quite knowing where the post would lead them to next. One of our researchers never recovered after finishing one of your posts, and he is currently undergoing serious mental therapy to bring his mind back on track. Another brave soldier lost in the fight for blog etiquette.
Another one of our researchers undertook the arduous task of mastering the German language to investigate if the better-formatted looking German posts held any substance. The time he spent away from his family that resulted in a divorce was all in vain, for the German posts held even less merit. They were riddled with so many errors, he still has nightmares about them.
It was after much deliberation that the committee decided to allow you to continue blogging for the time being. Possibility of technical problems hindering your ability to blog with correct capitalization compelled us to give you the benefit of the doubt. We encourage you to organize your thoughts before you write; your misguided sense of what you believe the world wants to hear has us astounded.
Despite the committee expressing limited or no hope at all for any improvement, we present you with a three-week time period within which to clean your act. We sincerely hope you fail.
With insincere regards,
Chairman,
Blog Etiquette Enforcement Committee
===========
i don't know about you but i have a sneaking suspicion the letter might be fabricated!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
german final on a snowy day
ich bin sehr Froh, weil ich meine Prüfung sehr gut gemacht habe. es war unbedingt nicht hundert Prozent fehlerfrei, aber besser als was ich hatte gedacht ich schreiben konnte. weil meine Deutsche Prüfung fertig ist, kann ich wieder auf Englisch schreiben!
to sum up what I wrote above, I'm done with the German final and it turned out better than I expected. yay! i was a bit worried because i procrastinated by watching a whole lot of Scrubs online, but all's well that end's well. or in german, "Ende gut, alles gut"!
and it was lovely outside today. it was snowing very lightly, the flakes falling calmly like feathers. i loved it because it gave the main square a great evening atmosphere. the square is devoid of vehicles and is a trams and people only zone. The combination of the evening snow, the lights, the ill-lit wide open cobblestone square, the bustling of people to catch their trams and the imposing old buildings surrounding the square gave it a very european feel.
anyway, i don't feel like writing anymore. oh but i still have to give this post a title! i struggle with that almost every post because I hardly ever have a theme I stick to. i guess i'll just go with another random one that the post does no justice to.
ciao!
to sum up what I wrote above, I'm done with the German final and it turned out better than I expected. yay! i was a bit worried because i procrastinated by watching a whole lot of Scrubs online, but all's well that end's well. or in german, "Ende gut, alles gut"!
and it was lovely outside today. it was snowing very lightly, the flakes falling calmly like feathers. i loved it because it gave the main square a great evening atmosphere. the square is devoid of vehicles and is a trams and people only zone. The combination of the evening snow, the lights, the ill-lit wide open cobblestone square, the bustling of people to catch their trams and the imposing old buildings surrounding the square gave it a very european feel.
anyway, i don't feel like writing anymore. oh but i still have to give this post a title! i struggle with that almost every post because I hardly ever have a theme I stick to. i guess i'll just go with another random one that the post does no justice to.
ciao!
Monday, February 09, 2009
i got nothing new
since i can't think of what to write about, i think i'll make a few additions to my list in the other post "Random Observations about Germany".
16. at the supermarket you bag your own items. and if you didn't bring your own bag along, you'll have to purchase one at the cashier. they aren't free. in shops and stores, however, you are spared the trouble.
17. everything is closed on Sundays, except for bakeries in the morning and a few restaurants. so restock by Saturday if you don't like the idea of a sunday with nothing to do and no food. sunday shopping is out of the question. window shopping however seems to be a popular sunday activity with a lot of people taking to strolling on the streets.
18. at the end of every lecture, students knock on their desks. if you are confused as to why, think of it as the equivalent of clapping.
19. on train rides in southern germany, you notice many picturesque little villages that look like they came straight out of a fairy tale. and each village has a church that stands out and gives it that magical touch. even the cities have beautiful churches scattered everywhere.
20. bicycles are a popular means of transport. some of my professors bike to work, as do a lot of students. old people are also a good percentage of the bikers. all this has a lot to do with the cities not only being bicycle-friendly, but also concentrated. for travel within the city, especially in the summer months, i would take my bike over the buses and trams. the commute is not very long, its safe (bike paths guide you along major city roads), convenient and you get some exercise!
disclaimer: these are my personal observations from my time in southern germany and in no way indicative of what someone else's experience might be like.
ciao!
16. at the supermarket you bag your own items. and if you didn't bring your own bag along, you'll have to purchase one at the cashier. they aren't free. in shops and stores, however, you are spared the trouble.
17. everything is closed on Sundays, except for bakeries in the morning and a few restaurants. so restock by Saturday if you don't like the idea of a sunday with nothing to do and no food. sunday shopping is out of the question. window shopping however seems to be a popular sunday activity with a lot of people taking to strolling on the streets.
18. at the end of every lecture, students knock on their desks. if you are confused as to why, think of it as the equivalent of clapping.
19. on train rides in southern germany, you notice many picturesque little villages that look like they came straight out of a fairy tale. and each village has a church that stands out and gives it that magical touch. even the cities have beautiful churches scattered everywhere.
20. bicycles are a popular means of transport. some of my professors bike to work, as do a lot of students. old people are also a good percentage of the bikers. all this has a lot to do with the cities not only being bicycle-friendly, but also concentrated. for travel within the city, especially in the summer months, i would take my bike over the buses and trams. the commute is not very long, its safe (bike paths guide you along major city roads), convenient and you get some exercise!
disclaimer: these are my personal observations from my time in southern germany and in no way indicative of what someone else's experience might be like.
ciao!
Sunday, February 08, 2009
etwas über nichts
sonntag abend! die Wochenende ist Fertig und jetzt gibt es nur ein mehr Woche in dieses Semester. nach die letze Woche das Semester, fliege ich nach London! ich freue mich auf die Reise.
heute ich schreibe über, ich weiß nicht, vielleicht was ich habe auf meinem Tisch. zuerst, es ist offensichtlich das es gibt ein Computer. ich benutze ein Apple Macbook. es ist fast zwei und half Jahren alt, aber ich liebe es. in Nepal war es nicht so beliebte, nie hatte ich ein Mac benutzt vor ich nach den USA geflogen bin. ich habe gedacht das es war nicht so gut wie ein PC und hatte nicht so viele Software wie für Windows. aber wann ich probierte ein Mac in meine Universitätsbibliothek aus, ich habe sich sofort verliebt. deshalb habe ich ein Macbook gekauft. das war eine gute Entscheidung und habe ich kein Bedauern.
jetzt habe ich auch auf meinem Tisch einige Schreibhefts, Bücher und Ordners. eines der Bücher ist ein Wörterbuch. es ist ein Langenscheidt-Collins Großes Schulwörterbuch (Deutsch-Englisch). Es gibt kein Englisch-Deutsch Übersetzungen aber es ist ok, weil es gibt gute Übersetzungen und Erklärungen für Deutsche Wörter. ich benutze dict.leo.org für Englisch-Deutsch Übersetzungen. Google Translator ist gut aber nicht wenn du fehlerfrei Übersetzung brauchst. es funktioniert nur wenn eine allgemeine Bedeutung für ein Text ist genug.
