Lappeenranta University of Technology
School of Industrial Engineering and Management
Global Management of Innovation and Technology
Report
Exchange program - ERASMUS
RWTH Aachen, Germany
Academic year 2013-2014
Masters studies
Mikhail Bogdanov
g0406539
November 2, 2014
2014
Content
Content.......................................................................................................................................................... 2
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 3
Why I decided to go for exchange................................................................................................................. 4
Preparation.................................................................................................................................................... 4
Go and settle, first days ................................................................................................................................ 6
Dates of orientation, Study schedule, Exam periods and Holidays ............................................................10
Studies and Exams.......................................................................................................................................12
More about studies .....................................................................................................................................13
Professors evaluation ..................................................................................................................................16
Living and Culture........................................................................................................................................16
Eating...........................................................................................................................................................19
Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................................21
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Introduction
Introduced work is dedicated to describe the authors experience collected during one year exchange
period in Germany, as well as to highlight all corresponding organizational activities which took place
during the preparation process.
My name is Mikhail Bogdanov, I am from Russia. I am doing Masters Program GMIT, the Faculty
of Industrial Management in LUT. At the second year of my studies I decided to go for exchange to
RWTHAACHEN, Germany due to some reasons which are described further in this report.
I spent in Germany eleven months in total - complete academic year. I will evaluate this trip very
positively in terms of life, study and cultural-social experiences. To be honest, I have faced with positive
and negative sides of living in a foreign country far away from home.
This report presents my personal experience of the exchange trip from different perspectives which are
shown in corresponding sections of the paper:
-organization/negotiation of the exchange
-preparation
-first days
-studies, exams, holidays
-life and culture
-eating
In each section introduced the most important circumstances and details, which have to be considered
in advance, in case if student will go for exchange. I have tried to imagine what is the best way to
describe my exchange? How to introduce the experience? Of course through the examples of the
particular situations happened during my staying in Germany.
I have strived and hope that my report will help students to form a better understanding how exchange
looks like in general and also focus the attention at the particular, however, very important issues,
which have to be considered if aim is to go exchange.
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Why I decided to go for exchange
For me personally, it was pretty easy to choose the University for doing exchange due to the reason that
I had clear understanding what I am going to do there. I would like to introduce the citation from one
part of my Motivation Letter to explain the reasons which I referred to:
“….My decision to go for exchange to Germany is based on several reasons. I want to mention that I
considered only that country, because it is the most powerful industrial country in Europe and even in
the world.
Historically Germany and Russia are partners in business. People in Russia respect German quality in all
products from home vacuum cleaner to cars and industrial equipment, they trust in German
fundamental and precision approach in doing products and business. Important to mention that
Germany has a very high level of development in all branches of industry and for Russia collaboration
with Germany is critically important. For instance, consider Russian heavy industry, such as ship building.
That sector desperately needs very deep and complex renovation of material and technical base
because practically all equipment was developed in 50th, 60th of the previous century. In those
consequences, the federal program of rebuilding and renovating of this branch of heavy industry in
Russia starts in 2013 and will last for 17 years. This information is placed on the website of the Russian
Ministry of Industry and Trading. All new machine-tools will be bought aboard because our country
nowadays is far, far behind in that sector of industry. Germany is a world-known leader in that kind of
equipment and as a result countries will closely collaborate and benefit from each other.
I know that at present time countries have wide networks of business relations in huge number of
markets. Russia tries to improve preconditions for doing business and foreign businessmen admit that
now a days it become much better than ten and even five years before. The point is that countries will
collaborate more and more in future.
In my opinion, studying in Germany will help me to understand the German approach of managing and
manufacturing products, the main strategy which allows to achieve high results in production processes.
Understanding German business culture is critically important for my future career.
In addition for me personally is very interesting to experience the education system in Germany,
students live, traditions and culture…”
Those were my motives to go for exchange to Germany.
Preparation
In a several abstracts bellow the preparation to my exchange in RWTH University will be described. I will
try to highlight the important points which should be considered at this stage.
The most challenging issue, from my point of view, is to find the proper substitutions for the courses
which form your study program at home university. Actually, this critical point has a huge influence on
the choice of the university you would like to go for exchange. The idea is that if you will not be able to
introduce the list of proper substitutes of the original courses you will not have the approval from your
faculty to go for exchange.
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My program in LUT is GMIT, the Faculty of Industrial Management. I am doing Mater studies, which
means that all substitutions must be from the Masters level – one more restriction. Further, I was in
need to choose courses only in English, because I was not able to speak German.
