I wrote the first post about studying in Berlin after living there for about a month, and almost without realizing it, it turns out I have been living in India for even longer already. The days really fly by here. Anyways, I figured it is about time to write a post about how the studies are in India as well, in case any of you are considering to study here at some point. For the rest of you who are in here, kind of just to spy on the life of that weird blonde girl you once knew who suddenly moved to India; that is ok too. I know Big Brother would be able to see me anyways, if he wanted to.
I will just assume that you understand that it is just as different to study in every college in India, as it is back home, but here you will at least get some sort of a peek into my version; The life as a foreign exchange student at Symbiosis International University, at the outside of the little Indian city, Pune, with only 3,7 million (registered) citizens.
Symbiosis International University is the common name for several schools or colleges under carrying the name of Symbiosis. One of them is called Symbiosis Institute of International Business. There you will find somewhere around 1500 MBS students, and one of them happens to be me. And just to clarify it; I am here as part of a double degree program between this college and my school in Berlin, Germany. I might tell you more about that arrangement some other time.
Before that, I will tell you how it is to be a student at SIIB. Because even though I am all new in this huge country called India, there is no difference between the other students and Wowa (the other German student) and me. Since day one we have been expected to participate in presentations, groupwork, exams, and to write hand ins like every one else. I think that is kind of nice actually. We were a part of every one else from the start. But that work I just mentioned? It is quite a lot. Just have a look at some of the tests I will be having in the upcoming weeks. In addition to this, there are and ins and presentations too.
And it is not like it is aaaall work and no play here. Even though it is a lot of work, all of the students here are really impressing me with their energy level. We usually have lectures for eight hours every day, pluss stuff to read, and still they seem happy and energized most of the time, and they are participating in all kinds of extra curricular activites when they get beck to their rooms after class.
Because, yes, we live in dorms by the school. The girls have theirs, and the boys have theirs. No entering the other one pe-lease. We are three girls in one room, and I don`t know..maybe 60 girls on each floor. Obviously the door to our room is never shut for long. Living in a dorm is quite OK actually. There is a lot of talking and a lot less studying, but I didn`t really move here just to learn from textbooks - I want to get to know the people too.
How it is to live this close to people? It is very different and unusual for me, definitely. You are never really alone for long. Sometimes my head is so full of thoughts I am waiting to think through till I get time for my self, that it feels like it is about to explode. But I have been so lucky with my roommates; they are so sweet and caring, I couldnt have done better.
And that is obciously very important here, because there is a lot going on all the time. During a regular week I don`t think I am exaggurating when I say we have five hand ins, two presentations and two exams. At least it feels that way. In addition to that, there is always something extra that comes up. Sometimes I really think I might go mad from all the things that comes up in the last minute. Like yesterday, when my classes was supposed to last til 6:30, and my plan was to spend the whole evening reading for todays exam. In the afternoon we suddenly received an email from another lecturer telling us to write another handin and give it in by nine this morning. I almost jumped out of the window. Still, it always turns out OK here, and once you are done, your body is so full on adrenaline.
Have a nice week everyone
___________
I will just assume that you understand that it is just as different to study in every college in India, as it is back home, but here you will at least get some sort of a peek into my version; The life as a foreign exchange student at Symbiosis International University, at the outside of the little Indian city, Pune, with only 3,7 million (registered) citizens.
Symbiosis International University is the common name for several schools or colleges under carrying the name of Symbiosis. One of them is called Symbiosis Institute of International Business. There you will find somewhere around 1500 MBS students, and one of them happens to be me. And just to clarify it; I am here as part of a double degree program between this college and my school in Berlin, Germany. I might tell you more about that arrangement some other time.
Before that, I will tell you how it is to be a student at SIIB. Because even though I am all new in this huge country called India, there is no difference between the other students and Wowa (the other German student) and me. Since day one we have been expected to participate in presentations, groupwork, exams, and to write hand ins like every one else. I think that is kind of nice actually. We were a part of every one else from the start. But that work I just mentioned? It is quite a lot. Just have a look at some of the tests I will be having in the upcoming weeks. In addition to this, there are and ins and presentations too.