es gibt ein 0,7 liter Flasche Orangenlimonade auch auf meinem Tisch. ich habe das gebracht vom Raum auf meinen Stock, wo gibt es viele Getränke (Bier, Limonade, Säfte usw.). man kann von dort jederzeit einige Getränke wählen, es erwähnen auf einem Papier und später bezahlen. es ist eine zweckdienliche Anordnung.
ich habe auch ein Lautsprecher-System mit iPod-dock. es ist auch ein Radiowecker. alle Funkstellen hier sind auf Deutsch, trotzdem die Liede vom den Funkstellen sind meistens auf Englisch! mein iPod-dock erinnere mich an meinem iPod Touch. ich weiß nicht wie habe ich das verloren. und jetzt habe ich nur meines altes iPod nano, welchem habe ich mit meinem Macbook kostenlose bekommen.
mein Tisch hat doch einige mehr Sachen aber habe ich kein Lust über alles zu sprechen. morgen werde ich hoffentlich mehr schreiben über etwas anderes.
bis dann, meine liebe leute! bitte vergib jede Fehler in diesen Eintrag!
heute ich schreibe über, ich weiß nicht, vielleicht was ich habe auf meinem Tisch. zuerst, es ist offensichtlich das es gibt ein Computer. ich benutze ein Apple Macbook. es ist fast zwei und half Jahren alt, aber ich liebe es. in Nepal war es nicht so beliebte, nie hatte ich ein Mac benutzt vor ich nach den USA geflogen bin. ich habe gedacht das es war nicht so gut wie ein PC und hatte nicht so viele Software wie für Windows. aber wann ich probierte ein Mac in meine Universitätsbibliothek aus, ich habe sich sofort verliebt. deshalb habe ich ein Macbook gekauft. das war eine gute Entscheidung und habe ich kein Bedauern.
jetzt habe ich auch auf meinem Tisch einige Schreibhefts, Bücher und Ordners. eines der Bücher ist ein Wörterbuch. es ist ein Langenscheidt-Collins Großes Schulwörterbuch (Deutsch-Englisch). Es gibt kein Englisch-Deutsch Übersetzungen aber es ist ok, weil es gibt gute Übersetzungen und Erklärungen für Deutsche Wörter. ich benutze dict.leo.org für Englisch-Deutsch Übersetzungen. Google Translator ist gut aber nicht wenn du fehlerfrei Übersetzung brauchst. es funktioniert nur wenn eine allgemeine Bedeutung für ein Text ist genug.
es gibt ein 0,7 liter Flasche Orangenlimonade auch auf meinem Tisch. ich habe das gebracht vom Raum auf meinen Stock, wo gibt es viele Getränke (Bier, Limonade, Säfte usw.). man kann von dort jederzeit einige Getränke wählen, es erwähnen auf einem Papier und später bezahlen. es ist eine zweckdienliche Anordnung.
ich habe auch ein Lautsprecher-System mit iPod-dock. es ist auch ein Radiowecker. alle Funkstellen hier sind auf Deutsch, trotzdem die Liede vom den Funkstellen sind meistens auf Englisch! mein iPod-dock erinnere mich an meinem iPod Touch. ich weiß nicht wie habe ich das verloren. und jetzt habe ich nur meines altes iPod nano, welchem habe ich mit meinem Macbook kostenlose bekommen.
mein Tisch hat doch einige mehr Sachen aber habe ich kein Lust über alles zu sprechen. morgen werde ich hoffentlich mehr schreiben über etwas anderes.
bis dann, meine liebe leute! bitte vergib jede Fehler in diesen Eintrag!
Friday, February 06, 2009
Random observations about Germany
I didn't feel like writing in German today so I thought I'd write about Germany instead.Here are 15 random observations about Germany, although some of them might apply elsewhere in Europe.
1. When I'm riding my bike, sometimes the pigeons on pavements just don't fly away. I have to slow down and go around them for fear of running them over!
2. For numbers, the comma and the period are switched. So 25.000 is really 25,000 and vice versa.
3. I need to put in a 1-euro or 2-euro coin, to get a cart at most supermarkets. You get it back when you return the cart to its location but it's annoying. I sometimes find myself not having the change and cursing the system! Is hiring a cart-gatherer so expensive?
4. Germany isn't big on credit cards. Even some big shops and stores like Aldi's won't take a credit card. It's always a good thing to know beforehand. It is either EC-card (European debit card) or cash.
5. Points 3 and 4 lead to 5, you always find yourself carrying a lot of change here. One, because you have to carry some cash in case cards are not accepted. Two, because you always get a lot of coins for change in stores since they have coins with denominations upto 2-euros and no paper-bills upto 5.
6. The honor system on public transportation is amazing. You can get right on and off buses, trams and subways without having to show your ticket, although you are required to have one. Sometimes there are random checks to catch the occasional "schwarzfahrer" or free-rider, and that can be very humiliating in front of law-abiding germans looking at you with disgust. (No, it hasn't happened to me yet because I always travel with a ticket.) It's only on long distance trains that you can be certain that a train inspector will be inspecting your ticket.
7. Recycling. People are serious about their recycling. I have numerous bins outside my building for paper, plastic, ceramics, biodegradable waste, metal and glass. The glass one is divided into brown glass, green glass and white glass.
8. A lot of people buy their drinks in glass bottles, which can then be returned later for some cash. And no, it's not like the 5 cents for recycling in the US. When you buy these, it says "Pfand" on the label. That means you are paying extra (the Pfand) for it and you get it back when you return the bottle. No money to be made.
9. The Pfand also applies to a lot of other places. For example, at a fest, if you buy a "glühwein" (hot alcoholic beverage), they give it to you in a ceramic cup and you pay a few euros extra as Pfand. It can even apply to some bars and other places.
10. Carbonated water. This is what you are likely to get if you order water in a restaurant. And no, they don't just assume you need water and bring it to you. If you say you don't want any drinks, they will literally bring you nothing to drink the entire meal. The carbonated water or fizzy water, whatever you want to call it tastes horrible. I learned early on that you have to be very careful when buying water. Some small stores may not even have any still-water.
11. Tipping is not very common here, especially among the students. And most tipping is just rounding off the bill!
12. Old people seem to be out and about a lot! Many are seen cruising along on their bikes with groceries.
13. Small/mid-size cars dominate the streets, SUV's are not as rampant as in the US.
14. I don't know if this is common, but one of my professors wipes the chalkboard with a sponge and water. He likes it really clean and has developed an efficient technique of wiping it clean. My previous language teacher did it too. A sponge is used to wipe the chalkboard anyway and classes generally have a sink in the corner, so I wonder if it's more common that I think.
15. Bums are few and far between. I have seen a few beggars on the streets (and even these are temporary beggars who just vanish the next day), but in general I find that everyone seems to have a more or less similar standard of living.
That's it folks. Have a great weekend!!
1. When I'm riding my bike, sometimes the pigeons on pavements just don't fly away. I have to slow down and go around them for fear of running them over!
