Germany through the eyes of a St. Petersburg student
In the last week, visiting Habr, it seems to me that I’m getting into the immigrant community, but it was interesting for me to read articles about immigration to New Zealand , Australia , Canada , Thailand , Japan and Cyprus . Frankly, I was looking forward to someone tell you about Germany, and then, finally, there was such an article from a Belarusian student . I got another impression about Germany, which I want to share with you.
Now I am completing the third year at St. Petersburg State University with a degree in applied computer science in economics. At the end of the first course, one of the teachers offered to go to summer school in Germany. I was interested in this offer, as I have already been to Germany several times and have a great interest in this country. I sent an application to the University of Germany and received the answer that, unfortunately, the summer school will not take place, but you can come to them for a semester on the exchange. After the successful passing of the session, on the last day of June, I remembered a letter from Germany and asked my brother to submit an application for me, since I myself was at that moment at the dacha.
')
In response, I wrote a list of the necessary documents. Having gathered them with difficulty (since almost all the teachers were on vacation) and sending them to Germany, I received an answer. It was a document signed by the rector of the university about enrolling me as a student for a semester.
For almost a month, I prepared the necessary documents for the visa and collected almost 4,000 euros from my friends. That was the amount required by the German consulate to confirm my financial capabilities. I prepared all the documents exactly as required by the consulate, so I received a visa without question.
My university was located in a small town (50 thousand) Hof in the very north of Bavaria. Even such a small town has its own airport, where a turbine-propeller plane flies. From the window of such a “corn duster” you can make the following photo:
My plane landed in a field. The airport was a hangar, and there was manure in the air. All this shocked me. I thought that in vain I came to such a hole, but when I was brought to the hostel, I had a completely different impression.
This is how the hostel looks like:
My room:
Under the dormitory houses there is a parking lot for students:
And on the roofs there are terraces:
In the German hostel you will not get bored, parties are constantly arranged. In Bavaria, a very cheap beer. In pre-crisis times, the cheapest beer bottle cost 9 rubles, and the famous Bavarian brands, which can now be found on the shelves of our stores with price tags of 80 to 150 rubles, cost about 23 rubles in Bavaria. Therefore, after a while the window of our kitchen looked like this:
It is worth 180 euros per month + another 10 euros for the Internet.
The university is located on the outskirts of the city right in the field, sometimes around the university you could meet hares or an agricultural combine:
(right university building)
Body:
Language audience:
Case for the practice of engineers:
In Germany, universities are divided into universities and high schools (Hochschule). Universities provide theoretical knowledge and, as a rule, they go after them to engage in scientific activities. In high schools they teach more practical knowledge and in the last courses students do practical work.
My university was just Hochschule, although I call it a university (there is no Hochschule analogue in Russian). The building of the university is quite new and modern, which is why it is packed with the latest technology. Doing it is a pleasure. The university could go 24 hours a day. During the session, many students prefer to prepare for exams while sitting in the library day and night.
A completely different atmosphere reigns in German universities than in ours. Here, people know why they came here, go to lectures, listen, outline. We have half of the students who catch freebies and live from session to session. Teachers, too, have a completely different attitude towards teaching, I think because this is the main way of earning money and they like it. The subjects here are a bit simpler and are not divided into theory and practice, so the pair is much more interesting. It is worth noting that not a single subject from my specialty in the third semester coincided with the pre-students of the German specialty Wirtschaftsinformatik (an analogue of my specialty in Germany). The cost of training depends on the land. Somewhere free, but somewhere around 500 euros per month. By the way, international student exchange is a common practice in Europe, and scholarships are often given to students. In some specialties, the student simply must study a year or semester abroad. Unfortunately, many students here do not even know about such an amazing opportunity.
For half a year, we, with other foreign students, have traveled a great many cities. In general, I can say that eastern Germany is very different from western. Munich stands alone, a completely unique culture.
For half a year I can’t remember that at least one German told me something rude. People are always smiling and always ready to help. For example, in the evening, when it was already dark, I was leaving the subway on the outskirts of Berlin and stopped to co-operate. A grandmother passed by and noticed that I was not local and kindly offered me help. And in Hof, residents keep garages open during the day, and a lot of expensive tools and equipment lie in the garages. No one steals!
