Die Seite http://www.mydealz.de/ ist schon ein Phänomen. Seit 4 Jahren veröffentlicht der (damalige?) Berliner Student Fabian Spielberger Schnäppchen, Preisfehler etc. in seinem Blog. Und scheint damit recht gut zu verdienen. Ich weiß nicht wieviele Abonnenten sein Blog mittlerweile hat, aber der Anzahl der Kommentare nach zu schließen ist die Zahl beträchtlich.
Wie auch immer, ich habe in den letzten sechs Monaten durch die Seite ganz ordentlich gespart, bzw. Geld verdient. Am lukrativsten sind Neukundenprämien von Banken und Handyverträge mit hoher Startprämie (Bar), die natürlich nach Abschluss gekündigt werden müssen.
Die "Gewinne" belaufen sich auf:
Bank of Scotland Startprämie + Cashback 75 EUR
Netbank Startprämie 50 EUR
DailyDeal Kundenwerbung + Cashback 17 EUR
Ersparnis Motorola Defy (E-Plus Base Vertrag) 140 EUR
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seit Januar 282 EUR
Dazu kommen 100 EUR aus früheren Banken-Cashbacks und ein kostenloser Mobilfunktarif und ein mobiler Datentarif für 4,50 EUR statt 30 EUR im Monat.
Insgesamt bin ich inzwischen Kunde bei 6 Banken und habe 6 (gekündigte) Mobilfunkverträge. Ein Neuabschluss bei Vodafone wurde mir bisher aufgrund "Schufa-Auskunft" abgelehnt, allerdings habe ich nach Nachfrage überdurchschnittliche Kreditwürdigkeit (ca 91%). Unbegrenzt lässt sich das Spiel also nicht weiterführen, allerdings bin ich zuversichtlich, weil ich inzwischen bei Vodafone wieder einen neuen Vertrag abschließen konnte. Bei Banken funktioniert es dagegen wohl nur ein einziges Mal.
Ihr seht schon, durch diese Methode lässt sich recht unproblematisch etwas Geld verdienen, reich wird man dadurch allerdings nicht.
Wenn man aber etwas Startkapital zur Verfügung hat, könnte sich die Sache ändern. Es gibt nämlich auch regelmäßig attraktive Vergünstigungen aller möglicher Produkte im Angebot, die man billig kaufen und teuer verkaufen kann.
Um zu testen, ob es möglich ist, einen Gewinn mit dieser Methode einzufahren, habe ich mir folgendes Ziel gesetzt: Ich will ein heutiges Kapitel von 2.000 Euro, das auf einem separaten Konto liegt, bis zum Ende des Jahres verdoppeln.
In die Summe rechne alle "Schnäppchen-Einnahmen" ein, also An- und Verkauf von Produkten, Einnahmen aus Cashback etc. Nicht eingerechnet werden Werte, die sich nicht einwandfrei liquidieren lassen (z.B. Ersparnisse aus Handyverträgen).
....das Spiel beginnt!
Friday, July 8, 2011
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Technische Universität Munich
Last week I took a look at the excellent Information System course in the University of Mannheim. Now it's time to compare this to the famous Technische Universität of Munich. Let's see if it has a chance against this giant.
I start with some impressions of the city and uni, because i was there last weekend to visit my friend John who is living there (he showed me the city really well) and my uncle and his family.
These poeple were smarter than me:
Program Content
Courses offered
When you look at all this, you realize that there is a lot less room for specialization. The Fundamentals consist of:
Most of the lectures are mandatory (things like databases, software engineering and information management). Even the modules declared as compulsory optional, give you only the choice out of 2 (!) subjects. For instance, the subject Operations Management gives you the choice out of logistics and production systems.
The Specialization Track is said to prepare you for the following jobs:
- IT-consulting
- IT-management
- CIO
Unfortunately, the whole thing is only a 6 ECTS - lecture, so it is not a major part of this program.
The Team Project is similar to the one in Mannheim, it gives you 10 ECTS and is only one term long.
Softskills and Master Thesis are similar to Mannheim as well.
As you can see, Munich is in some ways the opposite of Mannheim.
- Focus strongly on IT instead of Business Administration
- Most courses are mandatory. Might be the best if you are not sure yet what to do, so you are guided through the whole program. On the other hand you miss the variety of choices.
Faculties involved
A good 80 % of the program happen at the IT faculty in Garching (a small town near Munich). The other 20 % (the business courses) take place in the economics faculty in the inner city.The program is organized by 3 chairs.
Academic Focus
Research is just awesome at the TU. 22 professors research topics like robotics, augmented reality and much more. An example for the robotic develepment you gonna find here (they try to make pancakes!).
Program Quality
Accreditation
The same as in Mannheim, I didn't find accreditation here. The program started 5 years earlier than that in Mannheim, in winter 2004. That should have given them enough time to get experience and correct mistakes.
Reputation
According to the HR ranking of Wirtschaftswoche, TUM is
- the top 2 in information systems (behind Darmstadt)
- the top 3 in computer science
- not even in the top 20 in business administration
The Focus ranking puts TUM's computer science on rank 2 (behind Karlsruhe).
At CHE Zeit ranking TUM's IT faculty is in the middle group in most aspects (overall mark 2.0, same as Mannheim).
The Handelsblatt says TUM's business administration is on rank 8 in Germany.
THE ranking says TUM is on rank 101 woldwide, which means rank 4 amongst German unis.
Compared to Mannheim, TU is slightly better in IT, Mannheim is slightly better in business, TU as a whole has better reputation on an international level.
Besides, TUM is part of the excellent initiave and highly supported by German government.
Admission
Even though I don't know how many students get declined, they have quite a tough admission process. Besides the usual motivation letter, you need to send in an essay (I know some ppl that even didn't apply because of this :O ). Than you get some points between 0 and 100. Less than 33 means you are declined, less than 66 means you get an interview and might pass, more than 66 means you are immediately accepted.
Infrastructure
Everything fine here, they have at least 3 huge lecture halls and some spread out over the campus in Garching. Have a look at the library of the LMU in Munich (exam time, therefore crowded):
Program attendants
And again, let's check out the statistics. I also took a picture of a poster found in the campus itself:
Out of the 24.500 students there are 33% famale students (however, seeing the campus in Garching, it seemed more like 5-10 % over there -_-) and we have more than 4.000 foreigners (17 %)! This is quite amazing. The campus seems also quite international, mostly I heard the students talking in English.
Surprisingly, the master program is not larger than the one in Mannheim (page 13 of 2009 statistics): In total we count 84 students, 15 of them female and 19 of them foreigners. In the winter term 24 joined. Interesting: There were 21 finishing the program as well, 13 of them in 4 terms. That means we have a very low rate of people that quit (like a master program is sopposed to).
Internationality
As said earlier, the campus is very international, even though the program itself is almost fully in German. I talked to the foreign affairs advisor and there are basically two options: Going out with ERASMUS in the 3. term, but this is the summer term and as the summer term starts usually in February, it is almost impossible to do that without lots of hussle. Going to Asia would be possible in the 4. term (winter 2012) and after that I could write my master thesis right there (assumed that I find a cooperating professor). This would mean studying longer for a couple of months, but I don't mind that if I can study almost a year abroad!
