2 Months In

(Top: Street in Konstanz in the suburb of Egg, which is near the uni sports centre. Bottom: View from lecture theatre at uni, looking over main concourse, courtyard and cafeteria on the left towards the lake and towards Meersburg.)

I realised that I have been here in Konstanz for just over 2 month now. As is I already have my return flights sorted for next year. This year is going fast but I have been blessed with such an amazing experience so far and I know there is so much more to come.

In 2 Months I have:
- Survived living on my own
- Travelled to parts of Germany and Austria such as Munich, Freiburg and Vienna.
- Managed to eventually get DHL to deliver my parcel
- Dealt with 4 different levels of police across 3 different countries
- Started playing basketball again
- Debated in German (well, gave it a go at least)
- /Started attending classes at uni in german
- Celebrated my 21st
-Been able to watch champions league matches at a reasonable time of day for once.
- Travelled 1st class on the ICE and also Austria's Railjet highspeed trains
- Walked to Switzerland and back.
- Been to a german church service and also started 1-2-1s with one of my Australian friends here. (Those EU people from USyd are everywhere...)
- Spent a month working through the layers of red tape for residency permit.
- Had an amazing time. Seen some amazing places. Made some amazing friends.

Politics lecture in Audimax, which is the largest lecture theatre on campus

Uni is underway and I am settling into routine here. Classes are ok but some of the lectures can be difficult to understand at times. The lecturers talk fast and one doesn't use any powerpoints or the like nor records the lecture so it requires good comprehension and concentration. Im playing basketball on mondays and got debating on wednesdays. Gave it a go in german. Was freaking out on the inside but did ok. Spoke for 5/7 minutes and despite my obvious nerves, apparently was understandable. Also started doing 1-2-1 with one of my Australian friends from usyd and also live downstairs from me. Being so close makes it easy to meet up and its good to spend time in the Word in english. Started going through Daniel. Also went to church last sunday. Service is somewhat different, but it was not as different as I thought it might be (although from what i understand, many are no so similar to what we have in sydney). There were some problematic parts but the sermon was amazing and faithful to scripture. They went through the book of Ruth and linked it to Jesus very well.
I'm going to Serbia later this month to debate at Belgrade Open with my friends from the debating society in Vienna, will be going to Zurich on an excursion as well later this month and I've rego'ed to adjudicate at the European Debating Championships in England later this year. Beyond that, I plan to get a haircut soon and hope for the best.

Being here two months, that desire for home finally kicked it. It was bound to happen. It is part of the experience of being immersed in a new culture. I miss my friends, family and work back home. I am so excited for my best friend as he and his fiance prepare for marriage later this year and I am excited to hear that the year 10s made it to semi finals for the ISDA debating competition (as I thought they would) as well as the senior a and year 7 teams from the school. I knew they would excel. So stoked. Probably going to return to find them teaching me a thing or two.

I am going to conclude with some cultural observations that have stood out to me.
- There are a ridiculous number of swiss and baden wuttemburg flags here in konstanz but few german flags. I kind of get the B-W state flags but so many swiss flags flying in germany is a bit out of place. Also the limited number of german flags seems to reflect cultural attitudes towards nationalism.
- Dogs in, well everywhere. On the train, on the bus, in the pub. The only time you'll see that in Aus is for guide dogs.
- Random people walking into bars and nightclubs trying to sell things like flowers. Nothing like partying it up on the d-floor or cheering on Bayern at the pub watching champions league only for someone to interrupt you to ask ou if you want to buy some flowers.
- Almost everything being closed on sundays. Think shops on good friday or boxing day in aus where it is all closed and a ghost town. Thats the norm on sundays. But on the other hand, shopping on saturdays is a really bad idea because it is so crazy and you are likely to get run down by a shopping trolley.

Time is flying by and before I know it, it will be time to return home.

Germany So Far + Meersburg + Photo Album

Already half a month into my stay here in Germany. Culturally I've noticed that firstly, Credit/Debit cards are not so readily welcomed here. (Not that it matters right now, having no Visa until I get a replacement). We have to talk to our teachers in the formal tense and also, it is important to watch for bikes when walking to the bus stop as it involves walking across a bike lane and they travel quite fast. One another note, the weather has been a bit all over the place. It was snowing earlier this week:

Yet today the sky was so clear we could clearly see the mountains over in Switzerland.

The March course has been ok. 4 Hours of intensive language and German grammar is only so much fun. Also still a lot of paperwork left to do, and we've already been here half a month. Twice already ive had problems, firstly with the bank getting my details wrong and then with the insurance company giving me a certificate of insurance that actually was missing the part indicating that I was in fact insured. This is after housing messed up my housing application and originally gave me an apartment with a start date too late last month. I don't think my handwriting can be blamed for all the errors though. However judging by these palm cards my year 10s made, I don't think they would necessarily agree:

Speaking of things going wrong, I went to the police to make a report about the theft of my wallet and phone, and was directed to the Bundespolizei, who told me that because I wasn't German and it wasn't a train in Germany, the report would have to go to Zurich to the Kantonpolizei there to deal with. Hope to hear back soon, so I can start chasing up my insurance for reimbursement of the many costs that came with losing my wallet and phone. Otherwise things have been rectified as best as possible for now.

I do have two more pictures from Vienna IV though...

Today we went to Meersburg, which is a nearby town across on the north side of the lake. So we travelled with the ferry over and explored the castle there, which is the oldest castle still being used as a residence. 

