So, today it's exactly three weeks to go in Leipzig! Weird feeling after spending a Saturday at the university at an intensive seminar on African new art forms. I wanted to go a radio play festival this evening but it's raining, raining and raining outside and it seems I'm staying home. My Argentinian roommate just arrived home after a week in Barcelona, Tomas is also not home for two weeks, so the house has been very quiet this week.
I have been feeling quite sentimental the whole week at the university as I most likely saw many people for the last time. I seem to have been getting to know many of the African studies students only during the last month, of cource. But who knows, maybe we'll meet at some other point in life - like me meeting Hanna from Kenya here. A couple weeks ago in the traditional African studies summer party I enjoyed the lovely African Studies students choir singing traditional African songs and dancing. That evening I found out that unbelievably many African studies students have some kind of connection to Finland. Friends or visits or something. It was almost surreal.
During the coming three weeks I'll be busy writing my loong essay, I also have a oral exam on German nature poetry on Thursday. But otherwise I'll be just enjoying Leipzig and meeting people who I still want to meet before I go. Like my old roommates or going to get drunk with a couple African studies students (which we agreed on today). And Laura is coming next Saturday for four days, and a week after her Carin, and then I'll start my road trip Prague-Nürnberg-Amsterdam-Helsinki.
In general I'm very content with my semester in Leipzig. Except for the chronical things, I have been healthy (not even a cold!) and seen an experienced and learned a lot. I have also met a lot of people and made contacts. So I have almost nothing to complain. Really. Maybe a bit of loneliness sometimes but otherwise I'm totally happy. And I think my three last weeks are going to be just fine also. I'm menthally preparing myself to coming back to Tampere and it's also feels nice, getting back to my own house and seeing Viivi. This time being away from Finland hasn't been so total as in Kenya or the Netherlands, as internet (Facebook, skype) has kept Finland close-by. There are also new challenges and things waiting for me in Finland, like municipal politics and becoming an aunt ;).
From now on it's just going through my things - what do I want to take with me - and visiting museums and taking pictures and hoping the summer weather comes back soon.
Today we ended the seminar in a very nice way: of cource due to technical problems and lack of coordination two hours later than planned (normal at the institute), but with a good feeling and a glass of bubbly. For one of our teachers it was the very last lesson she was giving here and that's why we drank the left-overs of her fairwell party champagne. I think this was an excellent way to end also my carreer at the University of Leipzig. From now on just smooth transition slowly towards Finland!
lauantai 11. heinäkuuta 2009
sunnuntai 21. kesäkuuta 2009
Protests and encounters
I decided in the afternoon to update my blog in the evening and although I'm feeling quite tired it seems I'm doing it anyway. It's been quite rainy here, a couple of hours ago I finally went to photograph the neigbourhood with all the wonderful DDR ramschackle houses in the area and it started to rain and thunder really hard.
Before that I was finally for the first time in the Spinnerei, al old fabric area here around the corner, which nowadays hosts all kinds of artist's studios and other creative things. We have Natalia's argentinian mother living in the house for four weeks and she is having an exhibition in Spinnerei. Natalia is a tango teacher and for the first time I also saw her dance a little bit in the opening of the exhibition today. I heard that this weekend there was a big party in Spinnerei as it has its 125th birthday. Damn, missed it! There are so many interesting things going on in this city the whole time, you could get stressed only by trying to go to all of them... Last week there was the yearly Bach-Festival in the city and I went to two concerts, both quite modern in style though and not only music from Bach. Yes, JS Bach used to live in Leipzig and that's why they have this festival every year.
At the moment there are quite many people in the kitchen eating and talking in Spanish. Natalia's mum can only speak Spanish, she seems to be a lovely lady, but we really have some communication problems.. There is a lot of Spanish in the house as Crisu also speaks Spanish, there's a Argentinian lady living in the first floor and Natalia's Argentinian friend Sadja practically lives here - although at the moment she is sleeping somewhere als because the mother has taken her bed. Well, maybe my Spanish will improve... And I get to know Argentinian culture, for example eating dinner around midnight!
Otherwise I'm just busy preparing presentations for the university - two a week...- and wondering about the actual size of the world. I have had some very interesting encounters here. Like meeting a lady called Maire at my salsa lesson, who had no idea her name is of Finnish origin. Or that my salsa teacher knows my Finnish salsa teacher. Or the German African studies student I met at a party who had lived many years in Finland and could still speak some Finnish.
But the most amazing of all the encounters have been suddenly meeting Hanna Küstner at a African sociolinguistics lecture. She worked in the same orphanage as me in Kenya, there were two German girls who came reagularly to New Life Home and with who I spent quite a lot of time. We lost contact during the years, but suddenly I meet Hanna here in Leipzig. Amazing! The other girl, Johanna, is married and living in Nürnber with his little son and husband, I try to visit her also. The world is really small... And Hanna lives just around the corner also here in Plagwitz!
I kind of feel sorry that I'm leaving in six weeks as now I'm finally starting getting to know my fellow students. The atmosphere at the Institute of African Studies is not the best at the moment, though. Last week things got really bad as it was finally decided who is going to be the new professor after mr Wolff retires. There has been a HUGE debate already for a year or so about the direction of the African Studies in Leipzig. African studies in Leipzig have been specialized more in social studies than linguistics, which are the main area in almost all other African Studies institutes in Germany. The other two professors are not linguists, and now the new professor is also an ethnologist. That means that the African linguistics in Leipzig are really in danger. They are also firing some people, who have been responsible for teaching literature and linguistics. It's unsure even how the institute will be able to provide the obligatory linguistics cources that are needed for bachelor..
The atmosphere is really tensed, the staff is really divided into two camps - linguistics and those in favor of a social approach. There have apparently been even meetings to discuss the future of the institute where the linguistics teachers weren't invited at all. And the linguistics professor mr Wolff didn't attend the big African Studies conference couple of weeks ago, which was a clear expression of opinion, as the conference themes were not related to languages and it was more organized by the economics and history professors. It was a really big conference and I think it was really weird that one of the professors didn't attend it although it was in the home town of the university...
Otherwise there have been also big demonstrations at the university against the Bologna process and the new university laws which make studying more difficult and strict, and the university structure less democratic. I haven't been following the debate closely, but for example one floor of the university's new seminar building has been occupied for more than one months now with rebelling students and all kind of actions and happenings have been organized. Last week was the big strike week at the university with really big demonstrations in the city.
