-Milk liter costs 0.60e here and about 0.90e back in Finland
-Freshly baked bread from a supermarket is 2-2.5e/kg, a bit above 3e(?) in Finland
-Beer from a store excluding pants is some 0.5e/litre comparing to Finnish highly taxed 1.9e liter price
-In a bar 0.5 liter pint is about 3.5e
-Chicken meat 6e/kg vs. about 9e/kg
-Minced meat 4.5/kg vs. 5.9e/kg
-Pita kebab or gyros or such basic fast foods seem to be about 4/5 or a bit less of Finnish prices
Oh and at campus eatery there are 7 lines, one of which is all Schnitschels(!!) (a battered steak, pig meat) and price is about 2.65 (there are some differences). I would guess rather tasty and not so healthy. It's always a good plan to find an apartment with cooking facilities if you want to keep your diet wholesome and healthy.
Oh and at campus eatery there are 7 lines, one of which is all Schnitschels(!!) (a battered steak, pig meat) and price is about 2.65 (there are some differences). I would guess rather tasty and not so healthy. It's always a good plan to find an apartment with cooking facilities if you want to keep your diet wholesome and healthy.
Approximating from these food products are about 30% cheaper here and alcohol costs only 1/3 of Finnish prices. From supermarkets Aldi and Lidl are the cheapest but some products seem to have quite the same price in more expensive stores also like Rewe or Penny. There are couple bigger shopping centers or concentrations of stores in Karlsruhe: Europa Platz at the west side of center and Ettlinger Tor at the east side.
I've been in Germany now for almost 2 weeks and the orientation week is finally about over! It's been great time but also exhausting. There were only 4 actual important events: welcome speech where we got new back bags and important information vouchers, enrollment to the university, opening of back accounts and language test (45 multiple choices on a PC).
Then the fun part: every day some bars and/or cheap restaurants and nightclubs with other exchange students and tutors. It's completely voluntary to attend, but it has been a pleasure to do so even though it would have been sometimes very tempting to stay in bed in the middle of all that haste. Club culture seems to be pretty similar to Finnish one, quite dull. I haven't yet seen people doing any real dance moves, just the same basic small motion jamming. Some places were really crowded and hooooot but well, that just makes up the good feeling right?! I usually don't care to stay until morning hours and prefer to leave at about 1-2 o' clock. There are some more expensive exquisite clubs in the town and lots and lots of bars and sport bars and beer houses and food places, cocktail bars and whatsoever options for nightlife. Footnote: they say that in Karlsruhe the girls-to-overall ratio is about 1/3.
There were some other events also. On Tuesday was a photo rally where randomly generated groups would have to go to different checkpoints and make some interesting group photos. Interesting part was a quest to do harlem shake in a shopping mall! Scary and fun, as I was to be the solo dancer. On Thursday we did a karaoke performance as tutor groups and performed in one local bar at night. Realizing that singing is only a part of the show, we did some short and simple, yet nice, choreography about Britney Spears' song Oops I Did It Again and ended up on 2nd place out of 15 groups losing only to some men dressed up in pink ladys' dresses with very gayish make up and having girl's as a background choir. Not bad.
On Friday we visited the city of Heidelberg, which avoided bombardment in the world wars (btw. Karlsruhe was for a big part levered down during the 2nd WW). 15€ ticket included train ticket to Heidelberg and back and about 2.5 hour guided tour in the old city where oldest building is about 400 years old and most are from end of 19th century because the Sun King of France burned the city back then. Heidelberg is also a location for a beautiful medieval castle where's wine barrel of some 5 meter in diameter. There we also did some laborious yet rewarding hill hiking. A top of the hill, in addition to nice views, lies amphitheater-like-a-show-place built by the Nazis (it was really impressive) and some Roman ruins (didn't go to check those because we wanted to avoid darkness on return trip) and burned ruins of a monastery from 15th century. Altogether a very successful trip.
Yesterday, on Saturday, was time for some serious sports, a game of flunky ball! Involving beer, beer, beer, onion, bottle, oh and beer. In a park. And FINALLY the sun showed up also after everyday cloud cover and rain for last 10 days. Yep, this should be one of the sunniest cities in Germany (in my *$#!). We played 4 games as a superb team consisting of 3 Spanish chicas muy guapas and me, won 2 and lost 2. Was fun and that some 6 bottles of beer did what it's brewed for.
In addition during this week, there were 2 barbecues which of neither I was able to attend due to lack of time. A small shame is that the orientation week is so beer focused. If you are an absolutist then it's up to you whether or not to like watching people drinking but I didn't actually see anyone overly drunk during the whole week so it's probably not that annoying as it can be. Couple of evenings I drank like 2 beers and noone was pushing for more. Even in drinking games nobody really minded drinking pretty slow and in small sips and the feeling was high.
And finally about the Erasmus people. The great majority are Spanish, then there are lots of French people and some from eastern European countries, South America (biggest group are Brazilians), one great Egyptian guy, and plenty others. There are, me included, 6 Fins in this Erasmus group at KIT, and 2 Swedish speaking Fins studying at Uni of App. Sci. None of these I knew before except one who was my room and group mate in army: quite big was the surprise when we realized we've seen before! I've learned to know some 50 new nice people this week and expect that trend to continue. Our tutors are very nice, active and helpful also. I only hope that people will stay more or less blended and not to stick too much with their countrymen, a phenomenon already showing some serious signs of existence.
