Category Archives: Students

Berlin – a weekend full of dichotomy and fun is coming up!

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Everyone enjoys a short working week and Berlin is preparing for a long weekend full of contrasting events: German Protestant Church Day, Men’s/Father Day and the final of the German Cup Competition.
The long weekend starts on Thursday with Ascension Day. However, the first big events takes place on Wednesday evening already. In front of the Reichstag, on Gendarmenmarkt and in front of Brandenburg Gate the German Protestant Church Congress is started with huge, ecumenical, cross-generational church-services. Afterwards enjoy the summer evening at the big street party with culinary delights, music and prayers. The German Protestant Church Day lasts until Sunday, 28th May, and has a schedule full of international, intercultural, political and other interesting themes. It offers a variety of services, opportunities and cultural entertainment for the whole family. One of the highlights might be the biggest event of the Protestant Church Day: former US-President Barack Obama will hold a speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate on May 25th; other prominent speakers are Melinda Gates and Angela Merkel.

On Thursday, the attendees of cultural and political program of the Protestant Church Day, will be joined by mostly male Berlin visitors as well as Berliners celebrating father’s (or in Berlin Men’s Day) strolling through the city with their friends and handcarts and a pint or two of beer.

On Saturday the mixture of becomes even more colourful! In the evening the final of the German Cup Competition takes place between Borussia Dortmund and Eintracht Frankfurt. The match starts at 8 pm but the fans will celebrate the whole day and will mix and mingle in the city.
The fans of Borussia Dortmund will celebrate in front of Gedächtniskirche, whereas the Eintracht Frankfurt fans will start their party on Alexanderplatz.
There are even opportunities for those who want to join both: the Protestant Church Day and the soccer feast: Start your day with the ecumenical service in Gedächtniskirche on Saturday at 11 a.m. with all the BVB fans and afterwards celebrate at one of the fan feasts.

Berlin will be full of happy people that’s for sure!

For more information on the Protestant Church Day: https://www.kirchentag.de/programm/programmsuche.html
For more information for BVB Fans: http://www.bvb.de/ger/News/Uebersicht/Fanvorabinfos-Pokalfinale-Berlin
For more information for Frankfurt Fans: http://www.eintracht.de/news/artikel/adlerimanflug-eintracht-fantreff-in-berlin-60199/

Spring Festival in Stuttgart: WASEN

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They call it WASEN: The spring festival in Stuttgart. This year the WASEN started on the 15th of April and lasts until the 7th of May! For three weeks, visitors from near and far celebrate the launch of spring in a cheerful and jolly manner.

Europe’s biggest and best attended spring festival attracts around 1.5 million guests to the Cannstatter Wasen fair grounds. On an area of 4.2 hectares, a wide selection of stalls and confectionery stands, modern and traditional fairground rides, side-shows, beer tents and catering stalls offer every conceivable type of family fun and entertainment.
Alongside the traditional keg tapping ceremony on the opening Saturday, annual highlights of the festival program include the balloon glow and musical firework display. Every Wednesday is family day, when a wide variety of cut-price offers are available to parents with children.
Enjoy Oktoberfest in Spring in Stuttgart! Great fun for the whole family!

How useful are opendays, career fairs and Co?

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In nearly every month and in every bigger city multiple career days, career fairs. open days at universities or trade fairs about different universities take place. How useful are those trade fairs and open days? Does it make sense to visit such events?
YES!
Of course you do not need to visit every career or study fair, and of course attending every University openday is not even down-to-earth, but to get an overview of todays possibilities, opendays and career fairs are the way to go.

Today there are so many different Bachelor and Master studies, most of them you do not even know now and cannot imagine that those studies exist. Fairs of the different Universities or study programmes provide a good overview of what is possible. Get inspired by those fairs! It might happen that you find a study programme meeting all your desires but is relatively unknown, wherefore you have not heard about yet.
Similarly, career fairs: You are done with you studies but not sure where to head to? Get inspired by the vast range of possible jobs. Make good contacts and expand your network at those events.
And once you found interesting study programmes or traineeships you can visit the opendays of the universities/study programmes and traineeships you are interested in. Most of the time these specific events provide more into-depth information and easier opportunities to network.

Therefore, take your chance and visit one or two or more of the many career, job and uni fairs in Germany to get inspired and kickstart your career!
We listed some of the upcoming events in Berlin, Munich, Stuttgart, Cologne and Co.

  • Berlin: Connecticum (25.04-27.04.2017), Studyworld 2017 (12./13.05.2017)
  • Hamburg: Talente kompakt (27.04.2017)
  • Stuttgart: Stuzubi (29.04.2017)
  • Köln: meet@th-koeln (03.05. & 04.05.2017)
  • Düsseldorf: Master and more / Bachelor and more (05.05. & 06.05.2017)
  • Frankfurt: Jobmesse Einstieg (21./22.04.2017)

Student–thoughts: Moving to another EU Country for my studies

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Yes! There it is – the notification of admission to my master studies.
However, the first mood of celebrating the placement is gone fast: I have to move to another country… I have to organize a lot of things! But what exactly? All those thoughts come up when thinking about the master placement a second time, less emotional.

What exactly should one consider when moving from one EU-country to another in order to complete one’s studies there.

The following things came up to my mind when I got the notification of admission to study my masters in Madrid.

First of all: Where shall I live? And how?
– Do I want to live near to the University or better more in the center of the town, where something is going on and I can enjoy my leisure time?
– Do I want to live in a shared flat or do I want a small apartment for my own? Do I need other people around me or do I prefer time and peace for me?
– Do I want to have a furnished room or do I want to bring my own furniture?

Once I settled these questions, another one arose: HOW do I get infos about flats, rooms etc. and HOW do I find one?
– The easiest way for me: Facebook and friends which might know someone who knows someone etc… Social media helps a lot! Ask you friends to ask their friends, search for housing groups or groups of your study in Facebook. You might get extremely helpful hints and get to know some nice and helpful people!

Other thoughts, which might not be that obvious in the first case:
– What is about my health insurance? Does it cover a longterm stay in another EU-Country and what are the conditions? Is it better to sign up for a foreign health insurance, or to make a contract with an on-site health insurance?
– What is about my mobile phone contract? Do I have the same conditions as I have at home?

All these thoughts came up to my mind when I received my master placement in Madrid.
In my opinion most of the questions depend on the period of your stay in the city/country. It might not be that reasonable to rent an unfurnished apartment when you are staying for one year only. However, if you will stay at least 3 years in the city it might be nicer and more comfortable to have your own furniture in your ‘home abroad’.
Additionally, all these questions depend on personal circumstances and desires.
My hint: Visit blogs and website, and search for Facebook groups to get to know the possibilities you have. Once you know your possibilities you can decide what you want.
Many online-portals provide a lot of infos about housing, electricity, water-suppliance, about health insurances as well as mobile phone contracts.
Gohelpy is a wonderful example of these online-portals comprising a lot of information about the big German cities.