Long weekend
Hi there!
So, as my title suggests, last weekend was rather long. Friday, Saturday, and most of Sunday I was in Köln for a DAAD (organization that pays me every month) Stipendatentreffen (meeting for fellowship holders). There were close to 450 Stipendaten there, plus a hundred or so husbands, wives, and kids. The whole grand adventure started on Friday morning when I entered the bus, arrived in Köln, and checked into the hotel. In the afternoon I watched the quarter and semifinal games of the DAAD Soccer World Cup. Sixteen teams comprised of foreign students studying in Germany which met over the weekend for a mini-World Cup. With the actual World Cup in Germany in a little over a month, soccer is every where here. The games were fairly amusing.
In the evening on Friday was the official opening, which was a two-hour long program sitting on the brink of chaos. I knew it was going to be a long evening when six of the students protesting university tuition just down the hall came in with a giant banner proclaiming "Rektorat sofort besetzt!". They were having a sit-in in an office of sombureaucratat protesting the fact that the University of Köln wants to charge 500 euros in tuition per semester. Coming from America and having to live with our tuition, I really didn't feel sorry for them. Things didn't really improve much after that.
Saturday morning began with a couple lectures. Saturday afternoon was the final game of the DAAD World Cup. West Africa (or more precisely, a team comprised of people from various West African countries) against Brazil. West Africa won. I was glad because the Africans are really good at celebrating. It usually involves drums, singing, and dancing. Not the kind of thing you see much in Germany. When German teams win they mostly just wave their hands around a bit and smile.
Saturday night was a dance. Nothing terribly special. I did meet my first Iraqi. There were actually twice as many students at the meeting from Iraq than the US. Not sure how to interpret that, but interesting none the less. So I'd been sort of dreading the thought of meeting someone from Iraq because I didn't know what I'd say to them. It actually went better than I thought. He said he has nothing against Americans (at least those who didn't vote for Bush). He believes Americans are truly nice and friendly people, and if they had any idea what was really happening in Iraq, they'd be against the war. Sad when an Iraqi has more faith in Americans than I do. I asked him if things were actually getting better, as Bush insists they are. He responded with a very definite, "no, they're getting worse". He also insisted that what's shown on CNN is no where near the real truth. Funny considering all of the conservatives who bitch about the "liberal media" and complain that CNN is blatantly against the war, when from the point of view of an Iraqi, it's severely biased in the pro-US and pro-war direction Unfortunately our conversation was cut short.
Sunday was sight-seeing day. I went on a trip to a castle just outside of Düsseldorf. It was ok. Sadly we didn't have much time there. Finally after two long days it was time to head back home.
Sunday night I went to a Salsa party. Apparently Salsa's fairly popular in Germany.
Today I was back at work. Things were quiet around here. I think I may actually be slowly winning my battle with VHDL. (Knock on wood.)
I was also recently made aware that more people then I realize might be reading my blog. If you don't understand the messages below, don't worry about it.
Hi Manuel. Apenas registré en Skype y no recibí ningún mensaje que decía que usted desea agregarme como contacto. Se es un rato puesto que agregué cualquier persona, y no recuerdo cómo trabaja. Espero que las gafas no mataran su lengua demasiado.
Ha ha! Je suis parvenu à apprendre le français au cours du fin de semana. Ok pas vraiment. Avec reconnaissance Google le sait déjà. J'ai entendu que la France veut le développer doit posséder Google. Ce devrait être intéressant. Espoir vous avez apprécié la partie dimanche. Natation juste de subsistance.
Tschüß!
So, as my title suggests, last weekend was rather long. Friday, Saturday, and most of Sunday I was in Köln for a DAAD (organization that pays me every month) Stipendatentreffen (meeting for fellowship holders). There were close to 450 Stipendaten there, plus a hundred or so husbands, wives, and kids. The whole grand adventure started on Friday morning when I entered the bus, arrived in Köln, and checked into the hotel. In the afternoon I watched the quarter and semifinal games of the DAAD Soccer World Cup. Sixteen teams comprised of foreign students studying in Germany which met over the weekend for a mini-World Cup. With the actual World Cup in Germany in a little over a month, soccer is every where here. The games were fairly amusing.
In the evening on Friday was the official opening, which was a two-hour long program sitting on the brink of chaos. I knew it was going to be a long evening when six of the students protesting university tuition just down the hall came in with a giant banner proclaiming "Rektorat sofort besetzt!". They were having a sit-in in an office of sombureaucratat protesting the fact that the University of Köln wants to charge 500 euros in tuition per semester. Coming from America and having to live with our tuition, I really didn't feel sorry for them. Things didn't really improve much after that.
Saturday morning began with a couple lectures. Saturday afternoon was the final game of the DAAD World Cup. West Africa (or more precisely, a team comprised of people from various West African countries) against Brazil. West Africa won. I was glad because the Africans are really good at celebrating. It usually involves drums, singing, and dancing. Not the kind of thing you see much in Germany. When German teams win they mostly just wave their hands around a bit and smile.
Saturday night was a dance. Nothing terribly special. I did meet my first Iraqi. There were actually twice as many students at the meeting from Iraq than the US. Not sure how to interpret that, but interesting none the less. So I'd been sort of dreading the thought of meeting someone from Iraq because I didn't know what I'd say to them. It actually went better than I thought. He said he has nothing against Americans (at least those who didn't vote for Bush). He believes Americans are truly nice and friendly people, and if they had any idea what was really happening in Iraq, they'd be against the war. Sad when an Iraqi has more faith in Americans than I do. I asked him if things were actually getting better, as Bush insists they are. He responded with a very definite, "no, they're getting worse". He also insisted that what's shown on CNN is no where near the real truth. Funny considering all of the conservatives who bitch about the "liberal media" and complain that CNN is blatantly against the war, when from the point of view of an Iraqi, it's severely biased in the pro-US and pro-war direction Unfortunately our conversation was cut short.
Sunday was sight-seeing day. I went on a trip to a castle just outside of Düsseldorf. It was ok. Sadly we didn't have much time there. Finally after two long days it was time to head back home.
Sunday night I went to a Salsa party. Apparently Salsa's fairly popular in Germany.
Today I was back at work. Things were quiet around here. I think I may actually be slowly winning my battle with VHDL. (Knock on wood.)
I was also recently made aware that more people then I realize might be reading my blog. If you don't understand the messages below, don't worry about it.
Hi Manuel. Apenas registré en Skype y no recibí ningún mensaje que decía que usted desea agregarme como contacto. Se es un rato puesto que agregué cualquier persona, y no recuerdo cómo trabaja. Espero que las gafas no mataran su lengua demasiado.
Ha ha! Je suis parvenu à apprendre le français au cours du fin de semana. Ok pas vraiment. Avec reconnaissance Google le sait déjà. J'ai entendu que la France veut le développer doit posséder Google. Ce devrait être intéressant. Espoir vous avez apprécié la partie dimanche. Natation juste de subsistance.
Tschüß!
posted by laura s at 3:32 PM
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