31st January 2006 - Day 106

A largely uneventful day. I went for all the lectures as usual.

I was quite happy to see that it was still bright after my last lecture of the day. It just felt more normal to still see daylight at around 1720.

Dinner was at the Mensa. I can't possibly eat the same things like pasta, instant noodles and pizza everyday. Ok, I was lazy to cook and wash up. I might go back to eating bread with ham and cheese.

There's supposed to be a Vollhausversammlung this evening. It's for the election of some people to some duties. People who don't attend are likely to get their extension of rental withdrawn. I'm not really bothered by that. Hah. Short term resident here.

I'm finally finished with the übersetzen of the lecture notes for one of the modules. Tomorrow, I plan to do that for another module.

It's time to start reading through soon. But first, a break from all the translations.

So, more progress to be made tomorrow.

30th January 2006 - Day 105

Lessons in the afternoon. The morning felt like a weekend.

I received an email informing me that the Professor would only conduct the mündliche Prüfung on a certain day. After that, he'll be on his way to some other place.

Which means I have to prepare for two exams on the same day. How exciting. Two totally unrelated field of studies.

The afternoon lecture was not very helpful. Two students were asking lots of questions which I did not understand. This probably shows how prepared I am for the module.

Language ability today is almost non-existent. I am quite sure that there is a certain switch that has to be tripped by some activities I do in order to unlock the Speak-German-With-Relative-Ease mode. I can hardly make myself understood otherwise.

While I was cooking dinner, Jörg came over and thanked me for helping to paint the kitchen yesterday. That was quite unexpected. Probably because not everyone wanted to do the painting.

Fridel, the Bierminister, came and collected the money for drinks as it is the end of the month. I paid 0,60€ for a bottle of beer that I drank some time earlier. Come to think of it, I don't remember paying for the beer I drank in November and December.

This is really convenient. Especially when you forget to pick up drinks at the supermarket. There's Cola and Apfelsaft available too.

So, maybe a bottle of beer is all I need to trip the switch.

29th January 2006 - Day 104

Today's the first day of the Chinese New Year.

It just felt like another Sunday to me. I spent the whole day in the hostel, since I did not have any visits to make here.

You would have thought I must have been relatively productive with my work. Not quite correct though. I simply felt like doing nothing today.

It's not often, that I get the chance to spend Chinese New Year alone. I'm making the best out of this experience. Unlike thinking that it's a very "routinised" schedule to visit relatives every other Chinese New Year. In fact, as each hour today passes by, I can imagine what I'll be doing, where I'll be, if I was back home.

Sure it's fun (and the red packets are an incentive), but I used to wonder how it'll be like to spend Chinese New Year alone.

My wish has been fulfilled.

No wonderful breakfast today. I skipped it and had lunch at 1400 instead.

I helped paint the kitchen in the afternoon, though not for long. I left the work to the restlichen Mitbewohner.

Seems like some of the people on the floor have some problems with moulds. I got invited into Stefan's room to view an artwork of moulds on the wall. Now he has to scrub them off the wall. It's amazing how they can grow in this cold weather. They must have been keeping their rooms a bit too warm and moist, making it conducive to grow moulds.

It turned from -8 to 3 degree Celcius as the sun slowly made it's appearance. It's good weather for a walk. The weather report looks good for the next few days too.

It's pretty fast. I just realised I will be going home 2 months later. That's about 60 days left before weekends will no longer be spent lazing around.

Actually, that's not true. I'm supposed to prepare for my exams, which are about 2 weeks away. Besides, weekends back home are also not very fruitfully spent in terms of clearing school work.

So, stop dreaming and get back on track!

28th January 2006 - Day 103

Being a Saturday, I wanted to sleep in later this morning. Somehow, I felt something was not right.

It's Chinese New Year Eve.

In the past, I would know that it's going to be Chinese New Year soon. The familiar tunes would be heard almost everywhere one goes. The decorations going up. A special section allocated to Chinese New Year goodies in the supermarket.

