Hanseatic Holidays

Standing in the Reeperbahn at 1:00 in the morning going into Saturday is an experience unlike any other.  The bright lights illuminate the streets, packed with people. The area is enormous and seemingly never ending. Around every corner lie more bars and clubs with every possible theme; Irish, English, Japanese, 99cents, etc.  One must be weary of the stubborn prostitutes who legally stand on the streets and beckon wandering men to spend 30-45 minutes with them for a bargain price of 30 euros.  What is most astounding of all, is the acceptance of all of it as ordinary.

9 hours earlier, on Friday the 1st of November, I was getting off the train at Hamburg-Altona station where I was met by Anton. It was really great meeting him again. It had been 1 and a half months since I left Stockholm for Mainz so I was looking forward to some social contact.  In addition, I had a very inconvenient train trip.  Granted, the first hour was great. The train drove along the Rhine past beautiful scenery such as the Loreley and the many fortresses built into the hills along the river.  However, it soon got worse.  As we were entering the Ruhr, the scenery became duller and the train became fuller.  Since it was a holiday, the Deutsche Bahn decided to cut 5 wagons off the train thereby rendering all reservations meaningless and allowing many people to stand. As a result they asked everyone heading towards Hamburg to change trains in Dortmund and then to switch again in Hannover to get on a train towards Hamburg.

After dropping off all of my things at Anton's house we headed out to the city for some late afternoon sightseeing.  We went to the Miniatur Wunderland, the largest model railway in the world with 13km of tracks laid down.  The area is divided into different themes covering Switzerland, Austria, different parts of Germany, an airport, Scandiavia and the USA.  The attention to detail was extraordinary. At every street corner there was some sort of activity associated with daily life.  The trains, cars and airplanes moved according to some highly complex program that made it seem just as in the real world.  I found one of the most interesting exhibits to be a timeline of Germany history where small 1x1m show casings were made to show a certain time period, starting with hunter gatherer times all the way through the 20th Century.

As an unforeseen but very foreseeable consequence of going out the previous night, we woke up in the afternoon that Saturday.  As a result, it was not going to be much of a sightseeing trip but rather one for hanging out and chilling which was perfectly fine.  That evening we had a fantastic dinner prepared by Anton's grandmother. It was a lamb chop with a side of beans and tasted very good. And all together it lasted two and a half hours! The time just passed by without anyone seeming to have any objections or becoming restless of the other's company, which I found very nice.

The next day there wasn't a lot of time to procrastinate.  My train was leaving at 11:24 from Hamburg's central station.  All in all, I was effectively travelling from 10:30 to 17:30 until I finally reached home. However there was no doubt that the trip was worth it and that it was simply far too short.

Life in Mainz

I've been in Mainz close to a month now and I am beginning to get accustomed to the rhythms of this bustling metropolis. Ha!  But I am starting to feel much more comfortable in my work place and feel more confident towards the other departments of the conference center.  The caretaker team is very nice and I can share a good laugh with them.  They are a very interesting mix and when there are only two of us on shift, they like to tell stories of their lives which can be quite fascinating.  One of my colleagues was an engineer aboard large container ships. He told of nearly being attacked by pirates off the coast of Nigeria, almost marrying an Australian woman and tax-free alcohol without the premium paid in airport stores (this would make a bottle of vodka cost about 1 euro). As for my performance, my boss Herr Krause is very impressed with how quickly I have been able to learn the various room positions for conferences and the general aspects of the job.  He even asked me to stay longer than December! It's a good feeling to become trusted enough to be sent to position rooms or deliver something to a customer on my own.

One thing that irritates me is my own lack of control over German.  There are often times where I would have liked to say something, or give my opinion but because I couldn't formulate the words I held back. The worst is when I have to explain something technical, because first of all I am barely familiar with the vocabulary in English and then I am suddenly asked to describe a problem in German.  For example, when I went to switch a light bulb, the light only lit half way and started blinking.  I think I said something like, "der Strom geht aus (The electricity goes out)" and was answered with, "wo geht der Strom hin? (Where is the electricity going?)".  In German one would have to say, "Der Strom fällt (falls) aus", but of course in English the verb 'going' is correct.

My driving license is going well.  I have 4 Theory lessons out of 14, and I have 6 driving hours, with the next 4 booked for next week. My teacher is confident that I will complete the course before the end of December, as long as I maintain a disciplined schedule.  The schedule is possible but it is also very exhausting.  For example this past week on Tuesday and Thursday I worked from 10:00-17:00, came home at 17:50 and had to be at the driving school at 18:30.  Next week should be easier because I have early shift.  I have also been rewarded for over 42 hours of work this week with a three day weekend; Saturday-Monday.

However, I am far from assimilated and no manner of time will change that.  My background comes at such contrast to everything present in the Erbacher Hof that it is difficult not to run into cultural walls all the time.The majority of people working there have lived in the area all their lives whether they are German or immigrated to Germany as children and thus only speak German and possibly their mother tongue.

