Winter Academy Part 3

This post will bring back the city tours we went on during the Winter Academy along with one of my favorite museum (I actually am planning to go back there for the second time later!). I encourage those who are afraid to sign up for some events because your friends are interested to sign up for all the events that you are interested! When you are an exchange students, everyone became more open into making new friends, so you will make some new friends that have some common interest with you that’s different than your original group of friends from the beginning. It doesn’t hurt to have more friends when you are abroad (or in general!). Some of my best friends that I have now are from joining the excursions. Once you step out of the comfort zone, you will have rewarding experiences as the result!

Day Trip to Frankfurt

We spent an entire Saturday in Frankfurt on January 16th, it took us around an hour to go to Frankfurt (it only take 30 min to go to the airport if you take the fast rain, just as a references!). Frankfurt wasn’t really nice to us because it was cloudy and rainy the whole day, we did a city tour in the morning, and went to the tour for the entire view of the city.

Unlike other cities in Germany or Europe, it is very industrialized and modern. As someone who is a city person, the day was a break for me from small town feel Germany to a city that’s similar to Boston.

Day trip to Stuttgart

Growing up under my father’s influence, I always knew a little bit more car knowledge and history than most people expected me to have. Day trip to Stuttgart was the one that I was most excited for, partially because of the Mercedes-Benz Museum. The history behind this well-know luxury car brand is very fascinating. I spent most of the day there and only went through half of the museum (which means I need to plan another trip to Stuttgart once the semester start to finish the other half of the museum.). My friends and I grabbed an early lunch at a local German restaurant in the area before heading back to Mannheim. It is a typical German food, which includes currywurst and local German brewed beer (I was taking a break from döner.

After this trip, it made me more excited for the other car-related museums around the country. I am currently making a plan to cover most of them by the end of the semester.

p.s There should be one more post regarding on Winter Academy, it will mention the ending of the Winter Academy, the farewell party and the pub crawl hosted by the Winter Academy.

Winter Academy Part 2

Continuing from the ”Winter Academy Part 1”, I will continue to post some pictures about some other events from the excursion. This time it will be just the sports theme, so it is really short, but don't worry, I will get back to the city tours aspect of the excursion later! Stay tune for "Winter Academy Part 3".

As a country with excellent football (soccer) team, we had to go to at least a football game to show our spirit and passion for the German football. We went to a local football game (the Mannheim team!!!) and had a great time cheering with other local German on the behalf of the Mannheim team! We also had the chance to go to an Ice Hockey Game that was held in Mannheim! As someone from Boston, watching an ice hockey game might seem to be a normal Bostonian thing to do, but the watching ice hockey with all of your friends in a foreign countries while having a cup of local German beer and pommes frites will always be the best experience ever!

Winter Academy Part 1

The second day upon my arrival to Mannheim was the beginning of the 2016 Winter Academy. It is a one-month long program where I get to experience the German culture. Beside the couple hours of German class we have everyday, we can sign up for additional excursions to enrich our experience of German culture. There’s different types of excursions which includes tour of the surrounding cities, wine tasting, beer brewing tour, ice hockey, football, dance showcase, Black Forest. They are also great opportunity for you to make friends with other international students (so you can all struggle together!)

There will be more blog posts on Winter Academy, but I still haven't decide how many posts I want to break it down to, because it is impossible for me to share everything on the blog, but I feel like every moment is worth writing about, because they are all very memorable.

<- Heidelberg excursion city tour took place on January 14 (I believed it was the first city tour beside the local Mannheim tour!) We took this picture at the Heidelberg schloss (I think the Mannheim one still looks better!) It was a great time meeting new friends which a lot I am still in contact with!

P.s. We can go to Heidelberg via tram of S bahn with our semester pass

Speyer Excursion City Tour

Speyer excursion city tour on January 21, after German language class. The tour guide had private access to a high tower in the center of Speyer (importance of network!). This is the view after all the stairs we needed to climb, the view was amazing, and this picture definitely didn’t do the justice. I remembered a lot of my friends didn’t go that day because it was too cold, and I was sick for a couple days afterwards (don’t forget to bring some medicine!)

