6th October 2005 - Day 3

And so it goes.

Knowing that I still have not registered myself with the Stadt Karlsruhe, I woke up relatively early to go to the office on the other side of the town. Being poor and "Fahrradslos", there was only a few ways which I could get there.

The most conventional method - walking, took me 45 mins. On my way there, I got hungry and bought some bread with lots of sugar on it. I thought that was the best value for money. Anyway, it didn't taste too good. It was so sweet that I got sick of eating it after a few bites.

Registeration with the Stadt was relatively painless. I got the Anmeldebestätigung after the lady at the counter guided me to fill up the form. Maybe it's a generalisation, but I think Germans really go by the book (read: inflexible). She insisted that I do not have a Familienname simply because it states only "Name" in the passport. Oh well, I got it done and that's it.

I was, of course, late for the Sprachkurs. I joined the class at around 1050. My first impression was that everyone spoke fluent Deutsch. Scary. I learnt that we had to work in groups and Referat halten at the end of the course. Hallo, I still have problems expressing myself in German! I think I'll ask for a switch of class. Perhaps that's just taking the easy way out. I always think I should be 1 level below people around me (in terms of language). In that way, I'll get to learn more words. See? It's a result of not practising German for too long.

After the language course, I went to Europaplatz supposedly to meet up with the O-group tutors for lunch. But nobody was there and I ended up sneaking into another group. I much prefer this new group. Everyone wanted to speak in German, instead of wanting to feel comfortable by speaking their Muttersprache.

I had a pretty good lunch at Emaille. They offered lunch at 2.50€ (only if you order a drink, otherwise it's 3.50€). I had Schnitzel (yes, again) and a Äpfelschorle. It came up to a total of 4.40€ and knowing 5 more people (but oops, I don't really recall their names).

After which, I went back to the University's Akademische Auslandsamt to get myself eingeschrieben. Lots of problem there, lots of other lost students. Basically I think the instructions were not clearly written. I waited and waited and waited. Then I realised that I had not paid the university yet. So Scheiße und verdammt, I'll have to come back tomorrow. Too bad I guess. I didn't know what to do and I have to pay for the consequence of being ignorant.

Anyway, fellow Singaporean Jason decided to roast a duck for dinner and invited me over. This would probably never happen in Singapore, me eating ducks. But hey, it was a comfort to be able to eat it with rice. I met up with his other flat mates (who are all from Vietnam). They were pretty funny. After which, I stayed for 1.5 hours and sprouted Singaporean nonsense with Jason. He showed me some of his works here and trust me, it wasn't at all easy (despite him saying so).

Yes yes. Poor student also has to go home. So I took the risk to be a Schwarzfahrer. Luckily no conductors came. If you think I've reached home, sorry. I still have to walk for about 15 mins. I wonder why I even chose this Studentenwohnheim in the first place. I think I must really get a bicycle soon.

So I came back tired and went to sleep after changing. Directly.