Let's take a look at the exchange programs they have available. There are 160 partner unis worldwide, including unis like Stanford. Asia seems to be a strength of the TUM, look at their Asia partner unis
China: 7 unis
Indonesia: 1 uni
Korea: 3 unis
Philippines: 1
Singapore: 2
Taiwan: 2
Thailand: 3
Malaysia: 1
Of course it needs to be checked if it makes sense to study there, because there should be similar courses available. The exam regulations say that you can earn up to 13 credits each semester abroad even if the modules attended are not the same but have something to do with the program content and purpose. So in order to make to full 30 credits you would need to find a uni that offers at least 17 credits in the same courses you would have back in Munich.
Unfortunately, Double Degrees exist only in the Informatics program, not in IS.
Environment
City
Munich is not as snobby as ppl often used to tell me. At the weekend we were at some nice clubs and pubs, of course expensive, but very worth it. The inner city has nice spots like the Marienplatz, you can have barbecue at the Isar river, you have all these mountains right near the city. So main advantages for me:
- large city, endless opportunities to go out and meet ppl, loads of cultural activities, concerts, etc.
- many companies at the place
- nice atmosphere
There are also some disadvantages:
- campus in Garching is located 30 minutes away. This is my main point. All students I asked had this point actually. They like the campus in Garching, but it's simply nothing out there. So going to uni is merely going to work. This may be a little frustrating.
- There is no student ticket, which means that you have to spend 100 euro extra just for transport
- The city is insanely expensive: you are going to pay more than 900 euro a month, including almost 400 euro for the rent and those 100 for transport.
Non-Uni
As to expect in such a city and uni (there is also the other uni, LMU): Plenty of opportunities.Here I'm referring to this promotional video for the program.
Ultimately,....
Without a doubt a great university with an excellent reputation. Another advantage are the opportunities to go abroad and to study (even though expensively) in a really busy and nice city. On the other hand, the program is a little bit unflexible and not all courses that are offered are the ones I would choose.
I start with some impressions of the city and uni, because i was there last weekend to visit my friend John who is living there (he showed me the city really well) and my uncle and his family.
 |
| My friend John in front of the Isartor |
 |
| The street where John lives. The neighborhood is really cool and in the heart of Munich. I could stay at his place 3 days, I loved this trip so much!! |
 |
| The uni building from outside... |
 |
| ...and inside. Look at this huge slide, four floors high! Apparently you can use it, but i didn't realize it when I was there!! arrrgh! |
 |
| In Munich you even drink your beer for lunch.... in the uni-canteen! |
 |
| Lecture hall inside |
Program Content
Courses offered
The program wanna teach you basics for jobs like Software Architects, IT- Project Managers, IT-Consultants, and for IT-Service-Management. They seem to focus especially on a career aim as CIO (chief information officer), you might have heard of CEO or CFO, so CIO is the highest position in companies in the IT area.
Most courses are taught in German.
The course program is much more structured than that in Mannheim. You can choose very less courses. We definitely have a focus on IT (almost everything happens in the informatics faculty). We have the following parts. I put them in the same format as in Mannheim to make the whole thing comparable:
1. Fundamentals: 61 ECTS (25 IT, 15 IS, 21 Business Administration)
2. Specialization Track: 6 ECTS
3. Team Project: 10 ECTS
4. Softskills: 13 ECTS
5. Master Thesis: 30 ECTS
- 25 ECTS IT lectures, 8 of them for the a CIO simulation
- 15 ECTS IS lectures
- 15 ECTS IS lectures
- 21 ECTS business lectures
Most of the lectures are mandatory (things like databases, software engineering and information management). Even the modules declared as compulsory optional, give you only the choice out of 2 (!) subjects. For instance, the subject Operations Management gives you the choice out of logistics and production systems.
The Specialization Track is said to prepare you for the following jobs:
- IT-consulting
- IT-management
- CIO
Unfortunately, the whole thing is only a 6 ECTS - lecture, so it is not a major part of this program.
The Team Project is similar to the one in Mannheim, it gives you 10 ECTS and is only one term long.
Softskills and Master Thesis are similar to Mannheim as well.
As you can see, Munich is in some ways the opposite of Mannheim.
- Focus strongly on IT instead of Business Administration
- Most courses are mandatory. Might be the best if you are not sure yet what to do, so you are guided through the whole program. On the other hand you miss the variety of choices.
Faculties involved
A good 80 % of the program happen at the IT faculty in Garching (a small town near Munich). The other 20 % (the business courses) take place in the economics faculty in the inner city.The program is organized by 3 chairs.
Academic Focus
Research is just awesome at the TU. 22 professors research topics like robotics, augmented reality and much more. An example for the robotic develepment you gonna find here (they try to make pancakes!).
Program Quality
Accreditation
The same as in Mannheim, I didn't find accreditation here. The program started 5 years earlier than that in Mannheim, in winter 2004. That should have given them enough time to get experience and correct mistakes.
Reputation
According to the HR ranking of Wirtschaftswoche, TUM is
- the top 2 in information systems (behind Darmstadt)
- the top 3 in computer science
- not even in the top 20 in business administration
The Focus ranking puts TUM's computer science on rank 2 (behind Karlsruhe).
At CHE Zeit ranking TUM's IT faculty is in the middle group in most aspects (overall mark 2.0, same as Mannheim).
The Handelsblatt says TUM's business administration is on rank 8 in Germany.
THE ranking says TUM is on rank 101 woldwide, which means rank 4 amongst German unis.
Compared to Mannheim, TU is slightly better in IT, Mannheim is slightly better in business, TU as a whole has better reputation on an international level.
Besides, TUM is part of the excellent initiave and highly supported by German government.
Admission
Even though I don't know how many students get declined, they have quite a tough admission process. Besides the usual motivation letter, you need to send in an essay (I know some ppl that even didn't apply because of this :O ). Than you get some points between 0 and 100. Less than 33 means you are declined, less than 66 means you get an interview and might pass, more than 66 means you are immediately accepted.
Infrastructure
Everything fine here, they have at least 3 huge lecture halls and some spread out over the campus in Garching. Have a look at the library of the LMU in Munich (exam time, therefore crowded):
Program attendants
And again, let's check out the statistics. I also took a picture of a poster found in the campus itself:
Out of the 24.500 students there are 33% famale students (however, seeing the campus in Garching, it seemed more like 5-10 % over there -_-) and we have more than 4.000 foreigners (17 %)! This is quite amazing. The campus seems also quite international, mostly I heard the students talking in English.
Surprisingly, the master program is not larger than the one in Mannheim (page 13 of 2009 statistics): In total we count 84 students, 15 of them female and 19 of them foreigners. In the winter term 24 joined. Interesting: There were 21 finishing the program as well, 13 of them in 4 terms. That means we have a very low rate of people that quit (like a master program is sopposed to).