The view of the city of Speyer.

Speyer is a really small typical old German town (I remember it is one of the oldest city in Germany) and only have a population of twice the population of UMass.  

<-T

Döner for Love, Döner for Life

This should have been under the article of “Something that I realized after I reached Mannheim”, but considered how important it was for me (and everyone around me during the exchange semester), I think it deserved its own post. Many in America might not know what a Döner is, but I am guessing most of you at least know what a Kebab is. Many will question why as an exchange student in German, why aren’t you introducing the typical German food?

When people think of popular food in German, the answers are always beer, pork, knuckle, currywurst. For most of our general knowledge, we wouldn't expect a Turkish food to be so popular in Germany. Especially in Mannheim, there is a huge ethnic Turkish population means we have Döner shop on everything other blocks in the city (Remember how I talked about Mannheim using the block system for their streets?) According to Google, there are over 25 döner shop in the city of Mannheim (definitely more than the amount of Dunkin Donuts we have in Boston). They each have their own unique ingredients. There are also different form of Döner, such as Döner box and yufka.

Döner is definitely one of the most loved and popular street among the German population in Mannheim. It is definitely worth a try when you reach Mannheim, and make sure you try out different store to find your favourite (For me, it would have to be the City Döner near Mannheim Hauptbahnhof, it opens 23 hours per day).

<- An typical Döner from City Döner of Mannheim

P.s. I think I am not very bias, and I did try Döner from other cities in Germany, but I think Mannheim have one of the best Döner in Germany.

Below is an article from Wall Street Journal regarding on Döner and its effects on the German street food culture (It doesn’t hurt to learn some history about the food, so you can enjoy it even more when you go to Mannheim!)

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304432704577350194262835880

Something that I realized after I reached Mannheim (2/2)

The following is “Something that I realized after I reached Mannheim (2/2) are more German fun facts, transportation and cash. If you have been to Germany, you shouldn’t be surprised by what you will be reading in this article. My friend who went abroad the semester before me at Mannheim told me to keep those in mind when I reach Mannheim. Hopefully those who have never been to Germany, will find these tips useful. If I think about more tips later, I will certainly add a part 3 on this.

1. Cash!

I probably mention it multiple times that many places in Europe prefers cash over credit cards, therefore cash is essential to one’s daily life. Once you set up a bank account, you will receive an ATM card that’s linked to your account as debit. Unlike America with Bank of America ATM everywhere on campus, there’s only couple places you can withdraw money in the city of Mannheim. All the ATM also happened to be very far away from the school and student residential area. Therefore you should take out some additional money when you are at the ATM just for emergency purposes. However for the most part, supermarkets and train stations accept the debit card for payment, so you won’t need to worry too much about finding an ATM.

P.s. They only take cash when you purchase your semester transportation tickets at the office, so just keep that in mind and make sure you go to the ATM to take out some money before going to the office (it could be a really long wait, speaking from experience).

2. Hauptbahnhof

The first place that you will reach once you reach Mannheim for the first time. “Hauptbahnhof” also known as “hbf” is the German word for main railway station or central train station of the city (even though it might not be centrally located within the city). Assuming that most exchange student will be landing at the Frankfurt International Airport will be taking a train to Mannheim, there will actually be a couple of stops that will have the name “Mannheim” before the train reach Mannheim Hauptbahnhof. Make sure you don’t off the train too early or too late, and get off at the main station where there’s main transportation to get you to the university for check-in.   

The term “Hauptbahnhof” is used in different city in Germany, therefore make sure that it is going to the Mannheim Hauptbahnhof for your destination. Once you exit the train station, there will be taxi, bus, and tram. I recommend taking the tram to the university even though it is within walking distance for your first day).

Similar to train station in America, there’s also coffee shops and convenience stores located inside the supermarkets. They seems to have a longer opening hours, so they are good for too early or late trains and emergency in general.

P.s. I think now for when it reaches at the Hauptbahnhof stop, there’s an English announcement for the tourist, pay attention on the train so you won’t miss your stop.

