Relaxing for a while

This week I have been taking it easy. And why not, there were another national holiday and the schools were closed for a week. Beside the essays to Finland and the studies and internsip here I have been taking part to few free time activities. I go swimming and to a ”nice to meet you”-club in a cafe once a week and then to occational events. Last weeks event was a murder mystery dinner party. It was so much fun even thuogh I did not catch the killer. But this week I was lazy. Just lying in my room doing pretty much nothing. Plus I have slept like princess Aurora. This has – not surprisingly- lowered my stress level. Now it is sunday and I am actually willingly writing my essay.

Yesterday I had a long day at the university. It was one of two saturdays in a ”block study” called social therapeuthic role play. With a small group of students we played and learned about this method. For me this kind of role play is something new and I am happy I got opportunity get to know it here... even when it was really awkward and at times I felt like I woud rather be anywhere else.

In cph I am looking forward next week when the youth work starts again after the holiday. Even though there will be some horrible rebellious adolecent kids making my life difficult, I can't wait to see the methods I have been reading about for the past two weeks in practice.

Then some random pictures:

This week there was a lebkuchen market nearby.
 I bought a delicious chili-chcolate covered lebkuchen and later a crepe. Yummy <3

Lebkuchen is usually eaten only in christmas time,
but in Nürnberg you can buy and enjoy them every time of the year

 And the autumn is here! I'm dying of happiness

It is soooo beautiful

Sooooooo beautiful

Since I live in the old city center I tend to photograph it more,
but there are other sides to Nürnberg too.
This street for instance is more modern and kind of cool.
I go this way when I go to swimming hall.

I am not sure if this teeny tiny restaurant screams to me "I definetly want to eat here" or "Health hazard"

Bad luck

In university I had another day of "Sozialtherapeutische rollenspiel für Kinder und Jugendliche" which I really enjoyed. I would say so far it has been one of the best experiences here. In cph I got in youth work as well and was observing an event for future co-leading. Even with these nice moments I have been upset the whole week. That is because my computer broke plus the 80e opera tickets I bought a month ago have mysteriously gotten lost during delivery and I am currently trying to get either my valuable ticket or the money back. Appropo money - I don't have any. So yeah, I'm not on the best mood. A walk around the city with my camera calmed me down a little bit. And it is good I did get some photos before the leaves fall of and everything is just grey and cold. I will get back blogging when I am less stressed.

It is unbilievable that I have already been here for a month!
On the other hand it feel everything has just started and then again I am already sttled in pretty well. I have my favourite coffee shop and routes and steady weekly routine. 

In university I had to make a choise between two courses after coming to the realization that I don't have the time for everything. So nowI am only doing Cultural diversity, incluvive language and two-weekend course of therapeutic role-play for children and youth.

At cph I have have been introduced to the methods and their theorethical backgrouds used in work here. That means a lot of reading and convesations with employers. Furthermore I have focused in the project Human. I have browsed through the book and wached the movie (link to part 1) and some extras. 

On tuesday lectures were cancelled and suddenly I had a whole day free. I used it for a trip to Documentation centre nazi party rally grounds. Here is a part of describe from museums.nuremberg.de :

"The Documentation Centre Nazi Party Rally Grounds, often shortened to Dokuzentrum (Docu Centre), is located in the north wing of the Congress Hall, designed by the National Socialists to house 50,000 spectators, remained unfinished, though. With its "glass and steel arrow", piercing the north wing, the Documentation Centre is a widely visible architectural counterpoint.

On 1,300 square meters, the permanent exhibition "Fascination and Terror" looks at the causes, the context and the consequences of the National Socialist reign of terror."

The lacation could not have been more effective. Apparently the architect was aiming to intimidation and demonstration of strenght. Job well done. The staircase leading in the building was added later when the unfinished and damaged construction was renovated into a documentation centre. The same strongly atmosphere continued inside.

The building is so huge I could only get a picture of a small corner.
But you can see the massive propotions and the "glass and steel arrow" piercing it.

The exhibiton was built on second floor of the new interior.
It was actually pretty high from ground.
(It is finally autumn here. Even when I am learning about history of national socialism
 I can't help noticing how beautiful it is outside)

Everywhere I could see rough unfinished surfaces.
I could only guess if they were left so when the construcion ended
or is there marks of war to be seen.

One part of the exhibition was the story of the building.
I learned that some of the marble used on the facade was mined in concentration camps.
 People have actually died workin on the stones.

In the bathroom there were another kind history written on walls.
Every brick was covered in script of teen spirit, cuteness and one very unappropriate one.

Downstairs were a temporary exhibition featuring portraits of concentration camp survivors.

After a long day it was nice to sit down and enjoy a bowl of soup and orange-pannacotta cake

Plus I finally went to see the Handwerkhof! It is almost next to my place here, but for some reason I have always walked past. It turns out there were nothing for me to purchase, but still a beautiful part of town.