Internationality
As said earlier, the campus is very international, even though the program itself is almost fully in German. I talked to the foreign affairs advisor and there are basically two options: Going out with ERASMUS in the 3. term, but this is the summer term and as the summer term starts usually in February, it is almost impossible to do that without lots of hussle. Going to Asia would be possible in the 4. term (winter 2012) and after that I could write my master thesis right there (assumed that I find a cooperating professor). This would mean studying longer for a couple of months, but I don't mind that if I can study almost a year abroad!
Let's take a look at the exchange programs they have available. There are 160 partner unis worldwide, including unis like Stanford. Asia seems to be a strength of the TUM, look at their Asia partner unis
China: 7 unis
Indonesia: 1 uni
Korea: 3 unis
Philippines: 1
Singapore: 2
Taiwan: 2
Thailand: 3
Malaysia: 1
Of course it needs to be checked if it makes sense to study there, because there should be similar courses available. The exam regulations say that you can earn up to 13 credits each semester abroad even if the modules attended are not the same but have something to do with the program content and purpose. So in order to make to full 30 credits you would need to find a uni that offers at least 17 credits in the same courses you would have back in Munich.
Unfortunately, Double Degrees exist only in the Informatics program, not in IS.
Environment
City
Munich is not as snobby as ppl often used to tell me. At the weekend we were at some nice clubs and pubs, of course expensive, but very worth it. The inner city has nice spots like the Marienplatz, you can have barbecue at the Isar river, you have all these mountains right near the city. So main advantages for me:
- large city, endless opportunities to go out and meet ppl, loads of cultural activities, concerts, etc.
- many companies at the place
- nice atmosphere
There are also some disadvantages:
- campus in Garching is located 30 minutes away. This is my main point. All students I asked had this point actually. They like the campus in Garching, but it's simply nothing out there. So going to uni is merely going to work. This may be a little frustrating.
- There is no student ticket, which means that you have to spend 100 euro extra just for transport
- The city is insanely expensive: you are going to pay more than 900 euro a month, including almost 400 euro for the rent and those 100 for transport.
Non-Uni
As to expect in such a city and uni (there is also the other uni, LMU): Plenty of opportunities.Here I'm referring to this promotional video for the program.
Ultimately,....
Without a doubt a great university with an excellent reputation. Another advantage are the opportunities to go abroad and to study (even though expensively) in a really busy and nice city. On the other hand, the program is a little bit unflexible and not all courses that are offered are the ones I would choose.
Friday, January 28, 2011
University Mannheim
Let's have a look on of my favourite programs: Wirtschaftsinformatik (Information Systems) in Mannheim and apply the earlier defined criteria.
Let's start with their nice promotional video:
Program Content
Courses offered
The program consists of the following parts. You can find all modules in the modul catalogue. Interesting is that no course at all is mandatory, you can literally choose everything. That means on the other hand, you need an excellent advisor to stick together an individual plan.
1. Fundamentals (48 - 53 ECTS)
2. Specialization Track (21 ECTS)
3. Team Project (12 ECTS)
4. Softskills (9 ECTS)
5. Master Thesis (30 ECTS)
1. Fundamentals
Here you have the tracks Computer Science, Business Informatics and Business Administration. You are allowed to choose 2 moduls out of each of those tracks.
Honestly, the track Computer Science is a little disappointing. Only 4 moduls to choose from and I'm not sure whether the modul Algorithmics 1 (!) and Advanced Software Engineering would tell me anything new. Advanced Computer Networks looks interesting though.
It gets better when it comes to Business Informatics. The moduls Advanced Middleware and E-Business or Enterprise Systems are most interesting in my view.
When you look at business administration, you will know why Mannheim is famous for this. In this track you can choose out of at least 60 (!) different modules that contain Accounting, Finance, Marketing, Management and Logistics.
2. Specialization Track
Here you finally decide in which direction you wanna go during your studies. We can decide between "Information Technology" (very technically, e.g. networks or IT security), "Development of Information Systems" (software development, process modelling etc.) and "Information Systems" (focus on overall understanding of IT in business, technology only on the surface).
Personally, I'm quite interested in the technical stuff, so IT or Development of IS would be for me.
3. Team Project
12 credits are given for a 1 year team project of your choice. Its content should be aligned with your specialization track and probably it makes sense to write the master thesis eventually about a similar topic, too.
I still need to ask if it's possible to do this project already in the first two terms in order to be able to go abroad in term 3.
4. Soft Skills
Besides the regular program you can earn credits by taking interesting holiday courses and additional courses dealing with topics like self development, intercultural awareness etc.
5. Master Thesis
I'd like to write the thesis in cooperation with a company or even abroad. Both should be possible in Mannheim.
Faculties involved
According to the website, the faculty of business and the facutly of IT / maths joined together to the "Center of Business Informatics". In fact there is not a real IT or computer science course available, everything is related to business. Wikipedia says, the faculty of Business Informatics exists only on trial, even though there were put in lots of money to build it up. I will double-check this information by uni advisors, since it is important that the faculty is considered to be a vital part of the uni.
The area "Imformation Systems" got 5 chairs. However, in total there are quite a few involved (Computer Science / IT) that teach courses as well.
Academic Focus
Look at the various research projects of the center.
Program Quality
Accreditation
Though ranked well, the program doesn't seem to be accreditated at all. The reason might be that the program is quite new, it just started off in the winter 2009, which is not necessarily a bad sign, but there might exist some confusion in the program structure as they lack of experience. I gonna ask current students to give me insider information about that.
Reputation
According to the HR ranking of Wirtschaftswoche, Mannheim is
- the top 2 in information systems (behind Darmstadt)
- the top 1 in business administration
- the top 10 in computer science
The Focus ranking puts Mannheim's computer science on rank 6.
At CHE Zeit ranking Mannheim's coomputer science is in the middle group in most aspects.
The Handelsblatt says Mannheim's business administration is on rank 1 in Germany.
Realize that those rankings refer actually to the bachelor programs, but it should be meaningful for the master as well.
THE ranking says Mannheim is not even amongst the top 200 worldwide (currently there are 14 Germany unis)
Admission
At least in the summer term it doesn't seem to be tough at all to get accepted. Department says they have more space than applicants, even though it seems to vary from term to term. Maybe they should improve their marketing a bit..
Infrastructure
They seem to have a lovely library, but I gonna check out how everything looks like in the place.
Program attendants
I found interesting student statistics, who is studying at the uni?
Out of the 9.300 students there are 1.150 foreigners, meaning around 12 %. This is quite a good number as the avarage in Germany is only 2 %.
When we take a look at the course itself (page 68), we count only 88 students in total, 15 of them were female. 61 students joined in the winter term 2009, and only 12 joined in the summer term 2010.