3. Schloss

When I first saw that I will be taking classes at the schloss, I thought it was the name of an academic building (similar to Mahr, Herter or ISB). The term “Schloss” actually means palace in German. The Mannheimer Schloss is definitely the main attraction and representation of the city. When the block system was used for the city’s urban development, it also used the Palace as the center (You basically will not have any excuse for not able to find where the school is!) Many large lecture halls will be located inside the palace along with many students event and concerts. The Winter Academy will be taking place at the schloss and you will have to chance to explore the schloss.

Many German considered Mannheim to be one of the most “ugly” city in Germany because it lack to impression of a typical German city and instead are more industrial. Many places including the schloss was partially destroyed during the wars and the rebuilding of the city gave a new look to the city. However (Fun Fact!) when they rebuilt the schloss, there’s a new addition to the schloss which made it the schloss with the most window in Germany (or maybe the world...I need to do more research on it, I will get back on that later!).


Throughout the semester you will have multiple of copies of the schloss, when you go to class (Yes, we study like a loyalty!), this was taken on the first day of Winter Academy because when I arrived Mannheim the first day, it was raining.

Something that I realized after I reached Mannheim (1/2)

After the useful tips to prepare for the semester abroad, I have decided to write something that can be more related to for the Mannheim students (the best city ever)! Below it's the first half of the list (it might be too hard to read with too many words!), which are more of useful tips and surprise discovery I had about living in Mannheim as a new comer.

1. You can drink tap water

Growing up in the Boston area and three years at UMass, I was told to never drink any water without filter it (or just buy bottles of water to save yourself from all these trouble). I took my European and Germans friends are couple of week of convincing before I begin drink water directly from the tap. There’s no additional chemical being put into the water at Mannheim therefore it is safe to drink (I am not a science or biology major so I will not question them). For our dorm, there’s a sink at each of our room so it will be very convenient for us to refill our water bottle whenever we wanted to.

When I arrived at Mannheim, I tried to find a water fountain to fill up my water bottle and they don't seem to exist in Mannheim (while we have one basically every 100 meter on campus group). I would still recommend bring a water bottle though which will save you a lot of money from buying water bottle in school or when you are traveling.  

P.s. Don’t hold me accountable if you get sick from drinking the water, also this might not apply to other regions in Germany. Always make sure you ask the people around you before you drink the tap water.

2. Recycle your bottle

Also when you reach Mannheim, you will not see any bottles on the ground as trash. You might not even find any bottles at the trash for many residential area in Manheim. That is because people in this city is really conscious about recycle (at least the bottles). I was told that beer is cheaper than water in Germany which I basically have to agree on. However the point to recycle your bottle (both water and beer) is to lower the cost of those bottles of water we bought from the supermarket. Unlike the United States that recycle mostly the soda can, Germany focused their recycle more on plastic bottles and glass bottles. By recycling one bottle, you will get a refund of 0.25 Euro - 1.00 Euro. With those store credit that you get from the recycling, you can purchase anything from that store (for some people that would be more beer...or water?).

However, keep in mind that you can only recycle the bottle at the supermarket that you purchase from! (Ex: You might not be able to receive the water bottle that you bought at Netto supermarket at an Aldi supermarket.)

3. Supermarket closes on Sunday

Speaking of the supermarket...the place that i have a love-hate relationship with! If there’s one thing that I dislike about the supermarket, it would be that the supermarket closes on Sunday! As someone from America where supermarkets open 7 days per week, it was really hard for me to keep in mind that supermarkets and a lot of restaurant in the city are closed on Sunday. You will need to make sure that there’s enough food for you to last a day (or find someone who have extra food for you), or check ahead of time and see which restaurant is open on Sunday for you to dine in. As someone who live in Ulmenweg (a student residential area), I found that there is a pizza place and a Döner (one of my favourite food, I will definitely introduce it later) place that is open on Sunday. Different residential areas or parts of the city have different restaurants available on Sunday, you can just Google them or ask the students around you.

Another fun fact about German supermarket is that they are not allowed to sell alcohol any day after 9 pm. The reason behind it is to avoid competition with the German bar and restaurant (which requires a different license when registering with the city).