Being busy

The beginning of studies here was nothing but easy. The course that I originally wanted to attend was cancelled so I was left with basically no other choice than to take classes in German. My German is good, but -as I would very soon find out- not enough to take a class in politics. It would perhaps be easier if I had any prior knowledge of Politics in Germany. I can’t even express how stupid I felt myself in the first lesson. There was a discussion about AfD, which is a right wing party in Germany. Even if I had enough knowledge of the topic to have an opinion, I had no means of expressing it. Furthermore, we were given a written task via moodle. Where is this moodle and how do I use it! Another info that was forgotten to tell me. Shortly put my first week at the school was utter nightmare. Nothing went right and I felt like there is no way I’m going to make it. 

Well, now the second week has come and gone and I am feeling good. The classes are interesting and I actually know what I am doing. I stutter a lot,but mostly I actually can speak my mind. In German. I refuse to take the easy path and use English.

In the meantime the work in cph has went on as usual. I took part in two seminars. One was about youth work. The other was held by many different organizations with presentations and workshops around the theme globalizing. I met so many people and learned not only facts, but also work methods and really cool tools to use in future work. I focused especially on methods suitable for children and youth. I played a board game. In the game players are focet to balance between climate chance and economics. More info here (in English). I love board games and was actually hooked on when I got into it. So it's not only education, but a nice game.

Another example is the phone-kit below. There you can see where the parts of your phone actually come from. The kit is able for renting and comes with all the necessary info and tasks to make a informative and nice lesson.

Apart from games and learn-kits there is a ton of inspiring material online. There are countless of animated videos and documents. Some of them are good, some of them great. But they are nothing new to be completely honest. For me this game was something that stopped me for a while. In the game you choose a person and make their life decisons. The choises are hard and can lead either to happines or sorrow. The game shows very realisticly how hard life can be. The websites http://www.flucht-und-migration.org/ are great also in other aspects. Too bad it is all in German, again.

It is kind of sad almost all material I gathered there is in German and is thus harder to use back in Finland. But here is some I'm going to bring back anyway:

This booklet is an example of making global learning fun.

There were few offerings of learning material -kits for schools.

Combining getting to know towns eko-shops and treasure hunt is inspiring and fun. Thumbs up!

Itroduction of the treasure hunt and one task.

The week of walking

Monday - the day of German unity

On 3 oct  was the day of German unity. It is a national holiday here so I got an extra day to lay in my bed and get better. During the weekend I got sick and tried to rest as much as possible.

Tuesday- The beginnig of studies

 There was a small info for exchange students who arrived later. There were only five students including myself. Three of the other ones were from the faculty of business and one in social studies. Basicly the coordinator gave a pile of papers and explained everything that needed to be done. And that, unfortunately, was not a short list. Another unpleasant surprise was that nothing were ready in terms of my studies. I was not registered in as a student ant thus student ID card was not pessed, I did not have access to school intranets etc. I got also invited to the official welcoming events, such as sunday brunch. What I’m still lacking is the contact to other students. I did give the other social studies student my contact info and am hoping she will send me message if there is something nice happening.

In the evening there was another event at cph-house. It was a thank-you dinner for people who had financially supported the organization during the last year. The event was called freundeskreistreffen. It consisted of presentation of the house, a dinner and a interview of the artist who made paintings in their new auditorium.

Later I went out to find another interesting place. It was local hlbtq-center called Fliederlich. On tuesdays they have open youth group so it was a suitable time for a visit. It was already late so not too many young people were in. Nevertheless I had a really nice conversarion with a volunteer working in the house. She told me about the organization and their field of work. When leaving I took with me a big pile of info fliers. Perhaps I need to make a post entirely about hlbtq work in Nürnberg.

Wednesday - the day of walking around.

I woke up 7.30, Breakfast downstairs at 8.00. Insurance company down the street 8.30, I dropped there some of my papers. Shools International office 9.30, I got the password and username for school intranet. Shool cashier 10.00, I paid the student fee 112e. Back to my room 11.30 I found out that the password I got does not work. I sent a email to tech-support. The answer was that I need to go to the tech-support office to get a new one. After a luch break and calming down from the frustration I went to the yet another new building for my new password.

At 19.00 there was again an event in the house. This time the event was in the field of culture. It was the opening of the exhibition Glänzende Aussichten.  The artpieces are caricaturen around the themes lifestyle, consumption and climate change. 

The rest of the week

Einwohneramt is the place where you have to go register in when you move to Germany. I was told in the orientation day that you have to be there very early because the lines are unbelievably long. I took the tip in and went to the building 7.30 when the doors opened at 8.00 - and the line was already there! During the 30 minutes I waited outside dozens of people gathered by the door. When the place finally opened and everybody rushed in, I got the line number 53 and it took almost an hour to get to a serving counter. In the end I was happy there are some things that are better organized in Finland.

