O-Phase

Well between long periods of waiting and times when I was rushing to get something finished, I am finally registered, or matriculated, as a student at TU Dortmund.
 Wednesday: Try to enroll; need proof of health insurance.
 Thursday: Wait for insurance to be mailed.
 Friday: Get insurance; get enrolled; International Office is closed.
Weekend: Thumb twiddling.
Monday: It is Unification Day! (everything is closed)
Tuesday: Wait 2.5 hours in the international office; find I need another paper related to health insurance; get the paper; get enrolled; Go to O-phase!


O-phase is short for Orientierungs-Phase. An orientation session mainly for freshmen, but also (some what) for the Masters program I am in. The first part was in a lecture hall. What does it remind you of?

Jan on the far right evokes INTENSE beard envy.

 So they introduced the team, all fifth semester (from the talks I have had, school is measured more by semester than by year) students who are a "support" group. Then they had us take write a test in ten minutes. The beginning was simple math, but then I was not sure if they wanted the derivatives and integrals. The final questions (there were only about ten) had too much written down for me to know what I should solve for (think a signals and systems question). This, of course, was to show how all the freshmen would need help during the semester (or so was my understanding afterwards). 
 Then I sat on the hard bench for an hour or two while a man talked through the in-and-outs of the Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik. The different programs they had and were to go for such...........


 Then the fun began. The hundred or so students split into groups and went on a scavenger hunt around campus (YYYYYAAAAAA!!!! Not a familiar activity at all{.}). And they had games for the groups to compete in once a group finished the scavenger hunt. The prize was beer. I bobbed for an apple in less than ten seconds and had a snack to go with my beer. Other games included getting the rest of your group to guess the song you are singing while gurgling (water provided as a substitute for gurgling), getting your group through a "net" (each hole only used by one person), and playing "lava" across a parking lot using empty beer crates (kind of like milk crates, but with more internal dividers for bottles) as platforms. I also got the activity I had seen earlier in the day explained to me.

 Apparently the O-Phase for a different department was happening earlier, and they had their games going, one of which I happened upon, it being in a high traffic middle area. The point of the games was to see who could make the longest chain of clothing. The man in the picture was starting to measure it.  

 Measurements beginning did not stop the group of students from adding to it, and they did end up with a longer chain then the previous group I had seen. Notice the boys, in the background left, stripped to socks and underwear asking girls for they jacket or scarf. The girls were not as dedicated.


 Well after the games was Grillen, a barbecue, in the Physik courtyard. Reminded me in many ways of Tech, long wait in line for little food (bread and a sausage), but there was more beer. I stayed and talked with different people for a long time, and then I headed off to an appointment to see a flatshare (will hear back from them this weekend). What a LONG day.


And today I got up early again, because there was breakfast for the O-Phase. And, as everyone should know, the number one rule of being a college student is if there is free food you have to be there. Lots of waiting, which included teaching poker, texas holdem, to Yisu, a Chinese student in the program with me. We finally got to setup a computer account with the Electrotechnik department, lunch in Mensa, and International Student Orientation (more of this tomorrow).

 This was a fun display in the Physik building near the courtyard and were breakfast was today. My first thought was "Vector Field". Maybe. Maybe not. It really purpose was to show the interaction of magnets in a field of magnets. Quite entertaining for me. 


Ciao,
Nic