I would say that this stage is the most challenging and time consuming – you have to investigate the
websites of different universities, look for proper courses, compare the description of the courses, check
the time period, either course is in winter or in summer and etc. This is quite obvious that each
university has different web-interfaces of the searching tools and in some cases these tools are not
perfect in terms of usability.
However, if you will manage this issue with Learning Agreement (LA), by this I mean that your faculty
will approve the chosen courses and you will have stamps and signatures from your home university and
from guest university in this document - be sure that the most difficult part of the preparation is done.
All further organizational activities are under control of the Exchange Coordinator of the LUT Kaisa Nikku
– very nice women and professional of her field. Basically, you need to follow her instructions and
everything concerning the application forms and other required documents will be fine. Of course you
will be in need to discuss the matter with exchange coordinator from the university you aim to go to – to
confirm all details of chosen courses.
When you have prepared the study program (LA) for going exchange and other related documents you
have to participate the meeting with the head of your degree program and introduce your motives,
reasons and aims: Why you want to go? And what you will do there? In my case I had an appointment
with Professor Juha Väätänen, and he supported my idea, for what I am very grateful to him.
Finally, you and other students, who succeed with the preparation process described above, undergo
through meeting with exchange students from previous years to listen to their presentations about their
exchange and ask questions. Then you buy a ticket and go for the exchange.
Separately, I would focus attention of students out of EU in case if they aim to go for exchange in the EU
countries. This is very critical issue and you have to consider this very carefully. I personally, faced with a
big challenge when I came to Germany and visit the special office responsible for VISAs and Residence
Permits.
I came to this office with my Finish Residence Permit and was very confused when the person in charge
strongly recommended me to go to Finland or Russia and to make a visa type “D” there. Also that Finish
Residence Permit is an equal to tourist visa in Germany, which means not more than 90 days in a half a
year. Finally, I was told that it is not possible to apply for visa on German territory.
I was very surprised with the final outcome of this situation. Further, I visited this office couple of times
more, and other person in charge told me, that I have to prepare number of documents and open local
bank account of course to put money on it and after I could apply for the local Residence Permit.
I did everything accordingly to the given instructions, and came to this office again, whole prepared for
the applying for the German Residence Permit. I came to the same room where I was told to go out of
Germany to proceed with documents. However, that person in charge accepted all my documents and
even helped to fill in the application form.
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To be honest I was confused even more with such a different result of my last visit - I was told that in a
month I will receive a local Residence Permit, even without any fee. However, the situation was
completely different with my classmate from LUT – she was really in need to go to Russia and to make a
German VISA type D.
Go and settle, first days
This sub part of the report is aimed to introduce the beginning of the exchange and describe my first
days in Germany.
I came to Aachen on the 2nd of October 2013 by train from Dusseldorf, and found my hostel where I had
rent a bed for several days. You will ask why hostel? The reason is in following. I received the negative
respond concerning the rent of apartments from the RWTH University – they told “We have no place for
you” and I decided to go to hostel. Actually I have never been in hostels before that.
To be honest, it was not the best place with eight beds in a twenty five square meters room; however I
was in a good mood that I have at least bed and bathroom. At this day I bought the local SIM card with
internet and this made my mood even better.
I meat couple international students in this hostel from Italy and Spain and they had the same negative
respond from RWTH concerning the apartments. At this time I was not able to imagine how difficult it
could be for foreign student to find an apartment at the beginning of the academic year in Aachen.
Aachen is a very old and nice city with a very lovely and compact center with beautiful gothic
architecture, narrow, picturesque streets , fountains, huge number of monuments and wonderful
historical buildings, such as cathedrals or the former tower-gates on the entrance to the old city. The
population is about 200000-250000 people.
Aachen Dom
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Aachen city center
Some monument in Aachen
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Very special view of Aachen.
On the other hand, Aahen is called students city in Germany – every year only in RWTH more than
40.000 students start academic year. Plus take into account some other universities in Aachen and
finally, I was lucky to came there in a year when German government decided to change the education
system and reduce one year of education in the high schools – as a result, it was two times more
applicants to the universities than in normal year.
The hostel where I was living firs days, was uncomfortable especially when all eight beds were occupied
and also expensive about 20e/day. On the third day of the success-less searching of the apartment I was
already not so happy with fountains and architectural beauty of Aachen. I was looking for the
apartments almost all the daylong in Starbucks on the “Markt” – Central Square in Aachen. The nice
interior of Starbucks, with number of big armchairs, tasty coffee and high-speed internet made me a bit
happier; however the flat issue had a very big negative pressure because it was unsolved.