Internationality
The uni tries hard to maintain internationality and they seem to manage it quite well. For this reason, a change of the term dates has been established, terms start in February and September in order to adjust to most uni schedules in Europe and some worldwide. Many courses are taught in English, 12 % of all students in Mannheim are foreigners. According to the international office, the uni maintains 170 ERASMUS and 130 worldwide partnerships. In the Information Systems course alone there are 40 exchange programs offered, 8 of them in Asia (my main interest):
Hong Kong: Chinese University of Hong Kong (1-2 terms)
Japan: Kyoto University of Foreign Studies (1-2 terms)
Japan: Hitotsubashi University (1-2 terms)
Korea: Seoul National University (1 term)
Singapore: National University of Singapore (1-2 terms)
Taiwan: National Chiao Tung University, College of Management (1 term)
Taiwan: Tunghai University (1 term)
Taiwan: National Taiwan University (1 term)
Strange that there is no program in China, I gonna ask at the international office for more information.
A nice feature is the double degree in the Copenhagen Business School (Double Degree, 2 terms) which unfortunately seems to be only possible if you start studying in the winter term. I gonna try it though.
Environment
City
Surely Mannheim is not the nicest city in the world and also not a real "student city" like Münster or Tübingen. I was there one day and I found it surprisingly nice, since you will find the Neckar and the Rhein over there and they say there is a nice harbour too (I didnt visit it myself yet).
Main advantages:
- campus uni is located right next to the inner city
- lots of companies are located here (university has a lot of company contacts too)
- half an hour ride to Heidelberg and Frankfurt
- people I talked to on the streets are friendly and nice speaking a funny dialect, typically Southern Germany ;)
Also check out this promotional video for the whole region (mainly Mannheim, Heidelberg and Speyer). They even compare the region to New York.. After watching this, you can hardly refuse to live you whole life there ;)
Non-Uni
There are plenty of organizations established in Mannheim. Besides AIESEC, the student consultant INTEGRA e.V. and Arbeitsgruppe Börse seem interesting and definitely worth a try.
The uni sports program is OK, nothing compared to Münster though. I wonder if the courses are not very crowded. They even provide a board games program, of course I gonna join ;)
The Mannheim Entrepreneur Guide provides a community and regular events about entrepreneurship.
Loads of language courses are available as well.
Ultimately,....
I can say that the course of Mannheim is an extremely interesting opportunity. The city is not the most exciting one, but the inner city is awesome and they say a lot of party is possible as well. Out of question, it is the best business administration uni in Germany. Going abroad seems to be easy. The only thing that needs to be checked is wheter the Computer Science is just on trial and actually not wanted (they just love business) or if they take this part really seriously as well.
HOT candidate!
Let's start with their nice promotional video:
Program Content
Courses offered
The program consists of the following parts. You can find all modules in the modul catalogue. Interesting is that no course at all is mandatory, you can literally choose everything. That means on the other hand, you need an excellent advisor to stick together an individual plan.
1. Fundamentals (48 - 53 ECTS)
2. Specialization Track (21 ECTS)
3. Team Project (12 ECTS)
4. Softskills (9 ECTS)
5. Master Thesis (30 ECTS)
1. Fundamentals
Here you have the tracks Computer Science, Business Informatics and Business Administration. You are allowed to choose 2 moduls out of each of those tracks.
Honestly, the track Computer Science is a little disappointing. Only 4 moduls to choose from and I'm not sure whether the modul Algorithmics 1 (!) and Advanced Software Engineering would tell me anything new. Advanced Computer Networks looks interesting though.
It gets better when it comes to Business Informatics. The moduls Advanced Middleware and E-Business or Enterprise Systems are most interesting in my view.
When you look at business administration, you will know why Mannheim is famous for this. In this track you can choose out of at least 60 (!) different modules that contain Accounting, Finance, Marketing, Management and Logistics.
2. Specialization Track
Here you finally decide in which direction you wanna go during your studies. We can decide between "Information Technology" (very technically, e.g. networks or IT security), "Development of Information Systems" (software development, process modelling etc.) and "Information Systems" (focus on overall understanding of IT in business, technology only on the surface).
Personally, I'm quite interested in the technical stuff, so IT or Development of IS would be for me.
3. Team Project
12 credits are given for a 1 year team project of your choice. Its content should be aligned with your specialization track and probably it makes sense to write the master thesis eventually about a similar topic, too.
I still need to ask if it's possible to do this project already in the first two terms in order to be able to go abroad in term 3.
4. Soft Skills
Besides the regular program you can earn credits by taking interesting holiday courses and additional courses dealing with topics like self development, intercultural awareness etc.
5. Master Thesis
I'd like to write the thesis in cooperation with a company or even abroad. Both should be possible in Mannheim.
Faculties involved
According to the website, the faculty of business and the facutly of IT / maths joined together to the "Center of Business Informatics". In fact there is not a real IT or computer science course available, everything is related to business. Wikipedia says, the faculty of Business Informatics exists only on trial, even though there were put in lots of money to build it up. I will double-check this information by uni advisors, since it is important that the faculty is considered to be a vital part of the uni.
The area "Imformation Systems" got 5 chairs. However, in total there are quite a few involved (Computer Science / IT) that teach courses as well.
Academic Focus
Look at the various research projects of the center.
Program Quality
Accreditation
Though ranked well, the program doesn't seem to be accreditated at all. The reason might be that the program is quite new, it just started off in the winter 2009, which is not necessarily a bad sign, but there might exist some confusion in the program structure as they lack of experience. I gonna ask current students to give me insider information about that.
Reputation
According to the HR ranking of Wirtschaftswoche, Mannheim is
- the top 2 in information systems (behind Darmstadt)
- the top 1 in business administration
- the top 10 in computer science
The Focus ranking puts Mannheim's computer science on rank 6.
At CHE Zeit ranking Mannheim's coomputer science is in the middle group in most aspects.
The Handelsblatt says Mannheim's business administration is on rank 1 in Germany.
Realize that those rankings refer actually to the bachelor programs, but it should be meaningful for the master as well.
THE ranking says Mannheim is not even amongst the top 200 worldwide (currently there are 14 Germany unis)
Admission
At least in the summer term it doesn't seem to be tough at all to get accepted. Department says they have more space than applicants, even though it seems to vary from term to term. Maybe they should improve their marketing a bit..
Infrastructure
They seem to have a lovely library, but I gonna check out how everything looks like in the place.
Program attendants
I found interesting student statistics, who is studying at the uni?
Out of the 9.300 students there are 1.150 foreigners, meaning around 12 %. This is quite a good number as the avarage in Germany is only 2 %.
When we take a look at the course itself (page 68), we count only 88 students in total, 15 of them were female. 61 students joined in the winter term 2009, and only 12 joined in the summer term 2010.