My last six weeks in Leipzig are quite booked with all kind of nice things to do, and school stuff. Laura from Helsinki ist coming here 18th to 21st July and around 30th July Carin drives here from Amsterdam. After spending a couple of days here we will go to Prag, and after a couple of days there drive to Amsterdam. I want to go there to meet friends before I come up north. I think I'll book a flight from Amsterdam to Helsinki on 9th of August. I hope to see friends in Amsterdam and the beautiful canals and maybe my host sister Rosa who is pregnant - I'm thus also going to be a host-aunt this year and not only biological aunt.. ;)
Now I've been sitting too long and my back needs a break and some stretching. I really feel the weather in my poor bones have been aching quite a lot. Everybody hopes that the real summer comes soon - sitä odotellessa, Gute Nacht!
Before that I was finally for the first time in the Spinnerei, al old fabric area here around the corner, which nowadays hosts all kinds of artist's studios and other creative things. We have Natalia's argentinian mother living in the house for four weeks and she is having an exhibition in Spinnerei. Natalia is a tango teacher and for the first time I also saw her dance a little bit in the opening of the exhibition today. I heard that this weekend there was a big party in Spinnerei as it has its 125th birthday. Damn, missed it! There are so many interesting things going on in this city the whole time, you could get stressed only by trying to go to all of them... Last week there was the yearly Bach-Festival in the city and I went to two concerts, both quite modern in style though and not only music from Bach. Yes, JS Bach used to live in Leipzig and that's why they have this festival every year.
At the moment there are quite many people in the kitchen eating and talking in Spanish. Natalia's mum can only speak Spanish, she seems to be a lovely lady, but we really have some communication problems.. There is a lot of Spanish in the house as Crisu also speaks Spanish, there's a Argentinian lady living in the first floor and Natalia's Argentinian friend Sadja practically lives here - although at the moment she is sleeping somewhere als because the mother has taken her bed. Well, maybe my Spanish will improve... And I get to know Argentinian culture, for example eating dinner around midnight!
Otherwise I'm just busy preparing presentations for the university - two a week...- and wondering about the actual size of the world. I have had some very interesting encounters here. Like meeting a lady called Maire at my salsa lesson, who had no idea her name is of Finnish origin. Or that my salsa teacher knows my Finnish salsa teacher. Or the German African studies student I met at a party who had lived many years in Finland and could still speak some Finnish.
But the most amazing of all the encounters have been suddenly meeting Hanna Küstner at a African sociolinguistics lecture. She worked in the same orphanage as me in Kenya, there were two German girls who came reagularly to New Life Home and with who I spent quite a lot of time. We lost contact during the years, but suddenly I meet Hanna here in Leipzig. Amazing! The other girl, Johanna, is married and living in Nürnber with his little son and husband, I try to visit her also. The world is really small... And Hanna lives just around the corner also here in Plagwitz!
I kind of feel sorry that I'm leaving in six weeks as now I'm finally starting getting to know my fellow students. The atmosphere at the Institute of African Studies is not the best at the moment, though. Last week things got really bad as it was finally decided who is going to be the new professor after mr Wolff retires. There has been a HUGE debate already for a year or so about the direction of the African Studies in Leipzig. African studies in Leipzig have been specialized more in social studies than linguistics, which are the main area in almost all other African Studies institutes in Germany. The other two professors are not linguists, and now the new professor is also an ethnologist. That means that the African linguistics in Leipzig are really in danger. They are also firing some people, who have been responsible for teaching literature and linguistics. It's unsure even how the institute will be able to provide the obligatory linguistics cources that are needed for bachelor..
The atmosphere is really tensed, the staff is really divided into two camps - linguistics and those in favor of a social approach. There have apparently been even meetings to discuss the future of the institute where the linguistics teachers weren't invited at all. And the linguistics professor mr Wolff didn't attend the big African Studies conference couple of weeks ago, which was a clear expression of opinion, as the conference themes were not related to languages and it was more organized by the economics and history professors. It was a really big conference and I think it was really weird that one of the professors didn't attend it although it was in the home town of the university...
Otherwise there have been also big demonstrations at the university against the Bologna process and the new university laws which make studying more difficult and strict, and the university structure less democratic. I haven't been following the debate closely, but for example one floor of the university's new seminar building has been occupied for more than one months now with rebelling students and all kind of actions and happenings have been organized. Last week was the big strike week at the university with really big demonstrations in the city.
My last six weeks in Leipzig are quite booked with all kind of nice things to do, and school stuff. Laura from Helsinki ist coming here 18th to 21st July and around 30th July Carin drives here from Amsterdam. After spending a couple of days here we will go to Prag, and after a couple of days there drive to Amsterdam. I want to go there to meet friends before I come up north. I think I'll book a flight from Amsterdam to Helsinki on 9th of August. I hope to see friends in Amsterdam and the beautiful canals and maybe my host sister Rosa who is pregnant - I'm thus also going to be a host-aunt this year and not only biological aunt.. ;)
Now I've been sitting too long and my back needs a break and some stretching. I really feel the weather in my poor bones have been aching quite a lot. Everybody hopes that the real summer comes soon - sitä odotellessa, Gute Nacht!
keskiviikko 3. kesäkuuta 2009
Introduction to Iida's weekly program
It's already June and it feels a bit like my time in Leipzig is coming to an end. It's still about exactly two months now til I'm back in Finland - and as time goes fast, I'm making lists of things I still want to do here and urging people who want to visit me to book their weekends now.
The summer semester at the university is from the beginning of April til the end of July. As a Finn I find it a bit crazy to go to school in the summer time, but no-can-do. Half of the semester it thus gone already and I realized I haven't reported about my studies here at all. So here it comes: a description of Iida's week at the university.
Mondays I only have one lesson, 17-18.30 in the evening, and it is the most useless of my courses. It's a German conversation cource organized by the institute that organized also our orientation coursein March. I thought I want to concentrate on my German at least a bit and took the advanced level conversation cource where we all on our turn have to give a little lecture and lead the conversation after that. I took it, although I had to pay 25 euros for it - for the Erasmus students it's for free, but for me with a bilateral exchange contract it costs. I was really pissed off about that, but decided to do it anyway.
And it was a mistake. This is the dilemma of paying for your studies: if you are not satisfied, do they give your money back? I decided I don't even try to get my money back, as it most likely wouldn't be possible and I'm scared of the Gertman bureaucracy. There were too many people registered for this cource so they created a new group and gave it to a teacher with no experiance with this level cources. Well, she talks most of the time, although it is supposed to be a conversation cource, and keeps repeating self-evident stuff about how to make a talk in front of the class. Until now I have learned maybe 3 new German words and well, I get 3 ECT points for the cource so I guess it's worth it? I will have my own lecture in a couple of weeks and will talk about African Studies as a subject at the university.