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Rathaus on the Markt Aachen – Central Square
In parallel, I was I need to undergo these organizational procedures concerning the enrollment: visiting
number of offices of German authorities, create time table for studies ant etc. Luckily, the lectures
began in the middle of October.
It was the third day, I was in Starbucks checking the wg-gesucht.de, special local website for
renting/offering rooms, apartments, houses - actually the best tool available in Aachen, however I still
hate this webpage from those hard times, because I was in need to use it too much.
So, the webpage was opened on my Ipad and suddenly one guy next to me told that it seems to him
that I am looking for apartments and that he is doing the same – everybody there knows the interface of
wg-gesucht.de. Further, this guy whose name is Algi, from Lithuania, became my good friend and also he
introduced me to one woman who was playing very important role during my time in Germany.
The Algi`s situation was the following: he was doing couchsurfing and that is how he meat that women.
Couchsurfing is some kind of social community where people negotiate through the internet to stay by
each other’s apartment for several days for free. I would like to tell some words about this woman
because to say that she helps us means to say nothing.
Her name is Maria and she is from Poland; however she leaves in Germany about 20 years. I am
infinitely grateful to her for her attitude to me. She helped me with so many issues and problems that I
have no idea how my exchange would look like without her. Great women! I am still wondering about
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such an attitude from her - full of care and support like I am a member of her family or relative. In my
opinion she just knows that it is not easy to start your life in a new country, because probably she went
through this.
Maria helped me to settle on temporary bases in her friends summer house, to no to pay for the hostel
every day – she told that it is nonsense to pay this amount of money for such a place. I started to live in
a small house without bathroom and central heating in suburban of Aachen. Meanwhile studies began;
however, the problem with finding apartments was still unsolved.
Dates of orientation, Study schedule, Exam periods and Holidays
This section is aimed to introduce the structure of the academic year in the RWTH in terms of time
schedule, provides with description of the holiday atmosphere in Germany and introduces some special
events during studies and some traditional German events. I will try to cover all the time period, with
focus on the important dates, from the early beginning till the end of my exchange period.
My orientation meeting took place at the 04th of October 2013. During this meeting other students and
me went through some general presentation about the RWTH University. Stuff explained us main webtools, gave us passwords and login details. Also they described all procedures that we were required to
undergo (visits to different authorities such as visa office, insurance office and etc) and we were given
some brochures and the bill with student`s fee for winter semester 2013, enrollment form for incoming
students to fill in, and document for applying the local student card.
Later in the evening of the same day, we had an Erasmus meeting to do some fun activities and to meet
new friends. That was pretty cool, because local German students took care of us and I personally was
enjoying this evening.
Further, I would like to introduce the general structure of the academic year in Germany. The academic
year in RWTH is very different in terms of time periods compare to Finland. Winter semester (WS) starts
at the 1st of October and ends at the end of March, if take the corresponding examination session into
account. After that comes summer semester (SS) from the 1st of April till the end of September, as well
together with examination session. The examination sessions take part in February and March for the
WS and in July, August and also in September for SS. German students were so surprised that in other
countries students have two or even more months of summer holidays.
As I have already mentioned, German students have lack of holidays. We concluded that, with other
Erasmus students from Spain, Italy and Finland. However, local students told me that they having rest
during the early beginning of the academic year in September and October, because even if officially WS
starts at the 1st of October the first lecture begins only in the middle of the month.
Of course there is a Christmas brake for about couple of weeks till the 5th of January 2014 in my case. I
would like to mention that this time in December is very lovely in Germany, because of all Christmas
activities which took place on the streets and squares of the cities. Everything is decorated with lights cafes, shops, streets, buildings. On the main square of Aachen, as well as in all cities and towns of
Germany special Christmas shops are located, where you could buy Christmas souvenirs, traditional
German decoration stuff and also try traditional German food. In additional, different concerts and
performances take place every day during this days. All of these activities in the city centers called “Weihnachtsmarkt”.
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Shopping center in Aachen – Christmas
Christmas concert at the “Weihnachtsmarkt”
Christmas - is very pleasurable time to visit Germany and to experience the Christmas tradition and
holiday spirit of this country.
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In summer semester many governmental holidays take palace in Germany. Even if it is only one day of
vocations it is nice. Also, during this semester in university the excursion week takes place in June.
Students have no lectures this week and have opportunity to go and visit companies all over Germany or
to have one week holidays..
In addition, at this part of Germany the traditional carnival takes place. Two times a year in autumn and
spring people are wearing different costumes of animals or zombies or pirate and party several days.
