Die schönste Stadt der Welt
Wise Guys - Die Nachrichten:
"Der Bundestag beschloß in knapp zwei Jahren, von Berlin, endgültig, mit Pack und Sack, nach Bonn zurückzuziehen. Der Umzug wird nicht beleuchtet, doch er dient 'nem guten Zwecke: die schönste Stadt der Welt..."
...ist ja Heidelberg am Neckar.
(People who don't know the Wise Guys: never mind...)
Heidelberg feels like the ideal university city. Small enough to be 'gezellig', old enough to have beautiful old buildings, small streets, and the general 'packed' old city centre atmosphere, and it has a good university as well. And a river, on which people even sail :).
On the north shore of the Neckar are the Neckarwiesen, the Neckar meadows, which are quite reminiscent of the grass around the UC campus squad, only larger, and with a river in front of it. They make the idea of studying until the end of July a bit more attractive, although I am still of the opinion that the Heidelbergers are just late with their summer. (Still no signs of autumn, for example. Not that I'm complaining, though :).)
My room for September is in the middle of the Altstadt, practically at the Hauptstrasse, in a Studentenwohnheim1. It is relatively small, for UC standards at least, i.e. some 10-12 square metres, but has rather large closets to compensate. The view from my window is nice, full of old red roofs, like the view from the hallway window opposite my door (pictures will follow). The room does unfortunately not have internet, or at least none that I can use. But, all in all, I am satisfied with this room, at least for a month.
There are other people living on the same floor: one from France, two from China, one from Germany and one from Georgia (the one in the Caucasus). So far, they seem nice people, although I have not had very intensive contact with them. The Frenchman, called Pierre, has kindly shown me the internet room in the university library, which is gleich um die Ecke, and even shared his account with me. The two Chinese people, called Zheng and Xu, I believe ('Xu's name' is hard to transcribe) have allowed me to use their computers in my search for solutions to my internet problems, but that is more or less the limit of the contact, apart from 'business-like' contacts about who is to keep the floor clean during which week and such.
I said 'floor', rather than 'flat' or 'unit', since that idea does not yet seem to have taken root here. There is a kitchen, granted, but it is fairly minimal (think UC-kitchen, but then only the room needed for the kitchen, so about 4 sq. m.), and lacks the usual attachment of a living room. That is a drawback. It is a consequence, I think, of the fact that here, students mostly eat in a mensa and use their rooms only for sleeping and studying. There is one such mensa, two minutes walking from my room, and I must say that I see why one would eat there. It has the social function of UC's Dining Hall, and the food is quite good. And, even better, it has a nice patio, with grass in the middle, trees around that, and tables around those. And it also has wireless internet...
All in all, my room and its immediate neighbourhood are not bad. This makes me all the more curious how my new room will be. The story is as follows: Heidelberg, being a small city with a big university, has a large shortage of student rooms. Large meaning the following: there are about 4 000 rooms available in student dorms, and the university has about 26 000 students. The university is not the only higher education institute in the city; all in all there are about 50 000 student places in Heidelberg's higher education sector. So, I am happy that the Akademische Auslandsamt has found me a room, from October onwards. And also one for September, but that's not the same room. The new one is in the West of the city, on a private university campus, and has, if I can believe the information on this campus' website, no kitchen, but to compensate it does have internet, and a mensa. In other words: one more year of UC-like living :). Except for the fact that I'll be studying elsewhere.
1 A German-French interpreter once told me that the German language is much more specific, with the result that translating from German to French meant leaving out information, and translating the other way meant specifying more things. I think this also holds for other languages than French, of which this noun is an excellent demonstration; I would consider it quite obvious that in a student house, students live...
"Der Bundestag beschloß in knapp zwei Jahren, von Berlin, endgültig, mit Pack und Sack, nach Bonn zurückzuziehen. Der Umzug wird nicht beleuchtet, doch er dient 'nem guten Zwecke: die schönste Stadt der Welt..."
...ist ja Heidelberg am Neckar.
(People who don't know the Wise Guys: never mind...)
Heidelberg feels like the ideal university city. Small enough to be 'gezellig', old enough to have beautiful old buildings, small streets, and the general 'packed' old city centre atmosphere, and it has a good university as well. And a river, on which people even sail :).
On the north shore of the Neckar are the Neckarwiesen, the Neckar meadows, which are quite reminiscent of the grass around the UC campus squad, only larger, and with a river in front of it. They make the idea of studying until the end of July a bit more attractive, although I am still of the opinion that the Heidelbergers are just late with their summer. (Still no signs of autumn, for example. Not that I'm complaining, though :).)
My room for September is in the middle of the Altstadt, practically at the Hauptstrasse, in a Studentenwohnheim1. It is relatively small, for UC standards at least, i.e. some 10-12 square metres, but has rather large closets to compensate. The view from my window is nice, full of old red roofs, like the view from the hallway window opposite my door (pictures will follow). The room does unfortunately not have internet, or at least none that I can use. But, all in all, I am satisfied with this room, at least for a month.
There are other people living on the same floor: one from France, two from China, one from Germany and one from Georgia (the one in the Caucasus). So far, they seem nice people, although I have not had very intensive contact with them. The Frenchman, called Pierre, has kindly shown me the internet room in the university library, which is gleich um die Ecke, and even shared his account with me. The two Chinese people, called Zheng and Xu, I believe ('Xu's name' is hard to transcribe) have allowed me to use their computers in my search for solutions to my internet problems, but that is more or less the limit of the contact, apart from 'business-like' contacts about who is to keep the floor clean during which week and such.
I said 'floor', rather than 'flat' or 'unit', since that idea does not yet seem to have taken root here. There is a kitchen, granted, but it is fairly minimal (think UC-kitchen, but then only the room needed for the kitchen, so about 4 sq. m.), and lacks the usual attachment of a living room. That is a drawback. It is a consequence, I think, of the fact that here, students mostly eat in a mensa and use their rooms only for sleeping and studying. There is one such mensa, two minutes walking from my room, and I must say that I see why one would eat there. It has the social function of UC's Dining Hall, and the food is quite good. And, even better, it has a nice patio, with grass in the middle, trees around that, and tables around those. And it also has wireless internet...
All in all, my room and its immediate neighbourhood are not bad. This makes me all the more curious how my new room will be. The story is as follows: Heidelberg, being a small city with a big university, has a large shortage of student rooms. Large meaning the following: there are about 4 000 rooms available in student dorms, and the university has about 26 000 students. The university is not the only higher education institute in the city; all in all there are about 50 000 student places in Heidelberg's higher education sector. So, I am happy that the Akademische Auslandsamt has found me a room, from October onwards. And also one for September, but that's not the same room. The new one is in the West of the city, on a private university campus, and has, if I can believe the information on this campus' website, no kitchen, but to compensate it does have internet, and a mensa. In other words: one more year of UC-like living :). Except for the fact that I'll be studying elsewhere.
1 A German-French interpreter once told me that the German language is much more specific, with the result that translating from German to French meant leaving out information, and translating the other way meant specifying more things. I think this also holds for other languages than French, of which this noun is an excellent demonstration; I would consider it quite obvious that in a student house, students live...
posted by Olivier at 4:38 PM
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