Tuesday it gets a bit more interesting. First I have the first part of the lecture module called Afrian economics. This Tuesday's seminar is called "Africa in Globalisation" and there we concentrate in themes like agriculture, brain drain, remittances, Africa-China relationships and other relevant themes for the African economic performance. That's quite interesting. The second seminar on African economics on Wednesday, called Africa's challenges, is a bit more demanding. There we talk about quite theoretical economics stuff - I'm happy that the most people at the cource, like me, have very limited understanding of economc theories. Well, now I'm familiar with concepts like Dutch Disease and Resource cource and I have learned A LOT. These economic seminars are in English as they are also attended by international global studies students. The German students complain about this a lot, as it's really hard to understand the economic vocabularity in a foreign language. Well, for me even more fun.. After an explanation in Englisch AND in Germany i mostly get the point.
For these seminars I have to - or am allowed to, for free - attend a huge conference on African studies which is taking place here in Leipzig this weekend. It has been a huge topic the whole spring and tomorrow it's finally happening. I'm quite excited, there are very many interesting lectures and I'm going to spend there at least most of my Friday and Saturday.
But back to Tuesday. After economics I jump to African language history. This seminar is really tiny with only 4 participants. In the first lecture we were only two, Manuel and me, an I'm kind of happy in the end we are at least four... The African Studies department in Leipzig is famous for concentrating more on social studies and economics so not so many people are interested in the linguistic issues.
There are couple of people who are attending almost all the seminars I am and as the groups are small, I get to know people. In general the atmosphere at the African Studies department is really friendly and relaxed.
Language history is sometimes a bit boring, but I learn a lot. It's also a part of a lecture module, the other part of this module is on Thursdays and it's about language contact in Africa. These lectures are both held by very friendly but a bit chaotic Herr Geider. I'm going to combine my German studies, knowledge of Dutch and Africa by writing a long essay in the end about the history of and influence of language contact on the only Germanic language in Africa, afrikaans.
Tuesday and Wednesday evenings I'm concentrating on German literature. Tuesdays T'm attending a semianr called historical stories/novels, where we read some long stories with a historical theme and analyze them. On Wednesday we analyze German nature poetry and that I find more interesting than the historical stories. Both of these seminars are full of young freshemen and are quite big so it's not easy to get to know people.
My Wednesday starts with a very interesting lecture on African sociolinguistics by the professor on African Studies, who is going to retire after this semester. Herr Wolff is married with a Finn and speaks Finnish, which is a quite hilarious coincidence. The Wednesday lecture called "Globalisation vs. Indigenisation? The language issue in Africa" is accompanied by the Thursday morning seminar on the same subject. On Thursday is also another lecture by Herr Wollf about the same subject. I'm really interested in these sociolinguistic issues in Africa and have finally found a forum to discuss the phenomena I encountered back in the days in Kenya. Sheng, the multilingual identity of people and the semilingual competence of people in Nairobi now have more explanations. And the more I study the area, the more I want to go back to Eastern Africa and really learn how to speak Swahili.
Thursday afternoon I still have one lecture I haven't mentioned yet. It's about contemporary African litarature and also other comtemporary art forms in Africa. And it's also extremely interesting! - Well, in general, everything I study here is extremely interesting and I'm able to combine many areas of interest. There could be even more interesting lectures, like in the area of cultural science or some Dutch or more German literature... But my days are quite full, as you can see. Tuesdays 11-15 and 17-19 and after that salsa lesson, wednesdays from 8.20-13 and 17-19, Thursdays without a break 9-17. Yes, I forgot: Wednesday morning, damn early, I have a lesson on German phonetics. This is quite a harmless little cource, I just have to go there for 45 minutes to pronounce German correctly and practice on my own once week in language lab. That's actually quite fun and I have learded a lot!
I have a presentation almost every week - or like next week, three a week. But that means I don't have any exams in the end - or only one. I have a couple of essays I have to write but I'll manage to work load. I'll get loads of ECTs for Kela and am quite happy about that, as it means I don't have to stress about that in the fall.
This blog entry is already about as long as my school days... Well, the days and the weeks pass fast as I have my hands full the whole time. Now I'm off to the gym - bis später!
The summer semester at the university is from the beginning of April til the end of July. As a Finn I find it a bit crazy to go to school in the summer time, but no-can-do. Half of the semester it thus gone already and I realized I haven't reported about my studies here at all. So here it comes: a description of Iida's week at the university.
Mondays I only have one lesson, 17-18.30 in the evening, and it is the most useless of my courses. It's a German conversation cource organized by the institute that organized also our orientation coursein March. I thought I want to concentrate on my German at least a bit and took the advanced level conversation cource where we all on our turn have to give a little lecture and lead the conversation after that. I took it, although I had to pay 25 euros for it - for the Erasmus students it's for free, but for me with a bilateral exchange contract it costs. I was really pissed off about that, but decided to do it anyway.
And it was a mistake. This is the dilemma of paying for your studies: if you are not satisfied, do they give your money back? I decided I don't even try to get my money back, as it most likely wouldn't be possible and I'm scared of the Gertman bureaucracy. There were too many people registered for this cource so they created a new group and gave it to a teacher with no experiance with this level cources. Well, she talks most of the time, although it is supposed to be a conversation cource, and keeps repeating self-evident stuff about how to make a talk in front of the class. Until now I have learned maybe 3 new German words and well, I get 3 ECT points for the cource so I guess it's worth it? I will have my own lecture in a couple of weeks and will talk about African Studies as a subject at the university.
Tuesday it gets a bit more interesting. First I have the first part of the lecture module called Afrian economics. This Tuesday's seminar is called "Africa in Globalisation" and there we concentrate in themes like agriculture, brain drain, remittances, Africa-China relationships and other relevant themes for the African economic performance. That's quite interesting. The second seminar on African economics on Wednesday, called Africa's challenges, is a bit more demanding. There we talk about quite theoretical economics stuff - I'm happy that the most people at the cource, like me, have very limited understanding of economc theories. Well, now I'm familiar with concepts like Dutch Disease and Resource cource and I have learned A LOT. These economic seminars are in English as they are also attended by international global studies students. The German students complain about this a lot, as it's really hard to understand the economic vocabularity in a foreign language. Well, for me even more fun.. After an explanation in Englisch AND in Germany i mostly get the point.
For these seminars I have to - or am allowed to, for free - attend a huge conference on African studies which is taking place here in Leipzig this weekend. It has been a huge topic the whole spring and tomorrow it's finally happening. I'm quite excited, there are very many interesting lectures and I'm going to spend there at least most of my Friday and Saturday.
But back to Tuesday. After economics I jump to African language history. This seminar is really tiny with only 4 participants. In the first lecture we were only two, Manuel and me, an I'm kind of happy in the end we are at least four... The African Studies department in Leipzig is famous for concentrating more on social studies and economics so not so many people are interested in the linguistic issues.