This carnival originates in Koln – about 40min by train from Aachen. Germans like this tradition very
much and party covers all the city centers. For instance, in March this event lasts for whole week long –
24 hours. Once in the evening at the central railway station in Koln I felt like on a big party – everywhere
were drank people in different costumes and flour was sticky, due to the spilled drinks, like in the club.
Finally, I would like to say some words about the world champion in football which was this summer
2014 in Brazil. The reason is that German nation loves football very much and they had so big
celebration on the street after each match, which German team won, that it was difficult to sleep
because of the cheering crowds outside.
Immediately after the football match streets were saturated with crowds of people, appeared traffic
jams and people were screaming from the cars and pushing klaxons and also music, fireworks till late
night. The tendency was like that – the closer the German team moved to the final game the lauder
crowds behave.
Studies and Exams
Study approach in RWTH is almost the same as in LUT, as well lectures and practical studies. During the
practical part students are thought to solve the tasks for the exam of the corresponding lectures.
Many of courses are interactive where students have to prepare to each lecture by reading article, for
instance, and then take part in the discussion, which is finally evaluated as some percentage of the final
grade – class participation.
In some courses, almost all lectures are available on YouTube, where professor introduces the content
of the lecture (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqIX4Yev6wE). I find this approach innovative and
convenient; however, on the other hand I feel very strongly that traditional lectures in classroom are
better, because you have an opportunity to discuss the matter immediately.
Moreover RWTH plans to switch to this on-line based educational approach to let the degree be
available for the broader auditory of students all over the world. Some of such platforms already exist
and RWTH aims to develop this method in upcoming years.
In the following abstracts I would like to describe RWTHs exams approach which is very different
compare to my home university. The first and most significant difference -the student is very limited in
time. For three essay questions is given only one hour.
For me personally, it was very confusing when I came to the exam in one technically focused course and
was given an exam ticket of 50 pages with different tasks which weight 2 - 4 points. The target is to
collect 100 points in total in 2 hours of exam.
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The exams in RWTH cover the whole content of the course, from the first to the last lectures and to pass
the exam you have to make at least more than a half of tasks correctly. The grade scale is from 5.0 to 1.0
where 1 is the best grade and the lowest satisfactory grade is 4. Also your grade could be calculated as
3.3 or 2.4 or 1.7 points.
Some of the exams are provided in the computer classroom, which was also challenging. To my mind
this is very dependent on the typing skills of student.
Also it is possible to attend the oral exam if you would not collect enough points to pass the course with
the written exam. In addition in some courses oral exam was organize especially for Erasmus students.
I would like to focus your attention on the exams evaluation procedure in RWTH. I had a big discussion
with stuff of RWTH about the results of one exam and would like to describe this situation in the report.
It was one of those exams where you have several tens of pages of tasks for couple of hours. I was
preparing hard and felt myself quite confident about the content of the course. Moreover, after the
exam, I had a feeling that at least it should be satisfactory. However, when I saw the results in the webpage, I was very surprised with grade 5.0 against my student number.
I started to write emails to clarify the situation with people in charge, and they advised me to come to
the revision session, where you could take your exam paper, go through and write some comments
about the mistakes you made and probably collect some points, if your explanations are reasonable
from the examiners point of view.
When I opened my exam paper I was surprised even more, because two big tasks, which were done with
a pencil, were crossed completely due to the pencil ban. Of course it was told at the beginning of the
exam to use pens, however let me explain the rest.
Both of the tasks were based on drawing the diagrams. Due to the fact that, I was using a pencil for
writing all exams in Finland, I draw the diagrams with it. One of these tasks was divided on two parts,
where second one was aimed to come up with critical path of the consequence of the process. To
complete the second part you have to have correct results from the first section, otherwise it is
impossible to do it right. The person who checked my exam paper gave me 1 point for the second part
which was done with a pen and just cross the first part which weight 9 points and was done by pencil.
In my point of view this is total absurd, looks like they are checking with what I am writing, but not the
knowledge. I was trying to explain, and wrote number of emails to different offices that I know how to
do this task, that I am ready to come to their office and show my skills, that I am an Erasmus student
and in home university I did all my exams with a pencil – however nothing works, like a wall and all what
the responsible persons answered to me –“there is no space to discuss.” And that I could do this exam in
SS examination session.
More about studies
In general, I like the studies in Germany, however at the first semester all this differences with exam
approach forms perception that it is harder to study and very difficult to have a good grades and etc.
However, the same was when I have started my Master program in LUT, everything was new different
and challenging.
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After the WS, I received a good experience about German approach of studies in university and felt
much more confident during the summer examination session. I started to receive good grades, because
of this experience and at the end I would say that I completely adapted myself for the studies is German
environment. Actually the same was during the second semester in LUT.
