Bout that time?

Perhaps it is time I got back in to blogging as a way of keeping in contact with everyone.


It has been a year since I have blogged. All those points about the differing education systems have become more and more apparent - it is an intense education and when you are studying, there is not much time left over for anything else. Any left over time is spent raking in the big bucks (cause we all know waitressing and bar work is a money maker) and having fun at the gym.


It is summer, at last, and boy is it pleasant. 


I am going to be spending almost 6 weeks in Denmark. I fly up there on Thursday, spent a few days with an old friend from our time in Botton Village, and begin Summer School on Monday. The course is Cross Cultural Management and Marketing. And it is in english. What a treat!
Jan is meeting me for a weeks camping once the course finishes at the end of August. Can´t wait for a holiday.

This year has seen a few of those - holidays.

In April Tom and Mel came to visit for a few weeks. We had a devilishly good time. We drove to beautiful, artsy and cultural Amsterdamn and got lost biking on canals.

In May 2 weeks were spent in London. We stayed with friends from Botton and then two nights with Tom and Mel in their new place - they have a great set up and it was great to see them. Jan hurried home for University and I happened to have another week off so spent a week at Bel´s, a friend from home. It was fan-bloody-tastic. I love London. It was wonderful to spend 2 entire weeks there. The best part was seeing people I love again and spending time with them, but also spending a lot of time on my own visiting museums and spending money I couldn´t afford to spend (and delighting in glutenfree heaven)

In June my best friend, Alice, came to stay for 10 days. We had so much fun - there was a lot of laughing, a lot of eating, a lot of shopping (this time not me), a lot of drinking (also not me) and also some great workouts and spa times. I loved seeing Jan and her interact, they got on great which was fantastic for me. She was here for my birthday and it was very special indeed.

Add in Denmark to the holiday list. Plus another trip to England over Chrissie - Oxford with the family, and that seems like a pretty succesful year in Europe to me.

I guess I stopped blogging because I wasn´t particularly enjoying life in Germany in any way. But this year has been a big turn around and I am putting a lot less pressure on my life and just enjoying it.

In other news - my little Sister is going to be in Europe in 7 weeks time! That is that - all the Moore siblings in Europe (just a great excuse for the parents to visit us all). She has some ridiculously amazing tours booked and has also booked in some ridiculously amazing time with me and I cannot wait.

Also coming to Europe is my friend Sarah, she will be studying in Mannheim, an hour and a halfs drive away from me! Who woulda thunk it. Can´t wait to have a fellow Adelaidian representing in the Father Land.

That is all from me - bed time as I have a lot of organising to do tomorrow. Including packing (1 day before my flight, don´t take after Dad in that aspect).

See you again soon.
Love, G
x

The one where I am a student.

In the middle of march I started University at the Hochschule der Medien, or the University of Media. I am studying Media Publishing with about 30 others. It seems like, and is, such a little group, in comparison to the amount of students I „studied“ Psychology with. There are some very big differences between the HdM and the Adelaide Uni´s that I have had experience with.

>> Firstly, and this is one of the main supporters in the move to Germany in the first place:

→ Uni costs 500 euros a semester. Full Stop. Well, open that full stop – it´s free for me.

Free University Education? The avoidance of a giant HECS debt – that was a big motivator for applying in the first place. Some of you may be thinking you have to be super smart to get free education here. No, not that case at all. You just have to have at least 2 siblings.

That is it – the criteria for qualifiing for student fee free education: 2 siblings who have not recieved free education in this state in the past.

Orientation Day. The two closest to me are fellow publishers, Julia and Karl.

>> Secondly, and probably the most obvious to anyone, the language.
→ I study in German. There is yet to be any English, but I think in 3^rd or 4^th semester there are some free choice subjects that are taught in English.
It is definately a challenge; in no way is it easy. But it is a challenge that I welcome, and one that I genuinely do enjoy. I love languages, and have invested so much time in to this one, so I would feel a little cheated if half of my courses were in English. I want to study in German and have a german education and be able to say, I studied in another language.

The language aspect is also a whole lot simpler than I had imagined it. I thought that there was no way I would be able to sit in the lectures and understand everything, and that I would be learning German all the time just to keep up with my peers. This is not the case – I find it surprisingly and refreshingly uncomplicated.

There are times when I have a big question mark all over my face. However, normally every single student in the room has that same confused signal plasted all over them. It is it in the slight tilt of the head, or the turn to the neighbour and silently mouthing of, „was?“ or simply „huh?“ This happens in subjects like Theory of Accounting and Business Management, where everyone is challenged by the subject specific terms.