There are couple of people who are attending almost all the seminars I am and as the groups are small, I get to know people. In general the atmosphere at the African Studies department is really friendly and relaxed.
Language history is sometimes a bit boring, but I learn a lot. It's also a part of a lecture module, the other part of this module is on Thursdays and it's about language contact in Africa. These lectures are both held by very friendly but a bit chaotic Herr Geider. I'm going to combine my German studies, knowledge of Dutch and Africa by writing a long essay in the end about the history of and influence of language contact on the only Germanic language in Africa, afrikaans.
Tuesday and Wednesday evenings I'm concentrating on German literature. Tuesdays T'm attending a semianr called historical stories/novels, where we read some long stories with a historical theme and analyze them. On Wednesday we analyze German nature poetry and that I find more interesting than the historical stories. Both of these seminars are full of young freshemen and are quite big so it's not easy to get to know people.
My Wednesday starts with a very interesting lecture on African sociolinguistics by the professor on African Studies, who is going to retire after this semester. Herr Wolff is married with a Finn and speaks Finnish, which is a quite hilarious coincidence. The Wednesday lecture called "Globalisation vs. Indigenisation? The language issue in Africa" is accompanied by the Thursday morning seminar on the same subject. On Thursday is also another lecture by Herr Wollf about the same subject. I'm really interested in these sociolinguistic issues in Africa and have finally found a forum to discuss the phenomena I encountered back in the days in Kenya. Sheng, the multilingual identity of people and the semilingual competence of people in Nairobi now have more explanations. And the more I study the area, the more I want to go back to Eastern Africa and really learn how to speak Swahili.
Thursday afternoon I still have one lecture I haven't mentioned yet. It's about contemporary African litarature and also other comtemporary art forms in Africa. And it's also extremely interesting! - Well, in general, everything I study here is extremely interesting and I'm able to combine many areas of interest. There could be even more interesting lectures, like in the area of cultural science or some Dutch or more German literature... But my days are quite full, as you can see. Tuesdays 11-15 and 17-19 and after that salsa lesson, wednesdays from 8.20-13 and 17-19, Thursdays without a break 9-17. Yes, I forgot: Wednesday morning, damn early, I have a lesson on German phonetics. This is quite a harmless little cource, I just have to go there for 45 minutes to pronounce German correctly and practice on my own once week in language lab. That's actually quite fun and I have learded a lot!
I have a presentation almost every week - or like next week, three a week. But that means I don't have any exams in the end - or only one. I have a couple of essays I have to write but I'll manage to work load. I'll get loads of ECTs for Kela and am quite happy about that, as it means I don't have to stress about that in the fall.
This blog entry is already about as long as my school days... Well, the days and the weeks pass fast as I have my hands full the whole time. Now I'm off to the gym - bis später!
maanantai 25. toukokuuta 2009
new side of the home street
So how is my new house? I've been telling people to read my blog and find out but things have - like always - been busy. But finally, here it comes!
I moved to the other end of the Karl Heine Street. The reason I had to leave my nice house was that the house managers wanted "ein neues Wohnkonzept", meaning the wanted the house only for the rich bitch people who could pay the higher rent. All the students were kicked out. Well luckily there are loads of free rooms in Leipzig and the rents are really low. I found my new room through the university interenet notice board. Daniel, whose room I rented, is travelling exactly the time I need the room (til the end of July). Perfect.
Moving up to number 108 showed me also some other sides of my home street. First of all its much longer than I thought and this end of the street is the total opposite of the beginning. My first house was fully renovated, with shiny wooden floors, white walls and a dish washer. My new house is also old, but totally unrenovated. The woorden floors are creaking and the paint has is quite worn away. In the first end of the Karl Heine Street there are a lot of big villas with lawyers' offices and nice gardens, but as you move towards this end everything gets crappier - and livelier. There is a huge compound here nearby where there are consatanct art exhibitions and an alternative movie theater and nice bars. And I have a natural products store right around the corner!
My rent is now 1oo euros less (only 160 euros) and I have 1,5 rooms in stead of one. There are not so many furniture in here, mainly a big bed and a big stereo, but I lived from my suitcase. Daniel is living quite Spartan and he also left all of his stuff to the only closet in the room. The heating is, like in many unrenovated houses in the old DDR area, by coal. I'm happy that it's summer so I don't have to get coal from the cellar the first thing in the morning... But the green fireplace for the coal is really beautiful!
In our aparment live officially me, Thomas, Natalia, Chrisu and Marina. Marina pays the rent but she is never here, I haven't seen her. Apparently nobody knows where she exactly is. Thomas is a German natural medicine (Heilpraktiker) student who also gives tango lessons. He's very nice and resposible for the rent and many other practical stuff. Natalia (34y) comes from Argentina and doesn't speak German. She is a tango teacher and has lived in Germany for one year. She has a lot of visitors the whole time, now a friend with her boyfriend and next month her mum from Argentina is coming for a month. Crisu (Christiane) is a friendly young student girl, who I already infromed that her nickname sounds very Finnish and she told me her mother made it up.
All the people living in the house form a kind of family and it's not uncommon to find our down- or upstairs neigbours cooking breakfast in our kitchen. Only I'm not yet sure who are the people actually living in this house and who are just visitors.. Well, I just introduce myself anyway. There is a garden where you can barbecue and I've heard there are quite often two cats hanging around. :)
It's a quite hippie house with a lot of music and visitors but surprisingly things like washing the dishes don't form a problem. I hope to learn maybe some basic argentinian tango and spanish while I'm here - I almost hear spanish more than German. Well, maybe the Argentinians are just noisier... ;)
I've been sleeping okay in my little bedroom corner and have all my things finally somehow organized in the room so it feels quite home. Also my roommates are very very friendly and social and nice. So I'lle be alright here for the last two months, although it does feel a bit temporary.
O, I have to tell how I moved my stuff from my old house. It was hilarious! Suvi from Helsinki was here last weekend and we were sleeping in my old house while all the furniture disappearing one by one - the last 24 hours we didn't have a kitchen as it's here quite normal to take the kitchen (meaning all the cupboards, machines, everything) with you. Monday morning we stacked all my stuff on my little blue bicycle and Suvi carried the heavy backbag on her back and was pulling my suitcase - as she said it would be too heavy for me. So I walked with the bike full of things and well, there were some constructor worker whistling at us when they saw our system... About the half way we thought we should've taken a taxi, it would've cost something like 4 euros, but well, we got some exercise at least.
The weather has been very sunny here, and warm, like summer. Last Saturday I went hiking with the other exchange students in the Saxony Switserland and it was unbelievably beutiful. Next weekend I'm going to Berlin on Friday to vote and to be a tourist, and Saturday again on an exchange students trip, this time to Weimar. I have loads of things to do for the university and I have been doing also some stuff with the young greens here in Leipzig. And I finally found a good salsa school! Sot it's as busy as in Finland ;).
