True Reflections

This is the last post of this blog. To sum up for this semester and also for my preparation of my exchange life in Germany, I will try to look back at my true ideas of exchanging in Germany.

Sometimes through out this semester, I have began to regret my choice of going to exchange program for a year. I have so many buddies and great friends here that I just can't bear to not see them for a year. My family will miss me and I will also miss my cat, too. Another thing is that my sister is happening to move back to Taipei from Denmark this August, so it will be a pity to not be able to meet with her in Europe.

Another reason that sometimes arose is that my German isn't as good as I think. It's really a difficult language to learn and I think I fear this language sometimes. When everyone congrats me on going to Germany, I always feel guilty.

As the departure day draws near, I should wish that I can conquer all the difficulties and battle through my way to Germany. As the whole preparation for this exchange program are coming to an end, it has been a great idea to keep track of the process through this blog and this project from the class. Wish myself the best!

Travel Plans

Traveling in Europe will be one of my important goals for my exchange experience in Germany. I hope to visit the U.K., France, Czech Republic, other Eastern European countries and also Northern Europe in the first semester. This is because my friends who are exchanging in Denmark and Czech Republic are only exchanging for the fall semester. I would also like to get a closer look at the inner parts of Germany and try to absorb in their culture.

For the spring semester, I planned to visit Southern Europe. Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece are some of my targets. I have a really close friend from junior high school who is going to Spain to exchange for the spring semester. He and I am going to tour around and see the most magnificent architecture works in Europe because he major in architecture.

After I get to know the academic schedule in my school, I can start planning my trip around Europe. I hope I can manage to cut down the cost while also enjoying my trip. Therefore, learning to make ends meet and control my traveling budget will also be an important lesson that I must learn during my days in Germany.

Tickets Purchased!

This Tuesday, I have officially ordered my plane tickets to Europe. I will be flying to Copenhagen to stay with my sister. Also, I chose to transfer at Dubai, because I took Emirates. As planned, I am traveling with Annie, my classmate who is exchanging in Denmark. We will spend a few days traveling together in Denmark, while I also will travel with my sister, too.

I've always love taking the airplane, although it is extremely expensive, but I have not sit in any class other than the economy class. The airplane companies that I have flew before are Japan Airline, Eva Airways, Singapore Airline, Delta, Cathay Pacific, Dragon Air, Thai Airways...... This time I've heard that Emirates have really good services and they have just started their business here in Taipei starting this February.  I've always been interested in how transportation of the entire world works. I always pay attention to everything starting from the minute I step into the airport. I hope I can learn a lot since I am also going to study transportation management in Germany this following year.

Appointment at the German Office in Taipei

On May 22nd, Judy and I went to the German Office in Taipei, which is located inside Taipei 101, to be interviewed for our visas. It was my first time inside the office of taipei 101. In the beginning, you have to go to a machine at the lobby to get a guest ID card, then you take the elevator up to the 35th floor, and change to another elevator that takes you down to the 33rd floor, where the German Office in Taipei is situated.

After we entered the office, we have to wait in a common room, a lady called us over and requested for our files. She looked over both our files then started to ask us questions. First, Judy was asked several questions about her files, and it turned out that she has to hand in her language course certificates, too. As for me, basically no problem but just one. I need to hand in the correct receipt of the travel insurance because the one I handed in wasn't in the correct form.

So after the process was done, we each paid 60 Euros for the visas, and the lady told us that it would take about 4-6 weeks to verify our applications. So I guess I'll have to wait for another month to get my passport back!

Airplane tickets

This is what I am working on this week. I decided to fly to Copenhagen first, stay at my sister's place and travel around Denmark. My classmate, Annie, is going to Aarhus, Denmark to exchange for a semester. We will travel together for about two weeks. Since she has to move in to her dormitory on August 1st, we decided to arrive in Copenhagen on the 31st of July, then she can stay with me at my sister's apartment and go check in at her school dorm the day after. I asked my Mom to contact her friends in the travel agency, but bad news came first. Almost all the cheap tickets for the Economy Class are reserved, therefore it would be difficult to buy the right and cheap tickets. We are still working on that and see if there are other options.

