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alice

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Everything posted by alice

  1. alice

    Hmm, I didn't do that module but I would say that if they're literature, it's much better to read them in the original German (takes longer but can always wikipedia the synopsis), though a lot of people do just read translations - however don't tell the lecturers if you do that, they hate it ;)

     

    For reference/non-fiction books, get them in English, reading that in German is such hard work. Reminds me I've got a couple of those for final year, so not looking forward to that!

  2. alice

    Awesome! You must have got good results then so congrats! Do you know which accommodation you'll be in yet? I'm living on campus so I can definitely help you out with anything you need, I remember feeling pretty lost and confused for the first few days and it took me a couple of weeks to really get to know my way around! One thing I'll tell you now - make sure you go to the Fresher Fairs and Socetiy/Sports Fairs as well (they're all in the first week I think) - loads of free stuff and a great way to get involved with stuff early. I'll be going as well to see what freebies they're giving away...

     

    Feel free to add me on facebook as well if you want, http://www.facebook.com/aliceday :)

  3. alice

    heyyy was just having a look through my messages and remember you're taking your A Levels this time... did you put Warwick as your firm in the end?Hope you make it here :D if you do, seriously let me know cos I can give you advice etc regarding the department and modules, and I'll be a cool 4th year who can show you round campus heh. Warwick's awesome, so I hope you make it, good luck! xx

  4. alice

    Yay! Good luck with your A Levels. If you come to Warwick in the autumn I'll be there too :awesome:

  5. alice

    Hey :)

     

    I sure do go to Warwick uni, congrats on the offer! As a whole university I think it's great. It's really good academically (came 3rd last year in one league table I believe), and I really enjoy being a student there. If you went to the Open Day you'll have seen how pretty it is :D The campus is really nice and everything's close together.

     

    Ok the German department. It's pretty small, in my year there's around 50-60 people who study German in some form (like, some people study straight German, some do German and another language - like me - and some do German and another subject - like you), but I think your home department will be German. The tutors are mostly great (there's one lecturer who's boring as hell, but you'll get the same anywhere, and the others are all lovely) and as a whole I'm happy with the department.

     

    In terms of work, it is quite a step up from A Levels and they expect you to work hard, but at the same time, I didn't have many problems with the workload. Language-wise they go through absolutely everything to bring up everyone up to the same level. You'll have 2 language classes a week (if they haven't changed the structure) - one is in a fairly large group (aorund 20 people) and the other is with only 5 or 6 people, so you can really focus on individual problems. I found those really helpful. They don't expect you to know everything and have perfect grammar, but they do expect you to work fairly hard.

     

    One criticism that some people have of the department is that because it's quite small, there isn't that much choice for modules. For example in first year, you'll take the German language module and what's called the 'culture' module, which is everything else - literature, history, culture etc. There's only 2 choices, which have fancy names but are essentially 'modern' and 'medieval'. I chose the modern one (most people do), and it deals with Germany since 1945 and focuses on literature in the post-war movement and you do a fair bit of history too. And in 2nd year, it's the same story: you have 2 options: Germany in the 20s and 30s, or more medieval Germany. In 4th year however there's a much wider range of modules so that's good. I did enjoy both my 1st and 2nd year modules so even though there's hardly any choice, they're still good and well-taught.

     

    Hope that helps somewhat, if you have any other questions or anything feel free to ask :) Overall I really love Warwick as a university and I feel very happy there and am glad I chose to study there. I have a friend who studies English as well and if you want to know anything about that department I can ask her if you'd like :)

  6. Hey! :D

     

    IMO trains are the best way to get around, especially in Europe. Airports are way out of town, you have to spend ages getting there and back, and if you're checking in luggage then there's a lot of boring waiting around. And I don't think it would be much cheaper, if any, overall. With trains you really get to see the country and its landscape. Sure, some journeys are kinda long (just had a 14 hour train journey back from Belgium last night), but I would recommend you do it. Flying is boring. And if you get the train pass, you have so much freedom and flexibility. With flights, you have to be somewhere at a certain time. With trains, you can take one at 12pm, or wait and take one at 2pm (ofc some you might need to reserve but yknow).

     

    For luggage, get a MASSIVE backpack and just fill that, you should be able to fit most stuff in that. Much better than a suitcase or whatever :yesey:

     

    I'm sure you'll be fine in England, and if you find yourself without a home one night, just let me know, I'll be back in the country then :p

     

    About hostels, really don't worry. There are always people travelling. This weekend I went to Amsterdam for 2 nights and Brussels for 2 nights and met tons of travellers there. The start of school and uni doesn't really affect it tbh, a lot of people go for quick weekends away in various cities as it's so easy to get all over Europe so it's really not a problem. Hopefully you'll be lucky and meet people on the train as well, it makes the journeys so much more fun. Last night when we got on the train back home, our compartment already had the other 4 people in it and we just immediately got to chatting: 2 girls from the USA, 1 Aussie, 1 Dutch boy and me and my friend (also an Aussie), which was super cool. When I was travelling a couple of years ago my train broke down en route from Switzerland to Venice (I think) and we had to somehow get ourselves from some random tiny Italian train station to Venice... I happened to be sitting opposite an Aussie guy who was going to Venice too so we just got to chatting and stuck together for that journey. I say all this... I think I'm quite a shy person! Honestly meeting people is easy and fun, just don't wait for them to talk to you, say something first. Most people in Europe always find it cool to meet Aussies and Kiwis over here, so you'll be fine :p And if you make a dick out of yourself, or you don't get on with someone, it doesn't matter, you'll be moving on in a day or so and you'll never see them again!

