Iron Chef Germany….

Living in Germany is really the first time I had to really fend for myself, that is to cook my own food.  In Chicago our Mom cooks most of the time, even when she has to go out somewhere she usually prepares food for us before she leaves.  And, even if she didn’t we could always eat out or order some pizza from Pizza Now.

But… that isn’t the case in Pforzheim, here I cannot eat out every day, there is no cafeteria that’s open seven days a week.  Here in Pforzheim I have to cook for myself! At first it was the typical college fare.  read: Pasta, Macaroni, Tortellini, Spaghetti .  But as time went on, I found myself cooking, not only for myself, but for Erin and Ross (an Asian guy from Hong Kong).  Eventually I kinda built a reputation for myself.

Normally we hang out in the kitchen we cook food, drink tea and have fruit but last Tuesday I didn’t have the time, the next morning i would have to take my first exam.  I was challenged with making finding time to study whilst making dinner, with that in mind, I think dinner on Tuesday was the best yet.

The menu.. Roasted Chicken basted in soy and honey sauce w/ zucchini and carrots and mash potatoes.  I believe it was he most delicious dinner we’ve had yet, and best of all it required just minimal prep!  10 minutes to marinate the chicken, while chopping the veggies, pop it in the oven for ~ an hour and BAM! Dinner is served.

Later that night, we got a group to study for the exam, I’m feeling pretty good about it.  Hopefully this will be the first in a series of Dinners i’ve prepared.

Guten Appetit!

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Daily Life in Pforzheim…

Sometimes a photo album can be a fantastic reminder of what you’ve done and where you’ve been.  But given that this blog is not only for my friends and family back home but for me to remember my experiences in Pforzheim and Germany is seems appropriate to post some day to day, or otherwise mundane activities. Nuances that I may otherwise forget when I return to Chicago.

With that idea in mind, I’d like present a small tour of „Mein Zimmer” and point out the finer details of my room.

When a visitor walks into my room on of the first things they notice is the Russian flag, you may wonder… Why would I have a Russian flag in my room?  It was a gift from the first week I was in Pforzheim, the Russian guy, Sergey brought a bunch of small flags and gave them to his friends as a gesture of good will, props to him it was a brilliant idea!

The next picture is of my desk and work space, on my desk is the single lamp used to light two basil plants at night.  Pictures of the family, and Bailey as well as my venerable computer the IBM T43.

The last set is of my bath room including the dolphin shower curtain! and the „Meister Proper: Bad Spray” (known as Mr. Clean in the states). I keep it pretty clean but last week the shower head broke. Leaving me with flexible hose to wash my self down = (

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One helluva way to start the school year…

Last Monday the 28th was the official start of classes at Hochschule Pforzheim, for us “Neues” this meant an day of Orientation, and a one day workshop on how to register for classes.

Our orientation class of 102 international students began promptly at 10:30 that morning. Expectedly we sat through an hour and a half welcome from the rector of the university Prof. Dr. Martin Erhardt (Here in Germany we pronounce all formal titles in a person’s name, in this case Professor, Doctor…) the Dean of the International Study Program, and the Program Coordinator.

following the obligatory welcome from the various facility of the university, AStA (the principle student organization on campus) facilitated a tour of the campus, complete with a “swag bag” given to all new students on campus. Included in the “swag bag” were brochures from the local banks and business, pamphlets from other student orgs… a coupon book for cheap drinks at all the local bars (this will come in handy) and… A bottle of Beer?!?! Yeah, an actual bottle of beer from the local brahaus.

Needless to say, I was quite impressed already. The students were jovial and a feeling of excitement hung in the air, following lunch the “neues” would partake in a guided tour of the city of Pforzheim known as the “Goldstadt walk” (Golden city walk).  Each student group was shuttled on a bus down toward the city center.  The Goldstadt walk highlighted the history of the city as including how one of the hills to the west of Pforzheim was created using all the rubble recovered after the bombing of the city, and that Pforzheim was the most devistated city in Germany following WWII with nearly 98% of the city center destroyed on February 23rd 1945. Our tour concluded we a brief visit to the famous jewelry museum and a meeting with the Mayor of Pforzheim.

Later in the evening we went to AStA’s annual “Pub Crawl”.  It also happens to be Ross’s Birthday (one of the internationals from Hong Kong). With the provided booklet we went from bar to pub in search of cheap drinks and good times, the evening culminated in a huge party at one of Pforzheim’s finer night clubs, Plus+. Definitely good times.

