Nowa Huta

Hey guys,

it's the second day in Krakow and it's getting colder.















Today we went to Nowa Huta, the workers part of Krakow. About 200.000 people are living in Nowa Huta. And I couldn't believe it, there it was even colder, than in Krakow. I was freezing even trough I looked like an onion. In Nowa Huta we went from the Lenin Steelworks to the Ronald Reagan Central Square, where we visited different buildings and places especially some churches.






























After our return to Krakow and a small lunch we went back to the main square to visit some places we have to analyse this week in groups.






















On my way back to the hostel I had to see something scary. Two of the trams had had an accident. One of them jumped of their rail. And we were taking one of them 4 hours ago 8-O















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First Day in Krakow ... and it's rainy!

Hey guys,

I just want to give a short report of today. Today we met at the Rynek market, which is the heart of the old town, at 9 am. We were parted in three groups, each with a tutor to explore th city. Unfortunately it started raining at 11 and all museums were closed on Monday.




































For that reason the tutors said, "Enjoy yourself. We meet at the square once a hour and if it stops raining we go on with our tour."




































After a lunch in a restaurant facing the German secretariat-general the rain stopped. It was about 14 o'clock. Then David showed us some nice parts of the town including the oldest remaining building of the university. In the courtyard of the building David started telling something about the university, but suddenly there was music. It was "Gaudeamus Igitur". There was a clock with some statues marching th the music. Really nice.















Tomorrow we will visit Nowa Huta!

Photos will be here next week. I found a USB interface, but it seems that this computer is not fast enough for this exercise!

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Leaving Scotland, Arriving in Poland

Cześć facet,

that was Polish and means "Hey guy"!
You may wonder, why I speak in Polish? It's simple! I'm in Poland, or more precisely I'm in Krakow. But what do I do in Krakow? It's simple again, I'm on a study trip with my course year!















Unfortunately the plane started at 7:10 am, and there is no bus or train so soon to Edinburgh Airport. Damn! What did I do. Something a lot of people may have done in their lives. I slept at the airport. At least I tried and it didn't really work. You don't believe how many people there are at an airport at night. Even all the stores closed between 9 and 10. Then they started cleaning the hallways. And then, when you are close to sleep, there is a woman who asks you if you are taking one of the early flights and when you need to get up. Nice woman, but too active ;-) And at last, when you are close to returning to sleep, suddenly there is music from the next coffee store between 2 am and 2:30 am. But it still doesn't open.















So I decided not to sleep, take one or two coffees and try to sleep in the airplane. In this case, I was really lucky. When I came to the gate, there where a lot of people, but lucky me, they where all in the wrong queue. Oh well, who can read has definitely an advantage!

Having arrived in Krakow in rain, we went to our hostels. I had some problems to find mine. Because I left my directions at home. Frak! But with some help I finally found it. It's a really nice flat and I have my own room, because there is no one else *G*





























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One Month in Scotland

Hey guys,

now I'm here in Scotland over a month and I feel really good. Even though I have nearly been blown away by the storming wind we had in Dundee today.

But what happened in the meantime? This week we had a German visitor, Prof. Heribert Hamann from my University in Mainz. He was just on a short visit of the partner university and us three.

Then we had our first presentation of our group analysis in front of the whole year and the tutors. It was a hard day from 9 am until nearly 5 pm. Of course we were the last group. Frak!

And at last I joined a, for me quite common, way of drinking beer. In a "Boat Race" two teams drink the beer in front of themselves as fast as they can and put their glass over the top oftheir heads. Each of the team drinks half a pint and the last, the anchor, dinks a whole pint. My team took the fact that I was from Germany as a reason that I had to be the anchor.

Unfortunately we didn't win. There were two teams which were really fast. And we had to face them both. Damn! We won the first one.

I hope I'll get some photos from that night. It was really fun!

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My first golf lesson

Hey guys,

I'm just back from my first golf lesson with the University Golf Club. Therefor we drove with the bus to the Balumbie Golf Course outsite of Dundee to tee of some golf balls at the driving range.















It was really nice to be their and lucky me, Andy one of students from my group was there as well. And it's proved, that Andy is a really good player. He and another good player showed me and a girl of our golf group some nice tricks.






















After our return to Dundee University we went to a pub called "Templelane" which is close to the university and seems to be the constant of golf and tennis players. There we drank some cocktails a a bit of whisky and chat about the evening and got to know each other.















Funny thing by the way. There were also some other Germans. But we all said: "Let's talk in English!" :-)

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First week is over

Hey guys,

the first week is over, and we started straight with full speed. We were separated in 5 groups of 14 students. Our exercise: Analysis of a part of Dundee were our own design should be placed. Working together with this group is really nice and we got a really good start. We built an 1:500 model of the area and decided which points are important for our analysis. Even Jamie, our tutor said, that we are on a good way, and we may manage it without any problems.

Here are some pictures I made during the last week

Orlaith, Sammy, Sophie and Gabriella (from left)















Jill, Sammy, Gabriella, Sarah, Magnus, Andy (from left)















There are Olly, Ally, Ciaran, Dave, Blair and me as well.

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St. Andrews

Hey guys,

yesterday afternoon, after some bureaucratic matters, like getting the study card or visiting the ERASMUS office, I decided to make a visit of St. Andrews. St. Andrews is the city with the oldest Scottish university. So I took the bus to the city where Prince William studied, which took less than half an hour from Dundee. In St. Andrews are beside the university also some other very interesting places like the cathedral from 1160...





























... with it's graveyard ...















... or the the castle ...















... as well as the Old Course.















It was a really nice day there. My flatmate, who works in a hotel in St. Andrews, showed me all those nice places.

There are more photos of the day in this nice place on

http://www.directupload.net/galerie/137084/T339OSBjJ2/0

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