Body clock yet to adjust to Daylight Saving

Dienstag, 31.10.06

I almost forgot to turn my clocks back over the weekend. My computer automatically changed its settings but didn’t think to tell me about it. So I was quite close to being very early for German class on Monday. Since then, I’ve had the feeling that it is much later than it actually is, something that I had never encountered before in England.

The weather is now back to ‘normal’ feeling quite brisk in the morning and evenings. I left my gloves at home today so my hands were a bit numb whilst I clutched onto the handlebars and trying to warm them up as I waited at the traffic lights.

Tonight, I’m going to my first (!) Halloween party at Lisa’s, which I helped to decorate when I was round hers making my outfit last night. I had no clue to what I could dress up as and didn’t want to spend too much on it either. So, it should be interesting, especially as I won’t be scary, just merely echoing a German advert! But at least, there are no classes tomorrow as it is Allerheiligen [All Saints Day], a bank holiday.

Late night drinking and early morning class; a bad combination!

Sonntag, 29.10.06

I knew before I even went out on Thursday night for Hamish’s 21st Birthday drinks that making it to the Flash lesson the next morning at 9am would be a bit difficult. We were first gathering at Eeva’s place to have cake and champagne before hitting the bar. As I didn’t have time to go back home after college, I had a Turkish pizza for dinner which consisted of a baked flatbread with tomato sauce which was then piled with salad, yoghurt and chili sauce before rolling it up like a fajita. All that goodness for a modest 2€.

After washing down the rich chocolate cake with champagne, we headed out to a Russian bar where I had a huge glass of Weissenbier. Before I knew it, it was almost 2am. Hamish and Jen went to stay at Lisa’s for the night, since their next trams were at 4am, so they should be on time for the class since Lisa lives less than a minute from college. Luckily, I was only a 10 minute ride away from home. The next morning, not surprising, was very rushed. I remember waking up when my alarm went off but the next time I saw the clock, it was 08:45. A mad rush and tiring bike ride later, I got to college at 09:20 and was waiting for the lift when I saw Hamish and Jen casually stroll in behind me.

Friday night was the Paolo Nutini gig, my first in Cologne. Raymund came along with me as no one else I knew liked his music and they were most probably busy continuing the birthday drinking. It was very enjoyable as we were standing fairly close to the front, with me singing along to most of the songs.



He sang all but one song from his album plus a few covers. I’ve been listening to the album so much since then and now I can’t wait to see James Morrison next month; his first gig in Germany. Instead of packing into the tram for the journey back, we thought it could be a nice bike ride since the weather was still good and a chance to get some night photos. It took a good 2 hours to ride the 10km back as well as apparently I was being typically Asian in getting carried away with taking endless photos when I was just trying to get a photo where I held the camera still.

Both KISD and CSM in the top 25 design programs

Donnerstag, 26.10.06

At the beginning of the week, the weather was miserable, making my journey to and fro college rather wet. I know I can and probably should take public transport on such days but I now rely too much on the convenience of a bike; without having to wait, no need to change from the bus to a tram but ultimately, to have that extra half hour or so of sleep. Now that’s worth soaking up a bit of rain for. But since Wednesday, the weather has gone almost to the other extreme. It has been very warm, especially today, with temperatures hitting 25C! So strange to be walking around town with only a short sleeved top at the end of October. So many people with an ice cream in one hand and also dining al fresco.

Just saw on the KISD intranet that the school has one of the top design programs in the world. Then looking at the website, CSM is on there too! I was reading the comments that students and Professors had posted and saw a post from one of the exchange students who is now in London. I couldn’t help but post to say that I am in the opposite situation. :)

Einen sehr produktiv Wochenende

Sonntag, 22.10.06

This weekend was quite productive, although I didn’t read as much of my German books as I would have liked. The title for this entry is only to counteract the previous French one, so not a reference to the amount of German that I have newly acquired.

On Friday afternoon, I had planned to attend one of the basketball sessions as part of the University program. Unfortunately I arrived a little late as I rushed from college and the group had already reached the maximum of 18 so I was turned away. There are 18 different sessions in the week available for basketball; however there are a lot of students in Cologne. At Fachhochschule Köln [Cologne University of the Applied Sciences], the largest of its kind in the whole of Germany, where I am in the Cultural Sciences Faculty, there are around 17,000 students. And not to mention also the City University and Sports University which are also based here. Instead, I will stick to my daily-cycle, badminton and also maybe running. Today, Jenny, another fellow Chinese who lives here, and myself went for a run around the Stadtwald [City Forest]. Although it is not my preferred form of exercise, I may change my mind since I now have a running buddy.