As a one of my German friends told me, the start of the semester and the end of the semester are the craziest times in Pforzheim.  I had lots of fun that night, but i’m just about ready “put my nose to the grindstone” and start the my classes again. But in any case, it was a great way to start the semester!

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The German Autobahn is definitely the best way travel…

The end of September is one of the best times of year to be in Germany, the Frankfurt Autoshow ranks high among the many reasons.

Firstly, I have to thank Johannes for providing me with two tickets to the show, however due to unforeseen reasons he couldn’t make it to the show with me. leaving myself with two tickets and nobody to go with. = (

Being the final weekend of the show, most of the other international students had gone during the weekend prior. As a group the internationals chose to take the slower local trains using the 37 Euro Schönes-Wochenender good for upto five people all over Germany. However the downside would be that the one way trip between Pforzheim and Frankfurt would take 3+ hours w/ at minimum 2 transfers.

Initially I had planned to go to Frankfurt via the IntercityExpress instead of the S-Bahn. While costing more than 40 Euro round trip for a single fare, it made more sense traveling by myself, saving me an hour in transit and another transfer.

Still, the night before the trip, I had yet to find anyone who hadn’t yet gone, or was interested in going. As it stood, the two Korean girls Younghoe and Eunsole were going willing to split the Schönes-Wochenender fare to Frankfurt but neither of them were too interested in seeing the show, there wasn’t really anyone else to ask.

At that the time I had already known Sergey (another international student from Russia) was planning to have a friend visit for the weekend but I asked if he would want to come anyway. Sergey’s friend (another Russian student studying in Geneva Switzerland) was driving from his university in Switzerland to visit Sergey here in Pforzheim. At the time neither of them had any specific plans so he said he’ll pitch the idea to his friend and we could go from there.  

It was already after 10 that night, if we were going to leave using the S-Bahn we’d have to be up in 8 hours. Before any plans could be finalized Eunsole bailed. However, once Sergey’s friend arrived I pitched to them the plan to go to Frankfurt. As it turns out, they agreed and better yet Sergey’s friend offered to drive.

» Continued

The next morning the four of us, Sergey, his Friend, Younghoe and I met in the parking lot, Younghoe and I had to squeeze in the back (Sergey’s friend had told me his car could only fit 4 people.. Rightly so, it was an Audi S5 »> Yeah… the 4.2 liter V8 variety! pushing out a tremendous 354hp to its rear wheels). From a visual standpoint the autobahn is really no different than the roads in America, while it is a hell-of-alot smoother than roads in Illinois it wasn’t anything remarkable. That is until you catch a glimpse of a white circle w/4 black lines through it “derestriction” » No speed limit!

While Traffic seemed to flow at around between 120kph to 140kph in and around the cities further away we cruised at nearly 160kph and for a few brief moments when the road is totally clear (except for maybe a convoy of Porsches in the left most lane) we pushed car to the edge of 220kph. And it was.. exceptionally smooth sans the punishing roar of the engine, but brilliant none the less. From the time we left Kepler to the time we arrived in the parking garage we had covered over 160km in just under two hours. 

The motorshow itself is huge… seriously huge, the show itself is made up of some 10+ pavillions with each of the German auto-manufacturers setting up in their own pavillion. The scale of the show is much larger than Chicago’s and the extent to which the manufacturers design and construct their pavillion dwarfs Chicago. It is more like a museum or information expo than just cars rotating on a platform. Each of the manufacturers highlights their technology with interactive displays not limited to multi-touch panels and prototype models. For instance BMW’s exhibit included an oval track wherein drivers actually drove new and vintage models around the pavillion at high speed.

Even accounting for the downsides, hordes and hordes of people (to the point where traffic is so blocked you couldn’t move backwards or forwards, I blame Aston, Porsche, Ferrarii and Jaguar for being in close proxcimity to each other) the lack of “models” (we’ll have to go to Geneva for that) and the in ability to actually get into the vehicles (blame the hordes of people again) the Frankfurt autoshow was an incredible experience, one that I hope to be able to have once more.

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Erin, my buddy from Chicago, and fellow student from IIT.  We’ve flown over four thousands miles to be here in Germany; to be on this grand adventure.  She’s pretty well grounded, self described as “snarky” (whatever-that-means) and kinda fun to hang be around.