Well, not here. It just feels like any other Saturday. The Chinese students here all seems to be quietly doing their own preparations.

I did a through spring cleaning for my room and put everything back into order, even though the last cleaning session was not too long ago.

I met Autumn for lunch at Die Kippe and we went to the Stadtmitte for a walk.

It sounds absurd, but we actually went to buy mandarin oranges. Just to get into the mood of Chinese New Year.

When I got back here, I wasted no time and went for a shower. After which, I threw in all the dirty clothings into the washing machine. It just didn't feel good with dirty clothings lying around to recieve the Year of the Fire Dog.

Habits are hard to change. It has been done for all Chinese New Years throughout my life. This is the first time I am spending Chinese New Year away from home. I am quite surprised that I actually did all these things to welcome the New Year.

I even harboured the thought of cooking a pot of rice and leaving it overnight!

Much as I want to make everything as similar as possible to my past experiences, there's always something different.

For example, no reunion dinner.

I like going for reunion dinner. And the time after that when I sprout nonsense with my cousins. Then going home after that, sitting on the sofa, and get mesmorized by the variety programs on television.

Ok. I admit. I just like it that it's going to be a 2 day public holiday.

But really, you'll feel the mood for Chinese New Year, if you allow yourself to.

Somehow, people around me all seem...different. I believe this is due to the effect of making myself aware that Chinese New Year is coming. Just look at how many times I've typed "Chinese New Year"!

According to various sources, people have said that this is not a good year for people born in the year of Dog.

Despite general consensus, I say this year will be a wonderful one. Let's take a closer look at the various aspects.

General:
On the whole, this will be a lucky year for you. Lots of good ideas will be generated.

Health:
Very good. No problems or whatsoever with health, on the basis that you exercise regularly and eat a balanced diet. Sleep is not important.

Finance:
Dabbling in investment instruments such as 4D, Toto, and Big Sweep (or any equivalent) might make you a winner! What are you waiting for?!

Romance:
You will be happy with your partner. If you have none, you will be happy with yourself.

Career:
Keep quiet. Watch and learn.

Studies:
No pain, no gain. But gain doesn't always come with pain. Consider reading something in your native language.

Bonus:
Lady Luck is smiling on you. Please go to your nearest betting station if you see any numbers in the following character.

What numbers shall it be?

What? You can't see anything? Lady Luck is generous today. One more chance!

Do you see it now?

It cannot be! What do you mean you don't see anything?! Ok. Last chance! Look carefully!

It's so obvious now...

So, wishing all a happy and prosperous Year of the Dog!

27th January 2006 - Day 102

Another work week came and passed just like that. Just when I was getting warmed up to start some serious work, the weekend is here.

It finally stopped snowing. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the ground is not as slippery as I have thought. The -7 degree Celcius temperature must have kept the snow from melting.

Everything is covered by a layer of snow. I am beginning to appreciate how beautiful snow can be.

I used to think that I'll need a magnifying glass or a microscope to see the pattern of snow flakes. Well apparently, I could see them when they landed on my black jacket. The design of each snow flake is always different or so I heard. I didn't bother comparing though.

It's like fine sand that is almost weightless. Hear the "crunch crunch" sound when you step on them. Kick them around.

I learnt from the lecturer that it's not often that it snows here in Karlsruhe. Such low temperature is also not common.

My camera is not functioning. The pictures I take outdoors are always over-exposed. No use tinkling with the settings.

So, that's why there's no pictures these few days.

26th January 2006 - Day 101

The snowing didn't stop through the night. It was still snowing this morning. Light snow though.

In the morning, I saw some vehicles clearing the roads and footpaths of snow. That's good. Otherwise I'll be walking unwittingly onto the road because everything is white.

I saw some people at the University throwing snow balls at each other. And a girl sitting in the snow, presumably a case of slip and fall.