Friday night was Eeva’s party at her flat. Just as we were about to leave mine, it was raining heavily so I couldn’t take my bike but luckily Raymund offered to take us into the city centre to meet a few others before getting a chicken ‘Kebap’ with a glass of hot tea for only 2,90€! I didn’t stay at the party for that long, I was feeling very tired and sitting on the mattress whilst trying to immerse into the various conversations added to the sleepiness factor. Again, was very grateful to get a lift back home, via college to drop Lisa off, as I wasn’t looking forward to waiting at the bus stop like I had the previous evening after the cinema.

On Saturday, I went to Raymund’s garden/allotment situated in the North East of Cologne to help him with his gardening. I’d never thought I would be thanking him by helping to mow the lawn but we also had fun playing the piano that was in the shed/summer house. That’s 2 things I’d never expected to do in Germany; cutting grass and playing a bit of ‘The Entertainer’, the only song I can play on piano, that’s if you don’t count those little tunes you learn where you try to play as fast as you can. On the way back, we stopped by in Mülheim, the Turkish quarter to get some kebabs and baklavas which was very tasty.

The rest of the weekend has been spent infront of the computer, learning Macromedia Flash with these DVDs our course leader ‘lent’ us. It’s the first time that I use this program although I always fantasised about creating animation and interactive websites. Being taught at this initial stage is very crucial in understanding and realising the possibilities of the application and I shall share my works once it’s past the practising stage.

There was also the meeting of our floor earlier tonight, mainly to discuss the rota for cleaning the kitchen. I now have my part of the fridge identified; the top shelf, the cleanest part of being in a shared fridge. So now, I will probably cook something in the kitchen as noodles and sandwiches won’t whet my appetite for much longer.

La Science des rêves

Yesterday, I went to see the film ‘Science of Sleep [La Science des rêves]’ written and directed by Michel Gondry, who also directed ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’. I remember seeing the trailer for it a while back and thought it was really fascinating with the animations, so I was glad I got to see it! It is a French film with French, English and a little Spanish dialogue topped off with German subtitles. A real multi-lingual treat for the ears and an absolute feast for the eyes. I loved every second of it; the magical dream world so well executed with some good lines like when Stephane says, ‘I like your boobs. They’re simple and unpretentious’. We then sat through all the credits afterwards as it seemed to be a very German thing and since we couldn’t leave without disturbing anyone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bsu3sXnx0Q4&mode=related&search

The weekend is here, time to drink more Kölsch and have some fun. College is slowly starting to get busy, just research to do at this stage although it will be tricky to find English books in the libraries here!

Banana Crazy

Dienstag, 17.10.06

On my way home from college today, I stopped by the supermarket to get myself some bananas; something that I have been craving for since they were always out of stock last week. They were nowhere near ripe enough but a crunchy banana still tasted good.

Today, I had my first class. The theme for this class is ‘Design for Life’; looking to understand everyday human experience in depth where we will be introduced to two new design research methods. Apparently these methods will be making its debut as the tutor is visiting from University of West Sydney, Australia. However, today was spent introducing ourselves to the rest of the class, so it will be a few days until the projects gets underway.

Having a bike has proved to be very useful. I used it on Sunday to ride around the city as I needed to exert some energy after spending all morning and afternoon watching films. And so far, I have been using it to commute to college. It takes around 25 minutes to cycle the 4.5 km each way, a fairly brisk morning exercise. I leave wearing as many layers of clothing as I can, then get to college taking most of it off! It is a shame that once the winter weather really kicks in, I’d have to revert back to taking the bus and tram which then takes me around 40 minutes. But not long until the Christmas markets and festivities starting in November as well as the 5th season in Cologne’s calendar; Karneval starting on 11th November at 11:11am (sharp!).

My bike seat before in its half eaten state and after adding a few sponges!