My good friend Eszter, who comes from Hungary and also speaks German as a second language, prophesised that as soon as Uni started I would notice a very dramatic and sudden jump in my language ability. All of a sudden I am able to make a lot more connections between different topics. My vocabulary has grown greatly (out of necessity: who learns words like „parchment“ when you do not have anything to do paper and printing).

I also am thrilled to say that my thoughts are mostly formed in German. Subjects like maths, I would have thought would stay in English, just based on the years and years of Mr. Morten drilling them in to my head. But the terms have swifty changed to German, and when I work out the problems in my head it is no longer equal and derivite, but „ist gleich“ and „Ableitung.“

I also take a class called Subject German for Media and Communication. There are 5 or so foreigners. The rest, about 40, are German´s, who are a lot better than me at everything to do with the language. But it goes to show how difficult the language is in itself, that one needs to take a course in how to express oneself correctly for the production of scientific and or economically accepted articles, like a Thesis. There are a certain set of rules (with more exceptions than those that prove the rule) that dictate how one expresses the opinion of another, or that which another person has said. As a very general rule, German's avoid this form of speach and have no idea what the rules are. The have a gut feeling. We all have this gut feeling. It just sounds right. Except, with this form, it sounds wrong. To everyone. And so foreigners are not alone in their mistakes in this area.

Tonight Madi pointed me out to another big difference that I should make sure to note in this post, as she is a fellow blogger, which one can find here, I talk about these things with her. Actually, all I have to say there, is because she is a fellow GIRL, I talk about these things with her. Girls talk about everything. We really do. Be warned.

>> E-Learning

→ As a Flinders student – I was hardly present. Which for the nerd that I am, quite shocking was. It was simply too far away, too long of an annoying drive in mostly peak hour, to never get a parking spot near the lecture hall´s that I needed, so I had to hike up the hill afterwards. And plus I never took the time to make friends so never wanted to see anyone.

However, this didn´t mean that I never „went“ to lectures. All lectures were video taped and podcased. I passively attended each one, when nicht in the ideal form.

At the HdM we do not have this option – I think the main reason would have to be the size – we simply do not have anywhere near the numbers that Flinder´s has, and most people are diligent (still), and attend lectures and tutorials.

Consequently one truely does need to be in the lectures (apart from theory of business management – the professor is new and is worse than the text book). Furthermore, in Publishing, there is not la lot of literature to help students. For example, in Print Media there is only very technological text books, which one cannot read unless one works in the field, and possibly wrote the book themself.

I am, therfore, at Uni everyday, and not just a few hours – most days from 8.15 am until 7.15pm.

I see this as a positive and a negative. On the plus side, I am actively present daily, and do not have a backlog of lectures to sift through. On the negative side, on day´s like Monday when I only have a 1 hour lunch break between lectures and otherwise only a break to get to the next event, the quality of learning is low. I struggle to concentrate in the later lecture block, and consequenstly skip the second half of said block. Part of it has to do with sanity and partly energy and the knowledge that if I worked on that which I skipped alone at home, it would be more succesful than sitting in a lecture hall and playing Angry Birds, because even when I try to listen, everything slides over my head.

The HdM does, however, use the Internet to support our learning. We are, afterall, the University of Media, and do know how to use that to our own strengths. We have E-learning and a lot of technological options, but a system that fails Germany wide is the recording of lectures.

>>Form of University

→ do you study at a University, or at a University of Media, for Technology, for Engineering, for Education, for Sport, for Environment? Here there are so many options for education that give the average Joe a chance, and also make it complicated for the choice of which University is best for which subject. Should one go to a specialesed or general School? In Australia, you just have (mostly) Universities which are better in certain fields. Here, there are entire Universities dedicated to fields, and not just a few.

There are different forms of year 12 certifacte, according to which one can attend specific universities. One may also undertake an educational proccess similar to an apprentichip, in that one works for a company and learns on the job. It differs in that one has a lot of school blocks in between and studies how to become a business person and subsequent job relevant subjects. Once one has finished said apprentichip, on has the right to study, which many many students do.

Year 12 also finishes a lot later in Germany than in Australia, so even though I study with mostly already educated students (i.e. Students who have finished this apprentichip form in some sort of media or business area, and or Students who have studied other subjects), even the younglings fresh from Year 12 are 20 or over. It is fantastic as there is a very wide collective pool of knowledge which we bring to the table. Certain subjects which one student is a master in can be subjects which another has never even seen before, and together we have little study groups which ease our jump in to Uni significantly.