To be honest, my exchange was planned as a one semester only; however I faced with a confusing
situation at the end of March, when I passed all WS exams in RWTH. Due to the difference in terms of
academic year, it was already middle of the second semester in LUT, which means that I will have
incomplete academic year in case if I came back to Finland.
I have explained the situation to persons in charge in LUT and after some negotiation about the study
plan; I was allowed to have a complete summer semester in RWTH. I was again very happy with that
loyalty, understanding and support from LUT within my situation.
Examination period is a very busy time everywhere and especially in RWTH, due to the huge number of
people. For instance, it could be a problem to find a place in the university to sit and to study – because
everyone is preparing for the exams these days. I remember that my friends and me were in need to
come half an hour before the opening of the library to be sure that we will find a free place there.
Queue to the library at the end of WS 7:30 a.m.
I really lacked the possibility to enter almost each auditory in day and night time, like it was during my
first year of studies in LUT. My friends and me, even were not thinking that to find a place for studies
could be a problem. In addition I lacked the comfortable leather armchairs and picturesque view on the
lake from the upper flows of LUT building.
Also, one relative feature of studies in RWTHAACHEN is that you have to travel around the city during
your study day, because university consists of six big campuses which located in different parts of
Aachen. At each campus there are a lot of buildings. At the beginning of studies it was quite challenging
to be in time in right place, however finally when you receive some experience it will be quite normal.
Further, I would say some words about the organizational aspects of studies in RWTH. To my mind it is
very important to support the international incoming students, because they are in a new country very
far from homes, families, and friends. Different culture, different way of living all of this has a great
influence and to organize live on a new place is not so easy.
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The on-line tools in RWTH, I mean systems for searching courses, making schedule and so on, are far
from perfection, if we compare them with the same systems in LUT, for instance. There are two systems
one is for everybody on the web and second one you could access only if you are current student in
RWTH. The problem is that these systems have to introduce the same content of the courses which took
place in academic year, however they don’t.
It was very confusing to build a time schedule for the upcoming semester, because, for instance, you
have found a good course in one system, than your coordinator tells you that this course is canceled and
you have to search again. Furthermore, the system for the enrolled students is available only in German
language, which makes the usage inconvenient for the international students.
We have discussed the performance of these systems with local German students form RWTH and they
told me one interesting fact: that even for German students it takes at least two semesters to get used
to this system.
In my case it brought a lot of problems, because I came to Germany to study and to learn as much as it
will be possible during my staying. That is why I was really looking for courses which fit my study
program in LUT and also for other interesting elective courses. All the time I was in need to check that
everything is ok with courses which I have found with study coordinator. Once, this person was
surprised with one course which I found, because even she never saw this one before.
Important to mention that exchange students in RWTH have limited access to the system, this makes
impossible to enrollee for the courses, exams and to the e-learning rooms with study materials by
themselves. Normally, study coordinator organizes all activities concerning the courses and exams
enrollment, as well as the access to the e-learning rooms. However, I was very surprised with the way
how it works in RWTH.
RWTH is very big university and this could create difficulties within the operational performance of
these online systems. However, there are some other problems. Instable situation with courses also
take place. For instance, I have found one course, very suitable as a substitution for course in LUT and
then, this course was canceled and switched to the other semester.
The situation which happened with my friend - exchange student from Turkey is even stranger. He had a
course in RWTH accordingly to his study program at the home university, and then in the middle of the
semester this course was canceled, because the professor did not come.
Based on these situations described in a several abstract above I am still wondering about one incident
which happened in the study coordinators office of my faculty in RWTH. I was building the time schedule
for the SS2014 and again faced with this problem of finding proper courses. I had in mind couple of
issues concerning the new schedule to clarify with coordinator, and unfortunately came to the office in
wrong time, after open hours or even at wrong day.
Then I understood everything what this person things about me, because I was accused that I am second
semester here and could not figure out the way how the system works, that I should never come to this
office without negotiation of the appointment through the email and many other bizarre accusations
and statements addressed to me. I was deeply confused with such a conversation, such an opinion and
attitude to me. I never visited this office anymore and was managing all issues concerning the studies by
myself, directly through the stuff responsible for the subjects.
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Moreover, I heard a lot of compliance from other international students, that they were unsatisfied with
a way how this person manages the issues concerning the studies.
Professors evaluation
During my studies in Germany I did many courses and meat number of different professors of different
study fields. I would say that all of them are high level professionals in their subjects and it was very
interesting to attend their courses and learn.
