First Year in Germany

I'm not exactly proud of this, but I've reached a new record today. This text that you're reading right now took a year to write! Actually, it took a day, but I've been meaning to write it since last year, but I was either too busy, too tired, or too lazy to do so. The mañana habit at work. Or mañaño habit in my case. I decided to sit down and write this for two reasons. First, because I was sick and couldn't do anything else. Second, because today I'm celebrating my first year anniversary of living in Germany! I can't believe it's been a year. On one hand, I feel like I just got here and still know so little about this country. On the other hand, I've gone through so many experiences, it's like I've been living here for a decade already. I can't explain it.

A year ago from today, I arrived in Strasbourg Airport, where a friend picked me up and brought me straight to my dormitory in Freiburg. It was an exciting day. I felt like a kid with new shoes! I couldn't stand or sit still that day, and despite my jet lag, couldn't fall asleep easily that night. Not a lot of people are given the chance to start anew, to "recompile" their life so to speak (I'm such a geek!). It's an opportunity I didn't want to waste.The first two weeks, I just did administration- and matriculation-related stuff. It was my first experience with German bureaucracy. Before I could enroll, I had to prove that I was insured. Before I could get health insurance, I had to open a bank account from which the insurance company could deduct the fees every month automatically. Before I could open an account at a bank, I had to prove that I lived in Freiburg. To prove that I lived in Freiburg, I had to register with the city. To register, I had to show the city officials my rental contract, which I had to pick up from a university office handling all dormitory matters (a.k.a. the Studentenwerk). To be allowed to live in the dorms though, I had to prove I was enrolled at the university, which meant I had to get insurance, a bank account, city residence permit, and yadayadayada. OK, so where the heck could I start??? Fortunately, there was a way to insert oneself into this endless loop. The university acceptance letter is enough evidence of my intention to enroll, so I could sign a rental contract with this document alone. However, after I'd enrolled and everything, I still had to send my proof of enrollment to the Studentenwerk, to prove that I just didn't trick them into thinking I wanted to enrol at the university so I could get cheap accommodations. Smart, huh? There's no fooling the system!

Between breaks or when I didn't make it to an office before closing time, I just cycled around the city. Freiburg is one of Germany's greenest cities, and here, cycling is encouraged. There are bike lanes everywhere, and one can get to any point of the city from the center in half an hour, without having to go uphill. I love biking. It gives me a sense of freedom that I don't get from driving a car. I can weave through traffic easily, can get to places where cars can't go, and don't have to worry about parking and the price of gasoline. Sometimes I biked in the Black Forest (home of the Black Forest cake). It was only 10 minutes away from my dorm. I don't know why they call it the Black Forest, but I like the name -- sounds magical. And the breathtaking views from there could easily cast a spell on anyone. When I went there, I particularly loved going downhill as fast as I could, with the sound of cracking dried leaves and stone rubbing against stone before me, wind blowing against my face, and behind me a trail of pebbles bouncing gently down the slope. It was exhilarating! Definitely an "I'm the King of the World!" moment.

Classes started in the middle of October. I took only three Computer Science subjects, so I could better acclimate to the student life after being a non-student for eight years. It turned out to be a great decision. Those three subjects were enough to almost make me throw the towel. I had to relearn Vector Math, NP Completeness, Linear Programming, and Recurrence Equations. I had to study things like Voronoi Diagrams and Delaunay Triangulations, KD Trees, and Support Vector Machines. I had nightmares about my Genetic Algorithms maliciously inverting values in my Priority Search Trees. Aside from CS courses, I also took a German language course (Tuesday and Thursday evenings), and on Wednesday nights, I played guitar and recorder in a Taizé prayer meeting. I had a full schedule, with almost every waking moment spent studying, preparing for, or doing something. The following semester, I took five CS subjects (plus German, Taizé, and Salsa). These five were not as hard as the three in the previous semester, but I had a lot more to do. I'm not done with the semester actually. I have one more exam to do on the10th of October. Then the next semester begins on the 24th.

So far, I've been army crawling my way through this AppliedComputer Science program. It's been a struggle. Despite the name, we study more theory than applied things in this program, and our professors, all of them, have at least one PhD degree, and they all have this theoretical bias. Eight years of industry experience had made me more practical, but at the same time took away my ability to digest theoretical concepts. I do have a legitimate complaint: I have this feeling that they're shaping us to become future PhD students. I wonder how many of my professors have actually worked outside the academe and know what is expected of us by the industry. Oh well. I applied to this program to learn about various fields of IT that I never got to touch during my years working as an SAP Basis Administrator. I wanted to know what else is out there, so I'd have an idea what to get into after my program. I am getting this exposure now, so all is not for naught.

