Stanford

Landed in SF last Friday, after 143 hours in the air and a stop in Toronto.

I'm staying in Joni's apartment near Stanford university. I'm also renting a car.
The first day I visited the Campus with Doron on bikes, and in the evening had dinner at Google (delicisous) with Joni and Lior.
The campus is absolutely gorgeous. There's also a big bookstore inside where you can also buy lots of stuff with "Stanford" printed on it. I bought a t-shirt. Also 2 books.

Photos

California

For my trip to California my blog is getting a new look-and-feel. Stay tuned for photos and updates.

p.s.
Some of you asked me why there are no pictures of me at my Flickr photo gallery page. There are, but you just can't see them unless you're logged on to Flickr.com as my "friend/family". The reason I don't make these photos public is that I don't want people to be able to Google me and see all my photos. Sorry for the inconvenience.
But you should sign up with Flick anyway, cause it's a great site for sharing photos.

Amsterdam

Last weekend I was in Sdom (Amsterdam) and had lots of fun.
A few things struck me:

1. Amsterdam is full of foreigners.. I hardly saw any dutch people.
2. It's more than a bit filthy (or at least in comparison to Germany..)
3. It's a paradise for perverts - no matter what your sick pervesion is, you are sure to find at least 3 shops that will cater to your needs on every street. (e.g. I saw plastic sheep sex dolls for sale.. nuff said?)
4. It's expensive as hell.
5. The combination of legal drugs and museums with classical art is something worth further examination.
   

For those interested, here are Videos and Photos.

BiBiS - German Language School

I'm taking another language course now in a school called BiBiS. It's smaller than Goethe and only works in Bielefeld.
The people are very nice and come from all over the world (but especially Poland!).
The course is 3 weeks - 2 are already over. I'm in the advanced class now where everybody speaks better German than me. It's a bit hard, but a fun challange. I'm learning like 40 new words a day (15 is supposedly the recommended amount) and it's about as much that I'm able to squeeze into my brain.
I uploaded photos of the students at school, and at a disco, so check them out here.

Escape from the Heat

As you may have heard, it's unbelievably hot this summer in Germany. And since there's no air-conditioning to be found in this country, the only way I had to escape the heat this weekend was to go the pool. So that's what I did Saturday and Sunday.

I was suprised at how many swimming pools they have here. They really like to swim I guess...

Entrance costs 3.6 euro, without a membership. Inside, except access to pool and stuff, you get a locker with a key you can wear on your wrist.

(click the photos to see better)






I had lots of fun diving of the boards, but not from the top one (I ain't crazy like these crazy German kids). I did, however, see 8 year old boys jumping from the top one... no restrictions here in Germany. Until one of the kids landed badly and the paramedics had to take care of him - then they stopped the access to the top diving board. Go figure. I guess they suddenly remembered that it's not a good idea to let kids jump off 15 meters.

A video of the pool area:








Anyway, Dash to everybody in Israel - good luck avoiding those rockets. Stay strong.

Ach, Bielefeld Universitätsicherheit

As some of you may know, universities in Germany were until very recently completely free. Nowadays most of the states in Germany charge 500 euro per semester from Students, which is not that much, but it's not peanuts either.

The state of Nordrhein-Westfalen, where Bielefeld lies, were clever. They decided that they would leave the decision of whether to charge students money for tuition to the universities.
Of course the students have organized and protested. At the big meeting where the university managers had to decide on whether to demand the money, the students tunred on the fire alarm as an act of protest.

Later, I hear, some of the students fought with the security guards because they wouldn't let any students near the part of the building where the meeting was held. And here comes the funny part.
One of the students grabbed a master-key off one of the guards - a key that can open any door at the university. The university kept it quite for 3 days, and afterwards they made it public that a master-key was stolen. This key is worth about 1 million euro, and can open about 10,000 doors! Now it will take the university a long time to replace All the locks in all the rooms at the university...

In the computer world this is called a Single Point of Failure. Why on earth do security guards in the university walk around with million euro keys?!? Why is this key not in a safe somewhere? Why is there even a key that can open every door? Why not have seperate keys for every floor? The mind boggles..