Being far from my homeland, I felt more confident than at home in Russia. I could go to the bank at night and withdraw a large amount of money without fear and risk. I paid 50 euros for student insurance and when the insured event came, I felt all the delights of German medicine. I was received by various doctors, X-rays and CT scans were performed quickly and without queues, and most importantly, they treated me normally. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to do an MRI in Germany. I only had to give 5600 rubles for an MRI in my home country. Here it is free medetsina!
Even though I lived in a small town where there are practically no cars, but in large cities there is a feeling of freshness in the air, not like in our country when LIAZ drives off from the bus stop. All because parking is paid and good public transport. There is no dust, because the sidewalks are not sprinkled with salt and sand, but with small pebbles that are collected in the spring. In Germany, there is no dirt, I even bought white shoes there, but in St. Petersburg there is no way to wear it ((.
The cost of food was no more than in St. Petersburg. In general, the prices of food in Hof were cheaper, and for goods that are imported from Europe just do it several times cheaper. Machinery in Germany is also cheaper than ours, and warranty service is much better here.
The climate in Bavaria is noticeably warmer than in St. Petersburg. It is warm in the summer, but not hot: from 15 to 25. In winter it sometimes snows, but in general it is around +5.
In Germany, there is practically no corruption and bureaucracy. When I was leaving Germany, my friend, a Frenchman of marakan origin, took me to the station and forgot to bring documents about the car and the rights. A policeman stopped him at the station. Imagine what our policeman did in such a situation! A German policeman asked how much time we had before the train. Having learned that 20 minutes, he said that he would have time to check our documents. While my friend was punching through the base, the policeman asked about how we liked it in Hof. After checking us safely released. In Germany, the police treat you as well as the German, but once in Baden-Baden, I felt that they were obviously not communicating with me as if they were German, apparently because there are a lot of Russian tourists in Baden-Baden who do not always lead good
Personally, I have a huge interest in German culture and in Bavarian in particular. In Bavaria, even in the subway you can meet people dressed in traditional clothes, even young people, and even when Oktoberfest is going on in Munich, even tourists change to Bavarian clothes.
Oktoberfest:
There are a lot of Turkish immigrants in Germany, as well as Russian speakers. The latter, unfortunately, do not always make a good impression.
All cities in Germany are close to each other and easily accessible by train. Germany is also the center of Europe, with all the resulting charms. Unfortunately, gasoline and rail prices bite very much. Gasoline now costs about 1.30 euros, and last summer even 1.50 euros. But for a German car is not a luxury. All of Germany is literally riddled with excellent German autobahns, where there is no upper threshold speed limit. There is only the bottom - on the autobahn you can not go slower than 60 km / h. In Germany, SUVs are rare because there are excellent roads and expensive gasoline. The Germans also like practical cars, so, for example, you will see a lot of BMW 5 in the station wagon. Many people prefer trains, but by our standards, tickets are very expensive, especially for high-speed trains (called ICE, by the way, the Sapsan has already been built on the basis of them), but if you buy a ticket in advance, you can buy cheaply for stocks. If you travel often, then there are discount cards up to 50%. In Europe, much cheaper than our flight. Europeans just love to travel.
About the work, unfortunately, I can not tell a lot. An international student is entitled to work no more than 20 hours a week. During the holidays, I illegally worked as a ski instructor in Austria because the work permit is valid only in Germany. The salary was 9 euros per hour, which is about the same as ours. In IT exactly the other. As far as I know, the starting salary is about 40k per year without taxes. In Germany, as in the European Union as a whole, it is rather difficult to obtain a permit to work. A work permit will be issued to you only if you already have a signed contract with a German employer and there are no candidates for your place among the Germans. As the practice of my friends shows, it is possible to move to Germany, you just need to have brains and desire.
Thanks to those who read to the end, I hope I liked it. I am pleased to answer your questions.