My life outside the university is definitely much more interesting, though not always easier. Most of the hardships stem from my inability to express myself fluently in German. I haven't gotten myself into trouble yet, but I've said embarrassing things that to this day my dorm mates still use to poke fun at me. The default language at home is German, with English as an emergency backup language (but with no guarantees that the others will understand). During the first semester, I made the mistake of relying too much on this backup language, so my German hardly improved. The following semester, I made a point to use English less. I even ended up promising to speak only German in our dorm starting August. When I couldn't say something in German, I just did Charades. I did pretty good, but pantomiming has inherent limitations. How do you do things like "money order" and "cashier's check"? Or "package delivery confirmation receipt"? I thought "tone dialing" was simple, but after charading it out with all my might in front of a dorm mate, she still didn't understand. It took maybe half an hour to explain the concept of "collect call", but after getting my question across, another dorm mate told me he didn't know how to make such calls. Anyway, for hopeless cases, I had to do research on my own, by checking Internet resources or making phone calls to a bunch of people. I found out that there's no such thing as money order in Germany, that cashier's checks exist but cost a whopping 14 € per check, that delivery confirmation receipt service is available at the post office, that our phone at home is simply not capable of tone dialing, and that I had to call AT&T, MCI, or Sprint, not Deutsche Telekom, to place a collect call. (By the way, it's shocking that DT's employees don't know what collect calls are). There are, however, some non-language-related annoyances that happen here that simply defy explanation. One glaring example is their debit card system. My bank gave me a debit card (a.k.a. EC Karte) which I could use in all establishments that show the logo. The debit card works either like an ATM card (e.g. you punch in your PIN to authorize the transaction) or like a credit card (e.g. you sign a receipt). But the EC Karte they gave me did not have a signature line at the back, so establishments that use the signature system don't accept my card. I went to my bank and asked for a debit card with a signature line, but they refused to give me one because money didn't regularly "flow" into my account, because I deposited money into my German bank account on an as-needed basis. Why on earth money had to regularly flow into my account so I could be given that signature line, I have no idea. They offered no answer when I asked. I'm very tempted now to just paste a piece of paper at the back of my card and sign it. By the way, very few establishments here accept credit cards. Even big supermarkets, restaurants, and electronic stores don'taccept them. They're probably just trying to avoid the fees imposed by the credit card companies, so they could keep the prices low for their customers. But despite this, prices are not exactly cheap here. I also had to get used to the fact that almost nothing's for free here. You pay for water in almost all restaurants, even for Leitungswasser (tap water). You pay to use the toilet, even in some restaurants. There are hotels/hostels where you have to pay to use the shower. You pay for plastic bags in the supermarket. You pay to call the customer service hotline of a company whose product you want to buy. You pay when you call your neighbor (no such thing as local flat rate phone service). You pay for your bank accounts. You pay to get to use a credit card (admittedly not a new concept in the Philippines and USA, but you don't get any points or benefits from using most credit cards here). You pay to use a television (this is not a cable fee, but sort of a TV tax to support the almost-commercial-free public channels). And so on. The only thing I can think of that's free here is air: air that you breathe, and air you put in your bike or car tires. I wouldn't be surprised though if they would start charging for this at some point.

Germany is world-renowned for its beers. The sheer variety is enough to convince anyone that this is a beer-obsessed country. Practically all towns have their special kind of beer, perhaps served in its own special glass and drunk in its own special way. However, Germany is not world-renowned for its fun parties, and for good reasons. The concept of a "party" here is that people go to a place, sit around, and drink world-renowned beer the whole time. No activities or games, no hosts, no singing or dancing. I admit I'm not the one to talk, since I'm not exactly a party animal or the life of the party back home, but I find this way of partying simply ho-hum. And I don't particularly enjoy most beer. I also noticed something about the people in parties here, but a bit on the history of Germany first. Before the country existed, there were just villages here, and the people in one village didn't have much to do with the people in the other villages. Most people in parties behave like these village people. The people who already know each other tend to just stay within their group and not deal with others. It takes a lot[1] of beer before any interclique communication can transpire.

I'm starting to sound like there's nothing good to be found in this country. On the contrary. Punctuality,for instance, is woven into the fabric of their society. Trains and buses generally arrive on time. I never waste time waiting at the train stops now, because when I know my train comes at11:53, then I leave the house at11:50, and by the time I get to the station, the train is there. People are also generally on time. When you tell people dinner or the party starts at 8, people show up at 8. You know exactly when to finish cooking or when to heat things up, or when to take things out of the fridge. Another good thing (this is debatable though) is that the German society is sandwiched between two nets. One net at the bottom is Germany's very generous social security system[2], which means Germans can never fall so low in life that they are forced to live like rats in the streets. The other net at the top is the high taxes which discourage them from being too money-oriented and greedy, knowing that the more money they earn, the more money they"lose" to the government. Germans then tend to focus more on quality of life and their environment, than on the irrational and pointless acquisition of wealth. Speaking of environment, Germans are also known for being environment-conscious and responsible. People turn off lights when not in use, and don't let water run continuously when washing dishes. They're very mindful of sorting their trash for recycling[3]. And although they are not known for being friendly, I find that they are more willing to help somebody in need, even if it means they have to get out of their way and suffer some inconvenience. Let's also not forget the fact that I'm studying here in Germany tuition-free[4], even though I'm a foreigner. Given the opportunity, I would probably stay in Germany after I graduate.

I know I've written a lot already, but I'm barely scratching the surface of what's life like in this country. It's been a wonderful experience so far. It's not easy, but it's definitely not boring. I'm getting exactly what I signed up for.

Take care you all.

Till next time.

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[1] For Germans, "a lot" means more than 5 or 6 bottles. They seem to have a special enzyme in their stomach that's good for digesting beer. Similar to what cows have for digesting grass.
[2] Some say Germany's social security system is too generous, and in this day and age, unrealistic and unsupportable, hence the Hartz IV Reforms.
[3] There's a serious flaw in their bottle recycling program. When you buy Coke from a supermarket for example, you can onlybring the bottle back to the same supermarket you bought it from for redemption. The other supermarkets won't accept the bottle.Why this is so also, I have no idea.
[4] A Studiengebühr (student fee) of 500 € per semester might be introduced in Baden-Württemberg and in other German states starting the Fall Semester of 2007 (or one or two semesters before or after). However, this is still being discussed, and how this will be implemented is still not clear.