In addition to the courses which I was officially enrolled and took exams, I was doing several courses as a
free listener, because the subjects were interesting for me. Those were technical courses such as
“Manufacturing Technology”, for instance. I received a good understanding about German view at the
different manufacturing technologies in metal processing. Also, I meat very nice and experienced
persons at this faculty, who always were ready to help and to discuss all issues concerning lecture
content, or some organizational problems, such as access to e-learning room with study materials.
On the other hand, some professors were very difficult to reach to discuss the questions concerning
studies. For example, when you are not satisfied with your grade and have a desire to discuss this
problem to understand the reasons and to learn from mistakes. With one course in RWTH, I did not
succeed at all in such situation.
Also, in one subject I faced with some ambiguity in the content of the lecture, while I was preparing to
the exam. Further, I wrote down my thoughts within an email and sent to the professor. I was asking for
professor’s feedback to exclude this ambiguity, but I did not receive any respond.
To sum up, I would say that I never faced with such situations during my studies in LUT. In my home
university I feel very comfortable when some problems appear, does not matter concerning the studies
or organizational side. In each office people are nice to talk and ready to help you with your problem.
Living and Culture
Each country has a different way of leaving, and Germany is not an exception. This is powerful industrial
country which goes its own way in terms of daily routine and you have to accept that if you are there. In
this section I will try to describe how the daily live in Germany looks like from the foreigner point of
view.
Firstly, I would say that Germany is very about different rules concerning everything, such as listening to
the music with your headset in the bus or riding a bike, rules in the library, at the lake, in the sauna, in
the swimming pool - everywhere. Important to highlight that if you don’t know the rule – that is only
your problem.
During the first months it was even annoying to do things in a way as it is described in the rules, but
finally I adopted, found some balance and then it became less contrast and stop to disturb.
Second issue is that in Germany is very problematic without German language. People their think that if
you came to Germany you have to speak German ant that’s it. I have faced many times with problems,
because people were not able to speak English, or probably just do not want to do so. I heard that kind
of opinion from local Germans - that even if German person knows English he or she just does not want
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use it. Once I was trying to ask advice at the information desk on the central railway station in Dresden
and the women there was not able to speak English.
Other opportunity, if we will consider Aachen particularly, is to speak Turkish. My friend who speaks
good Turkish told me that he has almost no problem with language in daily life.
Important to mention that, transport system in Germany is developed very well and if you have some
experience how it works it is quite convenient to use it. For instance, they have trains which after some
stations goes in different ways, although, at the beginning of the trip it was one train, so you have to
consider which wagon is yours to not to go to the different place. Of course, some delays and
cancellations take place as everywhere, but in general everything with transport in and outside the cities
is fine.
Moreover, all students in RWTH have “student semester ticket” which gives a right travel with a train or
bus all over the Nortrain Westfalia (the area in Germany) unlimitedly without fee during whole
semester. The fee for the semester ticket (about 160e) is included into the student’s fee. I would say
that this is good support for students.
In terms of weather, it was quite warm, compare to Lappeenranta. The contrast between seasons of the
year is minimal – in winter for instance, there are some green plants on the street and grass is green as
well. During the winter, I personally felt like it is spring in my home region if it is sunny or like it is
autumn in case if it is rainy.
Almost all winter the average temperature was about 10 degrees above zero and couple of times goes
to minus 1 or minus 2 degrees and completely without show. In summer the weather was nice with
many sunny days, sometimes even hot about 30C.
During the summer time I realized that I have no place to swim outside. The nearest lakes were really far
away and to reach them you have to go with bus or train. For me that was very disappointing because in
Finland and in my home country we have plenty of lakes and rivers to go for swimming and I missed that
so much in Germany.
Germans are nice and polite in general, however quite arrogant to the foreign people. You could feel
this if you are living there for several months. They could smile to you but have opposite thoughts. I
would say that they are quite closed, particular to the foreign people.
One professor told that, German engineers are taught in the universities, that they are the best in the
world maybe that fact and also some other, such as powerful industrial country are among the reasons
of their arrogance.
As I have already mentioned, the biggest problem that I have faced during my exchange was searching
for the apartments. I would like to focus the attention of students who plan to go abroad at this critical
issue and consider this very serious.
You have to take in mind, that on the one hand it could be difficult to find the place for staying, and on
the other hand that you could have problems while you are already living with some local neighbor who
rents you a room in his or her apartments, for instance.
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I have faced with problematic situation with one German guy from whom I rented the room in his
apartments. There was unpleasant situation, because of money and finally led to the conflict as the
result of which, I was standing on the street with my luggage.
