Freude im Ausland

I can describe my German University experience so far in 2 words: Crazy & Difficult

In America, it is expected that everyone goes to University (or at least most people). In fact, it is next to impossible to get a good paying job without a University degree unless you happen to be a certified genius.  And even if the latter is the case, having a degree doesn’t hurt.  In Germany, only a minority of the population goes to University and actually manages to get a degree.  And the economy does not suffer because of it, because there is an excellent system of occupational schools and intern-ships that teach you a career without your having to take any theoretical classes at the University.  However, that means that the students who actually do study at a University are in the top 10 percent of their class.  At least that is what I have figured out up to this point.

Now.  Imagine that you are at a University where ALL the students are extremely intelligent.  Now imagine that 50% of all the students fail the test at the end of the Semester and have to redo it.  WHAT!  Yep.  Now you can imagine how difficult the classes actually are.

So…Joy Clark…This crazy wierdo from America decides to try her hand at the German University.  It has been an adjustment…that is FOR SURE!  In America I was at the top of my class.  I am not bragging…it is just kind of a…fact.  Now I am struggling to be average.  And hopefully will not fail in that struggle.  Although failure is, for the first time in my life actually a possibility.

On the positive side, I have been extremely busy.  I write a checklist on my mirror every night before I go to bed to try and ensure that I get everything important done.  I took a picture of it a couple of weeks ago.

It actually helps a lot.  I really like to check boxes, so it is kind of an incentive in itself to get something done.  I didn’t have a list the past couple of days because I accidentally lost my whiteboard marker somewhere in my drawer.  But I found it today, so I can start checking everything off again.

I am actually quite stressed.  There is literally 2 hours of homework (or more) for every hour of lecture.  And I have 12 hours of lecture a week.  Plus I have a review time with a T.A. 3 times weekly and a Q&A session with the Profs 2 times a week.  I did some math in my head as I was drifting off to sleep on Tuesday after having worked from 2:00 pm to 10:40 pm on my Computer Science homework with only a small break for dinner.  I figured out that the work load I currently have is equivalent to working 42 hours a week.  So it is a good thing that I don’t have a job on top of my classwork.  I would drown.

Hopefully I won’t drown already.  Today was a really bad day.  For some reason I thought I could sleep in today…so I when I woke up at 9:00 and realised that my CS lecture actually started at 9:00, I groaned, hauled myself out of bed, brushed my teeth and hair, threw on some clothes, grabbed a granola bar and my books, and scampered out of the house.  It is actually quite handy to live right next to the university.  I actually made it to class semi-on time.  The classes all start c.t. which means they actually start 15 minutes after the scheduled time.  But in order to get a good seat, you have to get there s.t. (Punctual).  Today I didn’t really have a choice but to get there c.t.  And I was actually really glad that I got there in time to hear everything.  The CS lectures are always extremely interesting.  The slide shows even sometimes include xkcd comics.  Today we learned how to use basic libraries to do input/output and draw things and manipulate sound.  They gave us a program that draws the Sierpinski triangle.  I downloaded the program and the library and made my own copy:

Pretty nifty huh?

Well…It is 10:23 and I get to go to bed now! And I get to sleep in tomorrow (for real this time)!  So Farewell!