The bottom line, we're not supposed to leave our precious belongings in our offices for now, cause a master key was stolen. Although, the guy who grabbed it probably isn't a thief.
The university is starting the lock change with the most important 500 doors on campus... it's probably going to take them months.. the absurd is that they probably will just make another master-key for the new locks.

So that's the story about the security in Bielefeld.

Watch out for the Videos from Berlin (and the love parade) soon.

Berlin

I visited Berlin during the weekend, from 14.7 to 16.7.
On Saturday there was the Love Parade in Berlin, which was amazing.
I took too many photos...

Weird Things in Germany

Some little things that are weird to me:

1. When you buy a bottle of water in Germany, they give you Soda water. Apparently carbonated water is the default choice for Germans. You have to specifically ask for water "without gas" if you want ordinary water.
2. They're really into recycling and seperating garbage into different containers. I just find it annoying.
3. They have a million Shawarma places - they call it Döner (turkish) Kebab - but none of them have Tchina!
4. The German language doesn't have a word for "deserve", only for "earn". That might say something about the mentality. (Or not.)
5. Suprisingly many of the Germans I meet seem to think that the language in Israel is Arabic and don't know what Hebrew is.
6. No air-conditioning!
7. Nylon bags in the supermarkets cost money. Like 15 cents each. They are not free. I repeat. You have to buy them, or bring some from home.
8. German TV has many channels with 24h "board" games. Like showing two pictures on the screen and you can win money by calling and saying how they differ. Or stupid puzzles and word games. There's even a channel for 24h fortune telling with cards. In short, German TV sucks.
9. At the end of an university course, instead of giving the teacher a short applause they knock on tables with their hands.
   

Videos!

The poor quality if because of the Photobucket site. The originals are in better quality.

Enjoy:



  

  

  

  




  

  

  

  




  

  

  

  

Bielefeld Apartment

The apartment they found me is owned by an old Polish couple - the Weissers.
Before I came here I talked with the university about this residence and told them it seems a bit too far from the university/city, and now I'm finding out it's even worse than I thought. But luckily I will be moving out of that place and into the students residence, right by the university, in a couple of weeks.
The house is nice:


But my room is tiny (not as I was promised: 18sqm...):


There's a nice back-yard, which is right by a big field:


The house is also pond-adjacent:




The big disadvantage, aside from the isolation, is the insect. It's amazing how many different life-forms crawl on you when you walk down the street, lean against a bus stop, or, god forbid, sit on the grass. It also stinks most of the time.
So, as you can see, I'm glad I'll be moving out.

Skype

If you're not yet connected to Skype, please do so, so we can talk.
My user-name is assaf_lavie

I now also have Skype Voicemail, so if you call me on Skype and I don't answer you can leave a voice message and I will hear it on my computer.

The University

I've officialy started my stay here in the university of Bielefeld.
The university itself is pretty unique. Very different from universities in Israel.
It's just one very big building. I guess it's built around the idea that you can expect rain any day of the year here.


In the center of the university there is a main hall connected to all the buildings. In the main hall there are two floors with shops and cafeterias and such.



Coffee stand (emphasis on the word "stand"):


Today they had a human-foosbal attraction set up in the middle of the hall. Looks like fun. I got a video of it, but for now you'll just have to settle with a picture:


Especially nice is the Mensa. It's a very big dining hall where you can choose one of about 3-4 inexpensive meals. Before lunch time the dish samples are presented for the students outside the Mensa:


Today's dishes:


You can select, for example, Menu 1, and then you just go to the menu 1 line and wait for your dish to come out of the ground on an automatic conveyer belt!

Then you pay with your pre-paid Mensa card. Really cool.
I also got a video of it.. it's much cooler than my pictures show.

My office is in the T8 floor, at the philosophy department. I share it with a PHD student. The room is very nice and I have a computer with internet access.

(My table is on the left)

The only thing I can't stand is the heat.. it's 30+ something here, even though it rains from time to time, yet there's no air-conditioning. Wherever I go I just sweat... in the train, the bus, the office, the apartment. This country isn't built for heat.