 

Being winter alot of places here are closed or close early, but apparently it is very different in summer. Regardless, it is still a nice place with a nice view of Switzerland and lots of interesting history.

In other news we've registered for a team for Euros, which hopefully means I will be able to debate in the major European tournament in Manchester later this year.

One last thing: Most pictures will go up on my facebook, but even if you dont have that, you can still view the images with this link: ICS Germany Photo Album

Vienna IV

I had the pleasure of adjudicating at the Vienna IV debating tournament this weekend just passed. Vienna is an amazing place and it was nice to meet people from different countries. (Teams were from 20 other countries in all from Europe, Asia and North America).

The topics were as follows:


Round 1: This House believes that juries should only include individuals that are from the same socio-economic class as the defendant.

Round 2: This House in hindsight would still have fought the 2003 War in Iraq.

round 3: This House would, as an atheist, join an atheist church.

Round 4 motion: This House believes that school children in the UK should be taught that their country engaged in war crimes.

(The context video showed the RAF bombardment of German cities in World War II.)

Round 5: This House, as the heir to any European throne, would refuse to become a monarch.

Round 6: This House believes women are morally justified in lying about their past experience, abilities and future family planning at job interviews and applications.

Semi:

You are an emigrant from a poor and collapsing unnamed country. You are offered full and immediate citizenship from the United States and the European Union. The offers are the only two options you have and are mutually exclusive. You do not know where you will live in either Union. Your native and only language is not spoken in either.

This House would emigrate to the European Union.

Vienna IV 2013 final motion: This House would hold a referendum among all churchgoing Catholics to elect the new Pope rather than having Cardinals elect him.

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It was a great experience overall, but unfortunately despite some attempt to secure my things, it wasn't enough and my wallet and my Australian phone got stolen on the train on the way back which also included my apartment keys. This also means that I lost all the pictures that I took bar this picture of the Grand final which had teams from USA, Germany, Israel and Romania:

The upside is at least I will be far more vigilant in the future and it consequently will likely not happen again. That is about the only upside really. 

Speaking of the grand final, it was one of a select few that actually delved into theological arguments, which are rare in debating but made it certainly a very interesting debate. There is something also quite entertaining about a team from Israel getting up and teaching the European teams about Catholicism.

Also, we are still going through stuff for orientation and paperwork for residency. So much to do.

Arrival

After a mostly uneventful 32 hours or so of transit from Sydney, I arrived safely in Konstanz along with another student from UTS, Michael. We flew with Thai Airways via Bangkok. 9 Hours from Sydney to Thailand. 9 Hours of waiting in Thailand in the airport. 12 Hours to Switzerland and then about 2 hours to wait for our train and travel north over the border to Konstanz.

The weather is quite cold and the sky has been with the exception of this afternoon, completely overcast over the last few days. I have slowly been settling in here and it has been good meeting people here. What struck me in terms of the view from my apartment was a hill in the distance with some kind of monument on the top so I went for a walk one morning to check it out. It is called Bismarckturm. (Bismarck Tower). It is a monument to Otto von Bismarck, a key figure in unification of the states into what became modern day Germany in the late 1800s.

This morning Michael and I had breakfast with another Australian friend here in Konstanz and then went for a wander through the Old town and at the start, having only walked a block casually strolled across the border into Switzerland. Unlike the others, I am not in the main part of town, so I never noticed how extremely close they are to the Swiss border.

Another notable observation was the Cathedral in Konstanz. For such a small place, it is such an enormous building and stands out in the city skyline. Apparently there is also much history involving Konstanz and the Catholic Church, in particular the Western Schism and the Council of Konstanz.

Speaking of History, Count Ferdinand von Zepplin comes from Konstanz.

Final Countdown

Pre departure thoughts:

Probably a good idea to share my thoughts at this point pre departure. Truth be known, there is probably a reflective task waiting for me in the future that will utilise this...

Less than 12 Hours until I arrive at the airport and check in for my year of in country study. Almost finished packing. Its quite hard to try and pack right when you are upending your entire life and moving for a whole year. Also, generally I tend to always forget something when I pack, I really hope that it is something insignificant.

I've travelled quite a bit during the last few years spending a week or two at a time at places both near to Sydney like the South Coast, the Blue Mountains and the Central Coast and further a field such as Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide, Auckland & Wellington, but I haven't travelled this far in such a long time and never for this length of time.

I'm really going to miss a lot of things here, namely family and my good friends, work and in particular the super amazing year 10s that I've worked with over the last year and a bit, my church and a few other things that will be going on this year that I will not be able to be a part of...

Also, not a fan of long haul flights. 30 hours between Sydney and Zurich, which includes a 9 hour stopover in Bangkok, Thailand. I doubt my view on that will change after this. But we'll see.

Down on the (Swiss) Border.

For someone doing a degree in IT, I tend to be quite bad at the whole being tech savvy and blogging thing. Here goes.

In less than one month I am leaving for Germany, namely the university town of Constance (Konstanz), which is by the lake of the same name. Where is that you may ask.... well, here:

View Larger Map

Konstanz is in the south most part of Germany and immediately below it, is the border of Switzerland

For one year I shall call it home and study here. The purpose of this blog is to try and share on a hopefully semi regular basis part of my experience in a foreign land, lots of photos and potentially use this as a journal of events and thoughts which may be used for some reflective work later this year.