University Life

Hello again ^^ after my friend reminded me that I haven't written anything in forever, I give you this post about university life in Germany and in England. Please note that these are all my experiences and things may vary in other universities, other parts of the countries and with other teachers. Oh and I study at a university of applied science, which in Germany is different from a normal university because of some entrance requirements. But more about that later on.

Lets begin with the german site of this story ^^

University life in Germany is different depending on the province (german: Bundesland) you are in. Some are taking fees and some are for free and of course there are the private universities which are very few but very expensive.
I am studying in Hesse which is pretty much in the middle of Germany XD But my friends study in other provinces so I might include some trivia from there ^^
Lets begin with the fees.
In generel education in Germany is supposed to be for free (according to some old law or so I heard). But a few years ago some provinces started with fees ranging from 400 to 500 euro per semester. Some charged these fees for longtime students (longer than a specific semester count) and others for all students. A few provinces never charged fees and still remain for free. Some get rid of the fees now and change backto the fee free system.
Adding to these fees, if the uni charges them, there is the semester fee which ranges from 50 to 290 euro and ususally includes student parliament fees, administration fees and a semester ticket for the area of your university. For my university this is basically the whole of the province Hesse in which I can therefore ride busses and trains and tubes for free. Sports clubs and societies (if they exist) cost extra.
Enough of fees now on to the student life ^^ German students mostly live in private appartements. Some alone and some in flats, I don't know the ratio but I think more students live in flats wich 2 to 5 people in there.
University halls are few and most of the time not really close to the uni. Because of their rarity they are nrealy always full and to get a room you have to apply really early.
Oh and to apply for a uni in Germany you have to have an Abitur (A-levels in England). To apply for an university of applied science you only need a specific Abitur which does not include all of the classes from a normal abitur but some more specific ones to the area of study you are interested in. The difference in the Abitur and specific Abitur is sometimes very important and sometimes nearly unimportant and due to its connection to the german high school system a whole other topic ^^
Okay ^^ now really on to the lecture part =D
First of lectures are not compulsory to attend and most of the time no attendance is taken (some seminars are different).
Students take 3-7 classes per semester. And thanks to the bachelor and master system you have a standard period of study of 6 semester (bacherlor) and 4 semester (master).
All lecturers are by default addressed by their surname and title (if they have one). It is also normal for students to be addressed by their surname.
Classes vary from course to course and the subjects vary too, of course ;-D

Now on to the english uni ^^

I study at a university in the north west of England and so my experience comes from there. I have not heard of any big differences in other party of the country (Scottland and Wales have other uni systems as far as I heard).
The fees vary from 3000 to 6000 english pounds per year and include administration fees, student union fees and other such things but they do not include a train/bus ticket or anything like that nor any fees for sports clubs or societies (those cost extra).
For housing most first year (first and second semester) students live in university owned housing (student halls) as you have a right for a room in student halls as a first year student. These student halls can be pretty expensive but mostly are right on campus and you just a to walk a short way to any campus building. Student halls are mostly flats shared by around 5 people.
To enter uni here in England you have to apply, have your A-levels done and, if you're accpeted, pay the fees fo the year.
For classes. All classes are compulsory and attendance is taken every day. In our uni you even get an online attendance list to see if you are signed in for every class you attended and how many you missed.
In computing (which I am doing) we have 6 classes and my friend how studies literature has 3 classes per year.
Lecturers are addressed by there given name and address the students by their given name too (took me some time to get used to...)

All in all I must say uni in England seems more cozy than in Germany as in Germany you are expected to plan and prepare more stuff by yourself whereas in England there is always someone there to help you.
I am still undecided which system I like better as you grow up faster with the German system but you are more supported in the english one.

