düsseldorf

11 June 2013

16.145 kilometers: Australia

Three weeks from now, I will be on a plane. That plane will take me to the other end of the world, 16.145 kilometers away from where I’m sitting now: Brisbane, Australia. There, I will attend The University of Queensland for one semester as a Study Abroad guest student. I have chosen this university because it’s one of the five best universities in Australia. Naturally, I have also chosen it because of its location: I wanted to go to Australia because a stay of several months is the best possible opportunity to get to know this country. Since it takes […]

5 June 2013

Düsseldorf in the Movies

For no particular reason, my home town of Düsseldorf appears to be a favorite among film producers in Hollywood. Maybe I only notice this because I live in Düsseldorf, but somehow I get the feeling that whenever a German town is mentioned in a Hollywood movie, it’s Düsseldorf. Naturally I always have to laugh when this is the case, sometimes more, sometimes less – depending on the degree and accuracy of what is mentioned. Düsseldorf is mentioned only once in Quentin Tarantino’s film Django Unchained (2012) – one of the main characters, Dr. King Schulz, is a former dentist and […]

27 May 2013

This is what it’s like to study at a German university

Since 2011 I have been studying English and Linguistics at the local university here in Düsseldorf, Germany. Unlike the universities in the anglophone world, universities in my local state of North-Rhine Westphalia do not require students to pay tuition (merely a small fee for the free train ticket every semester, which currently is about 280€). Education is supposed to be free for everyone in Germany. German universities also don’t have a strict selection process in their applications – there is merely a regulation by average grade (something like GPA). Based on the intake of students in a particular degree program […]

31 December 2011

The Year 2011

As usual, here is my review of this year. It’s been probably the most life-changing year since 2005, because I gave up my job and started university. January After a quiet New Year’s Eve at home with Fantasia movies, we shortly after started thinking about adding a room to our apartment – the attic above our kitchen would made a good addition once renovated. But now, one year later, we still don’t have a sale contract so we mainly use it as storage place for now. We finally got a new oven, after the old one died miserably. I created […]

19 October 2011

Back to school

I’m one and a half weeks into being a full-time student at the University of Düsseldorf, and by now the flood of information is gradually turning into an array of observations. I’m constantly torn between being both intimidated and unchallenged by the workload. Everyone who has caught a glimpse of my schedule has exclaimed “Wow, that’s A LOT of courses!”. For me it seems very little, considering that I’m very much used to a 9am to 6pm schedule every day. Now I only have two such days, with one day ending at 4pm and the other two at 2pm (AND […]

25 August 2011

Life Changing

It’s been a long, long time in the making and now it’s finally reality: from October onwards, I’m officially a full-time student! I don’t believe it either! I will be attempting a Bachelor’s Degree in English and Linguistics at the University of Düsseldorf. How and why? A few years ago a new law was introduced in Germany, which allows people with a completed vocational training (Ausbildung) plus three years of practical experience in that same job to either apply for university in the same field or to take an exam if they want to study a different field. This January […]