Internationality
The uni tries hard to maintain internationality and they seem to manage it quite well. For this reason, a change of the term dates has been established, terms start in February and September in order to adjust to most uni schedules in Europe and some worldwide. Many courses are taught in English, 12 % of all students in Mannheim are foreigners. According to the international office, the uni maintains 170 ERASMUS and 130 worldwide partnerships. In the Information Systems course alone there are 40 exchange programs offered, 8 of them in Asia (my main interest):
Hong Kong: Chinese University of Hong Kong (1-2 terms)
Japan: Kyoto University of Foreign Studies (1-2 terms)
Japan: Hitotsubashi University (1-2 terms)
Korea: Seoul National University (1 term)
Singapore: National University of Singapore (1-2 terms)
Taiwan: National Chiao Tung University, College of Management (1 term)
Taiwan: Tunghai University (1 term)
Taiwan: National Taiwan University (1 term)
Strange that there is no program in China, I gonna ask at the international office for more information.
A nice feature is the double degree in the Copenhagen Business School (Double Degree, 2 terms) which unfortunately seems to be only possible if you start studying in the winter term. I gonna try it though.
Environment
City
Surely Mannheim is not the nicest city in the world and also not a real "student city" like Münster or Tübingen. I was there one day and I found it surprisingly nice, since you will find the Neckar and the Rhein over there and they say there is a nice harbour too (I didnt visit it myself yet).
Main advantages:
- campus uni is located right next to the inner city
- lots of companies are located here (university has a lot of company contacts too)
- half an hour ride to Heidelberg and Frankfurt
- people I talked to on the streets are friendly and nice speaking a funny dialect, typically Southern Germany ;)
Also check out this promotional video for the whole region (mainly Mannheim, Heidelberg and Speyer). They even compare the region to New York.. After watching this, you can hardly refuse to live you whole life there ;)
Non-Uni
There are plenty of organizations established in Mannheim. Besides AIESEC, the student consultant INTEGRA e.V. and Arbeitsgruppe Börse seem interesting and definitely worth a try.
The uni sports program is OK, nothing compared to Münster though. I wonder if the courses are not very crowded. They even provide a board games program, of course I gonna join ;)
The Mannheim Entrepreneur Guide provides a community and regular events about entrepreneurship.
Loads of language courses are available as well.
Ultimately,....
I can say that the course of Mannheim is an extremely interesting opportunity. The city is not the most exciting one, but the inner city is awesome and they say a lot of party is possible as well. Out of question, it is the best business administration uni in Germany. Going abroad seems to be easy. The only thing that needs to be checked is wheter the Computer Science is just on trial and actually not wanted (they just love business) or if they take this part really seriously as well.
HOT candidate!
Sunday, January 16, 2011
How to pick the best Grad School
Back in Germany I enjoyed Christmas, seeing my family and friends again after more than one year abroad. It was just awesome so far. Cause I wanna start my masters this year, I started to do an intense research on all available programs in my major Information Systems (German Wirtschaftsinformatik).
I focused on German programs as programs in English speaking countries are usually not consecutive, which means the master programs start from zero and don't build up on the bachelor programs. I plan to go abroad though, so I gonna look in particular for international programs in Germany.
My Criteria
To have fairly well defined criteria about what is important is going to help to make a reasonable decision rather than just go with gut feelings. In the end the whole package should fit to my needs. This page helps to find criteria.
Program Content
- Courses offered: The most important factor. What does an university with excellent infrastructure and reputation help, if most courses are marketing related and I want IT? What I check is the complete range of provided courses. How many courses are selectable? How flexible is the whole program? How many seminars compared to lectures? How are the credit points distributed, how important are projects and the master thesis? How many semesters will you be studying?
- Faculties involved: Are main parts of the program in the computer science faculty? Or business administration? How many publications? How many professors are teaching? How good is their reputation? (prof research on meinprof.de and google scholar)
- Academic Focus: What is the core focus of the university? E.g. in my Bachelor program in Münster it was process management.
Program Quality
- Accreditation: Is the program accredited by at least one of the well-known German agencies? This database helps to find the information.
- Reputation: My source the following rankings:
- CHE universtiy ranking
- karriere.de
- Humboldt-Ranking (Internationality)
- Times Ranking (overall university reputation)
- Handelsblatt (only Business Administration)
- Admission: Is it tough to enter the program? The tougher the better, it usually means higher quality and better reputation. I use two criteria here:
- Requirements to enter the program, always published on the program pages of the universities
- Ratio of applicants and acceptances. In Germany institutes prefer to remain nontransparent and don't publish these information on their websites. A polite phone call can help though
- Infrastructure. How does the library look like? Are there lots of modern computer labs? These information are easiest to get when visiting the place or ask students actually studying there or Alumni.
- Program attendants. Take a look at the students attending the program. How many internationals? The more the better. How many students study there? The less the better since the atmosphere will be much more personal and efficient.
- Internationality. For me especially interesting, because I want to go at least 1 semester abroad, preferably USA or East Asia. Does the uni have partner unis in these countries? Does the program make it easy to go abroad? How about master thesis abroad? Is there even a double degree to earn? Usually these information should be available at the university's international office. Very important: Is the whole program in English or German? I strongly prefer English since I aim for an international career.
Environment
- City. How large is the city? (after a year in Bangkok, even Berlin seems small and quiet. I would prefer a big city with lots of cultural options, VERY small towns get sorted out). How expensive? How is the overall atmosphere? Are there a lot of interesting companies to get connections for later work?
- Uni Location. Is the university a campus or is it spread out in the whole city? I prefer the spread out version like in Münster or Karlsruhe, as it makes the city look more like a real student city. A campus is OK though, if it's not too far away or extremely ugly.
- Non-Uni. After a good while at the world's largest student organization AIESEC I would like to get in touch with another organization e.g. company consulting. Is this possible in the university?What about uni sports?
The programs I'm most interested in starting in the summer term:
Muenster: Information Systems international program, excellent reputation
Mannheim: Wirtschaftsinformatik partly English, well-known in business
TU Munich: Wirtschaftsinformatik part of the excellence cluster, strong in computer science
Erlangen-Nuernberg: International Information System not actually starting in summer, but possible to start off with Informatics and switch later
The programs also interesting but only starting in the winter term:
Augsburg: Finance and Information Management international excellence program, highly competitive and small classes
Hamburg: Wirtschaftsinformatik interesting topics to choose of: logistics and IT management
Useful books and links:
The programs also interesting but only starting in the winter term:
Augsburg: Finance and Information Management international excellence program, highly competitive and small classes
Hamburg: Wirtschaftsinformatik interesting topics to choose of: logistics and IT management
Useful books and links:
Not ordered yet, but probably valuable: Studienführer Wirtschaftsinformatik 09/10
Find programmes in Germany: Studis online
In the next days I will have a look at each of those programs based on my criteria.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Beating the TOEFL
Recently I needed to take an English exam to apply for grad school. There are quite a few options but I chose the TOEFL simply because it is the most famous test with most preparation material available. If you are in the same situation, you should seriously consider to take the IELTS test instead. Both have advantages and disadvantages.
For TOEFL, especially if you have not much preparation time (less than 1 week), I found out that following a few tips will help you a lot in succeeding:
1. In the TOEFL, 10 % of your success is based on your actual English skills, 90 % is based on your preparation on the specific tasks in the TOEFL. The good news: All tasks in the TOEFL follow exactly the same patterns all over again. Prepare exactly for these tasks. Don't spend even a second trying to improve your overall English skills or practicing tasks that are not part of the actual TOEFL test.