After the morning lecture, I made my way to the tram stop in order to go to Schwarzwaldhalle, where the Pfennigbasar is held.

For the records, I slipped and almost fell 4 times on my way there.

On the Straßenbahn, I could guess that most people on the tram were going to the Pfennigbasar as well. There were lots of people standing outside the Schwarzwaldhalle when I got there.

There's an opening address by someone. I think it was the town mayor. When he announced the official opening of the 39th Pfennigbasar, the crowd started to squeeze through the entrance.

As I was waiting to get in, I talked to a German student who is studying Lebensmitteltechnik. She commented that she was once an exchange student in Canada. She said everything there was done very efficiently, unlike in Germany, where things have to be settled by yourself.

I have to thank the Germans here who try to give me some affirmation. Most of them say to me, "du sprichst relativ gut Deutsch", or something along that line.

Of course I speak good German. I've been practising the same few sentences for more than 2 years!

They'll know better when they ask something nach meiner Meinung. Ich habe doch keine!

The flea market is quite huge. They are selling quite a lot of things too. Some of the items which I thought looks good. Paintings, standing lamps, toys, clothings, shoes and lots more. Too bad. Most of them are a hassle to transport back home.

I bought 2 decks of playing cards for 0,10€ each. I was half expecting that there'll be missing cards though. In one deck, 3 cards were missing. In the other, all the four suits run only from "7" to "A"!

Surprise surprise. The second deck is actually complete! Or so I found from the internet. But I don't know any card games using only 32 cards.

I bought the cards because the picture cards look different from the normal playing cards. I might go back tomorrow and see if they replenish the stocks.

There's a man who bought 33 decks for 5€. Maybe he's a collector of playing cards.

I also bought a book written in English for 4€. It's in a good condition. Seems like a good buy to me. The title? The Foundations of Chinese Medicine - A Comprehensive Text for Acupuncturists and Herbalist.

So, anyone needs diagnosis for any ailments?

25th January 2006 - Day 100

Unglaublich! I actually slept for 12 hours straight last night.

No lessons this morning. I should have woke up early to revise for the lectures yesterday. Didn't managed to finish it because I over-estmated myself. Long sleeping hours. Terrible.

I thought there was a lecture this afternoon. When I reached, I heard another man speaking instead of the Lehrerin.

I haven't been hanging very often in the University compounds since the hostel is so near. The few places I go in the University are the lecture and tutorial venues, the Mensa and the Rechenzentrum, or Computer Laboratory.

I have only passed by the library. My stay inside usually does not exceed 5 minutes. I have heard about the wonderful collection of books found in the library here. I shall go and do a through visit. Soon.

The topic for today's Phonetik lesson - How to be a decent burglar.

Here's the passage:

Herr und Frau Boch aus Bochum sind bei Freunden zu Besuch. Spät in der Nacht klingelt das Telefon. Eine Stimme spricht: "Ihre Kinder schlafen nicht. Sie machen furchtbaren Krach. Ich habe sie ins Bett gebraucht. Ich habe den Hahn zugemacht, damit die Badewanne nicht überläuft. Ich habe den Hund aus dem Kühlschrank befreit. Ich habe das Licht ausgemacht und die Türen geschlossen. Sie können froh sein, dass ich so ein anständiger Einbrecher bin."

The purpose of the passage is to pronounce the -ch, which can be pronounced in a "hard" or "soft" manner.

My problem lies with pronoucing "zu-" though.

Achtung! The passage doesn't make much sense if you're using any online translator. Don't waste your time.

As I was walking to the tram stop after lesson, white particles of diameter 0.2 centimeters started falling from the sky.

Great. It better not be slippery tomorrow morning when I walk to the University. I'll probably have to leave earlier to test ground conditions.

I was still saying this afternoon, "Wonderful nice cold weather. And it's dry!"

So, better weather tomorrow.