2. For numbers, the comma and the period are switched. So 25.000 is really 25,000 and vice versa.
3. I need to put in a 1-euro or 2-euro coin, to get a cart at most supermarkets. You get it back when you return the cart to its location but it's annoying. I sometimes find myself not having the change and cursing the system! Is hiring a cart-gatherer so expensive?
4. Germany isn't big on credit cards. Even some big shops and stores like Aldi's won't take a credit card. It's always a good thing to know beforehand. It is either EC-card (European debit card) or cash.
5. Points 3 and 4 lead to 5, you always find yourself carrying a lot of change here. One, because you have to carry some cash in case cards are not accepted. Two, because you always get a lot of coins for change in stores since they have coins with denominations upto 2-euros and no paper-bills upto 5.
6. The honor system on public transportation is amazing. You can get right on and off buses, trams and subways without having to show your ticket, although you are required to have one. Sometimes there are random checks to catch the occasional "schwarzfahrer" or free-rider, and that can be very humiliating in front of law-abiding germans looking at you with disgust. (No, it hasn't happened to me yet because I always travel with a ticket.) It's only on long distance trains that you can be certain that a train inspector will be inspecting your ticket.
7. Recycling. People are serious about their recycling. I have numerous bins outside my building for paper, plastic, ceramics, biodegradable waste, metal and glass. The glass one is divided into brown glass, green glass and white glass.
8. A lot of people buy their drinks in glass bottles, which can then be returned later for some cash. And no, it's not like the 5 cents for recycling in the US. When you buy these, it says "Pfand" on the label. That means you are paying extra (the Pfand) for it and you get it back when you return the bottle. No money to be made.
9. The Pfand also applies to a lot of other places. For example, at a fest, if you buy a "glühwein" (hot alcoholic beverage), they give it to you in a ceramic cup and you pay a few euros extra as Pfand. It can even apply to some bars and other places.
10. Carbonated water. This is what you are likely to get if you order water in a restaurant. And no, they don't just assume you need water and bring it to you. If you say you don't want any drinks, they will literally bring you nothing to drink the entire meal. The carbonated water or fizzy water, whatever you want to call it tastes horrible. I learned early on that you have to be very careful when buying water. Some small stores may not even have any still-water.
11. Tipping is not very common here, especially among the students. And most tipping is just rounding off the bill!
12. Old people seem to be out and about a lot! Many are seen cruising along on their bikes with groceries.
13. Small/mid-size cars dominate the streets, SUV's are not as rampant as in the US.
14. I don't know if this is common, but one of my professors wipes the chalkboard with a sponge and water. He likes it really clean and has developed an efficient technique of wiping it clean. My previous language teacher did it too. A sponge is used to wipe the chalkboard anyway and classes generally have a sink in the corner, so I wonder if it's more common that I think.
15. Bums are few and far between. I have seen a few beggars on the streets (and even these are temporary beggars who just vanish the next day), but in general I find that everyone seems to have a more or less similar standard of living.
That's it folks. Have a great weekend!!
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
anmeldung komplikationen
(english readers, bear with me for a week while i practice my german for my final exam!)
heute meine hauptaufgabe war Prüfungsanmeldungen zu bekommen, und dann ein Konto mit Deutsche Bank zu öffnen. aber habe ich nur ein Aufgabe fertig sein.
Prüfungsanmeldung war mehr kompliziert als ich gedacht habe. ich bin ins Studienbüro gegangen und mit einer Frau gesprochen. sie hat mir gesagt dass zuerst muss ich eine anmeldung aus der Maschinenbau Fakultät bekommen. also, nach meine Vorlesung bin ich zum "altbau" gebäude von Maschinenbau Fakultät gegangen. mein Kollege hat mir geholfen die Sekretariat zu finden, weil gestern hat er die anmeldung schon gemacht. die Sekretärin hat mir gesagt dass ich muss zuerst online anmelden in der seite von Maschinenbau Fakultät, dann muss ich ein email schicken mit welche Prüfungen möchte ich machen. dann ich muss die online-anmeldung drucken und wieder züruck gehen. es war schon 16 uhr und so habe ich entscheidet dass ich werde diese Aufgabe morgen machen.
danach bin ich mit meinem Fahrrad zur Deutsche Bank gefahren. meine ausweis und alles habe ich mitgenommen. ich hatte Glück... ich habe ein Termin für heute bekommen und musste nur einige minuten warten. der Prozess war schnell und habe ich meine Konto geöffnet. meine EC karte und kreditkarte werde ich bekommen mit der Post in ein Woche. ich habe auch ein Konto mit Sparkasse, aber ich werde das schliessen so bald wie möglich.
das ist alles für heute. ich kenne das es gibt mehrere Fehler in diesem Eintrag, aber es geht. nur mit Übungen kann ich besser werden. tschüß!
heute meine hauptaufgabe war Prüfungsanmeldungen zu bekommen, und dann ein Konto mit Deutsche Bank zu öffnen. aber habe ich nur ein Aufgabe fertig sein.
Prüfungsanmeldung war mehr kompliziert als ich gedacht habe. ich bin ins Studienbüro gegangen und mit einer Frau gesprochen. sie hat mir gesagt dass zuerst muss ich eine anmeldung aus der Maschinenbau Fakultät bekommen. also, nach meine Vorlesung bin ich zum "altbau" gebäude von Maschinenbau Fakultät gegangen. mein Kollege hat mir geholfen die Sekretariat zu finden, weil gestern hat er die anmeldung schon gemacht. die Sekretärin hat mir gesagt dass ich muss zuerst online anmelden in der seite von Maschinenbau Fakultät, dann muss ich ein email schicken mit welche Prüfungen möchte ich machen. dann ich muss die online-anmeldung drucken und wieder züruck gehen. es war schon 16 uhr und so habe ich entscheidet dass ich werde diese Aufgabe morgen machen.
danach bin ich mit meinem Fahrrad zur Deutsche Bank gefahren. meine ausweis und alles habe ich mitgenommen. ich hatte Glück... ich habe ein Termin für heute bekommen und musste nur einige minuten warten. der Prozess war schnell und habe ich meine Konto geöffnet. meine EC karte und kreditkarte werde ich bekommen mit der Post in ein Woche. ich habe auch ein Konto mit Sparkasse, aber ich werde das schliessen so bald wie möglich.
das ist alles für heute. ich kenne das es gibt mehrere Fehler in diesem Eintrag, aber es geht. nur mit Übungen kann ich besser werden. tschüß!