Now I have to go and do some German bureucracy - to go in person with my passport to the city hall to change the number of the house I'm living in... - and then I have some school. Liebe Grüsse!
I moved to the other end of the Karl Heine Street. The reason I had to leave my nice house was that the house managers wanted "ein neues Wohnkonzept", meaning the wanted the house only for the rich bitch people who could pay the higher rent. All the students were kicked out. Well luckily there are loads of free rooms in Leipzig and the rents are really low. I found my new room through the university interenet notice board. Daniel, whose room I rented, is travelling exactly the time I need the room (til the end of July). Perfect.
Moving up to number 108 showed me also some other sides of my home street. First of all its much longer than I thought and this end of the street is the total opposite of the beginning. My first house was fully renovated, with shiny wooden floors, white walls and a dish washer. My new house is also old, but totally unrenovated. The woorden floors are creaking and the paint has is quite worn away. In the first end of the Karl Heine Street there are a lot of big villas with lawyers' offices and nice gardens, but as you move towards this end everything gets crappier - and livelier. There is a huge compound here nearby where there are consatanct art exhibitions and an alternative movie theater and nice bars. And I have a natural products store right around the corner!
My rent is now 1oo euros less (only 160 euros) and I have 1,5 rooms in stead of one. There are not so many furniture in here, mainly a big bed and a big stereo, but I lived from my suitcase. Daniel is living quite Spartan and he also left all of his stuff to the only closet in the room. The heating is, like in many unrenovated houses in the old DDR area, by coal. I'm happy that it's summer so I don't have to get coal from the cellar the first thing in the morning... But the green fireplace for the coal is really beautiful!
In our aparment live officially me, Thomas, Natalia, Chrisu and Marina. Marina pays the rent but she is never here, I haven't seen her. Apparently nobody knows where she exactly is. Thomas is a German natural medicine (Heilpraktiker) student who also gives tango lessons. He's very nice and resposible for the rent and many other practical stuff. Natalia (34y) comes from Argentina and doesn't speak German. She is a tango teacher and has lived in Germany for one year. She has a lot of visitors the whole time, now a friend with her boyfriend and next month her mum from Argentina is coming for a month. Crisu (Christiane) is a friendly young student girl, who I already infromed that her nickname sounds very Finnish and she told me her mother made it up.
All the people living in the house form a kind of family and it's not uncommon to find our down- or upstairs neigbours cooking breakfast in our kitchen. Only I'm not yet sure who are the people actually living in this house and who are just visitors.. Well, I just introduce myself anyway. There is a garden where you can barbecue and I've heard there are quite often two cats hanging around. :)
It's a quite hippie house with a lot of music and visitors but surprisingly things like washing the dishes don't form a problem. I hope to learn maybe some basic argentinian tango and spanish while I'm here - I almost hear spanish more than German. Well, maybe the Argentinians are just noisier... ;)
I've been sleeping okay in my little bedroom corner and have all my things finally somehow organized in the room so it feels quite home. Also my roommates are very very friendly and social and nice. So I'lle be alright here for the last two months, although it does feel a bit temporary.
O, I have to tell how I moved my stuff from my old house. It was hilarious! Suvi from Helsinki was here last weekend and we were sleeping in my old house while all the furniture disappearing one by one - the last 24 hours we didn't have a kitchen as it's here quite normal to take the kitchen (meaning all the cupboards, machines, everything) with you. Monday morning we stacked all my stuff on my little blue bicycle and Suvi carried the heavy backbag on her back and was pulling my suitcase - as she said it would be too heavy for me. So I walked with the bike full of things and well, there were some constructor worker whistling at us when they saw our system... About the half way we thought we should've taken a taxi, it would've cost something like 4 euros, but well, we got some exercise at least.
The weather has been very sunny here, and warm, like summer. Last Saturday I went hiking with the other exchange students in the Saxony Switserland and it was unbelievably beutiful. Next weekend I'm going to Berlin on Friday to vote and to be a tourist, and Saturday again on an exchange students trip, this time to Weimar. I have loads of things to do for the university and I have been doing also some stuff with the young greens here in Leipzig. And I finally found a good salsa school! Sot it's as busy as in Finland ;).
Now I have to go and do some German bureucracy - to go in person with my passport to the city hall to change the number of the house I'm living in... - and then I have some school. Liebe Grüsse!
perjantai 1. toukokuuta 2009
Oh my it's already May
Hyvää vappua! Though the big spring feast isn't as big here as in Finland. Today has been anyway a holiday and there were lot of people enjoying a free day and some live music in the park.
I've been recovering of my political trip the whole week. In the end I was quite exhausted, although it was fun. My first weekend I spent in Stuttgart in the Local Councillors Meeting/Federal Assembly of the German young Greens. The Local Councillors Meeting was quite official with headphone-interpretation and a very nice setting. I met some guys from Malmö and was inspired by the public participation ideas from Vienna. In the evening the both conferences had a party together in this incredible location: some muddy barracks with local artists' work premises. They place is quite famous also outside Stuttgart for the good parties you can have there. It was also very nice!
I slept at the school where the Bundeskonferenz was held and got to know more young greens. There were surprisingly many people I knew already from Berlin and it was very cosy. I stayed in Stuttgart in a hostel for one more night more to see the town a bit. I really liked the way the town is situated in a valley with trams climbing up the hills. Then I travelled with Mitfahrt to Freiburg just to see the town. I shared a train ticket (there are group tickets you can chare) with a Chinese girl living in Freiburg, with whom I also had a beer next evening. She was very friendly and we found out that she had ended up in Germany after her year as an exchange student in Germany with the same organization I was with in the Netherlands.
I really liked Freiburg, it was very cute and I had a very nice hostel room right next to the big hill with some famous Black Forest. I observed the biking conditions in the city and was a bit confused as they didn't seem so terrific. The town has a green mayor and is supposed to lead the way in Green municipal politics - and in biking tracks. Well at least there was a little water-power station right next to my hostel... I also heard the Green mayor of Freiburg is not very popular among the Greens and the Green city council party group has split up because of his weird politics...
After a long day travelling I arrived quite late in Düsseldorf where there were some drunk Swedes in the hostel urging me to go out with them. I just slep one night in the hostel and woke up a bit early to see at least a bit of Düsseldorf before heading to Maastricht with the train around 10.00. I'm really proud of my Mitfahrt-train-trip, I managed to save a lot of money and do some "slow travelling" meeting I a lot of nice people on the way. I also saw a lot of Germany when travelling with cheap local trains. Although, when I first left Leipzig to Stuttgart the car which was supposed to pick me up never showed up and I had to take the train for 90 euros... Luckily I met a young Green boy in the train who I had met in Leipzig already :).
