Bin nicht tot (I am not dead)

Sorry about the lack of updates. I have been rethinking this weblog and there is still a lot going on in my life. I feel overwhelmed to write right now. One thing that is for sure is that I will start writing in portuguese as well sometimes. I will write the post in the language I feel like. That will give me more creative potential.

Desculpem pela demora para escrever. Este blog não será mais oficialmente em inglês; eu vou escrever na língua em que eu sentir vontade no momento. Tem bastante coisa acontecendo e eu não estou com inspiração para colocar tudo em formato de posts. Espero sair logo desse bloqueio, porque eu gosto de escrever.

Bis bald.

Weiter mit dem Leben (Moving on with life)

After my first week of classes here in the Mannheim HS I can say that I am having a great time. I finally moved in to the dorm, that is far away from everything, but at least the room is big and comfortable. Some pictures from it can be seen in my album. I will try to take more pictures of more things as soon as I feel settled down. Since my classes are still not defined and I am not able to work yet, I still don't feel like I have a routine.

Today I discovered that as a working student I can pay only half of the tuition fees, what is a big help for my budget, since they are really expensive. The professor responsible for foreign students in the masters course gave me the tip. He is really nice.

Overall the university grounds are really pleasant. It's clean, organized and the teachers are very professional. I was particularly impressed with the quality of the laboratories and the german course, that started today. The teachers are incredibly good: competent, organized, focused and polite. The class is dynamic and fun. I think I am going to enjoy it very much and learn a lot.

Tomorrow I am going to spend the day in SAP to negotiate my semester with my bosses and my team. Now that I almost have a schedule at the university, I can already plan how my working hours in SAP are going to be. Hugs for everybody.

Ich habe mich inzwischen fast eingelebt (I am almost settled down)

Again I don't have all the time I wish I had to write as much as I wish to write. But anyway, I have a handful of important news. Unfortunately Mannheim takes a long time to give the Stay Permission to foreigners; therefore I will have to wait until the 17th of October to get my hands on it. The bad thing is that without such a document I am in a "hiatus" situation here. I can't do anything fun, such as changing my cell phone contract or buying a computer in several payments.

I moved in this wednesday. My new place is okay, but it's too far from everything. Therefore, I don't like it very much. I hope I get used to the situation and manage to make a schedule that doesn't make me waste too much time with transportation.

Right now I am using the Wireless LAN of my university. It's quite good, I am really impressed. I think I am going to be hanging out here with the laptop very often. Unfortunately I still don't have internet at home and I am not sure when I am going to get it. Hopefully tomorrow, though.

I tried to attend some classes today, but some teachers didn't come because yesterday was a holiday and the teacher who came spoke a very hard to understand german, what really scared me and made me reconsider taking this subject in this semester. I think I will really have to take it slow, as I previously planned.

I hope I can take some pictures today and unload my camera to the computer at least, so that tomorrow I can post them. There are many new locations and people to be shown. This arrival in Germany is at least three times more exciting and complicated than last year's. Being a student is really great.

Hugs to everybody. Hopefully we can meet online more often from now on. Just so this post is not so boring, here is what a graduated engineer is able to do:

My earphones on the airplane had a contact problem and I could only get mono sound. However, if the pin was not completely inserted, I could get stereo. And i WANTED stereo. Worked like a breeze.