>> Difficulty

→ 6 Semesters for a Bachelor. You study long, you study hard, you study a lot. There are incredibly high expectations of every student and if you don´t keep up be prepared for goodbye´s. Brutal, but the quality of the students with a Bachelor at the HdM is very high. 95% of Media Publishers get a job in the company that they wrote their Bachelor Thesis in. Numbers like that are hard to find in other specialised Universities.

>> Experience

A „Praxis“ semester is essential. It is part of our Bachelor. We recieve genuine experience.

Speaking of Bachelor´s – Media Publishing is a Bachelor of Science. Strange. But fitting based on how much business stuff gets packed in there.

>> Internationalism

→ The uni loves it when their students study abroad. Especially when it is in another language. English of course suggested. We also have an entire faculty called „German Chinese Printing (something or rather)“ where students learn about both markets, learn the language they don´t already speak and produce media in both.

>>Modernisation

We our decked out with Apple. All the students have macbook pro´s, iPhones, iPad´s and the computer rooms are called „Mac Labs“. Our hardware is hardcore. I have also become a typical HdMer – am currently writing from a spanking new Macbook Pro which I am completely in love with due to the speed in which I can work in Photoshop and my Publishingprograms. I am a sheep and apple is my shepard.

__________________________________________________________

I think they are all the main points, and there are quite a few – if only I had taken the time this has taken to perhaps read over my notes I took from Publishing Market´s today, I would be the student I want to be. Instead, I am chosing to be the friend and family member I want to be, and keep you all in the loop.

I also want to make it clear that I am by no way deprived of fun, despite the high expectations of University life. I adore the people I study with and do a lot with them apart from study groups, still see as much of possible of our best friends Madi and Flip and meet Eszter weekly for a strong coffee and gossip. Life is a balancing act and it is taking me a while to get my footing on the rope between Uni and friendships, but they are both very important to me, and I am trying my best!

Thank you for having the patience and or desire to get through that mamoth post - I hope you all feel a little bit more informed about the subject and please ask any questions and or email me slash comment because due to the lack of internet, I also have no idea what is going on in YOUR lives.

I miss you all terribly

xxx G

Bad Georgie, Bad!

Apologies for the lack of blogage on my end - we have had no internet for 2 months! We still don´t, but I managed to buy myself a new macbook pro and figure out how to steal the internet at starbucks, so I have 15 minutes left in which I am going to do some bullet point updates! That is, unless Tom manages to sign in to skype and I will chat with him.

• We moved flat´s. We live in Stuttgart Mitte. It is amazing. Our flat is gorgeous and we are incredibly happy there!
• I started University. What to say...it is simply fantastic. I didn´t imagine that I would love it so much, but I do! I love the people, I love the course, I do not necessarily love how I am always studying, but hey, I wished this upon myself! It is hard work, and I will go in to detail in another post when we get the net set up (should be in the next few weeks. Then again, it should have been 2 months ago....not our fault!)
• It is spring. And I am LOVING and HATING it at the same time. Loving it because at last the weather is fan bloody tastic. Hating it because I am suddenly the 14 year old me with hayfever. Turns out, Germany has a lot of brand new pollens that I clearly didn´t get desensitised against with all those injections. I wake up looking like the devil and can´t breathe. But I would rather warm weather and allergies than freezing and airways that work. 
• Here are a few photos from the last few months because I have to go now! Love and Miss EVERYONE! would love to hear from you if you can drop me an email! xxxxx

Can´t enjoy the sun without your best friend can you?

First sunny wednesday of the year!

Jan and I sporting our new boarding jackets for the last time this season

Painting the new flat

I am, from March, going to be a student of Media Publishing at the University of Media. I just found out - however, lost our key for the post box in doing so. Who cares! I achieved a huge goal of mine!

The Girlship

Sometimes we need to be reminded how special and appreciated we are. Without Madi, my days in Stuttgart would be spent on my couch, in my PJ´s drinking tea until I can do something with my life! Fortunately for me, I have the best person in the world right here with me to pull me out of the house, drink countless coffee with me, and share in all the fun and suffering of being an Ex-Pat. She makes me happy, and Madi, you should always remember that.

The Girlship.

 

And she is simply stunning too.

clearly, I love her. Photo courtesey of Philipp L.

Silvester

The group minus Jan sitting down for Raclette Dinner. Myself, Greg, Philipp, Madi, Philo and Bel.

We played many a game, that included us not being able to call each other by name, so Greg was the Proffesor, Madi the Proffesor´s Assistant, and Philipp Hans Christian Anderson, which ended up being Hans, and then, because I am currently enjoying Star Wars, Solo.

