I enjoyed very much telling you about my experiences in New Zealand in France. When I came back to Germany two years ago, however, my “old” life didn’t leave me much space/time to continue this blog. It is only a couple of hours now until I will leave Germany again, this time for a longer period of probably one year. I would love to bring this blog back to life, and to do this I want to tell you about my experiences in the past twelve months, especially those of you who I haven’t seen (much) lately.
In August 2009, I finished my undergraduate studies in Iserlohn with the final words of my Bachelor Thesis: Target-oriented financing of television programs. My official graduation took place on October 3rd in Iserlohn, where I received my Bachelor and my BITS Honors Certificate.
In the beginning of October started the Master of International Business (MA.IB) at the University of Applied Sciences of Mainz. Since I only had a few days between my acceptance and the beginning of the program, I had effectively one day to find a room in Mainz. In the end I found a place at a fraternity.
My class turned out to be really cool. But I should maybe go back a few months and begin with my master selection process. I knew I wanted to do an international master in the field of business. However, since a major part of my bachelor studies was in the field of media, I didn’t meet the criteria of many programs I found to be interesting. What stroke me about the master in Mainz was the internationality of the program. Three languages were required, and I had enough credits to apply – so I did.
Internationality on the paper and in reality are two different things. While many programs I scanned claimed to be very international, most classes were taught in German, only a few students were not German citizens, and a semester abroad – if possible at all – usually had to be organized individually. Doesn’t sound international to me. The master in Mainz, however, actually sounded quite international, so I was curious to find out how much of that promise would turn out to be true.
It was more international than I expected. In our small class of 26 people were students from 16 different countries, including such far away places as Mexico, Cameroon, South Korea, China or Russia. Classes were taught entirely in English (and Spanish), and it was possible to spend the entire second year abroad, earning a Dual Degree. I wanted to go to Buenos Aires.
Of the many wonderful people I met in the class, Amanda, a girl from the US, introduced the possibility of studying in South Carolina. After attending a presentation about my options for my second year of study, I began to seriously consider Coastal Carolina University as a good opportunity for me. I would also pursue a Dual Degree with them, and would receive an MBA. In the end, it turned out to be not as impossible financially as at first it seemed.
I began dating Amanda, and we spent our time traveling as much as we could in between our studies. Together we traveled quite a lot in Europe and Germany. Here’s a list of the places I/we traveled to:
November: Rome, ITALY
December: Heidelberg, GERMANY
January: Soest, Hattingen, and Paderborn, GERMANY
Februar: Dortmund, Essen, and Bochum, GERMANY; Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Tel Aviv, Tiberias, and Masada, ISRAEL
April: Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, US; Freiburg, Black Forest, GERMANY, Strasbourg, FRANCE; Basel, SWITZERLAND
May: Prague, CZECH REPUBLIC
July: Edinburgh, St. Andrews, and Stirling, SCOTLAND; Hannover, Hamburg, and Cologne, GERMANY
Rome was definitely one of my highlights. We went to the wedding of Amanda’s cousin, and it was the nicest wedding I’ve ever been to. In the remaining three days we saw most of antique Rome, and I was really impressed by the city. While we were in Italy, the coldest winter in my memories began in Germany. In December, when we went to see Heidelberg Castle and the Christmas market, it was -18° C (i.e. 0° F). Even through my gloves, my fingers were freezing and I was relieved when we could go inside of an Italian restaurant at the foot of the castle. It turned out to be a really nice restaurant, which led to me scanning stores for Merlot wine from the Nero d’Avola region in Sicily.
In February, we went to the Ruhrgebiet (the biggest industrial area in Germany) with three students from our class. The Ruhrgebiet was Cultural Capital of Europe in 2010, and there were many exhibitions for us to see. My main reason to come was the soccer match between my favorite team, Borussia Dortmund, and Eintracht Frankfurt. Unfortunately and unaccountably, Dortmund lost 2-3.
