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I was on the train for about 10 hours today. Just my luck I suppose. Usually on weekends, the Dutch NS (Nederlandse Spoorwegen) would be working on their tracks. And so happen the tracks from Hengelo into the bordering towns of Germany were closed. And I had to take a bus (which was provided by NS) into Bad Bentheim to continue on with a train once more. Balls. So, if you're planning a visit to the Netherlands over a weekend, you can check on the status of the railway works here. It's in Dutch though :).

So back in Goettingen, at about 2230ish, I took the bus home. Fares remain €2 at night. :)

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Off to the neighbourly country once again. And time to try out that semesterticket. It's funny this semesterticket because it's not something that clearly stipulates which lines you can or cannot use (for a beginner's POV [Point of View] anyway). And the pamphlet is only in German. But the obvious ones are of course the use of IC and/or ICE are not allowed. And today, I learnt too that the WFB (Westfahnbahn) cannot be used for free with the semesterticket. Not for students from Uni Gö anyway. But yeah, if you're unsure, always ask the train conductor before boarding the train. The commonly used and are free rides would be the Regional Bahn (RB), Regional Express (RE), Metronom (ME/MER). There are also free rides with Cantus (CAN) and Nordwestbahn (NWB).

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It practically rained the whole day. Drizzling more like but for an entire time. Anyway it was gloomy outside, so I stayed home. Practised some German, watched some music videos and kept myself from dying of boredom.

A nice music video website I have been frequenting for the last few days is tape.tv. It's German but you do get English stuff. Wunderbar!

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In Germany, you get taxed for being a Catholic. For me, that's quite a culture shock. But having googled it up, it's not just happening here in Germany specifically. It's called Church Tax in general and is commonly practised in the richer countries like Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark and a few others in the region.

I was told about this earlier but went on and declared my true religion anyway whilst registering my stay here in Goettingen. And now, they have sent me some brochures etc etc explaining about this so called Kirchgeld. Coming from the Gesamtverband der katholischen Kirchengemeinden in Göttingen, they include a form that I am suppose to fill out stating whether I'm working or studying etc etc and of course, a donation slip (with my name on it!). It's no wonder so many Germans have denounced their faith as Catholics. Heh. But hey, if you're a student, you need not pay a cent. It's in d law. :)

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Last day of orientation. Met for breakfast followed by some more power point slides. And ended with an exchange of contacts and a group photo.

Today was sunny. I mean sunny as in you should put your shades on sunny. But the temperature was like 8° C. Just not used to it.

Having left the "foyer international", I followed a few others and wandered the streets. We found a signage pointing to a floh markt (flea market), of which we followed with interest. Arriving at the "flea market" in an underground Kaufland parking bay, there was a sign that states €1 for entrance. And we were like, wtf. So we left.

Later finding ourselves a seat at an Eiscafé called Colosseum, we ordered some drinks. Located at Markt 1, it's right next to the old town hall with a view of the gänseliesel, Lichtenberg's statue and Weender Str. Service was a bit slow here. But the tables were filled. I had a glass of beer simply because it was cheaper than coffee. I believe it was €2.10 for one. Coffee was something like €2.80. Do note it's an Eiscafé (Ice cream parlour), so they sell a whole lot more ice cream sundaes than the other stuff.

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Second day of the orientation. Today, as was yesterday, had us divided into smaller groups. The task for the day though was to walk around and fill in the blanks on a given paper (quite an introduction to the city eh). Again, it's all in German (which kinda leaves me out). But my team was cool no less. A Brazilian, Chinese (from China), Russian, Indonesian and then the Malaysian. 

Visited a few famous names like Lichtenberg and Goethe. Now that's some historical fact for me. Goethe which was the origin of Goethe-Institut—a worldwide institution that promotes the study of the German language—was a famous German writer. I'm not sure exactly what it was but I believe he did stay here in Goettingen for some time. And now there's a building in the city that is named after him. And Lichtenberg was a professor here in the university. They like him so much they made statues of him around the city.

Having completed the tasks. We later went back to the foyer. Had dinner there, followed by a presentation from each group about Germany. Later on, everyone were invited to more chitchats at a bar called Diva Lounge. It has a basement which was, for the night, reserved for us. Damage for the night were two bottles of Estrella at €1.80 per piece.

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Today was the start of many things. It's an introduction weekend which the university and the International Office have come up with; to introduce the newbies to the block. It was based off the old Mensa at Wilhemsplatz (or Willy). Stepping into the little "foyer", I was presented with a badge that had my name on it, a folder with some bits of paper and I was off to make new friends. :)

The day started off with a walk around a few places. The first being Universitätsbund Göttingen, which is a nice old building located opposite the International Office. It's where PhD students come to party. And I hear they have some kind of a jail in there somewhere. Next was through some streets, looking at old Goettingen architectures made from wood with carvings aplenty. Then to the gänseliesel and the old town hall. 

Because I'm in a group of students who belong to the Nordcampus. We took a bus up that way. It would have otherwise taken an hour to walk. There, we walked around, visiting a few faculties. Visited the Nordmensa too. Kinda sad but was okay. Small. We actually waited in line from the bottom of the stairs (ground floor) and made our way up to the first floor where the food and canteen is. And this will be my mensa for the many days ahead when the classes begin.

It was all nice. My group was a mix of nationalities: Hungarians, Israelite, Indonesian, Taiwanese, American, Russian, Burmese, Peruvian, Tunisian and Malaysian (that being myself). I believe I was the only odd one though as I couldn't speak German. Initially I did get some translations but yeah, you kinda have to figure most of it out really. Oh did I mention we walked through parts of the klinkum? Met some professors, looked at some machines and computers, and walked a bit more.

After all that, we went back to where we started, the base of operations, the old mensa at Willy. Had some cakes, made more conversations, had some coffee too and finished off the day with a game of "Speed Dating".