Consequently, it might prove interesting to check out her blog and perhaps gain a new perspective on this journey.

Today I begin my first real day of class. As you may know i’ve been taking a German language pre-course for non native speakers for the past three weeks.  Don’t get me wrong, It’s was still 4 and a half ours of lecture a day, but tomorrow is the real deal.

Ill still be traveling but this is really why i’m here so… wish me luck!

Frankfurt Germany is host to the largest autoshow in the world. This past weekend I visited the close of the 63rd International Autoshow, needless to say it was spectacular!  With only four hours to see the show I could only really catch a glimpse of the vehicles but just the experience was definitely worth the trip.

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Salt and Pepper… Typical, for some reason clubs tend have weird names.

I heard from a German student that the start and end of the semesters tend to be the most crazy.  Academically this makes perfect sense with the start of new classes in the beginning and exams at the end.  But that really wasn’t his point.

Last Wednesday we ventured to one of the many clubs in and around Pforzheim’s city center.  Our group of international students from Kepler took the bus from our hostel to the club ~2km away.

Officially the university’s student organization put on the event for exchange students to get to know each other, our group from Kepler arrived to the club around 10ish.  However to our astonishment, there really weren’t many other exchange students, just the students from our Pre-course. (I had arrived ~3 weeks before the actual start of school to take a German language course).  One of the Korean girls met her “exchange buddy” but for the rest of us we lounged around had a few beers and just talked. (at least there was a DJ)

Well… most of us talked, that is… until we heard the real party was upstairs. It turns out that this club had two levels with the lounge on the first floor and the dance floor on the second.

Good Dancer or Bad Dancer..?

Fog machines, Gel-ed lights, two DJs and lots and lots of people. Good Times.. I did ask some people if i was a good dancer or bad dancer, they all said good, but I think they were just being polite. By the end of the night I had couldn’t find (read. lost) Erin and one of the Korean girls but I did end up meeting more German students.

By the time we had left the club the buses had already stopped running for the night.. That being said, we had a nice walk up toward the Keplerstrasse on that cool autumn night.

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I haven’t been keeping a very good account of what I do from day to day, as it is now my blog is essentially a digital photo album of the things i’ve seen where i’ve been.  Instead it should be a journal so I can remember my experiences months or even years from now.

With that in mind, ill post more often (more than once a week >_<) and include my daily experiences.

Schönes-Wochenende… (Happy Weekend)

Last week Erin and I as well as the Korean girls, Younghoe and Eunsol journeyed to the Spa town of Bad Wildbad.  Settled deep in the Black Forest this area of Germany is known for its many natural springs; the term “Bad” in translates to “Bath” in the roman sense.

While a trip to the Spa may sound enticing, traveling on a student’s budget doesn’t always allow for the finest of luxuries in life.  With that in mind our trip to Bad Wildbad was more of a break from urban life and a chance to appreciate the beauty of the Black Forest.

Bad Wildbad is situated right at the edge of Pforzheim’s transportation network and thus is was a 30minute ride on the S-Bahn.  The town itself is quite small and vastly different from Pforzheim consisting of a small city center in a valley between two hills.  Apart from the local spa, the town is also known for it’s many hiking and mountain bike trails in the summer, and skiing in the winter.

Upon making our way into the city center, we boarded a hundred year old tram that ran along the side of the mountain in Sommerberg located just west of Bad Wildbad 700m above sea level. From there we set off on one of the many hiking trails deep through the woods catching glimpses of mountain bikers and other hikers along the way. Our particular trail took us 7.7km through the dense forest. (…to be completely honest the forest didn’t feel all to different from the Peninsula State Park in Door County) In retrospect we should have asked the information desk for recommendations on which trail to take, while some areas were quite scenic the majority of the trail was just forest and trees no different than Illinois or Wisconsin.

We stopped by a small cabin for lunch, I had the some local specialty, cured ham but again, i don’t recall the name.. I took a picture of the menu w/ my camera phone but it didn’t turn out so well.   As you can imagine by early afternoon we were all pretty exhausted.

We headed back to Kepler, and planned to grab a bite somewhere later evening but I think I just made it back home an passed out.

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Last Friday the 18th the Korean girls decided to make dinner, and invite others to taste it. I don’t recall what it was called but, having been without Asian food for a few weeks it was definitely welcomed.

However, the quid pro quo was that I had to make Thai food… >_<

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