The last week of the "politically correct" summer was a great demonstration of what teenage should really mean. I previously spoke about my first day at Jacobs, the people I met, my mood. Now I feel that I've already spent at least two months here, that's because the atmosphere seems to suit me. Diversity, energy, fun, ambition, curiosity, youth are just some of the key-words that come into my mind right now. I try being unbiased when describing Jacobs, but this can't really occur, because I've already started calling it "home". This transition is quite strange, as long as I don't find anyone in my Mercator room to wait me with lunch. Fortunately, the Aramark food is fine (yet)and I don't need more than a minute to get into the servery. Daily scenario is not very typical yet, so I managed to avoid routine, grace to the unpredictable schedule for the Orientation Week. Monday was designed for gates & eyes-opening, as I said. Tuesday, the so-called "Official Welcome Day", began with early sports in the morning. According to the German deadline, I missed the start, because I arrive one minute later where the group should have met. I did my morning sport by myself, so that I didn't have to run countinously for 40 minutes. Instead of this, I enjoy the Green 'Campus Green' at dawn.....breathing in, breathing out.... So fresh and touchable, yet so unreal. After breakfast, we took the official group photo of the entire class. Here is it!
Pretty cool! I'm not that cheerful every day, so you may gonna miss my smile....although this one was a bit exaggerate. (instead of "cheese" the photographer told us to say "whiskey", because it works muck better)
Besides signing papers and getting everything settled I started thing about a way to decorate my room. It seems that I picked the right colors for the beddings as they suit the orange atmosphere instilled by the floor.
The "Big Goodbye" scene took place at lunch and I did my best not to make it look pathetic and overemotionally. I was the one who left home, but not the one leaving. With the illusion of my parents' car going out of campus I didn't feel like leaving them alone.
Wednesday we listened the safety instructions that were very seriously explained and we all have to test our ability to use fire estinguisher on a fake fire. It was quite fun, as I thing nobody had done that before, so that we looked pretty clumsy.
My first academic success came Mittwoch, as I took my language placement test for German and French. The adoptive language proved to be very kind to me, as the quiz wasn't as hard as I had expected. Most of those who came to take the test were absolute beginners, so that only a quarter of us remained in the lecture hall. The general atmosphere of the test time was definitely induced by Romanians who thought that cheating would bring them to a higher level. I can only remember the professors voice warning them not to talk to each other : a neutral tone, yet superior and detached that would have made me blush if I had been warned myself. German dignity contaminated me;)
As for the French test, I was surprised to find in the main question of the test my high school teacher's style. I did I well, I had a nice conversation with the professor, who convinced me that my 7th course for this semester(besides the 5 mandatories and German) would definitely be French. Let me skip the waiting part and tell you that I'm B 2.1 German and C 1.1 French, that means intermediary for the 1st one and advanced for the 2nd.
Somehow I'm not sorry for missing the Social Nights in the ChillOut Zone, because I (we)found many interesting things to do as an independent group.
Maybe the most intensive Jacobian part was the "IUB Rocks Event"...let me quote an official source... " an important tradition for all new students". It doesn't seem very appealing, does it?
Lucky me, I woke up in time, and my dreams weren't spoiled by the alarm call - used by the organizers and student advisers to wake us up (besides aggressive knocking on doors and yelling). We started with some warming up exercise, that made us all feel stupid. Look at this:
Hands-free eating ...
The great rush...
Two by Two jumping ...
Skipping the hands-free cake-eating, let's focus on the most deep part of the initiating ceremony. We joined all in three circles, grouping by the college where we live in: Krupp, Mercator,(mine) College 3 and Blue House.
Than we all joined together in a bigger circle and started squeezing, so that the circle had no more than 15 meters diameter. I couldn't take any photo, as the exercise was a really tough one. Not only had we squeezed, but also we had to sit each on other's loop.
The climax of the scenario, kissing the little Trivia Ducks on the pond, was a unique moment for each of us. We had already surpassed the frustration episode and got into confusion and stupid acceptance. The rubber mascots have a great symbolic meaning, as they are metaphor for intercultural competence.My own and personal duck is a great friend of Pudding...
Let's go on with the IUB Rocks story... So, we kissed the ducks, it was a bit embarrassing, but I'd have regretted not to take part in such an event.
We promised a revenge on the next generation, but unfortunately we'll pay back to some innocent freshies. In fact, this is exactly what they did to us.
In the next afternoon we took or time, having a pleasant walk to the mall. Stuff that I bought really improved my room's aspect. Now it looks very bright; I picked soft orange because of its therapeutic effect and I hope it will work even during the depressing exams time.
Saturday was maybe the most active day of the week, as we "dived into Jacobs". The purpose of our CSI game was getting to know the surroundings of the campus, and find a hypothetic killer. We were grouped in five teams, named with Greek letters. I was in Delta (force), but my team didn't win, as we wasted more than an hour in a wrong location. After 4 hours of walking and changing buses, we missed our lunch and got angry. I was pleased with some juice, but my nap was really affected by hunger. I started dreaming of Jacobs, of people around here, and it seemed like I was falling in my friends' disgrace. Well, the episode I dreamed to came true after only 24 hours. Unfortunately...