Tadaa ^^ you reached the end of my post ^^
If you have any questions feel free to ask I will try to answer them to the best of my abilities ^^

Love
Thym

Manchester and curry-a-thon

About Manchester XD

Well our trip there was really short as it was only a day trip for shopping ^^ Hanna actually planned the whole trip and Oli was so nice to drive us there with his car, which he actually brought from Germany! It is really funny seeing the way people react when the steering wheel is on the other side of the car XD
On the way to Manchester I fell asleep pretty fast as I can just never manage to stay awake in a car XD It was still pretty funny and after nearly getting lost in Manchester after some driving around in circles we finally found the Arndale Shopping Center. I have to say it is huge O.o The structure itself is pretty easy to understand (it's a square) but just the amount of people and shops baffled me! People everywhere XD
After walking around for a few minutes Hanna mentioned that, by chance, our friends Katy and Ashley were at the Arndale Center, too! I phoned and texted them and after a few tries we got in to contact with them and could decide to meet outside a store ^.^ Of course we wouldn't just wait around like that so we decided to hit the first store while waiting for the others ;-D Sorry we're just girl ^^ (well and Oli but he was really patient, and I think he actually had a good time too while we both made fun of the clothes in the stores XD)
After meeting the others we decided to just walk around a little and see where the shopping gods would take us XD
We went into quite a few shops, looked around a lot, split up, meet up again and spilt up again XD It was really nice to just go with the flow and see what happened XD Well... it was fun until I got hungry XD But then we got some delicious Ben and Jerry's Ice cream and just walked around some more.
In Arndale Center there are, as I said, quite a few great shops but for germans there are also two shops that are really funny XD

druckers actually means printers in german XD

Bhs means is an abbreviation of bra in german XD

As you can guess both shops had nothing to do with their german meanings XD But it was still really funny to see XD

After walking around some more we went outside the shopping center and walked a short way through Manchester. I have no clue why we started walking but I was really happy when I got myself a burger on the way back XD Finally some real food ^.^ We spilt up again outside the shopping center and Hanna, Oli and I decided to get back to the car and drive home. 

When we got into the car and drove down the parking center we realized at the end that english parking centers are not build for german cars XD The slot to give the card back is on the side of the front passenger XD 

On our way back out of the city I managed to stay awake and while we took and extra tour around Manchester (yes... sooo planned XDDD, we totally didn't get lost again XD) I took some pictures from around the city. I just love the way the old buildings are intermingled with new ones!

here are some pictures from around the city:

just gotta love christmas decoration in october XD

Just before we got back on the motorway I saw this sign and I have to say it is probably the most disgusting thing I ever heard about... But it sounds like something truly british XD

After we got back to Preston Oli was so nice to cook a curry for Hanna and me and we just hung around and talked that evening =D It was really nice and funny and one of the evenings I'll definitivly remember =D

The next day we met up again and this time we cooked our own curry ^^

We did a japanese curry rice and some mocchi for desert ^^ I think everyone pretty much liked the curry but the sesame mocchi weren't everyones thing XD As I am addicted to both I just loved that meal XD

That's pretty much everything about Manchester and the following curry marathon (which I like to call curry-a-thon ) xD

Love
Thym

Sooo long

since my last post... I sincerely apologize for that but uni is really taking up lots of time right now XD
I will write some more posts today and the next few days ^.^ One about a really short trip to Manchester and one about  the uni system here in England. It really differs from the one in Germany.

Love
Thym

Lymm

Okay. Now this is a little late but I wanted to tell you about  my little trip to the small village of Lymm. =D
We went there some time ago to celebrate our friend Katy's birthday early. For all the germans reading this: Yes, here in England it is perfectly normal to celebrate a birthday in advance. Here it does not bring bad luck or anything ;-D

Anyway... on to the story =D

Our trip started at the Preston train station. (Where else? XD) I have to say... I like the train station. There is so much life in there it is just nice to see. There are also real english phone booths in front of it! What a real english one is you ask? well this one:

Arriving at the train station early ( I can be on time too ;-P) I looked around in there but because I was too lazy I didn't take any pictures. My bad =) 

After I found my friends we got our ticktes and went to our platform and waited for our train. It is quite funny XD whenever I think platform I associate platform 9 3/4 XD I really have to go there one time =D

While waiting we goofed around a bit and the I saw the sign for our train XD It actually said London on it! 