24th January 2006 - Day 99

Tuesdays are my second busiest day with 3 lessons. The busiest day is on some Wednesday where the lectures goes on from 0945 till 1900.

Lessons were as usual. Not very interesting as I still cannot fully comprehend the lectures. I was unable to see the significance of some manipulations and such. It's beginning to feel like a lecture in English. Roughly understand what is being said but not able to retain the information immediately.

I recieved an email regarding the exam appointment with one of the professors. The time slot clashes with another lecture and there will be another exam on that day. I'm asking for another appointment to take the exam. Probably in 2 weeks' time.

I didn't realise that I'm so near to my exams. Only another 2 weeks plus to go with lots of translation stil undone. Not to mention understanding concepts.

It was colder today at -4 degree Celcius. But still tolerable. It's hard to imagine it's cold here with the sun shining brightly outside.

So, have to squeeze more stuffs at a faster speed now.

23rd January 2006 - Day 98

Lessons in the afternoon at 1400. I had the whole morning to myself.

Managed to read through a few pages of notes. Only to realise later that I cannot recall the things I read.

The sun was shining today. But it's relatively cold. The puddle of water that I pass by on my way to the bus stop froze up.

The water in the bottle which I had excitedly placed ouside the window upon knowing that temperatures will drop below zero yesterday did not.

Hah! The hypothesis I made earlier is correct. Until temperature dips further.

The weather station really went kaputt yesterday. It's not going to be -27 degree Celcius on Saturday after all. I verified it with 2 other sources.

That's good too. I came to know about this Pfennigbasar which will take place on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Basically, it's a flea market. A big one apparently. It's the 39th time they're holding it since 1968.

As with all flea markets, it's always "look look, see see, buy nothing". Maybe a half eaten apple pie for a penny? Anyone?

So, I'll see what junk I can get back.

22nd January 2006 - Day 97

The schedule for today was pretty much the same as for yesterday.

I woke up at the same time and killed myself again with an oily breakfast.

As I finished my breakfast/lunch, I went to the kitchen to wash up the plates. I passed by Fridel's room. Apparently, he just woke up.

He had this smile on his face when I said "Morgen" to him. He must have thought I just woke up as I was still in my sleeping attire.

The other day, I was quite amused when he walked into the kitchen at 1325 and said "Guten Morgen".

I didn't go anywhere today except for staying in the hostel. Not very healthy I realised, especially when I'm so well stocked up with all the junk food.

Speaking of which, I don't think I'll be going out anywhere this coming Saturday. The crazy weather report predicts a temperature of -27 degrees Celcius in the day and -40 in the night! The meter must have gone kaputt.

Wait. Such an opportunity to freeze myself doesn't come easily. I will go out on Saturday!

For a short while. Will probably come in when I feel something's going to drop off. If I can still feel anything, that is.

So, the weather better not disappoint.

21st January 2006 - Day 96

I woke up later than the stipulated time. It just feels good to sleep in on a Saturday.

After the morning routine, I killed myself with an oily breakfast of eggs, bacon, Weiner and bread. That was supposed to be my breakfast. But it became my lunch instead.

The weather turned good for a while. So I decided to take a walk around the hostel.

Nice cool weather today at 4 degrees Celcius. The weather station reports that the temperature might drop to -10 degrees Celcius on Tuesday night. I'll probably wear everything I've got with me on that day since my lessons ends at 1715.

Nothing interesting on the way. I walked down the stretch of Büchiger Allee and reached some part of the Waldstadt before taking a Straßenbahn to town.

The streets were filled with people. Everyone seems to be busy buying things. Very different from what I saw a few days ago.

I went back to hostel to clear the pile of notes and a packet of chips.

So, looking forward to Tuesday to conduct a little experiment.

20th January 2006 - Day 95

Today's weather was good. Much better than the past few days. The sun is out again.

Nothing interesting happened today. Except that a pigeon mistook my head as a nest and tried to land on me. That is just a hypothesis. I wouldn't know what the bird is thinking.