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
mein ersten deutschen Eintrag
heute werde ich erstemal probieren ein Eintrag auf Deutsch zu schreiben. ich habe ein Prüfung in ein wenig mehr als ein Woche. also, diese kann eine gute Übung für mich sein.
aber was soll ich denn schreiben? leider kann ich nicht über mehrere Themen diskutieren, weil mein Deutsch schlecht ist. egal, ich schreibe was ich will, solange es in Deutsch ich schreiben kann.
ok. was habe ich heute gemacht? ich habe spät aufgestanden und damit meiner ersten Klasse verpasst. ich habe meine zweite Vorlesung pünktlich sein, aber gab es kein Profesor! nur zwei Leute regelmäßig besuchen das Vorlesung. ich weiß es nicht was hat passiert heute. vielleicht die kurs hat beendet, weil nächste woche ist die lezte woche für Vorlesungen. ich muss das morgen ermitteln. manchmal können diese situationen sehr kompliziert sein, weil ich bin nicht bekannt mit dem system hier und kann nur ein bisschen Deutsch.
und... ja, mein Fahrrad-Kette hatte einige Probleme mit Rost. also, ich habe ein flasche Kettenpflegemittel gekauft und benutzt. mein Fahrrad fahrt viel besser jetzt!
ich muss jetzt gehen. die austauschstudenten treffen uns in einer Bar in die Stadtmitte. Bis später. ich glaube ich muss diese Eintrag später nochmal korrigieren!
aber was soll ich denn schreiben? leider kann ich nicht über mehrere Themen diskutieren, weil mein Deutsch schlecht ist. egal, ich schreibe was ich will, solange es in Deutsch ich schreiben kann.
ok. was habe ich heute gemacht? ich habe spät aufgestanden und damit meiner ersten Klasse verpasst. ich habe meine zweite Vorlesung pünktlich sein, aber gab es kein Profesor! nur zwei Leute regelmäßig besuchen das Vorlesung. ich weiß es nicht was hat passiert heute. vielleicht die kurs hat beendet, weil nächste woche ist die lezte woche für Vorlesungen. ich muss das morgen ermitteln. manchmal können diese situationen sehr kompliziert sein, weil ich bin nicht bekannt mit dem system hier und kann nur ein bisschen Deutsch.
und... ja, mein Fahrrad-Kette hatte einige Probleme mit Rost. also, ich habe ein flasche Kettenpflegemittel gekauft und benutzt. mein Fahrrad fahrt viel besser jetzt!
ich muss jetzt gehen. die austauschstudenten treffen uns in einer Bar in die Stadtmitte. Bis später. ich glaube ich muss diese Eintrag später nochmal korrigieren!
Monday, February 02, 2009
flat brains and lazy brains
turns out there are still people out there that believe the earth is flat! theflatearthsociety.org seems to be the where they congregate to propound their insane ideas on this huge "conspiracy". they think satellite images are fake, moon landing was a hoax and that you could potentially fall off the edge of the earth where there's an ice wall. you can try convincing them with as many proofs as you can gather, but it is like a religion to them. they won't falter, and it is therefore almost pointless trying. any definite proof to them is a hoax to cover the actual truth. yep, the powers that be has been collaborating to perform an elaborate hoax lasting centuries on the unsuspecting citizens of the world to make them believe that the earth is round!
the cynicism of the insane aside, the weekend was pretty normal. my exams are finally approaching and the feeling that i am completely unprepared is beginning to creep up on me. so last night i decided that i would begin early preparations for the exams starting this week. i would clear my table of all the junk and get out the necessary books, organize the dozens of scattered handouts and prepare a study timetable. but nothing of the sort transpired. by the end of this week, though, i have to get my mind into examination mode. with barely any studying at home during the semester, i have a whole to catch up on if i want to do well on my exams.
so adieu. hopefully i'll get started soon!
the cynicism of the insane aside, the weekend was pretty normal. my exams are finally approaching and the feeling that i am completely unprepared is beginning to creep up on me. so last night i decided that i would begin early preparations for the exams starting this week. i would clear my table of all the junk and get out the necessary books, organize the dozens of scattered handouts and prepare a study timetable. but nothing of the sort transpired. by the end of this week, though, i have to get my mind into examination mode. with barely any studying at home during the semester, i have a whole to catch up on if i want to do well on my exams.
so adieu. hopefully i'll get started soon!
Friday, January 30, 2009
farms and automation
i just finished watching a dirty jobs episode on harvesting walnuts in california. and one of the things that always strikes me when watching dirty jobs is how automated and efficient a lot of it seems to be. i mean, take the walnuts episode for example. the company used shakers to shake down the walnuts from the grid of hundreds of trees. these were vehicles with a clamp that could shake a tree till all the walnuts were down. then a little vehicle called a sweeper, this one from 1972 apparently, was used to sweep the walnuts into neat lines. these were then picked up by another vehicle to take to the processing plant, where the process upto shipping was all taken care of by machines. the humans only had to scrub, clean up the mess created and keep the plant running smoothly.
i can't say i have been to many farms in nepal, but i believe most farms here still rely on manual labor for the majority of tasks. with all sorts of specialized farm equipment available, i wonder by how much we could increase the productivity of nepali farms if these were utilized. and the machines don't necessarily replace humans, but instead provide them with the dirty job of cleaning up after them.
also there was this other episode on a californian egg farm. i had no idea how automated and mechanical even the process of egg production had become. about 1.4 million hens were simply laid out in little cramped spaces. chicken feed was supplied individually to each bird automatically via a system of pipes. and when an egg was laid, it rolled down a half-pipe into a processing plant that would take care of it until it was packaged and ready to ship. the farm shipped a whole lot of eggs everyday but something about the method makes me uneasy. the hens spent their lives in these little cages where they could barely spread their wings, their sole purpose in their pitiful lives to produce eggs for us. this is one area where i would rather have numerous smaller farms handled by people than a big automated one, even if it means limited productivity and profit.
alright, i'm off. have a great weekend!
i can't say i have been to many farms in nepal, but i believe most farms here still rely on manual labor for the majority of tasks. with all sorts of specialized farm equipment available, i wonder by how much we could increase the productivity of nepali farms if these were utilized. and the machines don't necessarily replace humans, but instead provide them with the dirty job of cleaning up after them.
also there was this other episode on a californian egg farm. i had no idea how automated and mechanical even the process of egg production had become. about 1.4 million hens were simply laid out in little cramped spaces. chicken feed was supplied individually to each bird automatically via a system of pipes. and when an egg was laid, it rolled down a half-pipe into a processing plant that would take care of it until it was packaged and ready to ship. the farm shipped a whole lot of eggs everyday but something about the method makes me uneasy. the hens spent their lives in these little cages where they could barely spread their wings, their sole purpose in their pitiful lives to produce eggs for us. this is one area where i would rather have numerous smaller farms handled by people than a big automated one, even if it means limited productivity and profit.
alright, i'm off. have a great weekend!