Another week of freedom

Samstag, 14.10.06

It’s almost been a week since my last entry. I would like to say that college has kept me from writing but classes were postponed this week due to building works still going on. Instead I have been occupying my time with finally getting the other lightbulb for my room light, trying to get my residence permit but then only being told when I got to the offices that I didn’t need one and having my only lesson of the week; German!

On Wednesday, I managed to get some cheaper tickets from someone at halls for the NBA Europe Live Tour Finals that night. The tournament was played in various countries such Italy, France and Spain but the finals were held in Cologne and we were lucky in getting tickets for only 15€ each instead of 40€. The first game of the night was the 3rd place match with the Pheonix Suns playing a team from Tel Aviv. From our allocated seats, we could see the match very well but were missing out on the atmosphere lower down in the arena. In the half hour break until the finals match, we ventured to find some seats closer to the court. After a failed attempt as people surrounding knew that those seats weren’t ours, we tried our chances again by going back into the arena through one of the many other doors. This time, we were successful and it seemed quite a few other people around us did the same. The final was between Philadelphia 76ers and CSKA, a team from Moscow. The view was fantastic, so sweet to see all those slam dunks in the flesh and being in the heart of the cheering crowd. The entertainment in the time outs were also great including circus performance on a unicycle, people doing amazing flips, turns and dunks from a trampoline and also the rather crazy rabbit mascot. The 76ers won the match 85-71 and for us to see the game from seats that were apparently worth 99€, it has been the best 15€ I have spent in Cologne for almost 6 hours of entertainment!

Last night, a group of us from halls went to Live Music Hall which was like a disco in a big warehouse. It was pretty good, although it was such a queue to get drinks as there are also people queuing to return the glasses so they get their Pfand [deposit] back. A good idea so theres never glasses lying around the venue since they are worth 0.50€ each! As we left, we found that the gate in front of where the bikes were had been closed. Luckily for me, my bike was chained to a nearby lamppost since I had a long enough lock. We then had to wait for 15 minutes as Raymund ‘climbed’ through the open door of another gate and retrieved the bikes. The ride home was a little cold but it was comforting to know I would have a hot shower then in bed in no time.

Busy few days...

Sonntag, 08.10.06

After updating the journal on Thursday, I met up with the Glaswegian lot plus Roger (from Valencia) and headed off on a trip to Düsseldorf. The German rail ticket system with a group ticket for up to 5 persons costing only a few Euros more than a single person ticket meant that for 6 of us, it was around 6,50€ each. Walking from the Hauptbahnhof [main railway station] through the beautiful Könisgallee, to the Altstadt, and finally to the river promenade where we walked south towards the Frank O ‘Gehry buildings. Although it is a similar story with Köln by the town being heavily destroyed during the Second World War, I found there was more modern architecture here. This was apparent in the bridges, office buildings and the overall open space although you can escape this modernity back in the Old town with the exception for the odd tram weaving around the tight corners. We had a traditional German meal consisting of a pork burger layered with onions and topped with a fried egg alongside some fried potatoes which was washed down with the rival Düsseldorf Altbier. Next stop was the Brewery where we had ‘Halb und halb Bier’ which was apparently Altbier mixed with Malt Bier but we thought it tasted a little like Altbier mixed with Cola; which is the popular mixer here rather than Lemonade. During that time, we noticed that the people from the adjoining table left behind a Peek & Cloppenburg [an expensive shop!] shopping bag behind. Jen, who was sitting the closest to the pink bag looked first to see it contained a pair of trousers, the second time to see it was Hugo Boss, and the third in an attempt to see if it was a male or female pair. In the end, Roger took the bag under the table to find the receipt for 109€! Right at that moment, the woman came rushing back and we swiftly waved to say we found her bag. We then went to another bar to meet the friends of the Glaswegian lot who visiting in town. I chatted briefly to Carlos, who used to teach at Central St Martins before he moved to Glasgow. What a small world! Shortly after, we had to head back to the station after realising there weren’t actually many trains back since the timetable had 32 exceptions. A brief jog later to work off the beer, we were on the way back to Köln where the rain welcomed us. I will be back to explore Düsseldorf more, especially the Japanese Quarter where I’ve heard there are good restaurants!

