The time seems liquid here in Malaysia. It literally runs through our fingers and drops down on the ground of transience.
Our thought of spending time here for almost an eternity shrinks day by day and week by week. It will be only four to five weeks until our semester at Limkokwing will be finished again and we’re already looking forward to the travels after it.
But first let us tell you about our last ones. After becoming true Limkokwing-Students over the first two month, we were free to explore our surroundings for one week, in the blessed and not-a-second-too-soon semester break.
As the variety of options and possible choices promise, our group of exchange students split up to visit a variety of places. One part of us went for a road-trip through our new part-time home-country Malaysia, while others went to Bangkok or hopped to the islands around us.
Even though we could have joined one of these groups, my new friend Yves from Berlin and me decided to head to Vietnam.
Both of us were interested in their culture, history and lifestyle. Besides that we thought that trip will be special and unique; and we were right! It turned out to be amazing!
When we got there we were surprised. Not because of the country itself but because of the masses of Germans waiting in the lines at the airport. It‘s funny how you try to escape from home and plan to fly away from known environments and habits to evolve as a grown up and more mature person, and what you eventually find are pieces of home all over the world no matter how far you reach or how far you come you will always find yourself at the start. Not that this is a bad thing, the world just became incredibly small. It is open to us and everyone seeks satisfaction and fulfilment in traveling. But it is indeed not what it used to be.
So Yves and me reached our hostel in Ho Chi Minh City. A nice and cosy one in the middle of the great happening. Our first impression was purely positive. The total difference of people’s behaviour compared to our western civilization amazed us and gave birth to a deep sympathy towards the country in our hearts.
Observing masses of scooter-driving Vietnamese people, total uncontrolled but somehow organized rush through the streets and reflections of the city‘s lights in the rain-made mirrors on the ground, made us feel comfortable and arrived.
Even if the city is fast and busy, it radiates an aura of harmony, which added a nice and pleasant atmosphere to the trip.
Of course we dived deep into the history, which lead us to the tunnels used during the horrible war, in order to learn more about it.
A trip gathered with terrifying truth but also interesting facts.
Besides that we entered the so-called floating market, where boats come up to each other selling their fresh food and fruits in a very surrealistic atmosphere that let‘s you think of fairy-tales.
That‘s but only a glance at the eventful vacation to Vietnam. For the perfect touch of it and the experience we can make there, one must see it for himself.
Vietnam is a beautiful country and I would definitely go back someday. The next time I‘m aiming for the north, though, where the magnificent Ha Long Bay lies, because this place, if such thing exists, builds the bridge between reality and dream.
Benjamin Wahl
It was sort of an act to organize a trip through Malaysia, that would satisfy the expectations of nine different persons. But all of us started with the wish to get to know the country we’re living in and understand its culture better. And of course we wanted to relax at the same time, since it was be the only free time before the stress of the exams would start again. So quite a bit to get into ten days!
We rented two cars for nine people and started driving without having a very fixed plan of where we wanted to go. Besides all the sights we saw, the driving itself was an adventure as well. We barely knew where exactly we wanted to go and at the same time we had to stick together in every traffic jam, otherwise we would have been lost. Not to mention the state of the cars – one time we were stuck for one night because the battery just cracked.
Our first destination were the Cameron Highlands, a place that was already praised by the English colonists, since it is surprisingly cold compared to the rest of the country. The landscape is full of tea plantations and strawberry farms and the morning sun gives everything a flair of a fairy tale. We discovered the nightmarket of Brinchang and were stunned by the sunrise over the mountains. The roads in the hinterland were sometimes dangerous but we drove up a mountain as well as all the other tourists with even weaker cars.
We lost some time because our car broke nevertheless, and arrived a little stressed in Taiping. This is a Chinese city on the way from Ipoh to Georgetown. This place gave us the opportunity to taste some good Chinese breakfast. We stayed there for one day to take a bath in the Burmese Pool – that is actually a river – and visited the city’s museum. The city has even more sights worth visiting, but we wanted to move on to the next city.