Sunday brunch made me more dizzy than I previously was. Well, it might have been because of the early jogging and the after party landscape that replaced the real campus. Here is a suggestive photo...
Don't you imagine that it stayed the same for the next twenty minutes. The pure green atmosphere was settled back soon after.
Die Bremer Altstadt refreshed my mood and so did my first travel with a German train - as punctual as possible.
Here I am in my softly lit room, living my first episode of serious depression. 10 napkins gone, some more to go. Long live messenger....and my real friends!
Pretty cool! I'm not that cheerful every day, so you may gonna miss my smile....although this one was a bit exaggerate. (instead of "cheese" the photographer told us to say "whiskey", because it works muck better)
Besides signing papers and getting everything settled I started thing about a way to decorate my room. It seems that I picked the right colors for the beddings as they suit the orange atmosphere instilled by the floor.
The "Big Goodbye" scene took place at lunch and I did my best not to make it look pathetic and overemotionally. I was the one who left home, but not the one leaving. With the illusion of my parents' car going out of campus I didn't feel like leaving them alone.
Wednesday we listened the safety instructions that were very seriously explained and we all have to test our ability to use fire estinguisher on a fake fire. It was quite fun, as I thing nobody had done that before, so that we looked pretty clumsy.
My first academic success came Mittwoch, as I took my language placement test for German and French. The adoptive language proved to be very kind to me, as the quiz wasn't as hard as I had expected. Most of those who came to take the test were absolute beginners, so that only a quarter of us remained in the lecture hall. The general atmosphere of the test time was definitely induced by Romanians who thought that cheating would bring them to a higher level. I can only remember the professors voice warning them not to talk to each other : a neutral tone, yet superior and detached that would have made me blush if I had been warned myself. German dignity contaminated me;)
As for the French test, I was surprised to find in the main question of the test my high school teacher's style. I did I well, I had a nice conversation with the professor, who convinced me that my 7th course for this semester(besides the 5 mandatories and German) would definitely be French. Let me skip the waiting part and tell you that I'm B 2.1 German and C 1.1 French, that means intermediary for the 1st one and advanced for the 2nd.
Somehow I'm not sorry for missing the Social Nights in the ChillOut Zone, because I (we)found many interesting things to do as an independent group.
Maybe the most intensive Jacobian part was the "IUB Rocks Event"...let me quote an official source... " an important tradition for all new students". It doesn't seem very appealing, does it?
Lucky me, I woke up in time, and my dreams weren't spoiled by the alarm call - used by the organizers and student advisers to wake us up (besides aggressive knocking on doors and yelling). We started with some warming up exercise, that made us all feel stupid. Look at this:
Hands-free eating ...
The great rush...
Two by Two jumping ...
Skipping the hands-free cake-eating, let's focus on the most deep part of the initiating ceremony. We joined all in three circles, grouping by the college where we live in: Krupp, Mercator,(mine) College 3 and Blue House.
Than we all joined together in a bigger circle and started squeezing, so that the circle had no more than 15 meters diameter. I couldn't take any photo, as the exercise was a really tough one. Not only had we squeezed, but also we had to sit each on other's loop.
The climax of the scenario, kissing the little Trivia Ducks on the pond, was a unique moment for each of us. We had already surpassed the frustration episode and got into confusion and stupid acceptance. The rubber mascots have a great symbolic meaning, as they are metaphor for intercultural competence.My own and personal duck is a great friend of Pudding...
Let's go on with the IUB Rocks story... So, we kissed the ducks, it was a bit embarrassing, but I'd have regretted not to take part in such an event.
We promised a revenge on the next generation, but unfortunately we'll pay back to some innocent freshies. In fact, this is exactly what they did to us.
In the next afternoon we took or time, having a pleasant walk to the mall. Stuff that I bought really improved my room's aspect. Now it looks very bright; I picked soft orange because of its therapeutic effect and I hope it will work even during the depressing exams time.
Saturday was maybe the most active day of the week, as we "dived into Jacobs". The purpose of our CSI game was getting to know the surroundings of the campus, and find a hypothetic killer. We were grouped in five teams, named with Greek letters. I was in Delta (force), but my team didn't win, as we wasted more than an hour in a wrong location. After 4 hours of walking and changing buses, we missed our lunch and got angry. I was pleased with some juice, but my nap was really affected by hunger. I started dreaming of Jacobs, of people around here, and it seemed like I was falling in my friends' disgrace. Well, the episode I dreamed to came true after only 24 hours. Unfortunately...
Sunday brunch made me more dizzy than I previously was. Well, it might have been because of the early jogging and the after party landscape that replaced the real campus. Here is a suggestive photo...
Don't you imagine that it stayed the same for the next twenty minutes. The pure green atmosphere was settled back soon after.
Die Bremer Altstadt refreshed my mood and so did my first travel with a German train - as punctual as possible.
Here I am in my softly lit room, living my first episode of serious depression. 10 napkins gone, some more to go. Long live messenger....and my real friends!
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