Maastricht and the FYEG General Assembly and Spring conference was a quite of an experience. The program was really tight from early morning til very late in the evening. There were maybe 100 people from all around Europe, from Finland in total 5 including me, all new faces to me but it was nice. Very exciting discussions, a lot of new information - especially about FYEG as organization and EU politics - and new contacts. We were also a bit unlucky though - the people told me that so many things have never happened in a FYEG conference: there was a biking accident with a Dutch man (from the Greens) losing 7 teeth (I really felt sick and had to think a lot about my Accident, as I happened to pass by when it just had happened) and a Belgian guy got beaten up after the party in the park because he had kissed with a another guy... Homofobia in practice! On Saturday evening we had also a big quarrel about the voting and the rules and it took forever before a new Excecutive Committee was chosen. For the first time in years there is nobody from Finland in the FYEG EC as Markus Drake was unfortunately not chosen as the mail spoke person.
I was for the first time in Maastricht, in the very southern corner of the Netherlands, and got a some kind of picture of the town although didn't have much time to be a tourist. I was talking in too many languages the whole weekend (Finnish, Dutch, German, English, even some very few words in Swedish..) and was totally exhausted when I got home quite late on Sunday evening. My roommates had stayed up and waited for me with bad news: I have to find a new home. They had told me earlier already that the owners/house managers can be a bit difficult sometimes and this time it was really bad. If we want to stay we have to pay a lot more money. So Susi&Saskia had decided it's not worth it, they would have to work so much more (both students working part-time). They were very sorry about leaving the house, they have lived here for years, and of cource the situation the put me in. Well, I'm very sorry too as I really liked living here and it felt home - but no-can-do. At least I now get to know some other place and people too. And there are a lot of empty (and cheaper..) rooms available in Leipzig so that shouldn't be a problem. Only my conditions - for 2,5 months, furnished - can make it a big tricky.
We have to be out by around 15th of May so I have to find something soon. Yesterday I went to see a room in the same street as this and I'll take it if they boy renting it agrees. I think - and hope - I'll know more in a week.
Now I have a couple of day with no program, which I'm a bit confused about. Well, it's good for me and at least I get some school stuff done. Sunday I'm going on a trip to Potsdam, a beautiful and quite famous city near Berlin. They arrange very cheap day trips to different towns for exchange students here. I have decided to mainly stay in Leipzig for the coming months, though, as there is a lot to do also here and I have been doing sooo much travelling this year already.
Ciao and yes I'll inform you when I know something more about the new room,
Iida
I've been recovering of my political trip the whole week. In the end I was quite exhausted, although it was fun. My first weekend I spent in Stuttgart in the Local Councillors Meeting/Federal Assembly of the German young Greens. The Local Councillors Meeting was quite official with headphone-interpretation and a very nice setting. I met some guys from Malmö and was inspired by the public participation ideas from Vienna. In the evening the both conferences had a party together in this incredible location: some muddy barracks with local artists' work premises. They place is quite famous also outside Stuttgart for the good parties you can have there. It was also very nice!
I slept at the school where the Bundeskonferenz was held and got to know more young greens. There were surprisingly many people I knew already from Berlin and it was very cosy. I stayed in Stuttgart in a hostel for one more night more to see the town a bit. I really liked the way the town is situated in a valley with trams climbing up the hills. Then I travelled with Mitfahrt to Freiburg just to see the town. I shared a train ticket (there are group tickets you can chare) with a Chinese girl living in Freiburg, with whom I also had a beer next evening. She was very friendly and we found out that she had ended up in Germany after her year as an exchange student in Germany with the same organization I was with in the Netherlands.
I really liked Freiburg, it was very cute and I had a very nice hostel room right next to the big hill with some famous Black Forest. I observed the biking conditions in the city and was a bit confused as they didn't seem so terrific. The town has a green mayor and is supposed to lead the way in Green municipal politics - and in biking tracks. Well at least there was a little water-power station right next to my hostel... I also heard the Green mayor of Freiburg is not very popular among the Greens and the Green city council party group has split up because of his weird politics...
After a long day travelling I arrived quite late in Düsseldorf where there were some drunk Swedes in the hostel urging me to go out with them. I just slep one night in the hostel and woke up a bit early to see at least a bit of Düsseldorf before heading to Maastricht with the train around 10.00. I'm really proud of my Mitfahrt-train-trip, I managed to save a lot of money and do some "slow travelling" meeting I a lot of nice people on the way. I also saw a lot of Germany when travelling with cheap local trains. Although, when I first left Leipzig to Stuttgart the car which was supposed to pick me up never showed up and I had to take the train for 90 euros... Luckily I met a young Green boy in the train who I had met in Leipzig already :).
Maastricht and the FYEG General Assembly and Spring conference was a quite of an experience. The program was really tight from early morning til very late in the evening. There were maybe 100 people from all around Europe, from Finland in total 5 including me, all new faces to me but it was nice. Very exciting discussions, a lot of new information - especially about FYEG as organization and EU politics - and new contacts. We were also a bit unlucky though - the people told me that so many things have never happened in a FYEG conference: there was a biking accident with a Dutch man (from the Greens) losing 7 teeth (I really felt sick and had to think a lot about my Accident, as I happened to pass by when it just had happened) and a Belgian guy got beaten up after the party in the park because he had kissed with a another guy... Homofobia in practice! On Saturday evening we had also a big quarrel about the voting and the rules and it took forever before a new Excecutive Committee was chosen. For the first time in years there is nobody from Finland in the FYEG EC as Markus Drake was unfortunately not chosen as the mail spoke person.
I was for the first time in Maastricht, in the very southern corner of the Netherlands, and got a some kind of picture of the town although didn't have much time to be a tourist. I was talking in too many languages the whole weekend (Finnish, Dutch, German, English, even some very few words in Swedish..) and was totally exhausted when I got home quite late on Sunday evening. My roommates had stayed up and waited for me with bad news: I have to find a new home. They had told me earlier already that the owners/house managers can be a bit difficult sometimes and this time it was really bad. If we want to stay we have to pay a lot more money. So Susi&Saskia had decided it's not worth it, they would have to work so much more (both students working part-time). They were very sorry about leaving the house, they have lived here for years, and of cource the situation the put me in. Well, I'm very sorry too as I really liked living here and it felt home - but no-can-do. At least I now get to know some other place and people too. And there are a lot of empty (and cheaper..) rooms available in Leipzig so that shouldn't be a problem. Only my conditions - for 2,5 months, furnished - can make it a big tricky.