Georgetown is one of Malaysia’s world heritage cities. It is famous for its food and culture and we were impressed by both from the first evening. The old town is actually a melting pot of Malay, Chinese, Indian and even Europe culture brought by the colonists. This is why you can be sure that you will find something interesting right behind the corner. If it’s not a temple or church, you may see some of its famous street art. One part of us rented scooters to get around in the city, the others walked into the backyards and alleys. Since we could already breathe some of the sea air, we were even more looking forward to our next destination.
One of the most popular islands on the eastern coast is Perhentian Island. We loved it just as everyone else who recommended it. You can go to lonely beaches as well as party hard and go diving the next day. Eating, snorkelling and sleeping in hammocks at the beach ruled our first day there. The Hotel is exactly how you imagine a lonely beach to be, except the beach was full with dead corals that made it impossible to walk there and get into the water. So the next day we took a boat to the long beach. This location is perfect for swimming, bronzing and partying. The beach parties there are amazing, even though ours was interrupted by a heavy thunderstorm.
So after these ten days we came home a little exhausted, but we had made so many experiences that we won’t forget.
Isabell Ahlheit
On 19th of September our big city life started. We all like ‘fell’ into this amazing, huge, lively and on the first sighting a little bit intimidating city.
LONDON. However, almost all fears just disappeared while traveling from the airport to our new home, the Harrow Halls of Residence in Northern London, and getting to know the enormous helpfulness and kindness of the local people. Not even taking the Underground Lines with an oversized case was a challenge (not even for us girls), although there are NO escalators at all. There was always somebody ready to give you a helping hand.
Arriving at our accommodation made our day even better, though Harrow Campus is not even close to the city centre of London. Everybody was willing to help, and already at the check-in the Students Union of the University of Westminster welcomed us with a little welcome box including a British SIM-card, an Energy drink, playing cards, maps of London and mostly important a party timetable for our first week at the University of Westminster.
It was time making us comfortable in our new homes. The rooms are exactly what we expected: small but clean and within everything you need. Most of us German students are sharing there flat with exclusively English or American students, which is pretty good to improve English skills and get to know other cultures.
Soon after this there was an info meeting at the auditorium for new residents, which was quite helpful. The most important information was this: We need to close our bathroom doors when we are taking a shower, otherwise the steam would start the fire alarm. Apparently not everybody joined this meeting, as in the first few days the fire alarm started at a rough guess more than 10 times, usually at night. Another reason for this may have been the countless kitchen parties all around the campus.
Our first week full of partying and sightseeing has gone by so quickly and it was about time to get used to the university life again. The University of Westminster as a whole is huge, while the various campuses are average sized. Our Campus, the Harrow Campus, is specialized in Media, Arts and Design. The studying opportunities are manifold. Unfortunately we Macromedia students are limited to about four modules, which are given by a learning agreement between Macromedia University and Westminster University. Some of us would have loved to do some extra courses to deepen into different areas of interest. At least we have a lot of spare time where we can enjoy our stay in London and do all the activities that the capital of Great Britain and the Students Union offers.
Classes on a whole are part time interesting, but lectors are anxious and cooperative. Nevertheless contents are often familiar or already known especially for media management students. Further there is a lack of business or management modules (which would be more interesting for media manager) due to the emphasis of the Harrow Campus of the University of Westminster on creative studies like media or fashion design, film and radio. For Macromedia students of these areas it was the best choice choosing Westminster University for their semester abroad. The University of Westminster has a great reputation in creative fields, in particular because of the great success of some graduates.
The Students Union and a big range of communities to join is making studying in London and at the University of Westminster even more exciting and different to studying in Germany. Most of us registered for one or several societies, communities or networks. There are so many opportunities to choose: from pole dance, to bible club, to feminists club to gaming community – there was nobody who did not find anything. To conclude, it can be said that everybody of us here is more than happy about the chance to get to know the wonderful city of London, the capital of individuality, cosmopolitanism and creativity.
About four weeks ago 28 Macromedia students packed their bags and went to London for their semester abroad. Well, that’s us!