I mean that in foreign country you are really unsecure from such behavior of the local people, because
they know everything there and you, basically, nothing including the language in my case.
Luckily, I have a friend Maria, and she helped me to overcome this situation, otherwise I have no idea
how it will be without her.
After this situation my opinion about the internal administrative systems of the developed countries
such a Germany has changed. If you thing that everything is fair and square there - you could forgot this
and I would say that neither student organizations, neither international office of RWTH, neither police,
neither lowers to whom you are paying money – nobody is interested to support you and to help to
solve your problem.
Probably the fact that I am not local citizen plays role, however to my mind, if you have a problem in
Germany - take into account that very likely you will be in need to solve this by yourself only.
I would say that this person still ought me deposit money for the room and I have no idea will it be ever
possible to get this money back.
During my staying in Aachen I have been living in seven different places and become an expert in finding
flats and in negotiations concerning rental price and other issue. Also, I become much more critical to
the neighbors to live with.
On the other hand, you always have some positive things. Now for instance, I am very confident that I
will be able to find a flat everywhere, because I did it many times and know how to do it effectively and
efficiently. Also I become much more experienced how to organize life on a new place in another
country. From my point of view both experiences could be very useful in future life.
The last place I found is the best place to stay from all perspectives: location, accommodation, price and
the most important the neighbor. This Belgium guy becomes my good friend and I will happy to see him
in my country.
I would like to highlight that person with whom you plan to live in the shared flat is the most critical
aspect, you have to consider this very carefully, let’s say it is three times more important than all other
constituents.
To sum up, despite of, all problems and negative moments, I had organize my life Germany in a good
and comfortable routine. To be honest during the last 3-4 months I started to realize that I felt in Aachen
like at home – I knew everything in the city, studies - also clear, I have a nice apartment and a perfect
neighbor and I have good friends with common interests.
To my mind this is the biggest value of the exchange – to organize your life on a new place in a way that
you start to enjoy it.
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Eating
In general, the shops are almost the same as in Finland, also different supermarkets some of them are
chipper some more expensive, however with better goods. In terms of prices, level is also almost the
same, so I did not feel some difference when I came. Maybe some products are even a bit cheaper.
However, in Germany nothing works on Sundays - neither food shops nor cloth shop. I find this
inconvenient, because people in my country do a lot of shopping on Sunday; however it is again about
German way of living and they have a reasonable, from their point of view, explanation why it is like that
– actually, as well as in case of each rule that they have.
The only opportunities you have on Sunday in Germany are to go for small kiosk or to go to some
restraint or fast food. Both of these businesses in Aachen are under Turkish guys – I never saw native
German managing such places. Luckily, from Aachen you could go to Netherlands by bus or bike and do
Sunday shopping there – border is very closed, just several kilometers.
If we will compare fast foods, such as kebabs, pizzas in Lappeenranta and Aachen, I would say that in
Aachen you have really plenty of that kind of places, with big variety of different dishes. Prices are also
comparable to Finland, particularly to Lappeenranta even a bit cheaper. For instance, tasty pizza
“Parma” costs about 8e and big plate with schnitzel will cost 6,50 - 8,50e, depends on souse and garnish.
As well it is possible to by some kebab from 3.50e.
Further, I would like to highlight that in Germany cash money are very popular. I always had cash
money, because many places have no terminals for credit cards. In addition, it is quite problematic with
VISA card in Germany, much better to have MasterCard.
Separately, I would like to describe the canteen in the RWTH University. To be honest, at the beginning
of my exchange I was really disappointed with such a big contrast between RWTHs and LUTs canteens.
During my first year of studies, I really got used to such a high level of food service in LUT, where in
Students Union, for instance, for 2,60 you could really enjoy the meal in terms of quality, quantity,
variety, service and price.
My first experience of Mensa (canteen in RWTH) was really negative almost from all perspectives. First,
it was extremely crowded - in rush hours it took 10 and even more minutes to just wait in the queue.
Secondly, the staff in Mensa was not able to speak English. Thirdly, the variety of dishes was really poor
and size of portions of main dish was fixed and for me it was a big disadvantage, because in LUT I got
used to adjust the portion by myself which is very nice option. Finally, I was really not happy with price
policy that Mensa follows – they count everything separately, even bread and ketchup “per push”, one
push - 0.15e.
As the portion of the main meal was not so big, to satisfy my demand I was in need to by soup
additionally or some cake, plus bread and all of this leads to about 4 – 4,5e per meal. Also drinks are not
included in the price and absence of pure drinkable water, as well exacerbates the situation.