Another problem is that because I am exchanging for a year, and the spring semester ends in June, I will stay in Europe to travel more until July. It would be hard to buy round trip tickets because right now I have no idea where is my final destination in Europe before I fly back to Taiwan. I would most likely fly back from Frankfurt, Germany, since it's the nearest international airport to Cologne. The solution will probably be that I buy a one way ticket first, the during my stay in Germany, I can decide then how to buy my ticket back to Taiwan. We'll see.

Living in Cologne

So here is the situation: I am probably not going to have a dormitory room to live in.
It all dates back to March, before I departed for New York to attend model United Nations. My partner, Judy was really determined to finish all the application in March, she urged me to do so, too. However, I was really busy at that time so I decided that I will wait until I come back from New York. Judy went through the application process and successfully applied for the dormitory. By the time I finished the application in mid-April, there were no more vacancy.
My school, the Cologne Business School, is a small school with about 1000 students. Therefore, the dormitories for international students can only take 32 students. So by the time I applied, it was already too late. Now, I will look for flatshares, because I would like to have a kitchen to cook and also meet new friends and roommates from other countries. The price is ranged from 300 Euros to 500 Euros, I will choose the place with the rent under 400 Euros. I am seeking every possibility to search for a place to stay. There is a Facebook group for all the international students in Cologne Business School this year, and there have been updates on rental information. I hope I can find my ideal place to stay soon.

German visas

Right now my partner and I are working on applying the German visas, but the application is so complicated that I am feeling depressed by it day after day. There are just too many files that I need to prepare and the most complicated one is the prove of financial support that my Dad has to declare. However, my Dad has to go to the German Institute in Taiwan to apply for this prove of statement. This means that it will take up his time to make things work. I am truly sorry for that and I really appreciated what my Dad will do for me.

So according to my partner, who wrote the letters reserving for the appointment with the German officials in the German Institute in Taiwan, our appointment will most likely be scheduled in mid-May. The two of us have to go to the appointment together. So before the appointment, the two of us is going to have about two meeting together and check each other's files to see if we got them right.

From this experience, I have deeply sensed the strictness in the German national character. They want to be precise about everything so they want everything perfect and detailed. That is why Germany is a successful nation today.

I am accepted!

Believe it or not, though it isn't my first time sending applications to schools, but it still feels good to receive the letter of acceptance from my new school, Cologne Business School. It took me about three days after I returned from New York to fill in all the forms need for the application.

Along with the letter of acceptance are good news and bad news. The good news is that now I can focus on preparing for the German visa. It is known that German visas are really complicated to apply. The files that I need to prepare are complex so I think it will take up a lot of time to prepare for all that... The bad news is that the dormitory is already full, so this means that I will have to look for a apartment in Cologne. However, from the information I gathered online, it is really hard for students to rent a place in Cologne. So now I have to go online and search for places again...

The City of Cologne

Cologne is Germany's fourth largest city, located in the central west area of Germany. The Rhine River runs through the city and the world famous Cologne Cathedral is situated along the Rhine River. Cologne was one of the most heavily bombed cities in Germany, which has nearly destroyed all the buildings inside the city. A lot of historic sites were destroyed and the Cologne Cathedral was one of the few that survived.

Cologne is famous of its mixture of culture. There are a wide variety of museums within the city and several orchestras are active in the city of Cologne. Cologne is also well-known for its beer, called Kölsch. The Cologne Festival is one of the largest street festivals in Europe.

The weather in Cologne is quite mild, snow is expected in winter and sun will glaze in the summer. The people of Cologne are friendly and full of energy. Cologne is also the known to be gay-friendly.

German courses

In the first two years of college, I studied German in school, earning 12 credits in total. But to be honest, I wasn't really satisfied with my performance in this area. I was frustrated after the first semester, when it became harder and harder, I wasn't able to keep up with the rest of the class, and I often did not understand the teacher very well. I am a slow learner, I need much more time than the others to digest what I had learned. But the pace was just way too fast and I believe I started to lose interest in it day by day.

Until now, I am still afraid to reopen my dust-covered textbook and start to face it from the beginning. My classmate, Debby, who was also going to Germany as an exchange student, invited me to take some German courses at a private cram school. I am really willing to do so, but upon hearing the fact that I had to take a test first to decide which class you will be assigned to makes me uncomfortable. I dread how others would see me when I turn out to be really bad at German even after learning it for two years. I know I am running away from it, but is there any way that can help me?