Most of us are staying in halls provided from the University. After a hectic weekend, where almost all of us arrived, our orientation week started, here it’s called “Fresher’s Week”. On our first day on campus we were really impressed because it looks like an accumulation of old castles. Actually, this is quite right because it has once been a home to the Tudor family as they used to rule Britain. Together with the Greenwich Park and the Royal Observatory behind, the university is now an UNESCO World Heritage Site and offers one of the best views of London. Who wouldn’t be glad to study here?
The “Explore Greenwich Mission” in our first week was a warm welcome to all study abroad students. This rally helped us to find out about the history of the University and Greenwich. Organized by our study abroad assistant Lauren, who is also a student at the University, the first week was a great introduction.
Divided into three campuses the University is really large. There are over 23000 students from which are 30% international students. We have to attend four courses a week, one course and tutorial each day. Most of the students are British but in tutorials both ERASMUS and Macromedia students supply a good balance. The main difference to studying in Germany is the workload we have to do on our own. So there is a lot of reading and studying to do, but despite that we had still time to explore Greenwich and the rest of London.
Greenwich, for those of you who didn’t know, is located in the south-east of London. Not only our campus but the whole area around is beautiful. There are a lot of shops, restaurants and pubs nearby and also the Greenwich Market which is really famous in London and has awesome stuff for fair prices. Of course London is really expensive in general but if you know where to go it can still be economical. Besides, the cultural diversity provides a balanced diet around the campus, so it never gets boring. The only thing most of us are missing here is the German bread.
If there is time left it is always a good idea to visit the centre of London. There are the old attractions like the Tower and Big Ben, but also modern ones like the Shard and Oxford Street. This is what makes London a unique mix of cultural expression. There are still so many things to explore that you never get tired of this beautiful city.
As you can see, we are really enjoying our first weeks here and looking forward to discover new things in London. Our official study abroad assistant Aisling told us: “If you are tired of London, you are tired of Life” and we think she is right about that. London has something to offer for everyone and if we had another choice, we would definitely choose London again!
Marcel Proppe and Sabrina Hammer
Almost two weeks of university are behind us and many of us live here since one month or even longer. A few „Macromedians“ from Hamburg and Munich Campus took the Opportunity to learn Spanish during a 4-week intensive course.
It is time to think about the experiences of these first weeks and share them with you.
It’s not possible to describe Madrid in one sentence due to its many different quarters.
The Capital of Spain is an intensive melting pot of countless influence, cultures and languages providing the cities unique flair. The first experiences showed us, that we made the right decision studying at Universidad Francisco de Vitoria. The university UFV is located in Pozuelo de Alarcón, a small city in the suburbs of Madrid. The way from the city centre to the university with public transportation lasts one hour, but fortunately there is a bus shuttle provided by UFV which cuts down the time to just 15 to 25 minutes, depending on the traffic. But is highly recommended to look for a flat or apartment in Madrid, not in Pozuelo because there is not much (student) life there. All kind of faculties and studies in 5 Buildings gave us a proper campus feeling for the first time, compared to the small and familiar Macromedia University.
Our schedule contains, according to the learning agreement, course like Intercultural Management, Business & Finance, and Economics and for most of us one big project during the semester. Unfortunately due to the high number of Macromedia students, we are not integrated in the universities international programme. At least they managed to put some other international students in the “Programma Macromedia”.
Beside education the UFV offers a lot of activities on and off campus including trips to cities and sights nearby like Toledo and Segovia. The campus itself has multiple sport facilities and University offers different trainings and courses for interested students. They also partner with an organisation called Citylife Madrid, who helps with nearly every question about living in Madrid, organises further weekend trips to Zaragoza, Valencia, Portugal or Morocco for example and a lot of other activities in Madrid for Internationals including wine & tapas tasting, language exchange and weekly parties.
These offers are fun for those who want to have a good time and meet other internationals, but could be a pain for those who want to go local and experience Madrid and Spain on their own.
Living in Madrid is enjoying your life at every second. Diving in to the Spanish culture is an everyday adventure and is needed to develop our own personalities. To broaden one’s horizons is a goal for many of us and Madrid gives a lot of opportunities to reach it.