Nest for homeless birds

The days here are starting to get longer. There's still some light after 1700.

The bottle of water which I left outside yesterday turn cold. The water didn't freeze up. I doubt it will even if it's colder. Will try again if the temperature drops below zero.

So, the weekend is here and I still have tons to read.

19th January 2006 - Day 94

It's Thursday again.

I woke up at 0730 instead of 0700. Rushed out after washing up in order to catch the bus. Managed to reach lecture venue on time.

I wonder why I feel warmer in the morning when I first step out of the hostel. After the first lesson of the day, I usually walk out thinking, "Man. It's cold!".

I went to register myself for exams after lecture. The first one was done quite quickly because I already fixed the date and time with the professor in charge.

The second one was a bit more troublesome. I had to take a tram to the other side of the town, to a quiet corner, where another part of the University is located.

Still, things went on relatively smoothly. The secretary was quite helpful. But I still don't know whether this Professor will be free on the dates I suggested. I heard he's heading to Chile around that period for some business.

After lunch at Mensa, I headed back to hostel. I decided to do some cleaning up. It's going to turn into some mini ecological garden soon if I don't.

I left a bottle of water outside the window. I think it might be more efficient than leaving it in the fridge. It's been an hour since I did that. Will check on it before going to bed.

So, going off to shower.

18th January 2006 - Day 93

I had my fourth 3-hours lecture for a particular module. As the professor is based in Köln, it's quite difficult to get him down to Karlsruhe just for a student who wishes to take his exams.

As such, he offered me an appointment for exams - 15 minutes after the last lecture 4 weeks from now.

What can I do? You can't expect me to go up to Köln to find him for my mündliche Prüfung. I just accepted the date. But I still have to go and inform a certain secretary regarding the arrangement.

I'll be taking the exam as a Nebenfach exam as this module is not under the department of Chemical Engineering.

There was a excursion today for another module. It's to visit this place where there's a Electron Accelerator. Supposedly ganz in der Nähe. But I decided to give it a miss as I had another lesson after that.

Phonetik lessson today was spent talking about songs for introducing young children to the names of their thumbs and fingers. According to the Lehrerin, it helps young children to exercise their fingers so that they'll have less difficulties learning to write in the future.

We also had to make up a story about a boy who broke the window pane and what happened after that.

He got poisoned by the böse Hexe who lived inside the house with the now broken window pane.
Or maybe, the boy got shot by the just awoken hunter who thought it was a pack of wolves trying to attack him.

I'm not good at making up stories.

I went to walk around in Ettlinger Tor after the Phonetik lessson. The departmental stores are really quite empty. Nobody seems to be buying any stuffs any more.

Wait till the Winterschlussverkauft comes. That should be quite similar to the Great Kuching-pura sale, where most things are at the right price but the wrong size.

So, noch viel zum Lernen.

17th January 2006 - Day 92

During class today, I saw a Turkish girl flipping through her dictionary as the lecturer went on to explain some of the stuffs.

Come to think of it, I don't recall seeing this girl since...early November!

I'm just letting the power of assumption run freely. No checking of dictionary in class. Some sort of Frau Neumann's style, though I've only been in her class for one semester.

It was raining the whole day here. I noticed that on days when it rains or snow, it's actually warmer than on days when it doesn't. Could it be because of the cloud cover?

Concentrating in afternoon class was not too difficult. Fell asleep momentarily for about 5 minutes but stayed wide awake for the rest of the hour or so.

I finally found out what does the symbol "!=" means. In C Programming, it's supposed to mean "not equal to" (if I remember correctly).

In this case, the "!" is supposed to be right on top of the "=" symbol. Because of limitations, I can only put the symbol as such.

It means "gleichsetzen" or rather, equating the left side to the right side. Not much different from just putting a "=" sign. But they just have to make it so very exact.

So, till tomorrow.