In any event, my largest problem is simply social contact with other people my age.  I miss the ability to regularly meet friends to go to the gym, something I have taken for granted for 3 years.  At the moment, I only might meet Anastasia or my cousin Stefan on the weekend to go out. Which is more than I can ask for but at the same time, I failed to realize the difficulty I might have in meeting people. But the totality of this remains to be seen, I still have 2 months ahead.

Arbeit und Führerschein!

I am employed! On the 17th of September, now over 2 weeks ago, I began to work as a caretaker in the Erbacher Hof in Mainz.  Erbacher Hof is a Catholic conference center which holds both religious and non-religious events. I work 6 days a week and the time is divided into early or late shifts.  Early shifts are from 7:00 to 14:00 and late shifts from 14:00 to 21:00. I have reached the conclusion that although the early shift requires me to wake up at 5:40 in the morning, it is better than the late shift.  With the early shift, the entire afternoon opens for possibilities - which I am not short of at the moment.  The other day I bought myself a pair of black working pants to match my colleagues. In addition, I also bought a pair of working shoes with a steel plate in the front to protect my toes  as well as a winter jacket so that I look more professional and so that my leisure winter coat doesn't get too dirty when it gets cold. Working in a Catholic conference center, and especially as a caretaker in a Catholic conference center can have its benefits.  For example, yesterday I had the opportunity to shake hands with Cardinal Lehman of the bishopric of Mainz!



I have only heard good things about him; that he is a tolerant, humble and liberal man. I have read interviews with him where he speaks of greater dialogue between Protestantism and Catholicism, as well as Christianity and Islam.  This impressed me and it has made it all the greater pleasure to work for such a man.

I have also started doing my driving license.  So far I have had one theory lesson and one driving session with two more booked this coming week.  Luckily, living in Sweden gave me the opportunity to reap the benefits of Övningskör. This allowed me to begin practice driving with my parents when I was 17. I am quite thankful for that opportunity now because it has rewarded me by allowing me to focus only on learning how to shift gears which takes up all of my concentration as it is.  However, towards the end I could sense that I was beginning to get the feel for it. My first lesson went well and he said that I will likely complete the license in 28 driving hours, which is below the average.

The Exeter Odyssey

Getting into the University of Exeter has proven to be quite a drama.  Let me explain the story from the beginning.  

After applying to the university I received an offer from them for 36 points with a 5 in English.   In mid July, I received my results.  36 points with a 6 in English.  Two weeks went by and I didn't get any confirmation from them so I decided to write them an E-mail.  On the 24th of July I received an answer saying that they had not gotten my results and that I should send them my results personally.  However, the next day, I got another E-mail confirming that they had now received my results.  Oddly enough, the confirmation E-mail stated that I had not met the offer and that I must wait until after the 15th of August when A-level results are released. So after that I decided to wait patiently until they figure out their fault - bad mistake. 

On the the 8th of September I checked UCAS and saw that on the 2nd of September my offer from Exeter was deemed unsuccessful. Now I became desperate and told them exactly the way I have been understanding my communication with them. Then I received an E-mail that seemed to misunderstand the problem. So I wrote them again, this time I copy and pasted the confirmation E-mail into the message and made them understand that they did indeed get my IB results and that they made a mistake with my application. This spawned an entirely different reaction. They apologized and I was told that my UCAS status would be changed over night. It did. So with no further surprises, I should officially be an fully enrolled student for the year 2014. Persistence pays off!

Back from Freiburg

Wow, what an amazing time I had in the past three weeks in Freiburg! I improved my German, certified my German knowledge with a C1 language test and met so many great people.  To be honest, towards the end, the course became less about learning German than having a great time with friends.

The course was very relaxed, we had class from 9:00 to 12:00 every morning from Monday to Saturday and sometimes in the afternoon as well.  My teacher was Hartmut.  Born in 1945, he is a bit of a hippie but an alright teacher. Our classes were structured around group discussions about all kinds of topics ranging from the relation between young and old people to Germany's elections.  We would also write a lot about our experiences in the many activities that we took part in outside of "Unterricht". These articles would end up in the trip magazine where everyone made a contribution.

However, the best times we had were during the daily activities and in the evenings.  We would go on excursions to see the Titi See, Bodensee, Strasbourg and Neuf Brisach.  Otherwise we would also play mini golf, have basketball and football tournaments, visit museums, explore Freiburg and much more.  When there were no planned activities, we would often hang around the KL (the hostel where we were staying). There we could play table tennis, pool, basketball, football and a lot of chess on the terrace. In the evenings we would often go to a beer garden.  Our favorite was "Hausbrauerei Feierling". They made exceptional beer and had a great outdoor sitting area that was open until 23:00.  On Saturdays we would go to a disco because we had no lessons on Sunday morning.  We tried different ones but our most frequented club was Agar.  Agar is cheap to get in and probably one of the worst clubs in Freiburg but because we were in such a big group it didn't really matter much.

At the moment, I am missing many of the people I met but I am sure to see them again.  Already we are making plans to see each other once more!