I remember that especially at the beginning of my staying these circumstances were very conspicuous
and made me felt negative. However, after some time I got used to all of these and everything became
more or less normal.
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I would like to highlight that finally people adapt to everything and the faster you are able to do so the
better and less stressful for you personally it will be. Why to feel all the time uncomfortable and
negative about the things that you are not able to change?
From my point of view, it is better to accept some circumstances and you will see that you will feel more
comfortable and calmly in a new environment. This approach applies to all - from particular issues with
canteen to the way of living in general.
Do not try to live completely the same way that you used to, better to accept partly the culture and way
of living of a foreign country and try to find some balance. Finally, you will anyway accept in a varying
degree the different way of living, which consist of number of specific for foreigner behaviors, habits
and ways of doing things. My advice is to do that faster, because you will benefit first and in greater
extent from that.
However, it is important to mention that at the WS 2013-2014 Mensa in RWTH was under the
constriction works and the central, biggest, Mensa was closed. At the beginning of the SS 2014 this big,
completely new Mensa on 1500 places was opened and many problems gone.
Particularly the problem with food variety and queues despaired. To be honest, after the meal
challenges during the WS I was very happy to went to the new Mensa and had a meal there. The
number of food services such as sandwiches, pizzerias and of course the general canteen are located at
the same building on two floors.
Important to mention that you have to have a special blue card (students’ card) with chip to pay in this
Mensa – there is no other option to make a payment. However, unfortunately, Mensa still follows the
same price policy – paying for ketchup per push.
Finally, due to the sophisticated organizational structure of RWTH with number of different campuses
around the city, some of them are without Mensa at all. If you have a lectures whole day in such a place
it leads to a problem – students have no place to eat hot and healthy food. From some German students
I heard that there is special food truck from Mensa, which drives through all such campuses, however
even those students never saw this truck in reality.
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Conclusion
This report describes my particular experience and opinion about the one academic year (2013-2014) of
exchange period in RWTHAACHEN, Germany. The situations which are described in the report are
evaluated from my point of view and I am not pretending that the content of the report should be
generalized. However, number of international and local students who were studying with me during
this year shares my points of view concerning the described issues.
In my opinion, going for exchange far away in unknown country, first off all, will develop skills to adapt
to the new environment and to organize your personal daily live in a completely new place. I find this
very valuable for future life. During such a long term trip, you faced with situation where, basically you
are responsible for everything what is going on around. The reason is that all people and surrounding
things that you used to are far away and you have to begin everything from the blank slate.
I have been in Germany eleven month. During this time I spent at home less than one month in total. I
would say that, of course I missed my family, friends and home university very much, and many times
ask myself – Why I am in Germany when everything is so nice at home places?
I would not say that everything was perfect and smooth during my staying in Germany, however it is
live, and finally I am completely happy with the outcome of the trip, which is very positive.
For me personally, it took a long time to adapt for living in Germany, although it is important to mention
that, during the last four months I felt in Aachen almost like at home. I partly accept German way of
living, found good friends, studies were clear for me, I was doing sport daily. In other words, I just
organize this positive routine for myself, where nothing disturbs me and where I feel comfortable and
harmoniously with surrounding world.
My advice is to accept some of the distinctive features of the new environment or the way of life, which
actually, consist of number of specific for foreigner behaviors, habits and ways of doing thing. I
recommend to do so as fast as possible, because finally you will accept them in a varying degree
anyway. So do not try to live completely the same way that you used to, better to find some balance
which is comfortable for you – you will benefit first from this adaptation.
In addition, in case if I would stay in Germany only one semester, I will not achieve that final outcome –
which is very positive. I remember that at the end of winter semester I had a feeling that I just started to
understand this country, the way how people live and study there. That all this contrast circumstances,
such as rules everywhere, do not disturb me so much anymore and that I accepted number of things, I
know the city, I know the places, know the transport system, could understand German language a bit
and interact in simple daily situations, such as shopping, for instance – everything that is necessary to
feel comfortable in daily live.
From my point of view, in case of one year exchange, student will have more chances to have some kind
of the “complete picture” of the exchange. In other words, one semester is too short period to not only
adapt and understand the new environment, however also, to enjoy the results of all efforts you made
to adapt and organize your life on a new place.
As I have already mention, second semester was some kind of collecting and using the results and
experience which I had acquired during the first one. Even to find a flat in Aachen became a normal dial,
as clear as to go shopping, for instance.
To sum up, I would recommend for all students to go for exchange, despite of all challenges, this is a
very valuable experience. It is a great possibility to try yourself in a different environment and also
chance to prove yourself. From my point of view this experience will be very useful in future life.
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