I attached some more photos of different cities (all my pictures):
Nuremberg:
Munich (headquarters of BWM and BMW World):
Frankfurt am Main:
Bamberg:
Berlin (Reichstag):
Berlin (Cinema Imax)
Neoschwanstein Castle
Introduction
Now I am completing the third year at St. Petersburg State University with a degree in applied computer science in economics. At the end of the first course, one of the teachers offered to go to summer school in Germany. I was interested in this offer, as I have already been to Germany several times and have a great interest in this country. I sent an application to the University of Germany and received the answer that, unfortunately, the summer school will not take place, but you can come to them for a semester on the exchange. After the successful passing of the session, on the last day of June, I remembered a letter from Germany and asked my brother to submit an application for me, since I myself was at that moment at the dacha.
')
In response, I wrote a list of the necessary documents. Having gathered them with difficulty (since almost all the teachers were on vacation) and sending them to Germany, I received an answer. It was a document signed by the rector of the university about enrolling me as a student for a semester.
For almost a month, I prepared the necessary documents for the visa and collected almost 4,000 euros from my friends. That was the amount required by the German consulate to confirm my financial capabilities. I prepared all the documents exactly as required by the consulate, so I received a visa without question.
City
My university was located in a small town (50 thousand) Hof in the very north of Bavaria. Even such a small town has its own airport, where a turbine-propeller plane flies. From the window of such a “corn duster” you can make the following photo:
My plane landed in a field. The airport was a hangar, and there was manure in the air. All this shocked me. I thought that in vain I came to such a hole, but when I was brought to the hostel, I had a completely different impression.
Hostel
This is how the hostel looks like:
My room:
Under the dormitory houses there is a parking lot for students:
And on the roofs there are terraces:
In the German hostel you will not get bored, parties are constantly arranged. In Bavaria, a very cheap beer. In pre-crisis times, the cheapest beer bottle cost 9 rubles, and the famous Bavarian brands, which can now be found on the shelves of our stores with price tags of 80 to 150 rubles, cost about 23 rubles in Bavaria. Therefore, after a while the window of our kitchen looked like this:
It is worth 180 euros per month + another 10 euros for the Internet.
University
The university is located on the outskirts of the city right in the field, sometimes around the university you could meet hares or an agricultural combine:
(right university building)
Body:
Language audience:
Case for the practice of engineers:
In Germany, universities are divided into universities and high schools (Hochschule). Universities provide theoretical knowledge and, as a rule, they go after them to engage in scientific activities. In high schools they teach more practical knowledge and in the last courses students do practical work.
My university was just Hochschule, although I call it a university (there is no Hochschule analogue in Russian). The building of the university is quite new and modern, which is why it is packed with the latest technology. Doing it is a pleasure. The university could go 24 hours a day. During the session, many students prefer to prepare for exams while sitting in the library day and night.
A completely different atmosphere reigns in German universities than in ours. Here, people know why they came here, go to lectures, listen, outline. We have half of the students who catch freebies and live from session to session. Teachers, too, have a completely different attitude towards teaching, I think because this is the main way of earning money and they like it. The subjects here are a bit simpler and are not divided into theory and practice, so the pair is much more interesting. It is worth noting that not a single subject from my specialty in the third semester coincided with the pre-students of the German specialty Wirtschaftsinformatik (an analogue of my specialty in Germany). The cost of training depends on the land. Somewhere free, but somewhere around 500 euros per month. By the way, international student exchange is a common practice in Europe, and scholarships are often given to students. In some specialties, the student simply must study a year or semester abroad. Unfortunately, many students here do not even know about such an amazing opportunity.
A life
For half a year, we, with other foreign students, have traveled a great many cities. In general, I can say that eastern Germany is very different from western. Munich stands alone, a completely unique culture.
For half a year I can’t remember that at least one German told me something rude. People are always smiling and always ready to help. For example, in the evening, when it was already dark, I was leaving the subway on the outskirts of Berlin and stopped to co-operate. A grandmother passed by and noticed that I was not local and kindly offered me help. And in Hof, residents keep garages open during the day, and a lot of expensive tools and equipment lie in the garages. No one steals!
