college, deutsch, education

Austauschstudent bedeutet bezahlen

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Just to give you a rundown of current costs of my study abroad. Bear in mind that the US dollar is trading at around .75 to 1 Euro. All prices listed are in Euros unless marked otherwise.

  • 170/month for rent
  • 170 Rent deposit
  • 60 Student visa application fee
  • 5 Photos for visa application
  • 100 Sprachkurs deposit fee (May be refunded, but we’ll see.)
  • 150 additional Sprachkurs fee (Might not have to pay if deposit is refunded.)
  • 10 U-Card
  • 10 Copycard
  • 180 Semester tuition (That is correct.)
  • 270 (US) Plane ticket
  • 210 (US) Insurance
  • 100 Frankfurt hostel stay for three nights
  • 30 (est) Transport around Frankfurt
  • 80 (est) Entertainment in Frankfurt
  • 30 RMV pass for March
  • 50 Student RMV pass for semester beginning in April
  • 25 Registration fee
  • 25 Trip fee for April
  • 14 Wrong ticket purchased to Marburg
  • 19 Right ticket purchased to Marburg
  • 100 Various living amenities
  • 35 Toiletries/houseware
  • 35 Cell-phone
  • 25 Calling plan
  • 40 Various mistakes made

This does not include daily costs for food, various minor school related purchases, and entertainment. Nor does it include items that I am certain to have forgotten. These past two weeks I have been bleeding money. Thankfully things have stabilised as I have figured out my surroundings a little better.

apple, college, deutsch, education, geek, internet

Ü-tag + 6

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I was able to talk to my neighbor Stefan who runs the internet service for my floor. For only 7 Euro I get faster internet service than at Oshkosh. I’ve begun to upload photos on Flickr and will follow it with detailed accounts later. I just had to take some time to catch up with the rest of the world.

My address here is:

Ken Fager
Wehrda B
Ernst-Lemmer-Strasse 15
35041 Marburg, Zimmer-Nr. 01-16
Bis später dann, Tchüss!

deutsch, education

Bis Später USA

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My next post will be on the fertile grounds of Deutschland. I’ve waited nearly two years for this day to come. Operation Übertaco operatives are to rally at the Comfort Inn in Gurnee, Illinois before the flight tomorrow from O’hare. To my friends who could not join me, I will find your deutsche Doppelgaenger.

genius

Donate Today

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I was recently approached by a volunteer working for the Red Cross who asked I would be interested in donating blood. I politely told her that it was not in the best interest of the public. When asked why by the naive volunteer I calmly replied, “Because I’m coming back from my monthly Vampire Amateur Blood Transfusion Anonymous Cosplay Bacchanalia/Pot Luck Dinner/Dirty Syringe Swap Meet also known as San Francisco circa 1979.” The look on the volunteer’s face was blank while her mind was trying to assimilate all of these elements as I calmly walked away.

deutsch, geek, genius, internet, schadenfreude

Operation Übertaco Software

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I picked up a Palm Tungsten C to handle all of my day to day organization and translation needs. It has an ultra fast 400Mhz Xscale processor, keyboard, Wi-Fi, and the best part is it is not a cell phone. It was cheap on eBay and does what I need it to do. Operation Übertaco operatives should consider installing the following apps.

Docs to Go

Documents to Go can handle all my Word, Powerpoint, and Excel documents. Comes in handy when editing this presentation on Homosexuality and High School Education. I got an A+ on this assignment.

Easy Tour

Easy Tour is the Swiss Army Knife of travel programs. It has everything from currency conversion, size charts, English to Metric conversion, timers, clocks, and all sorts of alarms. Saves a lot of time and hassle.

LingvoSoft

Lingvosoft for quick language translation. Simple yet effective. Contains a lot of colloquialisms.
MD Dict

MS Dict is a better dictionary despite its slower interface.

NES

NesEm for all my Nintendo ROMS. Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A B A Select Start.

MunduIM

MunduIM for all my messaging needs. Works with Yahoo!, MSN, AIM, and ICQ.

TV

NoviiRemote has about 500 remote codes for various consumer electronics. TVs are thine enemy. Smite them with this.

Wi-Fi Where

Wi-Fi Where handles all your Wi-Fi signal locating needs. Notice all the open networks. Notice how dumb people are in labeling them. Gee… I wonder what someone could do with an open network?

ZTA pwnd

I’m in ur networkz, pwnin ur bandwidthz.

no

This is the reason you lock your network. The above image was censored for the good of humanity.

deutsch, education

Shoah – Hebrew for Disaster

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Today I went to see Holocaust survivor Henry Golde speak on campus at the urging of my girlfriend. I was not disappointed at his tale of survival through 10 different concentration camps. When finished with his tale I had the opportunity to ask him a question that had been in the back of my mind for quite some time.

The First Amendment of the US Constition guarantees the free exchange of ideas and this area of thought is protected. What can a teacher of German say to someone who denies the holocaust ever happened? Mr. Golde went into detail about a local Wisconsin librarian who attempted to remove books from schools mentioning the holocaust since it was a “hoax.” His account was poignant and even funny in how he dealt with the situation. The thing that stuck out most about his answer though was only a brief snippit. People may deny and/or refute the mountains of evidence, but what happened to Mr. Golde’s family?

Am I to understand that one day millions of people just decided to never see their family members ever again to support a radical conspiracy against the Nazis? Thank you for putting that into perspective Mr. Golde. Shalom.