I was just a little bit tempted to skip Lymm and just stay on the train to see how far I would be able to go XD

After arriving in Warrington Katy's mother picked us up to give us a lift to Lymm. That was so nice of her =D

I really like Lymm. It is a beautiful old village that has just this touch of mystery =D Perfect combination for me =D

There are actual floating home boats on the river through the village. I was imediately reminded of "The Golden Compass" or "Northern Lights" as the book is called here in the UK. I just love those boats =D

Isn't it beautiful? =D

Hanging out that evening with my friends was awesome =D We ate at the best Italien restaurant ever (Seriously... only the ones in Italy itself are better XD), joked around a lot und finished the great evening with a short SingStar contest and the movie Love acutally... I had not watched the movie beforehand I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised. It's not just a mushy love story but actually a sweet movie about love (not just romantic but family-wise too!)

To summ the evening up I have some pictures from the restaurant XD

The last picture is actually drawn by me XD Aren't I the perfect artist? XD LOL

After retirering and talking waaay too long with Hanna (seriously... we're talking 3 am here) we were woken up by Katy way too early XD (in my opinion). But she gave us toast and tea as a peace offering .. well food... so I had to forgive her XD

On sunday we just walked around the village and the beautiful village and the dam of near the village. We were really lucky with the weather XD Here are some impressions from there:

 This is the Lymm Cross. It has a pretty interesting story as nobody knows where it comes from or what it's purpose is. I actually took nearly 50 pictures from every angle and I want to try to find out some more information about this thing. It even has cryptic messages on three sides.
They are: Think of the last. We are a shadow. Save time.
Each above one sundial respectively. On the fourth side is a plaque talking about the restoration in 1897. I don't know if there was a sundial or anything else on that side before the new plaque was added. Another thing I have to find out XD
All in all quite a mystery and I intend to solve at least some part of it XD That's what I love England for: Mysteries at every corner (and sometimes a good ghost story too XD).

England. Flowers anywhere XD Even on the top of a window where nobody can reach XD

The swans in the last two pictures were a beautiful family that followed us whenever we were at the river :3 They were sooooo cute! =D

In the end we went back to Katy's and from there to the train station. But not before seeing something that just made the whole weekend a whole lot more awesome: PIRATES!!! XD

I just love these people for doing that XD

Oh! Another great thing that happend once we got back to Preston. I got something for free XD

Hanna, Ashley and I went to the city and visited the Lush store there. I actually just wanted to go home but ended up tagging along to this store XD The others were given advise about the different products there while I just walked around the store looking at things (I love Lush stores. Always so much to explore! )

In the end Ashley and Hanna asked for some testers and I just stood behind them creepyly XD I just wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone XD

But the saleswoman was soo nice *__* She actually gave us a full package of this one product Aqua Marina which they couldn't sell anymore but which was still good till end of november. And I just love it XD It makes my skin feels sooo smooth =D Though I had to convince myself in the begining to use it as it looks and smells a little bit like seaweed (well, they use seaweed, duh XD) 

That was the end of the awesome weekend and in the end I just fell into my bed and was happy to have been together with my friends for the whole weekend! =D

Love

Thym

English Sweets

This time I just wanted to show you some of the english sweets I encountered up to now. Not all are purely english but some of them XD
Let's begin with the biggest mystery I encountered here: Custard. Everyone talks abaout it, everyone knows it but somehow nobody could describe it to me... Our dear friend Katy actually bought some just to show us what it looks like:

As you can see it looks like vanilla sauce... but it isn't XD It's what we germans (and the americans too XD) call pudding! Hence our new group joke: the english put pudding on their pudding XD
It tastes really good, has the consistency of just normal vanilla pudding and is, as you can guess, put onto puddings (deserts).

Another english thing I always wanted to try is mince pie. Katy was so nice to let all of us try a mince pie each when we were at her house in Lymm (report will follow shortly XD).
It looks like this:

It tasted really good! Lots of cinnamon (which I love *_*) fruits and other things mixed together and put into a pie =D Perfect idea! It is traditionally eaten around christmas time if I understood right but we tried it in october anyway XD It actually tastes like christmas XD Perfect thing and on my have to buy list for when I return to Germany.