The Spanish people love to go out and enjoy free time with their friends and families. During the summer months until end of September and early October the Spanish Lifestyle mainly takes place on the streets or the Plazas including the famous street festivals, the fiestas. Countless bars and clubs in the city for every taste make it easy to meet new friends, Spanish as well as internationals. Going out and experiencing La Vida Nocturna is very different than in Germany. You are not only out with your old friends, but making new one’s nearly everywhere is very easy. Of course getting out of your comfort zone is required and knowing at least the basics of the Spanish language helps a lot for the communication with the locals, called Madrileños. But after breaking the ice it is common to consider someone’s friends as your new friends.
Madrid is not only known for its nightlife but also for its great history, culture and especially arts. The museums of Madrid are home of the world’s most famous painters like the Museo Reina Sofia for Pablo Picassos “Guernica” and the Museo Sorolla which actually is the old house of Joaquín Sorollas. Even if you are not highly interested in Art, visiting one or two of the big museums is mandatory. (And let’s be honest: Impressing your friends and family with some historical and cultural facts is great, isn’t it?)
Summarizing our first experiences, we can just say Madrid is great. Great for learning a new language and culture. Great for living abroad and one’s personal development. Great for those who are interested in Art as well as those who are more interested in the Art of Beer Pong and drinking games. And also great for homesickness on a long weekend because Madrid is only a 2,5h to 3h flight from Home, but let’s skip this thought. After the semester abroad they will be homesick anyway, because they’ll miss Madrid.
But living in a big city also has a few downsides. For the sake of living central it’s the noise for example. And even if Madrid is a very safe city with a low crime rate, compared to other capital cities in Europe, a common sense is needed especially in crowded areas – the playground of pickpockets.
All in all we are looking forward to the next months, exploring the madrileño lifestyle and more of Spain to share with you.
Hasta Luego
Dominik y Nicolas
Nobody here says hasta lu-eygo, the “right” pronunciation is more like Stalogoo.
But if you want to sound local by droping the HA and emphasizing OO the Barkeeper will cut down his response to a filthy “Aloo”.
It happened to me. Twice.
Für uns Filmstudenten ist es natürlich das Paradies. Hollywood! Los Angeles, der Teffpunkt für große Filmemacher und Kinostars. Rote Teppiche und Blitzlichtgewitter, Stars und Sternchen an jeder Ecke. Ungefähr so mag man sich Hollywood eventuell vorstellen, in Wahrheit ist das Ganze nicht ganz so spektakulär, aber immernoch sehr interessant und beeindruckend.
Überall gibt es etwas zu entdecken und zu erleben. Los Angeles hat neben der üblichen Sightseeing-Stationen noch einiges mehr zu bieten. Festivals, Konzerte und viel Kultur. Verschiedene Museen und Veranstaltungen laden dazu ein, die Atmosphäre der Stadt fernab vom bekannten Walk-Of-Fame oder dem berühmten HOLLYWOOD-Sign zu erleben.
Die National University Los Angeles ist speziell auf internationale Studenten ausgelegt. Während der zwei Einführungstage wurden uns viele Vorschläge gemacht um den Großraum Los Angeles zu erleben. Diese Tagen dienten vor allem dazu, sich untereinander kennen zu lernen und das Konzept der National University zu verstehen.
Das Lernkonzept unterscheidet sich von dem gewohnten Kursmodell aus Deutschland. Hier wird jeden Monat jeweils ein Kurs angeboten, an dessen Ende eine Prüfung oder Abgabe einer Arbeit bevorsteht. Diese Struktur ermöglicht es den Studenten, sich sehr auf einen Kurs zu konzentrieren und fokussiert an einem Projekt zu arbeiten.
So zum Beispiel bei unserem ersten Kurs; Screenwriting – Drehbuch. Wir hatten die Chance, uns ohne Ablenkung auf die Ausarbeitung unserer Drehbuchidee zu konzentrieren und konnten alle am Ende des Kurses und Monats die ersten zehn Seiten unseres Drehbuchs abgeben.
Während dieses Kurses waren wir Macromedia Studenten – in dem Fall aus Köln und München – unter uns. Diesen Monat absolvieren wir den Kurs “Small Business Management” zusammen mit anderen internatonalen Studenten aus verschiedenen Teilen der Welt.