The university has its own train station, which is very convenient. The main entrance leads directly to the train station. Looks nice:


Main entrance:


That's about it.
(you can click on the images to zoom, by the way. It will take you to my flickr picture gallery, into which I recently added a zillion photos. They're not yet organized and sorted, but you can take a peek.)

Bielefeld

I arrived Saturday in Bielefed, directly into the residence that the university organized for me.
As you can see in the map, it's the house closest to the water (the brown thing).

The house is very nice.. owned by an old couple from Poland that have been renting it for 15 years or so. They have several rooms and can accomodate I think 7-8 people.
My room is TINY. It was supposed to be 18 sqm, but it's more like 8 sqm. The apartment is very well-furnished though. There are only too big problems.. well, maybe three:
1. It's very far from the center of the town. Without a car it's very hard to do anything at all. This tiny neighborhood has NO shops and only 1 bus station.
I have to take a bus AND a train to get to the university. I have to take 2 trains and a Taxi to get home after 9PM.

2. There's no internet.. which means that it can get REALLY boring. I could still occupy myself with my PDA though, if it weren't for:

3. My PDA is kaput gegangen... The bloody thing just died on me, along with my GPS programs, dictionary, emails, phone numbers, meetings, notes...

Now I'm at the university, using someone else's internet account..

The university is very different from anything I saw in Israel. I'll post something about it in the next few days, maybe even with pictures. I hope I can get decent internet access here. I might buy a laptop...
I also want to try to find another apartment, preferably In the city.

Almost done

Almost done here in Bad Godesberg. The last day of the language course
is tomorrow (Friday) and on Saturday I'll be taking a train to
Bielefeld.
We took a written exam today (final exam) - nothing serious. It only
means that if I want to take another course I don't have to take the
entrance test. Tomorrow we'll have a speaking test (5-10 minutes)
individualy with our teacher.
The Goethe house is going to get a bit empty for a few days before the
rush of new students (now on summer vacation) floods it in a week's
time. Some of the students here take much more than an one month
course (like me). They stay for 4... 5... 8 months, sometimes changing
the location of the course.
I think I saw all there is to see in Bonn & Koeln in these last 3
weeks. My new location is a bit north - 2 hours & 47 euros by train.
Instead of the dorm-like atmosphere of the Goethe residence it's going
to be just me in an apartment, practically by myself (the other person
spends his weekends in France with his family). I hope I get to meet
as many people as I have here in Goethe... although I doubt it. :)

The People

Some pictures of the lovely people from Goethe Institue (I got 400 more pictures... but this computer is very slow so these will have to do for now):

(Kanako)

(Left to Right: Pablo, Henrique, Bernard, Omar)

Anna (Banana), Anna (Annushka)

(Dionicious)

(Yashimi, Hiro, Hayaka)

( Left to right: Francheska, Deise, Nam-hee, Pyoter, Andrew)

(Pyotr, Assaf, Paulena)

( Natasha, Millos, Mike, Anna, Pyotr, Anna, Dan, Weily, Assaf)

The Food

Beer is cheaper than water in Germany. If you go to pub, you canexpect to pay 2-3e for a beer - maybe 4e for Guiness. But in the supermarket Beer costs like 50c (0.5l). You can buy a case of 20 beers for 10-11e. They're also really into recycling here, so you get a few euros back when you bring back the empty bottles. The area around Koeln is Koelsch, so the beers they make here are "Koelsch" beers, and the spoken dialect is Koelsch.The water that comes out of the faucet, however, has weird particles inside it... They tell me the water is perfectly good but I don't know...
So drinking beer seems like the reasonable thing to do. I'm on a beer-sausage diet here. I can't really cook for myself here anything except pasta or maybe curry chicken, for several reasons: The kitchen is far... Many people use it... it's empty of basic ingerdients like salt, pepper, oil, and my fridge is too small to contain meats or eggs, etc. So I eat mostly pasta, or sometimes a sausage. Two things are really great here: the sausages and the bread. For some reason there are a lot more bakaries here than one would expect. These people really like bread. The sausage choice is also very impressive (naknikim & naknikiot), mostly pork. So for lunch I make lots of tasty sausage sandwiches with weird cheeses and great tomatoes. I always eata big breakfast, so lunch is small. At dinner I sometimes eat out. They call Shuarma here "Doener kebab", and instead of a pita they put it in a bread triangle. There so many kebab places here... (many turks).Ok, all this talk about food mad me hungry. I think it's time for another Koelsch and sausage meal.