16th January 2006 - Day 91

I woke up at 0700 this morning without any alarm clock. All because I fell asleep early yesterday.

The internal alarm is starting to ring though. Exams are possibly 3 to 4 weeks away, though I haven't set any appointments for exams with the professors yet.

Something is obviously wrong, when you can remember the reason why someone named a particular distribution as Student's Distribution while you have no recollections of how it is actually done.

No lessons in the morning. I stayed in the hostel and watched the professional painter at work. The people here decided to hire him because all of us were too lazy to paint the place, and we had no better way to spend money.

Besides that, I have started to harvest "Blu-Tacks" on the walls of my room. There's quite a lot of it left on the walls by previous occupants. I figure they will come in useful if I accidentally make any indentations on the wall.

I took the bus to the University after lunch at hostel. Usually, I'll walk, because I seem to miss the bus quite often.

There's this girl on the bus who turned around and smiled at me.

My fly was open.

Of course not. I think it's the Poland girl (with the high pitch voice) that I got to know last Friday at the Hausfest. Amazing. I don't seem to recognise her. Maybe the place was too dark and I was a bit betrunken that day.

I saw the bus conductor at work again. This time, there's a lady who claims that she left her wallet at home while she appeared to have gone grocery shopping earlier. Of course, she must have been using her EC Karte. I think she paid her bus fare (or fine) using that as well.

Lecture went on fine. The lecturer was talking about the distribution of the usage life of light bulbs. I was particularly interested. Did I mention that the third bulb in my room blew on 24th December when I returned to hostel? The spare bulb I had came in useful.

I happen to know this Romanian girl who is currently using candles in her room because all the bulbs in her room blew. She doesn't know where to buy light bulbs. I presume she's not in her room most of the time.

So, shower and bed time soon.

15th January 2006 - Day 90

I woke up just before 1030 this morning. I've been waking up late since yesterday, probably because I slept late due to the Hausfest on Friday.

Being a Sunday, I made myself the usual breakfast of eggs and sausages. I was rummaging through the freezer and somehow managed to find some fish fingers. So I had that fried as well.

The day was quite sunny. But it was cold outside. Colder than the past few days. Here I am, comfortably holed up with the heater switched on to the maximum.

The afternoon was spent rewriting my German lecture notes in English and watching more war films. It's quite a pointless activity doing the translation, especially when I'll take the exams in German. Not that I can understand everything after it's translated.

Read in context. Read in context!

That's actually no different from assuming.

Vivek is back. I didn't see him. But I saw this.

Return of the Floor Indian

So, more surprise sandwiches to come.

14th January 2006 - Day 89

Nothing much done today. It took me one entire day just to go through a set of lecture notes.

Went out in the evening to do some grocery shopping. Bought some usual stuffs like snacks, sausages and such.

Since Christmas is over, the streets are much quieter. Some of the shops close earlier too. But supermarkets are still opened till 2000 on Saturdays.

I also went around looking for shoe polish. Black shoe polish is readily available here. The brown ones are more difficult to find. Maybe more people here own brown shoes than black.

Quite obviously, I wanted to buy some shoe polish to brush up my shoes.

Instead of the black Kiwi bird, they have a red Frog brand of shoe polish. They call it "shoe cream" here by the way. I can't seem to find Kiwi shoe polish here though.

The "shoe cream" looks like some poster colour freshly squeezed out from a tube, only that it feels harder. After being a loyal customer of Kiwi for so long, I had my doubts about the quality of Frog.

But it turned out quite good. My loyalty has since shifted. Because the shoe polish is in a cream form, it's easier to apply onto creases on the shoe. And it doesn't leave stains on your hands, unlike the Kiwi shoe polish.

Brown shoes to last me through the cold and wet weather

It was pretty cold outside today. I could feel my ears going numb as I walked back from the Tram station. I bumped into Sergio, the Mexican whom I did a Referat with in October last year. He went out to buy a bottle of wine for his friend's birthday.