Friday morning was the German test [30 multiple choice questions] to determine which class we will attend next week. Not surprisingly, I’m starting at the bottom! I didn’t know what most of the vocabulary let alone trying to decipher the meaning of the sentences. That evening, 9 of us went to see the Kölner Haie [Cologne Sharks] play the Eisbären Berlin [Berlin Polar Bears] in Ice Hockey at the Köln Arena on the other side of the Rhein. It was great fun, with heaps of excitement and anticipation, seeing the arena and having photos taken with the mascots! The Haie won the game 4-1 and it was just like it is on TV with the crushing of players against the rink boundaries.

Saturday was housework day; doing the laundry, food shopping, cleaning. Although I was still recovering from a slight cold, it had to be done since nothing here seems to operate on Sundays and college gets into full swing from Monday. Later that night, after waiting for my turn to use the washing machine and going out to the Laundrette to dry my clothes, I went to visit Max’s new student crib in Sülz. His room was on the 23rd floor with a great Easter view of the city and porter service who had to call on the intercom to confirm he was expecting guests! Although we didn’t stay for long, I was glad I made the trip as on the way back I stumbled across a bike that was left unlocked. Apart from the seemingly half eaten seat, it was in good condition and it also had a pump! Pretty lucky compared to my friends who are always on the lookout for bikes that have been yellow tagged by the council. It is to signify that they have been abandoned, and consequently will be taken away and destroyed. It isn’t particularly legal to take these bikes; they are often chained to a stand and most of them have something broken anyway.

A picnic in Oktober

Donnerstag, 05.10.06

Yesterday, the international students met up for a picnic in Volksgarten [literally translates as ‘People’s Garden’]. Everyone made a good effort, with quite a few homemade dishes. As I wasn’t well informed of the proceedings, I didn’t have anything to contribute. There was delicious pasta, Spanish omelette, salad, cake eaten out of my improvised foil bowl. The good weather didn’t last for long though, and we went to take shelter at a café/bar to enjoy a few rounds of Kölsch. We then wanted to go to the cinema but as we didn’t find a film we wanted to see that wasn’t dubbed, we ended up watching ‘Elephant’ on a laptop whilst lying on the bed like sardines. This was particularly the case as the slats were missing from the bed frame, so it was our ‘play pen’! Elephant was an interesting film, inspired by the events of the Columbine High School Massacre. The fact that it didn’t have a storyline or even a script made it a unique piece of motion picture.

Waking up this morning was a bit of a challenge, as usual; I had initially hoped for a 7am waking in good time to meet up with Yu Chung at 8am who was going to help me at the council offices. My eyes opened to seeing the clock at 7:40am and I hurriedly got dressed and ran to the tram stop as to keep with German etiquette for being punctual. To my relief, I got there minutes before his tram came, all thanks to the morning dash. As we were early to the council, it wasn’t too long of a wait (only 12 people in the queue before me, rather than a 100 or so if I had gone later in the day). As a result, I am now registered as a resident of Cologne :) .

My attachment to the www

Freitag, 29.09.06 [date of writing]

I spent most of today at college on the internet; 5 hours in the computer room and then an additional 3 hours sitting outside in the corridor after the room closed. Quite impressed with the battery life of the laptop. I then went to the other side of the building to check the project listings for this upcoming semester. The place was empty by now, 7pm on a Friday and it was dark. But as I opened doors, the lights in the whole corridor turned itself on as by magic. I am constantly discovering little things that are different here but make a big impact on saving energy and sustainability. Other examples are:

-the escalators will only start running milliseconds after you lift your foot to the step
- you can get money back for taking glass and plastic bottles back to the supermarket [to a machine which would read the barcode and determine how many cents you are rewarded with]
- special step mechanism on the trams to accommodate the low and high platforms, so it isn’t necessary to build all platforms to the same height

[photos to follow]

Like my computer batteries, I was pretty drained by the time I got back home and to my frustration found the last remaining lightbulb had just blown. So I had to make dinner by candlelight and the timed corridor lights, the ones where you have to keep pressing them to reset the timer. But I didn’t stay in my room for much longer as the guys wanted to have a little party in the kitchen as it was Max’s last day here. He even gave me a spare lightbulb he found in his miscellaneous bag. :) Yet again, we were discussing the issue with beer in plastic bottles before heading out to a nearby club called Subway at 2am [yes, we also had a good conversation on the sandwich joint of the same name and I was explaining what really goes on behind the scenes there.]