While writing this I get the feeling that Katy is treating us to way to many sweets here XD But alas the next one is also something she introduced to us =D Yorkshire Mix. It looks like this:

Looks great and tastes even better! Especially if you're a sweet tooth like me XD I think it's pure sugar with some ingredients added to it. I love it and will probably take some home with me too XD I liked the brown ones with the white stripes the most! :3

The next one is also a small treat and something I was assured was completly english: Mints. I was a little bit sceptical at first for I had some bad experiences with mints... some really taste like... nasty.
Here is the one I tried:

And I have to say: it's great! I can only recommend it. Particulary after a meal. It really refreshes your mouth afterwards. I wish I had more than one but I guess that's what makes it more special for me. XD

Last but not least something that is not purely english. In fact I think it's a worldwide know treat: cupcakes! But not any cupcakes... The best ones I ever had! See:

Perfect! They are: banoffee (banana and toffee), plain chocolate, lemon, mars bar, daim bar, and just pink XD
I didn't eat the pink one so I cannot say anything about that but the other ones were great! I like the banoffee and the mars one the most XD They actually have a filling in there center *__* They are all sold here on campus every tuesday and sometimes fridays! Maybe I'll get one tomorrow ;-D Looking at them again makes me want to eat one XD

That's all about sweets for now XD I have a sugar from just thinking about all this sugar (Hot chocolate fudge cake not even shown x.x) So I'll end this here XD
A report about my trip the beautiful village of Lymm will follow soon.

Love
Thym

The Lake District - Part 2

Picking up where I left in the last entry, let's end the story about our adventure at the lake district =D
As I already told you we ate some of our lunch in the bus to the cottage. While on the bus I envisioned a haunting, old and small cottage like from a movie... I really liked that thought and got excited to see it in the end.
After about 3 stops which took 15 minutes, I think, we arrived at Grasemere. A small village right next to a beautiful lake and in between the mountains.
Most of the streets there looked like this:

I loved those streets *__* And with my favourite stone houses! As we walked eup to the cottage I got more and more excited. 

I've got to say: I was disapointed. Dove Cottage as it is called is not one of the really old ones (at least not from the outside, we didn't go in) und it's been made a museum. I don't like it when old houses and sights are made a museum... most of the time they lose their charme with the business going on in there.

But alas , it is still a nice house:

But the trip there was worth it for Ashley seemed really happy about being at this place where the famous poet William Wordsworth wrote some of his poets. To be honest I don't remember ever hearing about him but Ashley assured me that  he is really famous XD I might look up some of his poets. I actually like the short one on the plate on the second picture. 

While the others looked closer at the cottage I saw something on the other side of the street:

I think it's scary. O.o

After hanging around the cottage for a little we decided to got back to drink a hot chocolate before taking the bus back. Here is the hot chocolate:

 It looked really good but sadly it wasn't as delicious as it looked. =( But it was still nice to sit in the cafe and enjoy talking to my friends. =)

What followed was nearly an hour of talking, talking and more talking XD I loved it =D 

Yet, everything as to come to an end so we went back on the street and on to the bus stop. We saw that the bus would come in 20 minutes so we decided to walk just a little bit down the street towards a lake ( of course not that far away, still traumatized from our last bus stop encounter XD)

Here are some pictures of the 20 minutes =D :

After taking the pictures and  goofying around for a bit we went back to the bus station jsut to be on the safe side ;-D

The bus to take us back came right in time and we went upstairs again as this bus actuall only had half of a roof O.o Oh and we saw an awesome sign XD:

During the bus ride we ate some more of our lunch and enjoyed the view. =D Thanks to our awesome timing and lots of luck we got to the ferry in the very last minute to board. Actually they already readied the boat to take off but when we came running down the landing stage they were so kind to wait for us! Thank you boat people! =D

On the ride back I took some pictures too:

The foggy weather was acutally quiet good to give the area this mysterious feeling XD

When we arrived back in Windermerewe decided to explore this city (town?) a little bit more. And it was so worth it XD This town is so full of confectionary *__* it's everywhere XD

It was great! I got a huge lollipop *__* and Ashley should do commercials for sweets XD

In the end we ate way to much that day and most of it were sweets XD But I regret nothing XD

On the way back to the coach we kept going into shops and jsut goofying around and I took some flower pictures. That's what I love England for. Bad weather but beautiful nature!

In the end we were all exhausted but happy and back in our coach on the way back to Preston. 

This picture sums most of it up pretty well XD :

Together with the earlier pictures of Ashely it actually sums up the day XD Rain, walking, stone walls and food XD

That's it from my side about the lake district.

Feel free to leave me a comment if you have any question.

Love

Thym