We have to be out by around 15th of May so I have to find something soon. Yesterday I went to see a room in the same street as this and I'll take it if they boy renting it agrees. I think - and hope - I'll know more in a week.
Now I have a couple of day with no program, which I'm a bit confused about. Well, it's good for me and at least I get some school stuff done. Sunday I'm going on a trip to Potsdam, a beautiful and quite famous city near Berlin. They arrange very cheap day trips to different towns for exchange students here. I have decided to mainly stay in Leipzig for the coming months, though, as there is a lot to do also here and I have been doing sooo much travelling this year already.
Ciao and yes I'll inform you when I know something more about the new room,
Iida
sunnuntai 12. huhtikuuta 2009
Easter feelings and happenings
I just came back from Berlin. I decided to go there for a couple of days because I have 4 days of Easter holidays and not too much school work yet. I went alone and walked around the town until my feet were hurting. At some point last night I felt a bit lonely and tired, but when when I got to the place I was staying for the night, there were people home. I ended up having a long discussion with Franza's roommates, who knew surprisingly lot about Finland - the other one had even done a one-semester-exchange in Hanken university in Helsinki and told that there really is an upper-class atmosphere in the school. I slept in Franza's bed in a great commune not far from the city centre. I met Franza in the FYEG Green economics Training in Berlin in December and she was friendly enough to let me sleep at her place - although she wasn't home.
I guess I know quite lot about German history as I went to some memorial sites but they didn't have much new to offer to me. Altough it was impressing to finally see the famous Berlin wall remnants. The weather has been GREAT the last week. Like summer. Today wondered around in the famous Tiergarten park in Berlin, it was full of people.
I travelled to Berlin and back with the wonderful car pool/car-sharing system, which (of cource. This is Germany!) is very well organized and functioning (www.mitfahrtgelegenheit.de). You can search for car rides which the drivers have put on the site and call/email them if you can drive with them. Usually the cars are full but the fare is minimal. Wow! Could this work in Finland..? As long distances make public transport often unprofitable. An maybe the neighbours would finally get to know each other..? The ride back wasn't especially cheap for me though as the time somehow passed very quickly and at some point I realized I have to take a taxi to Franza's place to get my stuff or I'll miss my ride / have to pay 40euros for the train...
Leipzig feels like home. I can already find my way quite easily here. Last week I was in a meeting of the local young greens and it was quite interesting. They seem to be quite active. I asked them about the municipal biking policy as I have been quite surprised about the biking conditons here. They may be better than in Tampere, but still quite dangerous and incoherent with tracks disappearing suddenly. I heard that it's already decided that biking will be denied in the very city centre as people are driving like crazy and organizations of disabled and elderly people have got their message over to city councillors (of whom majority is apparently conservative.) Well, if there were some signs and tracks the situation wouldn't be so bad! GHFHDDHGDHG! Frustrating!! I'm also driving illegally often as I have no idea where to drive. But yes my helmet is protecting me and I even finally bought lights to my bike (after I heard the police can give you a fine of 15-20 euros for biking without lights, and you have to pay it immediately in cash).
Las weekend there was a wonderful jazz festival in town and I saw two great concerts, one with my room mate Saskia. THE place to go out here is Moritzbaskei, a huge night club/restaurant/bar where they have also a lot of cultural happenings and festivals. It's situated partially under the ground and is a part of the old city fort wall.
About the half of the university cources started last week. Damn there is so many interesting courses, I'm just taking them all I think and see how I'll manage with the work load. I'll tell you more when I know exactly when everything has started and settled. Mostly African studies, also some German language and literature. Fridays are free at the moment.
I'm skipping school for one week before it has really even started as I'm leaving for a 10-day political trip on Friday! First I'll go to Stuttgart to an international Local Councillor Meeting of the European Greens to talk about communal politics on an European level. To my surprise I found out there is also the yearly federal conference of the German Young Greens in Stuttgart that weekend. I'll be profiting from their cheap acommodation and surfing between the two conferences, which both have very interesting program. After that I'm free from Monday to Thursday and I'll most likely do some travelling, maybe to Freiburg. From Thursday 23th to Sunday 26th I'll be participating the Spring Conference and General Assembly of the Federation of Young European Greens in Maastricht, Southern Holland. I'm quite excited and really hope that I find some good Mitfahrt-rides as the trains are very expencive. The young greens of Finland pay for my accommodation and food in Maastrich so that's a plus.
So I'll see how the rest of the cources start and then be gone for a week. But that shouldn't be a problem. I already have long texts to read for my cources and will most likely spend most of my free day tomorrow in the near-by park reading.
Keep those emails coming and I'll get back to you! For now, ciao!
I guess I know quite lot about German history as I went to some memorial sites but they didn't have much new to offer to me. Altough it was impressing to finally see the famous Berlin wall remnants. The weather has been GREAT the last week. Like summer. Today wondered around in the famous Tiergarten park in Berlin, it was full of people.
I travelled to Berlin and back with the wonderful car pool/car-sharing system, which (of cource. This is Germany!) is very well organized and functioning (www.mitfahrtgelegenheit.de). You can search for car rides which the drivers have put on the site and call/email them if you can drive with them. Usually the cars are full but the fare is minimal. Wow! Could this work in Finland..? As long distances make public transport often unprofitable. An maybe the neighbours would finally get to know each other..? The ride back wasn't especially cheap for me though as the time somehow passed very quickly and at some point I realized I have to take a taxi to Franza's place to get my stuff or I'll miss my ride / have to pay 40euros for the train...
Leipzig feels like home. I can already find my way quite easily here. Last week I was in a meeting of the local young greens and it was quite interesting. They seem to be quite active. I asked them about the municipal biking policy as I have been quite surprised about the biking conditons here. They may be better than in Tampere, but still quite dangerous and incoherent with tracks disappearing suddenly. I heard that it's already decided that biking will be denied in the very city centre as people are driving like crazy and organizations of disabled and elderly people have got their message over to city councillors (of whom majority is apparently conservative.) Well, if there were some signs and tracks the situation wouldn't be so bad! GHFHDDHGDHG! Frustrating!! I'm also driving illegally often as I have no idea where to drive. But yes my helmet is protecting me and I even finally bought lights to my bike (after I heard the police can give you a fine of 15-20 euros for biking without lights, and you have to pay it immediately in cash).
Las weekend there was a wonderful jazz festival in town and I saw two great concerts, one with my room mate Saskia. THE place to go out here is Moritzbaskei, a huge night club/restaurant/bar where they have also a lot of cultural happenings and festivals. It's situated partially under the ground and is a part of the old city fort wall.