Thursday, January 29, 2009
my weekend in the alps
i'm still feeling a bit under the weather. i didn't get enough sleep tuesday night studying for the test on wednesday. the lack of sleep must have toyed with my immune system because i came down with a bad cold wednesday. i'm feeling much better, thank you.
anyway, yea, about the ski-trip. was a lot of fun!
friday: miserable morning, had to leave the house at 4am wearing our ski outfits because we were told we would be taken straight to the ski area. what made it worse was that there was no public bus at that hour, so we had to walk the 20 minutes wearing the uncomfortable clothes, heavy rucksacks on our backs, and the heavy skis and boots on our arms. then a 5-hour bus ride. the bus ride was uneventful but nice because we had an excellent view of the colorful sunrise against the light mist and pine trees. we hardly noticed passing the border into austria. we could see the abandoned border posts, and a lonely sign read "Austria". we didn't even have to slow down.
once we got off the bus at the ski area in mellau, freezing rain welcomed us. but we decided to go up anyway. the weather was getting worse all the time, the wind howling around us as we were pelleted by icy rain. we beginners braved it all to learn some skiing. walking uphill was a BIG pain, but the graduate student acting as our instructor said we weren't ready to take the ski-lift yet. anyway, after about an hour and a half, it was announced that the ski area was closing due to bad weather. Scheiße! so we went back to our lodge and did what the germans do... drink! a lot of glühwein this time. it's german hot wine and gets to you really fast. i love it! the lodge was a nice place, all wooden and warm... with a ping-pong table, a foosball table and a fire going.
saturday: today we left for the ski-area in damüls. it was a much bigger one. but with yesterday's lesson, i felt confident. i took the ski-lift and got up to the beginners piste. with the 'instructor' by my side, i started down the hill. i was picking up speed really quick! i tried using the slowing-down technique i had learned yesterday, but it didn't seem to help. so i just let go and crashed into the orange plastic barrier that they had on the beginning section of the piste. a little embarrassed, i picked myself up... though not without some help because one of my skis got entangled in the fence thingy.
i made sure to go slow from the very start this time and did better. but the next downhill was even steeper. i was actually scared to even start going down this one. but after much persuasion, i let myself slide into position. and soon i was skiing faster than i could control and just let myself fall. in fact, that became my new technique. everytime i felt myself going out of control, i would just fall into the soft snow. it worked great. this gave me confidence to go down steeper slopes. and as the day wore on, i was falling less. i had sort of mastered the slow skiing technique with the skiis in a V-pattern.
that night was another night of drinking. there were lots of drinks, glühwein, vodka, beer, chocolate milk with rum (or sth like that), but nothing for the non-drinkers. suffice to say, it was a crazy night.
sunday: i went up on the ski-lift with much more confidence on sunday. my last run on saturday had been very promising. but i soon found out i had gotten much worse! i was falling more than ever again! maybe i was taking it too fast. a slow run, and things began looking up. in fact, i started to get the hang of it. by the end of the day, i could do runs without falling once! and then, while i was enjoying it most, it was time to go! :(
the weekend was the most fun i've had in a while. so although it's left me almost broke, it was well worth it. and it's always nice to be able to say i learned to ski in the alps!
anyway, yea, about the ski-trip. was a lot of fun!
friday: miserable morning, had to leave the house at 4am wearing our ski outfits because we were told we would be taken straight to the ski area. what made it worse was that there was no public bus at that hour, so we had to walk the 20 minutes wearing the uncomfortable clothes, heavy rucksacks on our backs, and the heavy skis and boots on our arms. then a 5-hour bus ride. the bus ride was uneventful but nice because we had an excellent view of the colorful sunrise against the light mist and pine trees. we hardly noticed passing the border into austria. we could see the abandoned border posts, and a lonely sign read "Austria". we didn't even have to slow down.
once we got off the bus at the ski area in mellau, freezing rain welcomed us. but we decided to go up anyway. the weather was getting worse all the time, the wind howling around us as we were pelleted by icy rain. we beginners braved it all to learn some skiing. walking uphill was a BIG pain, but the graduate student acting as our instructor said we weren't ready to take the ski-lift yet. anyway, after about an hour and a half, it was announced that the ski area was closing due to bad weather. Scheiße! so we went back to our lodge and did what the germans do... drink! a lot of glühwein this time. it's german hot wine and gets to you really fast. i love it! the lodge was a nice place, all wooden and warm... with a ping-pong table, a foosball table and a fire going.
saturday: today we left for the ski-area in damüls. it was a much bigger one. but with yesterday's lesson, i felt confident. i took the ski-lift and got up to the beginners piste. with the 'instructor' by my side, i started down the hill. i was picking up speed really quick! i tried using the slowing-down technique i had learned yesterday, but it didn't seem to help. so i just let go and crashed into the orange plastic barrier that they had on the beginning section of the piste. a little embarrassed, i picked myself up... though not without some help because one of my skis got entangled in the fence thingy.
i made sure to go slow from the very start this time and did better. but the next downhill was even steeper. i was actually scared to even start going down this one. but after much persuasion, i let myself slide into position. and soon i was skiing faster than i could control and just let myself fall. in fact, that became my new technique. everytime i felt myself going out of control, i would just fall into the soft snow. it worked great. this gave me confidence to go down steeper slopes. and as the day wore on, i was falling less. i had sort of mastered the slow skiing technique with the skiis in a V-pattern.that night was another night of drinking. there were lots of drinks, glühwein, vodka, beer, chocolate milk with rum (or sth like that), but nothing for the non-drinkers. suffice to say, it was a crazy night.
sunday: i went up on the ski-lift with much more confidence on sunday. my last run on saturday had been very promising. but i soon found out i had gotten much worse! i was falling more than ever again! maybe i was taking it too fast. a slow run, and things began looking up. in fact, i started to get the hang of it. by the end of the day, i could do runs without falling once! and then, while i was enjoying it most, it was time to go! :(
the weekend was the most fun i've had in a while. so although it's left me almost broke, it was well worth it. and it's always nice to be able to say i learned to ski in the alps!
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
back in one piece
i know i should have posted earlier, but i have been procrastinating. i got back sunday night but i was too tired to do anything. i slept most of monday. and this evening i'm studying for my test tomorrow. there's a lot of material i need to cover so i'll skip writing a long post today. but i'll try and do a long one tomorrow.
so until tomorrow, then. enjoy whatever you're doing while i slave away into the night studying for the stupid test.
so until tomorrow, then. enjoy whatever you're doing while i slave away into the night studying for the stupid test.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
a busy day
it's been a day abuzz with activity! was up really early to pay a visit to the laundromat. i hate the one in my dorm because the dryer seems pathetically incapable of drying my clothes within 2 hours. my german flatmates don't mind because they would rather hang their clothes to dry, energy conscious as they seem to be (or short on change). anyway, at the laundromat at around 7 in the morning, there was only one other lady. she seemed nice and friendly at first, but then she started singing out loud! i didn't think much of it. and then she started talking, i turned, but no, she was talking to herself! she did this the entire time and since we were the only ones in the huge place, it was starting to freak me out! thankfully i got done quick and sprinted out of there.
i took the bus and tram this morning because i had my laundry with me. german public transportation doesn't cease to amaze me in its efficiency and punctuality. i had the entire timing worked out on the transportation website, from leaving my dorm to getting back, everything to the minute. but on the return journey, the bus dropped me a stop further from mine! ahhh... i had been used to the bus stopping at my stop since there are always people getting off there. so i just stood in front of the door and forgot to press the 'stop' button. most of the time, the driver notices you and stops, but not today. and as i found out, the next stop was a lot further than the normal distance between two stops. i had never really ventured into this part of the city, not least because there is nothing but trees there! i checked the schedule for the next bus going in the opposite direction, 20 minutes. so i decided to walk. and, got lost! took me a lot of wrong turns and help from strangers to get me back. the only good thing to come out of this is i found a wonderful bike path through the woods that i definitely plan on using.