Being far from my homeland, I felt more confident than at home in Russia. I could go to the bank at night and withdraw a large amount of money without fear and risk. I paid 50 euros for student insurance and when the insured event came, I felt all the delights of German medicine. I was received by various doctors, X-rays and CT scans were performed quickly and without queues, and most importantly, they treated me normally. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to do an MRI in Germany. I only had to give 5600 rubles for an MRI in my home country. Here it is free medetsina!
Even though I lived in a small town where there are practically no cars, but in large cities there is a feeling of freshness in the air, not like in our country when LIAZ drives off from the bus stop. All because parking is paid and good public transport. There is no dust, because the sidewalks are not sprinkled with salt and sand, but with small pebbles that are collected in the spring. In Germany, there is no dirt, I even bought white shoes there, but in St. Petersburg there is no way to wear it ((.
The cost of food was no more than in St. Petersburg. In general, the prices of food in Hof were cheaper, and for goods that are imported from Europe just do it several times cheaper. Machinery in Germany is also cheaper than ours, and warranty service is much better here.
The climate in Bavaria is noticeably warmer than in St. Petersburg. It is warm in the summer, but not hot: from 15 to 25. In winter it sometimes snows, but in general it is around +5.
In Germany, there is practically no corruption and bureaucracy. When I was leaving Germany, my friend, a Frenchman of marakan origin, took me to the station and forgot to bring documents about the car and the rights. A policeman stopped him at the station. Imagine what our policeman did in such a situation! A German policeman asked how much time we had before the train. Having learned that 20 minutes, he said that he would have time to check our documents. While my friend was punching through the base, the policeman asked about how we liked it in Hof. After checking us safely released. In Germany, the police treat you as well as the German, but once in Baden-Baden, I felt that they were obviously not communicating with me as if they were German, apparently because there are a lot of Russian tourists in Baden-Baden who do not always lead good
Personally, I have a huge interest in German culture and in Bavarian in particular. In Bavaria, even in the subway you can meet people dressed in traditional clothes, even young people, and even when Oktoberfest is going on in Munich, even tourists change to Bavarian clothes.
Oktoberfest:
There are a lot of Turkish immigrants in Germany, as well as Russian speakers. The latter, unfortunately, do not always make a good impression.
All cities in Germany are close to each other and easily accessible by train. Germany is also the center of Europe, with all the resulting charms. Unfortunately, gasoline and rail prices bite very much. Gasoline now costs about 1.30 euros, and last summer even 1.50 euros. But for a German car is not a luxury. All of Germany is literally riddled with excellent German autobahns, where there is no upper threshold speed limit. There is only the bottom - on the autobahn you can not go slower than 60 km / h. In Germany, SUVs are rare because there are excellent roads and expensive gasoline. The Germans also like practical cars, so, for example, you will see a lot of BMW 5 in the station wagon. Many people prefer trains, but by our standards, tickets are very expensive, especially for high-speed trains (called ICE, by the way, the Sapsan has already been built on the basis of them), but if you buy a ticket in advance, you can buy cheaply for stocks. If you travel often, then there are discount cards up to 50%. In Europe, much cheaper than our flight. Europeans just love to travel.
About the work, unfortunately, I can not tell a lot. An international student is entitled to work no more than 20 hours a week. During the holidays, I illegally worked as a ski instructor in Austria because the work permit is valid only in Germany. The salary was 9 euros per hour, which is about the same as ours. In IT exactly the other. As far as I know, the starting salary is about 40k per year without taxes. In Germany, as in the European Union as a whole, it is rather difficult to obtain a permit to work. A work permit will be issued to you only if you already have a signed contract with a German employer and there are no candidates for your place among the Germans. As the practice of my friends shows, it is possible to move to Germany, you just need to have brains and desire.
Thanks to those who read to the end, I hope I liked it. I am pleased to answer your questions.
I attached some more photos of different cities (all my pictures):
Nuremberg:
Munich (headquarters of BWM and BMW World):
Frankfurt am Main:
Bamberg:
Berlin (Reichstag):
Berlin (Cinema Imax)
Neoschwanstein Castle
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/60052/
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