So unlike the title could suggest, until now everything is fine for me. I really enjoy to be here and get quite used to the everyday life and how all things work. Beyond that, all the guys I have met (especially my pension mates) are amazingly friendly and helpful, I think we’re having a lot fun The only thing where we definitely will never agree with each other is the question on how to drink red wine: they seriously cool it down with lots of ice cubes and dilute it with sparkling water. But on the other hand I must admit that they really know how to prepare the food, especially everything that has to do with “carne”, e.g. the “asado”, national dish of Argentina (and with the preparation considered to be an art), which we eat nearly every week-end (no meat in Europe can be compared to that!).

Regarding the main reason why I am here, everything is going very well. Even if everything is taught in “castellano”, I understand most of the topics during class (mainly because the professors tend to explain everything slowly and in a very clear way). And the practical exercises (mainly written format) have not been that hard until now. So it is working much better than expected. Furthermore, the professors and assistants are really open and friendly to me and already offered me their help and particular courses if some day I need it or have any questions. I think they’re somehow interested in the rather exotic student attending their classes , and want to know everything about the high school system in Germany and the topics I have already taken there. The same holds for my classmates. Nevertheless, last week a quite impressive event happened at the campus. Continue reading →

Chaotic, crazy, extreme, unreal – but nevertheless also somehow wonderful and anyway very impressive

I think this describes best my first impressions, but let’s start chronologically:

My long journey started on last Friday, the 27th July, by taking the train from Frankfurt to Paris. Since it was an ICE, after 30 minutes of driving 300 km/h through France (something that is never possible in Germany), something broke in the motor and afterwards the train could only drive 150 km/h until we finally reached Paris – with almost 90 minutes delay. But perhaps I’ll get a small compensation for that. I then took the overcrowded metro towards “Charles de Gaulle”-airport, where I was asked whether I’d like to be a volunteer for not flying today due to the flight being overbooked. As I didn’t have to reach Argentina on a specific day, I accepted – and got 200€ cash plus a night and a day with dinner, breakfast, lunch and dinner in a 4 star hotel

After this relaxing stay watching the Olympics, I finally had my flight on Saturday 28th at 23:20. When checking in, I always was like seeing some of France’s best rugby players from Paris’ team “Stade Francais“, among others Turinui, Lyons, Sackey, Parisse, Contepomi or Pascal Papé. They also were heading to Argentina for playing two preparation matches against the Argentine national team “The Pumas” and I had the great honor to have my seat next to the former captain Pierre Rabadan, a really amazing and open-minded guy. So being a volunteer on the previous day was really worth it!

We arrived at Buenos Aires the Sunday morning (local time), after a long flight, but where I was able to sleep enough. Instead of taking an expensive taxi or a way cheaper bus from a private company (which most of the tourists do), I opted for the most “adventurous” part and took the public bus (“colectivo”). Continue reading →