then i spent the next hour with a friend shopping for food for the trip tomorrow. then we went to get the rental ski equipment that we had reserved. i was dreading having to carry all that on the tram with us and getting weird looks from people. but thankfully, we didn't attract much attention.
then, i had to get a rucksack that i had been meaning to get for a while. and this trip seemed like the perfect opportunity to get one. and after selecting a decent one, i discovered that i had left my EC card at home. the EC card is like the european debit card. germany isn't big on credit cards. even though this was a relatively big store, they didn't accept credit cards. so i had to get money off an ATM and incur a some extra charge. :(
that brings me to now, i'm taking a break from packing to write this post. planning on going to bed early since the bus leaves at 5 am tomorrow and i'm supposed to be there by 4.30!
i'm gone for the weekend so i won't be able to post until monday! have a great weekend! bis dann!
i took the bus and tram this morning because i had my laundry with me. german public transportation doesn't cease to amaze me in its efficiency and punctuality. i had the entire timing worked out on the transportation website, from leaving my dorm to getting back, everything to the minute. but on the return journey, the bus dropped me a stop further from mine! ahhh... i had been used to the bus stopping at my stop since there are always people getting off there. so i just stood in front of the door and forgot to press the 'stop' button. most of the time, the driver notices you and stops, but not today. and as i found out, the next stop was a lot further than the normal distance between two stops. i had never really ventured into this part of the city, not least because there is nothing but trees there! i checked the schedule for the next bus going in the opposite direction, 20 minutes. so i decided to walk. and, got lost! took me a lot of wrong turns and help from strangers to get me back. the only good thing to come out of this is i found a wonderful bike path through the woods that i definitely plan on using.
then i spent the next hour with a friend shopping for food for the trip tomorrow. then we went to get the rental ski equipment that we had reserved. i was dreading having to carry all that on the tram with us and getting weird looks from people. but thankfully, we didn't attract much attention.
then, i had to get a rucksack that i had been meaning to get for a while. and this trip seemed like the perfect opportunity to get one. and after selecting a decent one, i discovered that i had left my EC card at home. the EC card is like the european debit card. germany isn't big on credit cards. even though this was a relatively big store, they didn't accept credit cards. so i had to get money off an ATM and incur a some extra charge. :(
that brings me to now, i'm taking a break from packing to write this post. planning on going to bed early since the bus leaves at 5 am tomorrow and i'm supposed to be there by 4.30!
i'm gone for the weekend so i won't be able to post until monday! have a great weekend! bis dann!
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
obama, and the usual
obama! yep, he's the reason i skipped writing my blog yesterday. excited for him, and for the end of the bush regime. i wish there was as much enthusiasm for the nepali leaders. but in our country we have a who leader threatens to wage a war against his own people! i definitely hope there will come a day when we can be proud of our leader, a leader who actually represents the people rather than the interests of the various parties.
moving on. today i finally worked out the postponement of my test on friday! only after i produced a letter convincing my professor that it was not simply an attempt to get extra time for the test that he agreed to let me take it next week instead. which means, i am going skiing after all this weekend! i'm excited. but did i mention i've never skied before? i'll worry about that later.
i have also been working on the kathmandu wiki. the link is http://ktmwiki.murkha.com. I put up a few, very roughly written, articles. but i'm hoping we'll eventually have an enormous depository on everything kathmandu. i can only hope it won't be one of my many failed projects. so, if you are reading this, please help the wiki by adding something to it! anything! oh, and while working on the some server files this morning, i somehow ended up mislinking the logo! so please don't mind the blank area on the top left. i am working on fixing it.
ciao, leute! bis morgen!
moving on. today i finally worked out the postponement of my test on friday! only after i produced a letter convincing my professor that it was not simply an attempt to get extra time for the test that he agreed to let me take it next week instead. which means, i am going skiing after all this weekend! i'm excited. but did i mention i've never skied before? i'll worry about that later.
i have also been working on the kathmandu wiki. the link is http://ktmwiki.murkha.com. I put up a few, very roughly written, articles. but i'm hoping we'll eventually have an enormous depository on everything kathmandu. i can only hope it won't be one of my many failed projects. so, if you are reading this, please help the wiki by adding something to it! anything! oh, and while working on the some server files this morning, i somehow ended up mislinking the logo! so please don't mind the blank area on the top left. i am working on fixing it.
ciao, leute! bis morgen!
Sunday, January 18, 2009
uneventful sunday
lazy sunday for me. it was really cold and windy outside, which meant no football. and in germany, sunday is the day off for everybody. all stores (groceries included) are closed, save for a few bakeries in the morning and some turkish kebab places. the kebab places are much like the chinese places in the US. they open everyday till very late at night, the food is cheap and they are everywhere!
anyway, after sleeping in till 12, i spent the day working on the kathmandu citywiki i talked about in my last post. it is shaping up pretty well, although nowhere near where it needs to be. i still have a few kinks to smooth out with relation to formatting and such. citing references is a mess at the moment, and that is an integral part of a wiki! it is still possible to do so manually however.
i won't be able to devote much time to the wiki this week though. ich habe eine prüfung am freitag. the german reminds me, i am thinking of writing part of my blog in german. it would be good practice for my upcoming german final in two and a half weeks. i'll give it some more thought though. it would be a pain breaking out my huge monster of a dictionary every time i forget the gender of a word!
alright then, auf wiedersehen!
anyway, after sleeping in till 12, i spent the day working on the kathmandu citywiki i talked about in my last post. it is shaping up pretty well, although nowhere near where it needs to be. i still have a few kinks to smooth out with relation to formatting and such. citing references is a mess at the moment, and that is an integral part of a wiki! it is still possible to do so manually however.
i won't be able to devote much time to the wiki this week though. ich habe eine prüfung am freitag. the german reminds me, i am thinking of writing part of my blog in german. it would be good practice for my upcoming german final in two and a half weeks. i'll give it some more thought though. it would be a pain breaking out my huge monster of a dictionary every time i forget the gender of a word!
alright then, auf wiedersehen!
Saturday, January 17, 2009
transliteration and the kathmandu wiki
while trying to customize my blog today, i found this interesting tool called Google Indic Transliteration. it may not be new to you, but to me, this was a feature i had previously not cared to know about. today i decided to check it out, and i sure am glad i did! although, it says it transliterates to Hindi, it is for any Devnagari script.
here is why it's awesome: you don't have to know the nepali keyboard layout to type in the devnagari script! use the tool to type nepali in roman characters, and it transliterates it to Devnagari. if it transliterates wrong, you get to choose the right word from a list too. it worked pretty well except for words like "sarkari", where it went with "sarakari" instead. try it out for yourself. i was impressed.
also today, i was looking through the wiki of the city i am in, and began wondering, wouldn't it be great to have a wiki for kathmandu! i could look up the most trivial facts on kathmandu, or learn about some obscure street in the capital, or find a hidden gem of a restaurant off the busy streets. it's unfortunate we don't have a wiki for our awesome kathmandu.
but wait, is it right for me to always leave it to someone else to do something? maybe i should make a start and see if people will join in on the effort to create a vast repository of information on kathmandu. so i revived my old website that never really got off its feet, and added a wiki section to it. my website may not have worked, but let's see how the wiki fares. will it grow or wither and die prematurely? time, and the effort i put in will tell.