It looks quite different from the exam schedules back in Europe, huh? And why that is? In Europe the classes are usually worth 5-10 credit points, which leaves us with something like 3-6 classes each semester. Here the classes are worth 1 or 2 credit points, and 18 classes. Each class has it`s own three hour lecture every week, and 4 evaluations on average.
The lectures are held in English, as most of the higher education is in India after what I have been told. India har more than 20 official languages, and even though most of the Indian children now have Hindi in school, there are several students in my university that can only communicate with each other in English. Quite a few people have asked me how I am dealing with the Indian version of English, and I have to admit I am struggling a bit somethimes with following it. Especially when they are eager; they talk incredibly fast! But usually it really isn`t an issue at all, and I don`t exactly speek perfect Oxford-English either so I`m just trying to get used to it.
Most of the lecturers have all these fancy jobs outside the university, and therefore they have a lot of good stories to tell about life in the real Indian world. I am learning a lot about Indian brands and work culture as well, and I love it. I know so much more about it than I could have ever learned back home now. But even though I am enjoying most of the lectures a lot, I am unable to stay awake through most of them. I am pretty sure my body just isn`t made for sitting down for that many hours and just listen to information every day. Luckily, it turns out I am not alone though:
And it is not like it is aaaall work and no play here. Even though it is a lot of work, all of the students here are really impressing me with their energy level. We usually have lectures for eight hours every day, pluss stuff to read, and still they seem happy and energized most of the time, and they are participating in all kinds of extra curricular activites when they get beck to their rooms after class.
Because, yes, we live in dorms by the school. The girls have theirs, and the boys have theirs. No entering the other one pe-lease. We are three girls in one room, and I don`t know..maybe 60 girls on each floor. Obviously the door to our room is never shut for long. Living in a dorm is quite OK actually. There is a lot of talking and a lot less studying, but I didn`t really move here just to learn from textbooks - I want to get to know the people too.
How it is to live this close to people? It is very different and unusual for me, definitely. You are never really alone for long. Sometimes my head is so full of thoughts I am waiting to think through till I get time for my self, that it feels like it is about to explode. But I have been so lucky with my roommates; they are so sweet and caring, I couldnt have done better.
And that is obciously very important here, because there is a lot going on all the time. During a regular week I don`t think I am exaggurating when I say we have five hand ins, two presentations and two exams. At least it feels that way. In addition to that, there is always something extra that comes up. Sometimes I really think I might go mad from all the things that comes up in the last minute. Like yesterday, when my classes was supposed to last til 6:30, and my plan was to spend the whole evening reading for todays exam. In the afternoon we suddenly received an email from another lecturer telling us to write another handin and give it in by nine this morning. I almost jumped out of the window. Still, it always turns out OK here, and once you are done, your body is so full on adrenaline.
As I have written about earlier, a lot of things are very different from what I expected when I moved here, but a few things are just the way we learned about them in school as well. Like the way they the students and lectureres seem to relate to time. Every one of the lecturers except from one are notorically at least 15 minutes late to the lectures, some even half an hour. Like on saturdays; we receive all these strickt and angry emails telling us to be in class 10:40 at the latest, but I am usually all alone in that classroom till 11.00. At that time the students are usually there, but the lecturer is often missing 15-20 minutes after that too.
I am somehow getting used to it now, and sometimes I am all happy go lucky crazy, coming a minute or two too late myself, and it is perfectly fine. Except from that one class that starts at 15:00 that same saturday. I seem to lever make in on time for that one. And this of course, is the one lecture that starts on time. I`m not all alone about that one either though, and I have been used as "the poor foreigner who doesnt know better" alibi already. It works too, and of course, when he lets me in, the others can enter too.
The cafe in our school
By now I have become pretty good at ordering black coffee, no sugar
By now I have become pretty good at ordering black coffee, no sugar
The roll of Honor inside our school, the best student from every year is put up there, for all the future students to see. Quite a motivation, huh?
Well, I think that might be all I can think of about the student life in India right now. I know it might sound kind of busy, and it is too. But most of all it is incredibly nice, exsiting, fun and full of learning to leave here in somebody else`s everyday lives, lives that are so different from those I know from back home.Have a nice week everyone
___________
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