Einige von uns hatten die Möglichkeit, bei Drehs von anderen Semestern der National University mitzuhelfen. Los Angeles bietet ganz verschiedene Ziele für Roadtrips und Ausflüge. Ob man nun die Atmosphäre von Las Vegas, die Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, die Mojave-Wüste oder die Hitze im Death Valley erleben möchte; von Los Angeles aus sind unzählbar viele verschiedene Ziele erreichbar.
Neben all den Möglichkeiten Neues zu erleben ist natürlich nicht zu vergessen, dass Los Angeles allein schon eine Traumstadt ist, da es hier sozusagen nie regnet, immer die Sonne scheint und entspannte 30°C herrschen. Noch dazu kann man von überall in L.A. aus innerhalb von einer halben Stunde an einen schönen Strand fahren um die Meerluft zu genießen oder den Sonnenuntergang über dem Wasser zu genießen. Sicher ist, dass Los Angeles für Jeden etwas zu bieten hat.
On sunny days in Mexico we ride our donkeys to the campus, wear sombreros, drink tequila and sell some drugs, so we can afford our studies back home.
Yes, we all know the stereotypes we have about Mexicans. But obviously they are nonsense. Okay besides the Tequila drinking. And weel, maybe you can see all the other stuff in Tijuana.
Monterrey, with its nearly 4 million inhabitants is a very America orientated city. Starbucks, Subway, McDonalds and Burger-King rule the places next to the highways and if you don’t have a car, you are actually screwed. We are four Germans from Macromedia, who are living in the same apartment complex and we are the only ones, who are actually walking to Tecnologico de Monterrey, the university in which we study these 5 months.
Besides that, there are many other facts, for which many of us weren’t prepared. One of the main aspects is, that people outside the campus don’t speak English even in this city. It’s even possible that they get mad, if you don’t try to speak Spanish to them, so for some of our students it is quite a challenge getting through daily life.
According to our expectations before we arrived to Mexico, which were that people are lazy and unorganized and crimes being a daily matter, we have to admit that we were pretty wrong.
We experienced a very warm welcome, when a Mexican guy from an agency for exchangers picked us up at the airport after 5 hours of waiting in a restaurant close because hour flight had 4 hours delay (Viva Aerobus!). And our second part of mexican experience was a “Don Julio Reposado” – Tequila at 3am.
Josep Garcia Huerta, our new mexican dad helped us managing tenancy agreements, the orientation in the city and things we needed apart from the basic furniture and the facilities the residence offered. We immediately build up a small family, consisting out of Mexican friends and other exchangers, who we now spend most of our time with. We cook together, organize trips to diverse cities and especially the activities in the vicinity of Monterrey are very estimated. In conclusion, the cultural exchange we experience is simply awesome. Even though we now learned saying “cheers” in ten different languages, we are still at the beginning.
The Tec, how we call it, is the most famous private university in Latin America. The first campus was actually founded in Monterrey, that’s why this campus is the biggest and most successful one. About 20.000 students are studying in here and especially the scientific studies take an important role in Monterrey. Therefore we were surprised that you can meet many Mexican students speaking German better than English. Sure it sounds a little bit awkward, because Mexican people kind of sing while speaking, but it is still impressing.
We as Germans were definitely not the only ones with stereotypes about Mexicans. We had to deal with many bad characteristics Germans are supposed to have. They are cold, always angry and solely eat sausages. According to this bad stereotyping, it was our duty to convince them that it is not completely true and we are different. We experience little, daily cultural shocks together and laugh about our expectations we had about each others amazing countries.
Refering to Mexico for example, we never expected to see an employee in a restaurant, whose only function is to open the door when a customer wants to enter. Or an employee at the bathrooms, who just passes paper to every customer. Well, with a minimum wage of 50 cents per hour this seems kind of affordable for the management.
We hope that all other students from Macromedia have a good time during their exchange, just as we have. Here in Mexico we experience amazing trips with locals and other exchangers from all over the world, enjoy the sun and get to know a culture, which is so different from all you can think of. In our case, we also received plenty of heartiness, wherefore we have no other possibility than feeling welcomed and safe over here.
Niklas Franke, Svenja Winter