2. The TOEFL consists of four sections, Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing, all worth 30 points of your score. Focus on 2 sections you are weak in and spend most of your time practising these ones. E.g. my weak parts were reading and speaking.
3. Use the following instructions for each of the sections:
This section consists of a few texts that you need to understand in order to answer multiple choice questions. Don't read the full text, you won't have time for it! Instead, read only the first sentence of each paragraph and the first and last sentence of the last paragraph. Now you will be able to understand the big picture of the text and can start attacking the questions. For each question, you usually will need to read 5-7 lines.
- Listening:
Nothing special here, just practise tons of example tasks (see my literature recommendations in the end).
- Speaking:
Most people say this is the most difficult one. It contains of 6 different questions. My personal advice here: Watch these videos made by a US teacher and you will get a decent score. There are videos for each of the 6 questions. As for preparation, write down the templates this guy suggests in his videos and master them.
- Writing:
There are extremely helpful templates that you can memorize and use in the actual test. Again, watch the videos for this. Important detail: Your essay should have at least 350 words for question 1 and 450 words for question 2 in oder to get full score.
4. Most importantly, use the right material. It doesn't make sense to practise tasks that don't show up in the acual test. The best material I found was the following. You can find it all online or in your local library.
Must have
- As so often nowadays, free online ressources tend to get more useful than official books. For the speaking and writing sessions, definitely watch these videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/NoteFulldotcom . More ressources are available on the according website.
- The Princeton Review - Cracking the TOEFL iBT 2009 Edition. By far the best book I've found, with excellent tips for reading and writing section.
- ETS - TOEFL iBT: The Official ETS Study Guide. Some useful tips, but you'll mainly want to use this for the original practise tests. (you should avoid Kaplan's well-known book, as it doesn't use original TOEFL tasks and is therefore useless in most parts)
Nice to have
- Barron's TOEFL iBT Internet-Based Test, 12th Edition. Get the CD with 7 full TOEFL tests to practice. Note that Speaking Questions 4 and 6 as well as Writing Question 1 are NOT original, skip those questions!
- TOEFL Vocabulary AudioLearn. Might be helpful for memorizing the specific words for Reading and Listening section.
5. Stay calm. Even if you have little time, you will be able to get a reasonable score if you stick to the above advice. So no worries and start practicing today! Good luck :)
For TOEFL, especially if you have not much preparation time (less than 1 week), I found out that following a few tips will help you a lot in succeeding:
1. In the TOEFL, 10 % of your success is based on your actual English skills, 90 % is based on your preparation on the specific tasks in the TOEFL. The good news: All tasks in the TOEFL follow exactly the same patterns all over again. Prepare exactly for these tasks. Don't spend even a second trying to improve your overall English skills or practicing tasks that are not part of the actual TOEFL test.
2. The TOEFL consists of four sections, Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing, all worth 30 points of your score. Focus on 2 sections you are weak in and spend most of your time practising these ones. E.g. my weak parts were reading and speaking.
3. Use the following instructions for each of the sections:
- Writing:
This section consists of a few texts that you need to understand in order to answer multiple choice questions. Don't read the full text, you won't have time for it! Instead, read only the first sentence of each paragraph and the first and last sentence of the last paragraph. Now you will be able to understand the big picture of the text and can start attacking the questions. For each question, you usually will need to read 5-7 lines.
- Listening:
Nothing special here, just practise tons of example tasks (see my literature recommendations in the end).
- Speaking:
Most people say this is the most difficult one. It contains of 6 different questions. My personal advice here: Watch these videos made by a US teacher and you will get a decent score. There are videos for each of the 6 questions. As for preparation, write down the templates this guy suggests in his videos and master them.
- Writing:
There are extremely helpful templates that you can memorize and use in the actual test. Again, watch the videos for this. Important detail: Your essay should have at least 350 words for question 1 and 450 words for question 2 in oder to get full score.
4. Most importantly, use the right material. It doesn't make sense to practise tasks that don't show up in the acual test. The best material I found was the following. You can find it all online or in your local library.
Must have
- As so often nowadays, free online ressources tend to get more useful than official books. For the speaking and writing sessions, definitely watch these videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/NoteFulldotcom . More ressources are available on the according website.
- The Princeton Review - Cracking the TOEFL iBT 2009 Edition. By far the best book I've found, with excellent tips for reading and writing section.
- ETS - TOEFL iBT: The Official ETS Study Guide. Some useful tips, but you'll mainly want to use this for the original practise tests. (you should avoid Kaplan's well-known book, as it doesn't use original TOEFL tasks and is therefore useless in most parts)
Nice to have
- Barron's TOEFL iBT Internet-Based Test, 12th Edition. Get the CD with 7 full TOEFL tests to practice. Note that Speaking Questions 4 and 6 as well as Writing Question 1 are NOT original, skip those questions!
- TOEFL Vocabulary AudioLearn. Might be helpful for memorizing the specific words for Reading and Listening section.
5. Stay calm. Even if you have little time, you will be able to get a reasonable score if you stick to the above advice. So no worries and start practicing today! Good luck :)
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Laos Gambling & Hitchhiking
A Story about Gambling and Losing
Since Friday I'm off to visit my good friend Yuki a second time in Laos and then take a look at Vietnam. The time with Yuki is always a great fun, this time we were at a trade fair, where Yuki and his colleages had a booth for their ODOP products.
Actually what I wanna talk about is one of the stalls there that catched our attention. It was a so called Wheel of Fortune, a gambling thing. Gambling is in Laos quite popular, and it used to be in Thailand too, until it was forbidden and now you will find there neither casinos nor are there any kinds of card games allowed at all.
On this trade fair there were a couple of these gambling games, mostly quite unfair for the ones who play. In avarage you would lose 50% of your money. An exeption seemed to be the Wheel of Fortune, the chances to win seemed here even, if not favorable for the players (it's hard to tell because it is handmade as you see on the picture and so the sizes of the fields are not exactly identical)
The rules of the game are simple: First you put any amount of money on one of the areas surrounding the inner wheel. You can put as little as 500 Kip (5 Eurocent), no problem. Then you make the wheel rotate and wait until it gets slower and is finally stopped by the metallic entity you see on the left of the wheel. Now you win or lose depending on which part of the wheel the metallic entity hits. E.g. it hits the red part and you have 1.000 Kip on red, you will get 20.000 Kip (1 x 20). If it hits one of those nice animals, crab or spider, you get the amount you put in multiplied by the number of crabs or spiders drawn on the part of the wheel.
As both Yuki and I have a weakness for all sorts of games, we started playing. Yuki always put his money on both of the animals, whereas I distributed it between red or yellow and one animal. And we lost, and lost... and lost. Yuki won the first round around 4.000 Kip and lost after that literally every round. I won in one round 20.000 Kip, but lost even more often before and after. There were other people losing money as well, but one guy won conspicuously often. He made at least 4 times 20.000 Kip and seem to be really lucky, after all. As both Yuki and I were about to lose all our cash and became suspicious about what was going on, suddenly a policeman showed up, took all the cash in the game and pulled the game master away. For a moment I was too perplex to react quickly, I was also not even sure if we actually had done something officially illegal (which was of course not).
