Foreigners, Heidelberg and Holiday Inn

This weekend we were invited to a city nearby for a meeting. Invitation came from DAAD, the German organization for scholarships and higher education for foreigners. They iinvited all of their scholarship holders of different nationalities studying in South-West Germany. There were thousands of them. The event lasted for 3 days. We were accomodated at Holiday Inn for these days. We had our meetings and meals in University of Mannheim.

On Saturday, they gave us dinner in a disco, where after eating, people got up to digest it :) We slipped from there and got on the river at night and praised the huge number of Swans there.

On Sunday we were given a trip to one of the most beautiful cities of Germany: Heidelberg. This city has a road named after Allama Iqbal. It is located on lush green mountains and has historical buildings since it was probably the only city that was not bombarded in World War 2, that too because of its beauty and history. All-in-all it was a wonderful experience.

Almost Switzerland

Today we went to see one of the most beautiful sites in Germany: Konstanz. Here lies a big lake which shares its borders with Germany, Switzerland and Austria. This lake is so big that they run 3 or 4 story passenger ships in it. It lies in Southern end of Germany.

We went by train but got off the train as soon as we saw the starting end of lake. It was a really beautiful lake-shore. Then we got into the city. We wanted to go to Switzerland but some of our friends didn't have their passports. So we roamed around in Konstanz only. This is a big tourist attration with ships full of tourists. They even flew a big airship above the city. Later that day we got on a paddle-boat and rode it around in one part of lake with small passenger ships passing around us. Since it was Sunday so all stores were closed; so we went to a friend nearby for lunch.

Later we discovered that we did go in our boat to the part of lake that belongs to Switzerland. So we did visit Switzerland :)

Dr Atta ur Rehman

Today we were invited to a meeting in a city nearby to meet Dr Atta ur Rehman. All scholarship holders of our batch and the previous were invited. The meeting was in the evening but we went in the morning to see the city. We had lunch in this beautiful park in city center. In the evening we went to meeting center and met our batch-fellows from all around South-Germany. Dr Atta came on time to meeting center. They also arranged dinner for us.

Dr Atta said that they are expanding these higher education progams and sending 200 students to Germany alone next time. He said that they are building an engineering university in Pakistan with cooperation of Germany and France. He asked us to give them our preferences in our last year so they can place us in Pakistani universities when we return. We'll be hired as Assistant Professors. He added that in future, all faculty in Pakistani universities will be evaluated evey three years by international evaluation organization and jobs and promotions will be decided on this evaluation. This evaluation will consider the work they have done since last evaluation, so concept of seniority in job promotion will be eliminated. Let's hope that all this works well.

Pakistani Drama and "Pakistani" trains

Today we went to see a Drama performed by Pakistanis in Urdu language. They came from Frankfurt and the drama was organized in Bonn (capital of formal West Germany). We 3 friends started our journey in the morning, visited a friend in Mainz for a few hours and then reached the drama city, only to find out that the tickets were all sold out. We told them that we have come from far away and they permitted us entry (free) advising that we may have to sit on the stairs. The hall was filled with audience and people were now starting to sit on stairs. When the stairs filled, some people had to stand there. Drama was a comedy highlighting problems facing a wife who came from Pakistan but didn't know German language.

We came out before the drama ended since we had to catch the train. But the train got about half an hour late. So we again remembered Pakistan :) Because of this, we couldn't get to our city before morning. In Germany, almost all trains stop for a few hours during late night (about 2-5 am). So if you don't reach your destination before this time, you have to wait a few hours at the train station. So, we went to our friend's house to spend night and came back in the morning.

The First Night

On the first night that i came to this city i had a memorable experience. Well, i bought some necessities for myself and thought that big stuff i'll get later. Big mistake! I had no blanket. So when i laid down on my bed at night, i couldn't sleep for long. After some time i got up and turned on the heater, but they had turned the heaters low as it was not as cold as before. I still couldn't sleep. So, finally (late night) i got up and put my heavy jacket and some other stuff on me. So was i able to sleep the first night.

The next day my friend, who was guiding me around, asked me "I forgot to ask yesterday; do you have a blanket . . . ?"

Arrival in Kaiserslautern (my new city)

I arrived in my new city (Kiaserslautern) at about 3 pm (1st April). I took all my luggage out of train and dragged it out of the station. I got to a taxi and was about to say something when the driver pointed forward and told me to get the first taxi in the row. So i moved to the first taxi and got to the hostel. There, when i got in, i gave a bell on the mobile of Anis (the pakistani who guided me earlier). He was in uni, so he called another guy in the hostel and that guy came to help me. That guy helped me put my luggage in my room. Then he went with me to get my electricity contract, etc. Then he took me to his room and we ate together. He made "chapatis" by hand. He was an Indian Muslim. I later learnt that he was about to eat his meal when he came to me and carried my luggage and walked with me in city.

In the evening another pakistani took me to have dinner in his room. Next morning he took me for breakfast.

Football mania

Today, we went for a usual weekend walk. On our way we saw a bus going on our direction every minute full of people, and they all came back empty. We were curious! we decided to follow these buses. So we went on and on, on the road where the buses were going. After walking for some time, we saw a beautiful hill. After crossing the hill, we saw what we expecting by that time: a football stadium. It was big with construction going on on the outside. There were a lot of people coming from different directions. A huge number of people were inside, who we could hear singing in chorus. We thought it was a special match.

Later, we discovered that it was a usual inter-city match, one of those held every weekend and the same number of people go to watch these matches every weekend. hmmmm...