Actually, I see him around quite often. Maybe because we happen to choose the same time to go to Town.

I have become a bit delusional after reading the German lecture notes which I had difficulties understanding. Watching war films depicting World War II in Europe seems to excite me a fair bit.

"Bitte nicht schießen! Bitte nicht schießen!"

"BANG BANG BANG"

I am unable to imitate the actual sound, and so have to settle for the Universal Round. It sounds pretty much the same no matter what rifle or handgun is used.

You might be interested to know this. I observe that artillery shells generally go "BOOM".

So, it's Sunday again soon.

13th January 2006 - Day 88

Today is designated as "Karlsruhe Appreciation Day".

I have been too tensed up by recent events concerning my Studium. Hence, I decided to take a break and get excited about this place again.

After the lecture (which I could understand what the lecturer was talking about but unable to catch the essence of what he was teaching), I went for lunch at the Mensa.

I met Autumn there and had lunch with him. I then decided to go walk around the town as I haven't been doing that for some time already.

As I was walking through the familiar streets, I was convinced that this place hat mir gut gefallen. It's what I had asked for. A town that is relatively quiet. Even though I have been here for more than 3 months, I haven't went into every shop yet. There must be something waiting for me to buy it back home.

The afternoon was spent in the hostel trying to perfect the method I came up with yesterday. No luck though. I wasn't in the right state of mind to read lecture notes.

I went to K4 Hausfest with Nan. We met Alex there and we started talking. Initially only wanted to spend an hour there. Instead, I stayed for three.

Alex got hit on. Absolutely no time was wasted. The girl asked if Alex was in a relationship after a few sentences between them.

There's another girl from Poland who approached us. She speaks with an incredibly irritating high pitched voice. And she's learning Chinese.

Other than that, there's nothing interesting. What else were you expecting?

I learned from Alex, that when one drinks beer, he sprouts nonsense. But when one drinks red wine ( no less. Whites are for ladies), he makes supposedly intelligent comments. Because knowledge lies within the wine (or some equivalent latin phrase).

Yeah, right. I'll drink some red wine just before I go for any exams here then.

But the nonsense part might be true. Just before I left, I met some fellow Studierende des Chemieingeniuerwesens. They attempted to introduce me to some guy.

"Hi. Rong Jia aus Kuching-pura."

"..."

A friend introduced him as Simon to me.

"..." Still no reply from the guy.

"Hast du so viel getrunken, dass du deinen Name vergessen hast?", I asked.

I would never have said that normaleweise.

So, time to conk out.

12th January 2006 - Day 87

Today, I made the decision to stop going for one of the lectures. I decided that my time should be better spent instead of falling asleep during the lesson .

I paid the secretary of the department a visit. I managed to get 5 gelbe Zettel for the 5 modules I am doing here. The process was not as painful as the regular students described it to be, only because I'm an exchange student.

The fact that one of the lab modules I want to take will not be graded means that I might have problems transferring the credits for this module back.

Problems never seem to run out. They are irritating, but necessary at times.

It's quite amusing to think that I went through so much trouble to find this module, make sure it fits in and everything, and finally assuming (wrongly) that it'll be graded.

It was a coincidence that I met Autumn and Nan at the Mensa for lunch today. They were quite surprised to see me too.

The rest of the day was spent holed up in the hostel, trying to devise some foolproof "understand-German-lecture-notes-immediately" method. I believe the first step goes something like this:

"I am so good in German that there's nothing in German that I cannot understand."

Say that as many times as necessary to convince yourself that it is true. That's right. Go on. Say it!

If this step should fail you (i.e. you still cannot understand German lecture notes properly after saying it for the 100th time), consider trying the alternative (which is equally effective):

"I am so good in German that there's nothing in German that I cannot understand with the help of a good English- German dictionary."

That should do the trick, though it takes a bit more time.

So, pick up a set of German lecture notes and start reading!