Otherwise. There is not much to be told. I got some books to read for the rest of the week and that is what I have been doing. Well, I did take some pictures while I was walking around:

The first days in Nürnberg

Wednesday - The travelday

Even with all the waiting at the airports, my flight from Helsinki to Nürnberg via Amsterdam was actually quite pleasant. I dozed off a little bit and enjoyed the tea service with pizza-roll and tiny tortilla. It was the first time for me to land on Amsterdam Schiphol airport. I was HUGE. Compared to that, Nürnberg looked small, grey and very humble. Nevertheless, there I was at the airport and was hoping to see the worker from CPH to pick me up. In stead I had the first intercultural experience here. The airport was full of people with bouqets of flowers. Later It turned out that they were waiting for pilgrims to get back from Mekka. More and more people came in and they were clapping and shouting. Unfortunately my contact person was on the other side of the room and we did not see each other before the growd went outside. Then the second obstacle: the metro, U-bahn, did not work between the airport and the city. My boss ended up driving us to the house and I got the first proper meal of the day - at 8'clock pm. 

Thursday - The day of meetings

Quite practically there is a staff meeting held in house every thursday. It gave me the opportunity to see all staff members I'd be working with. I also would have heared a bit of recent activity had I understood the language. Even when I did not catch all the conversations, it was very useful to meet everyone and hear what their responsibilities are. Afternoon meeting went on with few guests. The first was representing a project called Kopfball. Here is a video I saw about the project (link).

Later at night there was a symposium about taxes, from the viewpoint of tax avoidance. I was really tired and it was troublesome trying to understand speech of such a difficult matter in German. Yet, it sounds like Finland is not the only country that loses millions due to tax avoidance, undeclared work and other holes in the tax system

Friday - Begegnungsstube Medina e.V.    

On friday morning I participated in a get-to-know meeting at Begegnungsstube Medina. It is a place where different groups are invited to get to know Islamic culture. There was a museum, mosque and a lecture toom. The museum featured Turkish, Balkan and other oriental clothing, handcraft, currency etc. The mosque was used not only for educational purposes but also as a an actual mosque and in different events. The lecture room was orientally decorated just like the other rooms. Still, the most important part for me was the clothescorner. When school classes come to visit, children and young people are allowed put on clothing from different islamic areas. The guide said visitors usually love this part. They take a lot pictures and selfies. With this experience they are sure to remenber their visit but also get a different perspective to the culture. Women in headpieces are not anymore just something you see on the street. With smaller children the education cannot be too difficult. The guide told us an example of childrens visit. Everybody gathers in the mosque. Then the children are told imaam would come to see them. The children are taught how to greet him in Islamic words shalaam aleikum. Then a staff member comes in dressed as imaam. This is yet another example of teaching through experiences rather than boring lectures. Adults and older adults visit Medina, too. With them, topics are naturally more deep. It can be about politics or the religion. Muslim hate (or fear) seems to be hot topic in Germany, too, which does not surprise me at all.

Learn more about Begegnungsstube Medina in their facebook page (link).

The costumes corner

Me as a "convertee"

This here is an interesting piece. I did not quite get everything that was said, but the title for the piece it "You stole our dreams". And yes, the figures tell a lot.

Pictures in the info flyer in order: the museum, the mosque, more museum, more mosque

The process before exchange

Since I had decieded to apply for a student excange in Germany even before my studies in MAMK strarted, the process started early. First I learned about the possibilities in my istitute. I found out how to apply, how long excange periods are and what tasks include to an exchange program. I also checked out all the partner institutes in the country I had chosen. When the application period started, I already had clear idea of what I wanted. And what I wanted was a shorter internsip exchange in Nuremberg, Germany during autumn semester 2016.

After I sent in my application I was interviewed and since there were no problems, I was accepted to represent my country and home institute in Germany. After that I had to send some more applications: to receiving university and fund applications. I also sent my CV and open letter to an exciting organization where I wanted to do my internship. Luckily all replies were positive. The next step was once again more papers. I filled and signed Learning agreements with both the receiving university and employer. When all the documents were signed and filed it finally started sinking in: I'm going to Germany and spend there three months working and studying!

 I was, of course, very excited about my destined country and city - and I tend to plan ahead anyway. That's why I really focused on the tasks that are required before exchange. The tasks were to descibe the application process and host institutions, study the attributes of destined country and area and prepare a presentation of home country. Even though money is not an issue for me in this matter, I am prepared to use my savings and take student loan to cover the trip, I did my budget well too. I have to manage financially even if unexpected costs would occure. Additionally I have spent hours in internet and google maps getting to know my temporar home town  Nuremberg,

Now the departure is only two weeks away. I have already packed all documents that I need and bought a gift to thank my employer and contact person in Germany. I'm getting chills!