At the moment I realized that the game was a scam and the wheel was rigged, it was too late and both policeman and game master were gone with the wind and had most likely devided the cash (I'm sure the guy had some sort of deal with the police). The other guy who won unnaturally much must have been his partner in order to attract new customers. We as foreigners were of course their main targets. Ashamed and defeated we still try to figure out how they could rig the wheel, since we had pulled it ourselves and we lost anyway. Was it a magnet, some sort of rope under the board? My tipp is that the metallic entity could be actually moved back and forth by a very thin transparent rope and if it's moved one milimeter it will change the outcome of the game and it can't possibly be seen by the human eye. This could have been done by the game master himself even though we watched him closely (he hardly needs to move). Whatever, if you have any other suggestion on how it might have worked please drop a comment!
Truck-Hitchhiking
Actually traveling in Laos is pretty easy and comfortable. However, sometimes it doesn't work out the way you planned.
After visiting Yuki in Savannakhet, I went on to the South of Loas, in a city called Pakse. I wanted to move on already the next day, so I asked the friendly lady at the bus station for a ticket to Hue, Vietnam tomorrow evening. She wrote it herself with date and time, I paid, everyting fine I thought.
Well, the next day I enjoyed a beautiful day motorcycling around Pakse to the largest waterfall in Laos (120 meter) and another even nicer one. Later in the day I watched the amazing What Phou Champasak, which is since 2001 an UNESCO world heritage side and definitely worth a trip, even if you are not into old temples.
From here, it started to be more fun, because the other driver who was only 23 and could speak Thai fluently joined us in our truck. With him as translater, I leaned quite a few interesting things:
- These drivers weren't as dodgy as they seemed to me first, but actually quite friendly and fun. We became best friends, exchanged phone numbers and in the end I didn't even have to pay the 80.000 Kip fee.
- In fact, they exported a coffee called Arabica, which is very common in the area around Pakse. Popular and expensive as well. Police and land owners keep bothering all truck drivers in Laos (not in Vietnam at all) and get them to pay, regardless if their documents are correct or not. The amount you'll pay depends on your bargaining skills, your time and your patience.
- I learned my first Vietnamese words, starting with "Doo Ma" which means as much as "Fuck your mother". However, they demanded that this phrase is not offensive at all and everyone uses it over there.
- In the truck drivers' opinion all Vietnamese people are unfriendly and mean.
Anyways, at 10.30 a.m. we reached the border crossing named Lao Bao, drank a nice coffee and Red Bull and had to say a sad goodbye. Five minutes later I was ripped off by the ladies that exchange money, because I didn't know the exact rates, but at least I got my stamp for Vietnam and could work my way further to Hue, where I am now.
I'm looking forward to a good shower and todays party can start I guess!
Since Friday I'm off to visit my good friend Yuki a second time in Laos and then take a look at Vietnam. The time with Yuki is always a great fun, this time we were at a trade fair, where Yuki and his colleages had a booth for their ODOP products.
 |
| Yuki is hungry as hell and kills his fried icecream. |
On this trade fair there were a couple of these gambling games, mostly quite unfair for the ones who play. In avarage you would lose 50% of your money. An exeption seemed to be the Wheel of Fortune, the chances to win seemed here even, if not favorable for the players (it's hard to tell because it is handmade as you see on the picture and so the sizes of the fields are not exactly identical)
 |
| The unfortunate Wheel of Fortune. |
As both Yuki and I have a weakness for all sorts of games, we started playing. Yuki always put his money on both of the animals, whereas I distributed it between red or yellow and one animal. And we lost, and lost... and lost. Yuki won the first round around 4.000 Kip and lost after that literally every round. I won in one round 20.000 Kip, but lost even more often before and after. There were other people losing money as well, but one guy won conspicuously often. He made at least 4 times 20.000 Kip and seem to be really lucky, after all. As both Yuki and I were about to lose all our cash and became suspicious about what was going on, suddenly a policeman showed up, took all the cash in the game and pulled the game master away. For a moment I was too perplex to react quickly, I was also not even sure if we actually had done something officially illegal (which was of course not).
At the moment I realized that the game was a scam and the wheel was rigged, it was too late and both policeman and game master were gone with the wind and had most likely devided the cash (I'm sure the guy had some sort of deal with the police). The other guy who won unnaturally much must have been his partner in order to attract new customers. We as foreigners were of course their main targets. Ashamed and defeated we still try to figure out how they could rig the wheel, since we had pulled it ourselves and we lost anyway. Was it a magnet, some sort of rope under the board? My tipp is that the metallic entity could be actually moved back and forth by a very thin transparent rope and if it's moved one milimeter it will change the outcome of the game and it can't possibly be seen by the human eye. This could have been done by the game master himself even though we watched him closely (he hardly needs to move). Whatever, if you have any other suggestion on how it might have worked please drop a comment!
Truck-Hitchhiking
Actually traveling in Laos is pretty easy and comfortable. However, sometimes it doesn't work out the way you planned.
After visiting Yuki in Savannakhet, I went on to the South of Loas, in a city called Pakse. I wanted to move on already the next day, so I asked the friendly lady at the bus station for a ticket to Hue, Vietnam tomorrow evening. She wrote it herself with date and time, I paid, everyting fine I thought.
Well, the next day I enjoyed a beautiful day motorcycling around Pakse to the largest waterfall in Laos (120 meter) and another even nicer one. Later in the day I watched the amazing What Phou Champasak, which is since 2001 an UNESCO world heritage side and definitely worth a trip, even if you are not into old temples.
 |
| Nice waterfall (forgot the name -_-) |
 |
| Enoying Loas noodle soup with 2 randomly met people. By the way, the noodle soup in Laos is called Foe and extremely delicious. The variety in Thailand is greater though. |
 |
| By ferry across the river Mekong. |
 |
| Jesus, what a view! On the top of Wat Phou. |
 |
| On my way back to Pakse by motorcycle. The road was aweful, I run out of gasoline and was late as well. In the end I arrived exactly on time 6.30 pm and got the next surpise... |
In the evening 6.30 pm I arrived at the bus station to start over to Vietnam Vietnam
So what to do next? I decided to go the whole hog and positioned myself at the street nearby and try hitchhiking. Unfortunately, it is already dark in Loas at 6.30 pm and Loas is not really the country where people go for a ride after noon. In other words, the street was completely empty. My last hope was a convoy of 2 trucks standing not too far away. And believe it or not, they were on their way to Vietnam! After a short discussion, they agreed to give me a lift to the Laos-Vietnam border for 80.000 Kip (around 8 Euro, bus was 15). Having said that we talk about a ride of more than 400 km on a Laos road this is a reasonable price and I didn't have much of a choice anyway. These guys were a little bit wary about a foreigner going alone to Vietnam and even asked for my passport but in the end we started the whole thing and I was sitting in the cockpit of the first truck between two truck drivers.