The Language

The language courses in the Goethe institute have 12 levels. A11, A12, A21, A22, then B, then C.
I took the A21 course in Israel before I came here, but before that I studied at the university for a year, where I learned much more grammar than they teach here in equivalent courses. So I was expecting to start my course in a A22 level, but after the first day, in which we had a written and oral exam, they put me in B11, which is intermediate.
After the first day in B11 the teacher suggested that I advance to B12.
However, the B12 course (and upwards) is in the afternoon, which I realy don’t like. When I signed up to this course I specifically asked which level I could expect to advance to, and whether that was in the afternoon or in the morning... Oh well.
So now I'm still in B11. I decided to stay because morning classes are much much better, and the difference between the levels is not so big anyway.
You really learn to open your mouth quickly here and speak the language. Some of the students don't know English at all and so you have to communicate in German. It's also more comfortable to speak the language when you know that the other person also makes mistakes, like you, and that it really doesn't matter.
Now, in order to not get bored too much with my class, I’m doing some extra-curricular homework: I'm translating texts from English to German, from Douglas Adams' "The restaurant at the end of the universe". It's a very good exercise for me, very challanging. British humor is not easily translatable to German.. Sometimes the German grammar just kills the joke alltogether. It takes me like two hours to translate one paragraph (yes...), but it's fun.

Attached are two pictures: one, of the Koeln Dom (The Dome in Cologne, for you English speakers), and the other of a few of the students together in Kennenlernen Abend ('Get to know' evening).

The House

Goethe House

The Yard

My Room

My room is in the Goethe institute buliding on the second floor (see picture). I'm pleased with it, even though it's a bit small. It has a sink, a mini fridge, a nice big closet and a window overlooking the yard (see picture). 6 rooms share the showers, but everything is very clean (the clean it every day) so I can't complain. I can, however, complain about the kitchen. There's basically only one significant problem with the kitchen - it's empty. Aside from some dishes and appliances, there's no food, spices, coffee or even milk (although I can understand why there isn't any milk, seeing as there is no fridge in the kitchen...). That means that if I want to make coffee I have to take a cup from my room with coffee and sugar in it, go down 2 floors, cross the building, go up 3 floors, boil some water, then go back to my room to add milk.
Some of the students, on the other hand, don't even live in the building, but in a place 10 minutes away. They do have wifi though, which we don't.
So that's the story about the Goethe house (See picture, though it doesn't really capture the entire building).

The Trip

The Trip

The funny thing about flying Lufthansa out of israel is that half the passangers are DOSim that can't eat the food and therefore don't eat the food. Which means more delicious schinken breakfast for the rest of us.
The flight from Tel Aviv to Frankfuhrt is the first time I got to test out my German. "Kaffee bitte.." I was so pleased with my performance that I decided there and then to speak nothing but German for the rest of the trip, seening as i'm so fluent...
Exactly 12 minutes later I quickly reverted to English, not knowing how to ask the gay german flight attendent to take away my food tray.
I landed on some great weather here (see picture). It's sunny and warm, the birds are singing and the turks are shopping. I felt so good about myself for getting around and getting on the right trains, that I accidently stepped off at the wrong subway station. It was the penultimate one, meaning there was just one more stop before the line ended. So there I was, waiting for the next train to take me and my bags just one more stop - where I should have stepped off. Across the tracks there sat 100 germans looking at me sitting alone across from them wondering what this idiot is doing there.
I would have written sooner but the computers here suck.
Thanks, Noa, for the letter.

Bag's almost packed

Bag's almost packed
Originally uploaded by Assaf Lavie.

Welcome to my blog.
Tomorrow I'll be flying to Germany for 3 months. If you want to know where I am and what I'm up to you're in the right place.
I'll do my best to keep this blog updated and post photos whenever I can.
You can subscribe to this blog if you want to be notified whenever I post new stuff.
Wish me eine gute Reise.