THE highlight was our journey to Israel. My grandparents visited that country several times in the 1990s and they were fascinated it. The adventure began at the airport already where we had to face severe baggage checks and interrogations before even getting on the El Al flight. In February, the weather in Germany hadn’t changed much since November, so the 25° C that awaited us in Tel Aviv were a very pleasant surprise. Jerusalem and Bethlehem were places which I hadn’t seen before. The old city of Jerusalem really deserves its name, it was not hard to imagine how it must have looked like 2,000 years ago. Basically you just had to blank out the satellite dishes.
The mood of the old city of Jerusalem along with other places in Israel is very different from what I’ve been used to, and hard to put into words. I could really feel the conflict between Jews and Arabs, although I’m not sure how much of it is fake and how much sad reality. One example: We just got into the city of Bethlehem when a taxi driver approached us trying to sell us his service. Since we didn’t know how far it was to the center we agreed, clearly telling the Arab driver that we weren’t interested in a day-trip or anything more than a one-way ride. On his way he tried many times to convince us of his qualities as a city guide. When he realized that we weren’t gonna pay more, however, he all of a sudden began to speed dangerously and accused us of being racist because he wasn’t Jewish.
The last Israel story I wanna tell you is about Masada close to the Dead See. Masada is the name of a fortress built by King Herodes around 73 BC on the correspondent mountain southwest of the Dead See. In 66 AD a war began between the Jews and the Roman occupying forces, and Masada became the last remaining Jewish fortress. The Romans besieged the area around Masada and since they couldn’t find a way up the mountain, they decided that the Jews wouldn’t have a chance to survive if they would only block their access to water and food supply. However, the Jewish population was quite clever – they somehow had long established their water supply, and they were hunting birds to eat. When the Romans realized their strategy wasn’t working they tried to built a ramp up to the mountain. You can see the ramp on the second picture. It took them a long time, but when they finally reached the fortress, they could only find that all people (except of one family) had committed mass suicide to avoid falling into the hands of the enemy.
I don’t know how historically accurate that story really is, but walking through these well-preserved buildings on top of the Judean Desert has a great impression on someone who hears that story.
Back from Israel, I had to face the reality of being a student again. In order to study in the US, I needed to pass a GMAT exam (a management test which tests your mathematical and English language capabilities). Everyone who had taken it told me that you would need at least two to three months to prepare. Well, I had eleven days. With a lot of books that I borrowed from my friend Martin, I started my mission, and to my surprise and that of the people around me, I must say that I actually enjoyed it. And I think it is because of my attitude towards the test that despite of just a short preparation time I passed the test with a well above average.
On April 1 (no April Fool’s joke), me and my best friend Heki flew to Los Angeles because I won first price in an online quiz about Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds”. I’ve participated in online quizzes every now and then without actually winning anything. Of all days it was my birthday when my phone rang and I got the news that I won a 5-day-trip for two people to Los Angeles. First, I didn’t really believe it. However, I soon realized that I really participated in that quiz and that there was no way anyone could have known that. Best Birthday Ever! 
So on April 1 we flew to Los Angeles, and for both of us it was the first time in the US. We stayed in the Renaissance Hotel right on Hollywood Boulevard. Nice. For the for days in Los Angeles we got a rental car for free, and on our third day we got a city-tour in a limousine with a driver who drove us wherever we wanted to go. However, I had to learn that one theory is true: it is harder to fly west than east. As hard as we tried, we fell asleep around 9pm every night, and I got up every morning between 5 and 6. So no parties for us, but 6am runs around the Canyon close to the Hollywood Sign instead
As you could see above, I traveled a lot in this past year, not to mention the many day-trips within Germany. I’ve probably seen more of Germany than in the last 23 years I’ve lived here. It was was an incredible year, I’ve seen a lot of the world, learned a lot in my masters class, and primarily I had a lot of fun. Tomorrow my plane leaves to the US, which is gonna be another very new experience, and I can’t wait to see all those new places. Despite all preparation: the culture shock is preprogrammed. I have many plans to spend my time in the US: studying, working, traveling and doing sports. Let’s see how everything turns out. I’ll keep you informed.
Tags: Amanda, Coastal Carolina University, Fachhochschule Mainz, International Business, Mainz, Master, MBA, South Carolina, USA