in any case, i would appreciate thoughts on the wiki and any help. i have barely configured the wiki at this point, but i'm working on it. hopefully it won't be one of those projects that i enthusiastically work on tirelessly at first, and then give up as the novelty wears off. i hope not. this is something i want to see fruition into something big!
here is why it's awesome: you don't have to know the nepali keyboard layout to type in the devnagari script! use the tool to type nepali in roman characters, and it transliterates it to Devnagari. if it transliterates wrong, you get to choose the right word from a list too. it worked pretty well except for words like "sarkari", where it went with "sarakari" instead. try it out for yourself. i was impressed.
also today, i was looking through the wiki of the city i am in, and began wondering, wouldn't it be great to have a wiki for kathmandu! i could look up the most trivial facts on kathmandu, or learn about some obscure street in the capital, or find a hidden gem of a restaurant off the busy streets. it's unfortunate we don't have a wiki for our awesome kathmandu.
but wait, is it right for me to always leave it to someone else to do something? maybe i should make a start and see if people will join in on the effort to create a vast repository of information on kathmandu. so i revived my old website that never really got off its feet, and added a wiki section to it. my website may not have worked, but let's see how the wiki fares. will it grow or wither and die prematurely? time, and the effort i put in will tell.
in any case, i would appreciate thoughts on the wiki and any help. i have barely configured the wiki at this point, but i'm working on it. hopefully it won't be one of those projects that i enthusiastically work on tirelessly at first, and then give up as the novelty wears off. i hope not. this is something i want to see fruition into something big!
Friday, January 16, 2009
pig milk and entropy
my professor for thermodynamics has a knack for somehow introducing random but interesting facts into his lectures. like today, while we were trying to figure out the entropy produced in a heat exchanger used to cool milk, he asked us if we knew why we didn't drink pig-milk! when none of our haphazard guesses seemed to hit the mark, he proceeded to explain. Apparently piglets need all the milk they can get. So if the pig farmer wants the piglets to survive, he has to let them suckle all they need. And piglets grow up to be pork and bacon, so it is in the pig-farmer's interest that they thrive. There is little or no milk left for commercial purposes after the little ones are done suckling. Interesting.
then a while ago, i sat and started googling to see how much truth there is to it. and i found many people puzzled by the same question. i found a good response in a "collection of letters - industry". i'll post an extract from the letter:
Pigs will on average produce 13 lbs of milk in a day as compared to cows that produce 65 lbs of milk on average per day. Pigs unlike cows cannot become pregnant while lactating and therefore possess a severe economic problem to producers. while pigs consume less feed per day, economics does not allow pigs to be a viable source of dairy products.
The biggest challenge facing the porcine dairy industry is collecting the product. Pigs on average have fourteen teats as opposed to cows that have four teats. Pigs also differ from cows in their milk ejection time, a cows milk ejection is stimulated by the hoimone oxytocin and can last ten minutes, where as a pig's milk ejection time only last fifteen seconds as the suckling pigs stimulate the release of oxytocin. The technology of a 14 cupped mechanized milking machine that can milk a pig in 15 seconds is not available to pork producers.
so it seems like my professor was somewhat right in his explanation. pigs do not produce enough milk to be a viable economic option and the piglets' suckling only simulates milk production for 15 extra seconds. but apparently it has also do with the difficulty of actually obtaining the milk.
good to know! order has finally been restored. take that, entropy! :)
then a while ago, i sat and started googling to see how much truth there is to it. and i found many people puzzled by the same question. i found a good response in a "collection of letters - industry". i'll post an extract from the letter:
Pigs will on average produce 13 lbs of milk in a day as compared to cows that produce 65 lbs of milk on average per day. Pigs unlike cows cannot become pregnant while lactating and therefore possess a severe economic problem to producers. while pigs consume less feed per day, economics does not allow pigs to be a viable source of dairy products.
The biggest challenge facing the porcine dairy industry is collecting the product. Pigs on average have fourteen teats as opposed to cows that have four teats. Pigs also differ from cows in their milk ejection time, a cows milk ejection is stimulated by the hoimone oxytocin and can last ten minutes, where as a pig's milk ejection time only last fifteen seconds as the suckling pigs stimulate the release of oxytocin. The technology of a 14 cupped mechanized milking machine that can milk a pig in 15 seconds is not available to pork producers.
so it seems like my professor was somewhat right in his explanation. pigs do not produce enough milk to be a viable economic option and the piglets' suckling only simulates milk production for 15 extra seconds. but apparently it has also do with the difficulty of actually obtaining the milk.
good to know! order has finally been restored. take that, entropy! :)
Thursday, January 15, 2009
birds and planes
I have been following the news on the 'crashed' US Airways Airbus A320 in the Hudson River hours earlier, and it's great to know that everyone made it out alive. Props to the pilots for landing a huge jet safely on water!
Apparently, the situation transpired due to the plane's engines losing power after hitting a flock of birds. It would be interesting to know how many birds it took to bring down the engines. Engines are very thoroughly tested, and are generally capable of surviving a bird strike. It is in fact a certification requirement of the FAA that an engine should still be able to function if a medium-sized bird is sucked into the jet during takeoff. (link). We were in fact shown a video in class by one of the Pratt & Whitney people of the bird test, and it was pretty spectacular. upon impact, the blades of the engine changed shape and wobbled spinelessly in slo-mo. sorry i couldn't find a youtube video to go with this.
and, just a few days ago there was this headline on cnn " U.S. airlines fly 2 years without fatality". I am glad this incident today didn't dash hopes for a 3rd year without fatality!
now, getting back to me. today, i made an effort to work out the scheduling conflict i mentioned yesterday. and as expected, the professor was firm with his date. but i still haven't given up. i'll try again tomorrow in person.
alright, i'm off then. i've a class at 8 in the morning! i've missed quite a few of these, i can sleep through alarms if i haven't got enough sleep.
bis morgen!
Apparently, the situation transpired due to the plane's engines losing power after hitting a flock of birds. It would be interesting to know how many birds it took to bring down the engines. Engines are very thoroughly tested, and are generally capable of surviving a bird strike. It is in fact a certification requirement of the FAA that an engine should still be able to function if a medium-sized bird is sucked into the jet during takeoff. (link). We were in fact shown a video in class by one of the Pratt & Whitney people of the bird test, and it was pretty spectacular. upon impact, the blades of the engine changed shape and wobbled spinelessly in slo-mo. sorry i couldn't find a youtube video to go with this.
and, just a few days ago there was this headline on cnn " U.S. airlines fly 2 years without fatality". I am glad this incident today didn't dash hopes for a 3rd year without fatality!
now, getting back to me. today, i made an effort to work out the scheduling conflict i mentioned yesterday. and as expected, the professor was firm with his date. but i still haven't given up. i'll try again tomorrow in person.
alright, i'm off then. i've a class at 8 in the morning! i've missed quite a few of these, i can sleep through alarms if i haven't got enough sleep.
bis morgen!