So what was the journey like? I can say it was not the most comfortable one in my life. In total, we needed more than 15 hours and the first couple of hours (in fact until 8 am next day) I felt somewhat bad about it.for a few reasons.
First, these truck drivers were quite rough persons in general. They smoked literally one cigarette every ten minutes and used the usually pretty soft sounding Lao language as if they wanted to kill some one with each sentence. One guy was quite silent and looked almost always sad or angry, the other one rather talkative and kept laughing insanely. We also had a major problem with communication, in fact I barely understood a word. Actually I don't have many language problems in Laos, because I speak Thai now fairly well and most people in Laos can speak Thai fluently. However, these two truck drivers didn't speak any Thai at all (not to mention English of course). Since Laos and Thai languages are similar (comparable to German / Dutch I guess) I could catch some phrases and words but our conversation was very limited to short small talks. I often heard the word "farang" in their conversations, which means "Westerner" so they obviously chatted about me. Would that now mean, "Let's knock this arrogant Farang out, take all cash and everything else and drop him off at the next corner?" At least it sounded like thtat, so I was a bit worried.
Second, every hour we were stopped by police or some mysterious guys and after shorter or longer discussion we had to pay a smaller or greater fee, spreading from 5.000 Kip to 50.000 Kip. So I started to wonder if these guys really transported coffee or drugs, women or anything like that.
Finally this truck was of course not quite a VIP bus and my legroom reminded me strongly on the public transport in Ghana..
Anyway exhausted by traveling I slept a good time like a baby. We also made a 3 hours break at a spot where even a hammock (Haengematte) was available.
 |
| This was my sleeping place from 1 to 4 am. It wasn't as nice as it look like though, because loads of insects kept disturbing my sleep. By the way sorry for not taking more pictures, I didn't want to offend my drivers too much.. |
 |
| On one of our countless payoff-stops. We didn't cross a village larger than 20 houses on our whole way. Mostly we were surrounded by flat land. |
Another 4 hours later, now 8 am in the next morning we reached a track spot with restaurant, actually it was more of a woodern lodge but anyway we got good soup and extremely strong Vietnamese coffee as well as Lao whiskey to start the day.
From here, it started to be more fun, because the other driver who was only 23 and could speak Thai fluently joined us in our truck. With him as translater, I leaned quite a few interesting things:
- These drivers weren't as dodgy as they seemed to me first, but actually quite friendly and fun. We became best friends, exchanged phone numbers and in the end I didn't even have to pay the 80.000 Kip fee.
- In fact, they exported a coffee called Arabica, which is very common in the area around Pakse. Popular and expensive as well. Police and land owners keep bothering all truck drivers in Laos (not in Vietnam at all) and get them to pay, regardless if their documents are correct or not. The amount you'll pay depends on your bargaining skills, your time and your patience.
- I learned my first Vietnamese words, starting with "Doo Ma" which means as much as "Fuck your mother". However, they demanded that this phrase is not offensive at all and everyone uses it over there.
- In the truck drivers' opinion all Vietnamese people are unfriendly and mean.
Anyways, at 10.30 a.m. we reached the border crossing named Lao Bao, drank a nice coffee and Red Bull and had to say a sad goodbye. Five minutes later I was ripped off by the ladies that exchange money, because I didn't know the exact rates, but at least I got my stamp for Vietnam and could work my way further to Hue, where I am now.
 |
| Eventually best friends: Enjoying a last coffee and Red Bull with my truck drivers. |
I'm looking forward to a good shower and todays party can start I guess!
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Beautiful Thailand
Sai Yok Waterfalls
Even after almost a full year in Thailand there are lots of beautiful spots to discover. Together with the interns Emily und Koen (America and Belgium) plus two friends of Khwan, Tan and Of, we enjoyed a weekend in the West of Thailand, near the border to Burma.
Highligths:
Huge graveyard on our way to the waterfalls. Thousands of British, Australian and Dutch soldiers were killed by the Japanese during their WW2 invasion.
Even after almost a full year in Thailand there are lots of beautiful spots to discover. Together with the interns Emily und Koen (America and Belgium) plus two friends of Khwan, Tan and Of, we enjoyed a weekend in the West of Thailand, near the border to Burma.
Highligths:
Hot springs. The water in these basins is REALLY hot, after 10 minutes you’ll feel like dying, burning or sleeping. Fortunately nearby there was cold river to cool down.
We spent the night on a ferry and had truly delicious food for dinner, unforgettable!! And…..into the water!
Khwan looks like enjoying, doesn’t she..
Random pics
Tuesdays and Thursdays: Board gaming in the Mc Donalds near Chit Lom, huge fun even though mostly in Thai. These gamers seem to have played every single game ever produced, in every single edition.
Visiting Coca Cola Thailand together with Andy.
Huh?! Who’s that? Visit from Muenster, Germany: Basti, Nat’s boyfriend and Liza, fresh from Germany as well. After eating delicious Guai Diau, we headed over to an indie film festival. If you get bored in Bangkok, you are boring!
Wojciech, one of our interns from Poland after a bad motorcycle accident in the hospital.
One of our last meals in my old messy home. Now I live nearer to the city center and it has been taken over by 2 Indians and a Polish guy..
10 days conference in Hyderabed, India, with 700 delegates from more then 100 (!) countries. My roommates were from Malysia, Tanzania and Kenya. One highlight: Global village, all countries presented themselves at a booth and showed a typical performance.
Sightseeing in Hyderabad later on. Yet more crowded then Bangkok, most of the inhabitants are Muslims, celebrating Ramadhan in the picture. (Edit: Hyderabad expert Dave just told me that this is bullshit: The major religion is Hinudism, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyderabad,_India#Demographics)
Mumbai from the airplane.
With Khwan at the amazing Kao Yai national park. We saw not only monkeys, deers and elephants, but also a huge cobra that seemed to be quite angry and ready to bite. Luckily we could start the motorcycle quickly enough to escape!!
Yet another visa-run to Loas. I visited my Japanese friend Yuki there who used to work in AIESEC Thailand and works now for ODOP (one district one product). One example of a product is this delicious snail on the picture, supposed to taste great!
Recently I went to Loei, in the North of Thailand, on a 7 days mediation retreat. It was an experience I really don’t wanna miss. Even though we had to wake up 5 am and couldn’t eat at all after 12 pm!! The day included 4 hours of self development sessions and 5 hours of meditation. Compared to others this was quite a soft retreat (a friend from Alaska told me he was on a 10 days retreat with 10 hours mediation a day and complete silence!) . The area was in a peaceful valley surrounded by pure nature. We had two teaching and mentoring monks from the Netherlands and UK (both could speak Thai fluently. Believe it or not since then I’ve been meditating every day! You should try it out, it’s a nice way to attain happiness ;)
With Khun Ittipat, a thoughtful and empowering friend
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