Today the O-phase week culminates in form of international dinner which we are about to attend as a group of Finnish friends preparing some Finnish dish.
Tomorrow starts the 3-week-long language course. And perhaps I also get to visit Gymnastics class. I'm already eagerly waiting for some sports to begin because the offering is quite a lot broader here than in Lappeenranta:
http://buchsys.sport.uni-karlsruhe.de/angebote/aktueller_zeitraum/index.html
I've been in Germany now for almost 2 weeks and the orientation week is finally about over! It's been great time but also exhausting. There were only 4 actual important events: welcome speech where we got new back bags and important information vouchers, enrollment to the university, opening of back accounts and language test (45 multiple choices on a PC).
Then the fun part: every day some bars and/or cheap restaurants and nightclubs with other exchange students and tutors. It's completely voluntary to attend, but it has been a pleasure to do so even though it would have been sometimes very tempting to stay in bed in the middle of all that haste. Club culture seems to be pretty similar to Finnish one, quite dull. I haven't yet seen people doing any real dance moves, just the same basic small motion jamming. Some places were really crowded and hooooot but well, that just makes up the good feeling right?! I usually don't care to stay until morning hours and prefer to leave at about 1-2 o' clock. There are some more expensive exquisite clubs in the town and lots and lots of bars and sport bars and beer houses and food places, cocktail bars and whatsoever options for nightlife. Footnote: they say that in Karlsruhe the girls-to-overall ratio is about 1/3.
There were some other events also. On Tuesday was a photo rally where randomly generated groups would have to go to different checkpoints and make some interesting group photos. Interesting part was a quest to do harlem shake in a shopping mall! Scary and fun, as I was to be the solo dancer. On Thursday we did a karaoke performance as tutor groups and performed in one local bar at night. Realizing that singing is only a part of the show, we did some short and simple, yet nice, choreography about Britney Spears' song Oops I Did It Again and ended up on 2nd place out of 15 groups losing only to some men dressed up in pink ladys' dresses with very gayish make up and having girl's as a background choir. Not bad.
On Friday we visited the city of Heidelberg, which avoided bombardment in the world wars (btw. Karlsruhe was for a big part levered down during the 2nd WW). 15€ ticket included train ticket to Heidelberg and back and about 2.5 hour guided tour in the old city where oldest building is about 400 years old and most are from end of 19th century because the Sun King of France burned the city back then. Heidelberg is also a location for a beautiful medieval castle where's wine barrel of some 5 meter in diameter. There we also did some laborious yet rewarding hill hiking. A top of the hill, in addition to nice views, lies amphitheater-like-a-show-place built by the Nazis (it was really impressive) and some Roman ruins (didn't go to check those because we wanted to avoid darkness on return trip) and burned ruins of a monastery from 15th century. Altogether a very successful trip.
 |
| Sunset over the city |
 |
| Neckar -river |
 |
| Heidelberg Castle |
Yesterday, on Saturday, was time for some serious sports, a game of flunky ball! Involving beer, beer, beer, onion, bottle, oh and beer. In a park. And FINALLY the sun showed up also after everyday cloud cover and rain for last 10 days. Yep, this should be one of the sunniest cities in Germany (in my *$#!). We played 4 games as a superb team consisting of 3 Spanish chicas muy guapas and me, won 2 and lost 2. Was fun and that some 6 bottles of beer did what it's brewed for.
In addition during this week, there were 2 barbecues which of neither I was able to attend due to lack of time. A small shame is that the orientation week is so beer focused. If you are an absolutist then it's up to you whether or not to like watching people drinking but I didn't actually see anyone overly drunk during the whole week so it's probably not that annoying as it can be. Couple of evenings I drank like 2 beers and noone was pushing for more. Even in drinking games nobody really minded drinking pretty slow and in small sips and the feeling was high.
And finally about the Erasmus people. The great majority are Spanish, then there are lots of French people and some from eastern European countries, South America (biggest group are Brazilians), one great Egyptian guy, and plenty others. There are, me included, 6 Fins in this Erasmus group at KIT, and 2 Swedish speaking Fins studying at Uni of App. Sci. None of these I knew before except one who was my room and group mate in army: quite big was the surprise when we realized we've seen before! I've learned to know some 50 new nice people this week and expect that trend to continue. Our tutors are very nice, active and helpful also. I only hope that people will stay more or less blended and not to stick too much with their countrymen, a phenomenon already showing some serious signs of existence.
Today the O-phase week culminates in form of international dinner which we are about to attend as a group of Finnish friends preparing some Finnish dish.
Tomorrow starts the 3-week-long language course. And perhaps I also get to visit Gymnastics class. I'm already eagerly waiting for some sports to begin because the offering is quite a lot broader here than in Lappeenranta:
http://buchsys.sport.uni-karlsruhe.de/angebote/aktueller_zeitraum/index.html
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