Mäxle is a dice game that involves a bit of trickery and results in some heavy drinking.

The game also, quite obviously, involves some incredible dancing.

At 11.30pm we headed out with hands full of Fireworks to the top of the hill to get a great view over the city and to watch everyone else´s fireworks as well as enjoying our own.

And enjoy them we did!

There were more frivolities to be enjoyed once we got home, and the night ended with Jan falling asleep at 4.30am, and the others leaving around then too.

The next day was a fun clean up, but it went really fast, and Bel and I cooked up a feast with the left over cheese.

New Years Verdict? Wicked.

The Firework Tales: a Greg and Jan pictoral adventure.

Before

Partners in crime

Greg prepares for action

Jan joins the fun

Jan pops out

Greg joins the party

Had enough

Nap time after a big day out

This weekend? Boarding in the black forrest, more Greg, Jan and Philipp frivolities and the German´s learn to kick a real footy.

Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once

A fantastic way to sum up our family - an attribute which is alive and well in each member of us,  and that one learns as soon as one spends time with us.

Life is too short to not enjoy it. We all have the ability to make the mistakes that make life fun, and we all get it from our Kelso, our Pa. We don´t regret enjoying ourselves, and we take every opportunity we can. A gathering of loved ones is definately a chance to make a few of those (mostly wine related) mistakes - and here are a few of them.

Pa and Gran - you would have been proud of Greg and I during these holidays. Using Gran´s love of culture, languages and all things sophisticated, and Pa´s love of all behaviour unsophisticated, we truly lived up to our heritage. Bel and Jan fit in with us quite smashingly.   

Myself, Bel, Jan and Greg with Feuersee in the background, right outside of die Rote Kapelle - my work.

This thursday evening also featured wine stained mouths, Greg´s first snowball fight, a snowball aimed perfectly in to my handbag, delicious Taco´s and left overs for midnight snacks, pretending not to know each other on the underground in case of a ticket control, delicious cocktails for Bel and I, laughter and giggles and not enough sleep.

All in all, a great first day with my cousin!

A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.

 Christmas Day

• Slept in, lovely.
• Jan went boarding for half the day
• Ate belated breakfast with Robert and Andrea
• All wanted to go out in the snow for a long time
• Jan came home exhausted, but wanted to spend time with us
• We all went for a hike up in the forrest right near the house

Jan brought his home made snow-skate along.

 

 Jan and I both collapsed after a while, snow is exhausting! Especially with a boy who throws snowballs.

 That night we went to the city to meet up with friends, it was lovely to see Tini and give her a gift, and Jan stayed longer than I as I was poooooooped.

On the 26th we went out for lunch with the grandparent´s, but it took us a good half hour to actually leave, because Timo had taken the new car, so we had to defrost the little lupo! The lock was frozen and the following pictures (cheeky Jan taking it from the bathroom window getting out of helping!) are after quite a bit of work on our behalf!

 

 

 And that, my friends, was my Christmas in Freiburg. That night we came back to Stuttgart and I was bumming around feeling homesick until Thursday the 30th, when I had some very special visitors.

Today I went shopping with Madi, it was hugely succesful because of the sales, hardly any money was spent but a lot was recieved. Watch out this week for some New Years pictures, they could very well knock your socks off.

Title Quote: Carl Reiner

Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men, and Batteries not Included.

Oh Christmas blogging, why does the time keep evading me! Online shopping and visitors and general time wasting has been put ahead of you.

Showtime, Christmas Eve.  

Jan and his bro got back from boarding with a visitor in tow - Jo from Botton. He is living in Freiburg, and had no where to spend Christmas. Seeing as Jan spent one with his family and we lived with him for 9 months, we thought it would be lovely to invite him to ours! It definately brought a new level of comfort, as I was able to speak English. And it was a lot of fun too.

We started the evening with dinner, meat fondue. 

Jan´s grandfather is an artist and musician, and he brings his accordian to every family function, Christmas is no different! 

Timo, Marius and Robert all had instruments too. A real family affair of Caroling. A new for me! Jan and I are both tone deaf, so we just laughed along with the nice music in the background!

 

We then took it in turns to unwrap presents. Here is me loving my new tea pot. Jan knows me so well!

 

Each of us then messed around with our gifts, chatted, and ate yummy desert. The boys all got a little toy instrument, jan´s was the best, a guitar that has a motion sensor so that when you play air guitar, it actually plays! Jan was a riot on it.

 We took the traditional Christmas photo, and then the evening had come to an end, and I sat on the couch by the tree and rang home. It was a lovely christmas eve.