11th January 2006 - Day 86

Although there were no lessons in the morning, I manage to wake up at 0600. Not that I am hardworking, but because I slept very early yesterday.

Initially, I thought there would be no lessons until 1545. However, I got suspicious and decided to check on the internet to see if there are any new lecture materials uploaded.

Hah. Something was uploaded. Although the lesson plan issued in the beginning of the semester showed that there's no lessons today, I decided to print the notes and make a trip down.

How sneaky. The lecturer was right there conducting lecture. Ok, maybe she said it before that there'll be lessons. But my German comprehension power does not allow me to understand such instruction.

She went through the whole set of notes in 1.5 hour. Luckily I didn't miss this lecture!

Attendance for the Phonetik lesson was quite terrible. There were only 6 people around instead of the usual 13 people.

The whole day, I have been quite worried about the exams I'm going to take here and the procedures to register for the exams. Sounds like quite a chore to me.

Außer dem Studium, Deutschland hat mir ziemlich gut gefallen.

One of the Phonetik lesson classmates, Hongzhang, helped explain what I should do to register for exams. It did clear up my doubts and dispelled some of the worries I had.

I should fix the dates for exams with the professors soon. Just kill it and be done with it.

Wait, I have to plough through the lecture notes before going! I can already visualise myself blanking out in front of the professors. Please! Don't put a 5,0! Ich brauche nur ein 4,0!

It's not good to be the first sometimes. Like being the first SEP student from NUS to fail a module overseas.

Can you imagine that? I'm actually feeling stressed!

So, time to kill worry and stress before they kill me.

10th January 2006 - Day 85

I woke up in time to prepare for my lessons at 0945.

I met up with Autumn for lunch at the Mensa. I have to say that Mensa food is not that bad. I told Autumn that the food from a certain resturant (or rather, a cafe) back home was really nicht essbar and that Mensa was much better. Unbelievable but true.

We then went to do some grocery shopping. I went back to hostel after that.

On my way back, I saw Simon. Simon commented that I always look tired. Maybe it's the jet lag effect.

During the afternoon lessons, panic struck me. I realise that I have to register for my exams soon. All the lectures will end by mid February and I should start making preparation for the exam dates.

A month more and still nothing done yet. Great.

I was so worried that I couldn't concentrate in class. Despite the many people who said it should not be a problem, I still have my doubts about it. Surely the professors won't let you pass when you can't even express yourself properly? There's only so much I can cite "Language Difficulties" as an excuse. Wait, that's actually a reason!

Hah! Excuses!

But I made the decision to come here. I should always remind myself that.

I've finally extended the rental for my room. It's so easy when you meet the correct person. Just buzz on the door and tell her what's wrong and things are settled.

So, 11 more weeks until the end of my rental contract.

9th January 2006 - Day 84

After a two weeks break back home, I'm in Karlsruhe again.

I woke up late this morning at 0955. I wanted to have breakfast, but there wasn't much time left for me as I still had some things to pack in.

Like 6 cans of Chicken Curry, 3 packs of Chicken-in-a-Biscuit, 6 packs of instant noodles (with 5 individual packs in each bigger pack) and some other stuffs.

My parents dote on me. My father took a day's leave to see me off with my mother. My mother said if I didn't go back, they would have came over during the holidays.

I felt sad leaving them (my parents and you know who else) this time. More so than the last time. Maybe because things in Germany are somewhat more settled now.

The plane was supposed to fly off at 1435. But due to some technical problems, it only flew off at 1600.

Once I got off the plane, I went straight to collect my luggage and hurriedly went off to catch my train back to Karlsruhe. The train was on it's way right after I boarded it.

I got back here at around 1145, only to see Simon and Stefan in the living room. I couldn't catch everything that they said. Guess my German comprehension power has gone down a little.

Thinking back, the past two weeks was really enjoyable. I guess I missed home without me realising it.

So, time for bed.