In the end, I know I still have to face it. Nothing will stop me from going to Germany, it is just that I will have to put hope and faith into myself. Next week probably, I will start my first course, before that, let me find my long-forgotten German textbook and fall in love with it.

Is exchange program worth it?

I guess it all led back to my sister, Sharyn. Sharyn is 9 years older than me. She has been excellent in her schoolwork and even studied in the States for college with a full scholarship. In her junior year, my sister went to Kyoto, Japan to exchange for an year. She has always been fascinated with Japanese culture and learned Japanese well ever since junior high school. Therefore, this year in Japan was proven to be a dream come true for her as she enjoyed the atmosphere during exchange. I suppose this triggers my inner motive to go on exchange now.

Although going abroad seems very interesting, I sometimes think about the cons of going on exchange. I would miss my senior year in Taiwan, not able to attend the graduation ceremony, and also taking the tests for graduate schools in Taiwan. Most important of all, going away for a year means one year away from my home and my family. I guess I will miss them very much during the year in Germany. Hopefully, I think I can manage it and I'll be sure to make it a better and warmer memory for myself.

Application for CBS

I received CBS's email on the information of international student's application last Thursday. The school officials told us that we need to fill out the application form and submit it by May 15th, 2014. The package came in with a fact sheet, application form and a course registration form.

We are required to select the courses when we send in the application and we are required to select at least 18 ECTS. I am interested in "Comparative international management", "International marketing" and "Intercultural management." Also, I want to study "Hotel event and congress management", "Advanced tourism foundation" and "Major tourism transportation service provider." In addition, I will take German language courses to enhance my German ability, too.

The fall semester starts on September 1st, 2014 and ends on December 19th, 2014. It is consisted of 12 weeks of lecture and 2 weeks of exams. Right now my plan is to leave Taiwan in the end of July, stay at my sister's place in Copenhagen, Denmark for a few weeks, travel around a bit and maybe study in a German language school. Then, be ready for the new semester and attend orientation at the end of August.

I will be preparing all the forms in a few weeks and also have to apply for German visas. I heard that the process is very complicated so I hope I can make it through without too many trouble.

My Partner

For this exchange program, I was appointed to study at Cologne Business School (CBS) in Cologne, Germany. I wasn't the only student from NCCU to exchange at CBS. A sophomore majoring in Diplomacy just like me, named Judy Chou, was also exchanging at CBS, too. We have never met before, but because of this, we got together and did some research about CBS and the application procedures. It turned out that Judy is a very easygoing girl and we both like to travel. However, she is just exchanging for the fall semester, so we will not be able to spend the entire year in Germany together.

We have lots of mutual friends and it turned out that we had a lot of classes together this semester in NCCU. It was very surprising since I had probably saw her many times before I finally realized that she was in the same class as I was. It was a great pleasure meeting Judy and I hope I can have a satisfying time in Germany with her during our exchange session. I guess in the near future, the two of us will be traveling in Europe together and have a wonderful time.

A Dream Come True

This is my first ever post on this brand new class. I missed the first class of this semester so I also missed the 15-minute challenge in class. Therefore, this post might not be as good as it can be, but I will definitely do my best to make it better.

I named my blog "All About Germany" because in a few months, I will be studying abroad in Cologne, Germany as an exchange student for my entire senior year. This is basically a dream-come-true for me because I had made up my mind before I entered college to go on an exchange program during college. I learned German in the first two years of college and I look forward to improving my German language skills during the one-year-stay in Cologne, Germany.

This is a great experience and I have set up several goals to achieve for this year. First, I want to take the German languages test before I leave Germany to see how well I have learned German. Second, I want to travel around Europe and pay close attention to the neatly-organized public transportation system because I  am very interested in public transportation system such as train and bus systems. Third, I would like to think about my future after graduation since I haven't make up my mind yet about my future career, I hope I can come up with a future plan during my stay in Germany.

There are so many things that I hope to do when I am in Germany. This will be an unforgettable experience for me and I hope I will not regret my choice of exchanging in another country. The following posts on this blog will be related to Germany, and will also help me to prepare for my journey ahead.