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
snow flakes and flickr
it has been snowing all day. it was fun riding my bicycle to class in the snow along the bike path that no one bothers to shovel. everything looked so beautiful so i decided to take some photos of the path, but none came out very nice. the photo on the right does not even come close, and that was my best shot. the snow flakes barely showed up, and the lighting was poor.once i got home and downloaded the photos onto my computer, i decided to look through other photos as well. and ended up spending the afternoon looking for the better photos and uploading them to Flickr. i used up my monthly quota pretty quickly. click here to check out my Flickr page.
oh and i almost forgot to mention the thing that's bothering me. this morning my professor announced that we would be having a test next friday. no problem with that, except, hours later i get an email from the exchange office saying we will be leaving for the weekend ski trip on friday at 5 am! o_O just great!! now i've got to work this scheduling conflict out with my professor or i'll be forced to miss out on this huge trip i had been looking forward to. the test is mandatory if i want to pass the course. :( i will talk to my professor, but the german professors are a different breed from the american ones... flexibility is almost unheard of. worth a try though.
i'll end here for today. as for the philosophy discussion i mentioned in yesterday's post, i don't feel like continuing it anymore! hehe
gnite!
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
philosophy, or not to philosophy
today, since i'm feeling uninspired, i will dip my bloggity fingers into a little philosophy. now you might ask, "how can you delve into philosophy on a day you claim to feel uninspired?"
"valid question, my good sir," i say. how i plan on discussing philosophy without the help of my brilliant mind is, by reusing the work it has already helped produce. in other words, i will be using one of my old philosophy papers to help me.
and before you turn away from reading at the very mention of "philosophy", think. give your brain a little treat. philosophy is good food for the brain.
my discussion is based on "meditations on first philosophy" by rené descartes.
here i'll discuss only the second of his 6 meditations in the book. this one concerns the nature of the human mind. reader beware, thinking too deep into the text below might boggle your mind!
-- i am, i exist --
[first, a short intro]
In ‘Meditations on First Philosophy’, Descartes attempts to reconstruct philosophy from the bottom up. To accomplish his quest for absolute certainty, Descartes believes he must begin from scratch. He must deny all his beliefs until he believes in absolutely nothing. Then he can begin to carefully examine everything and establish its definite verity before accepting it as fact. With this selected knowledge that he knows is the absolute truth, he can build a solid foundation upon which to base his philosophy.
In the second meditation, Descartes delves into one of his more discussed ‘cogito’ or ‘I am, I exist’. If Descartes wants to believe that he is living in a world created by a deceiver and wants to reject any and everything as trickery, he can. But who is it then that is making this decision to deny everything? Is it possible to deny the existence of the one who is denying it? So it must be certain that the thinker exists, hence ‘I am, I exist’, for without the thinker there is no thought. And without thought, the ‘I’ cannot exist. The ‘I’ does not refer to the body or anything material, for Descartes has established that nothing is honest. He might be deceived, but the to be deceived or to doubt, the existence of an entity is required. One cannot deceive a non-existent entity. This entity that has no form or shape and yet is aware can only be the thinking. So the ‘I’ possibly refers to the self-conscious being, to the awareness of existence.
Imagination is not the same, and can be incomplete or deceiving. The mind is aware that a piece of wax, when heated can take immeasurable forms, but the imagination cannot possibly run through each one. The mind is capable of understanding that regardless of what the wax is subject to and the form and shape it adopts, it is still in the end, wax. Descartes proceeds with another example to illustrate how our mind makes judgments. When one sees a group of men walking outside, despite being concealed in hats and coats, one can still tell that they are men, and not robots posing as men. ‘And so something which I thought I was seeing with my eyes in is fact grasped solely by the faculty of judgment which is in my mind’ .
The understanding takes place in the mind. What the mind makes of what the sensory perceptions is upto the ‘I’, for it is the thinker. The fact remains, however, that the wax might be false, the men might not exist, but it is certain that the senses seemed to perceive them. And it is the mind that attempts to make sense of it and understand it. So the existence of the mind is certain. Descartes says that he will have an easier time mulling on the perception of the mind for the mind understands whereas the senses are easily deceiving.
---
that's it for today. comment and lemme know what you think. perhaps tomorrow i will post more about descartes' thoughts on the existence of God. or simply a post about my own mundane existence!
namaste!
"valid question, my good sir," i say. how i plan on discussing philosophy without the help of my brilliant mind is, by reusing the work it has already helped produce. in other words, i will be using one of my old philosophy papers to help me.
and before you turn away from reading at the very mention of "philosophy", think. give your brain a little treat. philosophy is good food for the brain.
my discussion is based on "meditations on first philosophy" by rené descartes.
here i'll discuss only the second of his 6 meditations in the book. this one concerns the nature of the human mind. reader beware, thinking too deep into the text below might boggle your mind!
-- i am, i exist --
[first, a short intro]
In ‘Meditations on First Philosophy’, Descartes attempts to reconstruct philosophy from the bottom up. To accomplish his quest for absolute certainty, Descartes believes he must begin from scratch. He must deny all his beliefs until he believes in absolutely nothing. Then he can begin to carefully examine everything and establish its definite verity before accepting it as fact. With this selected knowledge that he knows is the absolute truth, he can build a solid foundation upon which to base his philosophy.
In the second meditation, Descartes delves into one of his more discussed ‘cogito’ or ‘I am, I exist’. If Descartes wants to believe that he is living in a world created by a deceiver and wants to reject any and everything as trickery, he can. But who is it then that is making this decision to deny everything? Is it possible to deny the existence of the one who is denying it? So it must be certain that the thinker exists, hence ‘I am, I exist’, for without the thinker there is no thought. And without thought, the ‘I’ cannot exist. The ‘I’ does not refer to the body or anything material, for Descartes has established that nothing is honest. He might be deceived, but the to be deceived or to doubt, the existence of an entity is required. One cannot deceive a non-existent entity. This entity that has no form or shape and yet is aware can only be the thinking. So the ‘I’ possibly refers to the self-conscious being, to the awareness of existence.
Imagination is not the same, and can be incomplete or deceiving. The mind is aware that a piece of wax, when heated can take immeasurable forms, but the imagination cannot possibly run through each one. The mind is capable of understanding that regardless of what the wax is subject to and the form and shape it adopts, it is still in the end, wax. Descartes proceeds with another example to illustrate how our mind makes judgments. When one sees a group of men walking outside, despite being concealed in hats and coats, one can still tell that they are men, and not robots posing as men. ‘And so something which I thought I was seeing with my eyes in is fact grasped solely by the faculty of judgment which is in my mind’ .
The understanding takes place in the mind. What the mind makes of what the sensory perceptions is upto the ‘I’, for it is the thinker. The fact remains, however, that the wax might be false, the men might not exist, but it is certain that the senses seemed to perceive them. And it is the mind that attempts to make sense of it and understand it. So the existence of the mind is certain. Descartes says that he will have an easier time mulling on the perception of the mind for the mind understands whereas the senses are easily deceiving.
---
that's it for today. comment and lemme know what you think. perhaps tomorrow i will post more about descartes' thoughts on the existence of God. or simply a post about my own mundane existence!
namaste!
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