About the half of the university cources started last week. Damn there is so many interesting courses, I'm just taking them all I think and see how I'll manage with the work load. I'll tell you more when I know exactly when everything has started and settled. Mostly African studies, also some German language and literature. Fridays are free at the moment.
I'm skipping school for one week before it has really even started as I'm leaving for a 10-day political trip on Friday! First I'll go to Stuttgart to an international Local Councillor Meeting of the European Greens to talk about communal politics on an European level. To my surprise I found out there is also the yearly federal conference of the German Young Greens in Stuttgart that weekend. I'll be profiting from their cheap acommodation and surfing between the two conferences, which both have very interesting program. After that I'm free from Monday to Thursday and I'll most likely do some travelling, maybe to Freiburg. From Thursday 23th to Sunday 26th I'll be participating the Spring Conference and General Assembly of the Federation of Young European Greens in Maastricht, Southern Holland. I'm quite excited and really hope that I find some good Mitfahrt-rides as the trains are very expencive. The young greens of Finland pay for my accommodation and food in Maastrich so that's a plus.
So I'll see how the rest of the cources start and then be gone for a week. But that shouldn't be a problem. I already have long texts to read for my cources and will most likely spend most of my free day tomorrow in the near-by park reading.
Keep those emails coming and I'll get back to you! For now, ciao!
keskiviikko 1. huhtikuuta 2009
After a quarter of a century
The orientation course is almost over and I think everbody's happy about that. I realized today that my tiredness must also come from the constant effort to speak a foreign language and not nly from the long days. My German is going good, though, and I just had fun couple of days ago practicing vocabularity you don't learn at the university with my room mate Saskia (words like der Pinsel = sivellin, der Schneebesen = vispilä, der Nudelholz = kaulin...). I've been spending most of my time with other exchange students and we still speak German together, which is good.
My birthday on Monday was nice. When I went to the kitchen in the morning to get some breakfast there was a little cake with candles around it on the table - I realized I have very nice roommates! The leaders of the orientation course had bought me a book and they sang to me, which was very nice. In the evening I had a beer (yes, beer) with some exchange students and everybody was impressed about my quarter of a century. I'm one of the oldest on our cource.
Last week I went to the doctor because the pain in my feet (propably just overexertion and sore muscles) got worse. I got some pills and creams and well they haven't been helping much. Maybe I have to go back and force the doctor to send me to physiotherapy or do some magic tricks. My back is also killing me as my bed and computer chair are not so good. But I'll manage. Otherwise I've been surprisingly healthy. Biking again feels good. I almost killed my MS syringes as I put them to the back part of the fridge which was too cold. The packages were already frozen but luckily only one syringe so I didn't lose all 4000 euros.
The courses at the university start next week and I've been stressing about what to take and do I have to enrol or can I just go to the first meeting. Well, I write about that when I have found out more.. I also paid the fee to the university gym and am going to check out the local salsa school next week.
I know my way in the city much better already. Yesterday I had to throw away my first map as it was way too torn. I learn new routes all the time, like yesterday the quicker route to the city centre thorught the HUGE park right next to our house. I have to get to know the park better when the spring comes. Now we have had a couple days of sun, before that it was just rain and wind (even hailstorm and sleet). There's much to do in Leipzig, very many interesting museums and places to see. The buildings are old an beautiful but there are strange blue pipes all aroung the city as they are building an underground city tunnel (metro) and need to pump up the groundwater. An interesting municipal politics solution, the ugly pipes are there for 10 years in total - but a great investment in public transport.
The university is turning 600 years this year and there is a lot of ceremonies and happenings. It's unbelievable to study in the 2nd oldest university in Germany. A lot of famous people have studied here, from Goethe to Angela Merkel. Bach has also lived and composed in this city. The are 500 000 books at the university library which has been restored after it was almost totally destroyed in the 2nd world war. The neighbourhood I'm living in (Plagwitz) is the result of the industrial development in the area and used to be an own municipality. It's very near to the Leipzig city centre though and a bit poshy nowadays.
That's all the news at the moment. This weekend I'm going to take it easy. Last Saturday we were in the state capital Dresden with all the exchange student and I'm planning to go to Berlin during the Eastern holidays. On 17th April I'm going to skip school and leave for a 10-day political trip to Stuttgart and Maastricht, Holland - but I'll get back to that later.
My birthday on Monday was nice. When I went to the kitchen in the morning to get some breakfast there was a little cake with candles around it on the table - I realized I have very nice roommates! The leaders of the orientation course had bought me a book and they sang to me, which was very nice. In the evening I had a beer (yes, beer) with some exchange students and everybody was impressed about my quarter of a century. I'm one of the oldest on our cource.
Last week I went to the doctor because the pain in my feet (propably just overexertion and sore muscles) got worse. I got some pills and creams and well they haven't been helping much. Maybe I have to go back and force the doctor to send me to physiotherapy or do some magic tricks. My back is also killing me as my bed and computer chair are not so good. But I'll manage. Otherwise I've been surprisingly healthy. Biking again feels good. I almost killed my MS syringes as I put them to the back part of the fridge which was too cold. The packages were already frozen but luckily only one syringe so I didn't lose all 4000 euros.
The courses at the university start next week and I've been stressing about what to take and do I have to enrol or can I just go to the first meeting. Well, I write about that when I have found out more.. I also paid the fee to the university gym and am going to check out the local salsa school next week.
I know my way in the city much better already. Yesterday I had to throw away my first map as it was way too torn. I learn new routes all the time, like yesterday the quicker route to the city centre thorught the HUGE park right next to our house. I have to get to know the park better when the spring comes. Now we have had a couple days of sun, before that it was just rain and wind (even hailstorm and sleet). There's much to do in Leipzig, very many interesting museums and places to see. The buildings are old an beautiful but there are strange blue pipes all aroung the city as they are building an underground city tunnel (metro) and need to pump up the groundwater. An interesting municipal politics solution, the ugly pipes are there for 10 years in total - but a great investment in public transport.
The university is turning 600 years this year and there is a lot of ceremonies and happenings. It's unbelievable to study in the 2nd oldest university in Germany. A lot of famous people have studied here, from Goethe to Angela Merkel. Bach has also lived and composed in this city. The are 500 000 books at the university library which has been restored after it was almost totally destroyed in the 2nd world war. The neighbourhood I'm living in (Plagwitz) is the result of the industrial development in the area and used to be an own municipality. It's very near to the Leipzig city centre though and a bit poshy nowadays.
That's all the news at the moment. This weekend I'm going to take it easy. Last Saturday we were in the state capital Dresden with all the exchange student and I'm planning to go to Berlin during the Eastern holidays. On 17th April I'm going to skip school and leave for a 10-day political trip to Stuttgart and Maastricht, Holland - but I'll get back to that later.
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