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.