     

    That's awesome about the money :happy: definitely save up as much as you can. It's worth sorting out a rough daily budget, just so you can keep track of how much you're spending. Excluding hostel I was probably on not more than €20 a day a lot of the time. It depends on what you do, sometimes I paid more to go into museums and stuff, but a lot of the time I did free stuff. Food-wise, just go to a bakery or something for lunch, they're everywhere and so good and cheap. Then in the evening it shouldn't be too hard to find a cheap cafe or bistro.

     

    The thing to remember is, you will have saved up loads for this trip, and obviously you can't just go crazy and blow it all within the first week, but remember that you'll be in Europe, and if it costs an extra €10 to get something you reaallllllyyyy want, go for it. You have to enjoy yourself too. Like buying little souvenirs or whatever, don't restrict yourself too much, you can definitely survive on a good budget by just being careful.

     

    Remind me what cities you're going to? There's a cool student company in Europe which provide free maps of some cities with all studenty and cheap stuff listed on it. They're really fun and point out local things. It's based in Belgium but they've started spreading out a bit now. The website is http://www.use-it.be and you can see the maps online there. If you're going to any of the cities where there is a map I can send you copies, I have a pretty good collection of them now!

     

    The UK roadtrip sounds fun, and you can cut costs by camping places rather than staying somewhere, if you'd be up for that. Petrol is super expensive there though so yeah, it will probably be quite expensive, but you can save in other areas. Awesome about your aunts as well, always good to get insider tips from people who've been there :yesey:

     

    I hope flights won't be too bad. I need to start saving up for my own trip down under in the next few years. Met this Aussie girl here in Germany who's awesome so I wanna go visit her sometime, when I have the money, and then I want to do NZ as well. One day...!

  7. My name's Alice :)

     

    I would say €2000 ish will be plenty. I can't remember whether you said you were gonna get a european rail pass or just buy single tickets for trains? If possible, I would recommend getting the rail pass, cos you can easily get your money's worth and it takes a MASSIVE amount of stress off you as you journey about, cos you can use it on local trains as well so don't have to fiddle round with tickets and stuff. Definitly look into it if you haven't already, you can save costs on it when you have a pre-planned route, because there are different ticket types: for example you can have a continuous one which is valid everyday, but there are also ones which are valid for travel on 10 days, within a 21 day period or something. If you get what I mean! And those are cheaper :)

     

    It's great that you'll save on accommodation in the UK, because that's the most expensive place for it. Other places range from €10-€25 mainly, that's if you book in advance, if you leave it til the day you could end up paying €50 or €60 a night. Bigger rooms are cheaper (and better, cos you can meet more people :awesome: )

     

    Food stuffs you can do on the cheap pretty much everywhere, I wouldn't worry about that at all. A lot of hostels provide kitchens or cooking stuff so you can save money and cook something yourself if you want. Also, it's worthwhile going for hostels which provide breakfast, often it's included in the cost of the room which is great. Some aren't brilliant, but some I had were truly amazing, and I used to eat so much for breakfast that I wouldn't need to spend money on lunch haha.

     

    For a comparison, I spent 3 months abroad in Europe, and I spent about £2000 (so yeah, about €2500) - but that's not including my rail passes which were £300/month. Also I did some really expensive stuff, like had a hotel in Paris rather than a hostel etc. So I think you'll be fine with that amount of money. It might be a good idea to have a backup in case of emergencies though: like I opened a credit card incase I lost my money/ran out etc, and it's a good idea to arrange something with your parents, so that if you do find yourself running out of money, they can transfer some to you so you can enough money to eat etc, then obviously you can pay them back later. Hopefully they'll be happy to agree to this!

     

    Europe isn't really too expensive if you do it right. Just avoid big touristy cafes and restaurants, go to smaller ones off the main streets etc.

     

    Let me know if you wanna know anything else! I'm going away tonight for the weekend to Amsterdam, hooray, but yeah I'm back next week sometime :D

  8. ja mit erasmus. ich studiere an der Universität Warwick, sie liegt in der Nähe von Birmingham in der Mitte Englands. England ist am bestens ok, aber nicht so gut wie Deutschland!

  9. ich hör, die Stadt Dresden ist wirklich schön und ganz interessant :happy: ich freue mich drauf! ich bin im Moment in meinem zweiten Jahrgang auf der Uni hier in England. mit dem Fremdsprachenkurs in England muss man die dritten Jahrgang im Ausland verbringen, als Assistent oder auf der Uni weiterstudieren, das ich mach.

     

    Nottingham ist eine echt gute Uni. Ich bin nie in der Stadt gewesen aber ich habe ein paar Freunde auf der Uni da und sie lieben es :)

  10. alice

    hallo inn! what are these profile thingies all about then hmm

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