My new home

as some of you wanted to see how i live, here are some pictures of my home and my university 🙂

my first home

my first desk

i love the old architecture.

our main university building

and its interior

we are 470 mechanical engineering students… 50% will not finish the first year.

but i found a cute little house in the countryside

with a gigantic garden

Arrival

Hello dear readers,
there is finally a feeling of arrival. Or is it?

As you might have noticed i havent written anything for a loong time.
The last entry was actually a decoy. i wrote it while being at home at my dads place.
But it was the perfect way to surprise my sister and mother for christmas.
I knew that i want to start studying in september, and that i really want to go do that in Zuerich, Switzerland.

So what to do with all that free time?
I noticed that there is so many possibilities, that it become overwhelming.
In the end i started working 40h a week in a company producing 3d printers, http://bigrep.com
I wasn’t really feeling like home yet though.
That the company sent me to Israel and America (where i spent 3 weeks holidays in Cali, afterwards) did not really help arriving.
After a couple complications and the insight that it is better to live in my own flat than in the guest room at my mothers place, i found a flatshare.
But the whole time in Berlin i felt uprooted and partially estranged.
I was meeting all my friends and it was great to be reunited, but the circles from the past had shifted (as they do) and it felt like i am not really belonging in most of them.
It takes time to integrate, share experiences and somehow build trust.
In some cases i felt like i never left and in others like there was two strangers meeting, who in forgotten times spent time together.
I recognized that my time abroad had changed my personal boundaries, opened a few and closed others.
The winter was gray, wet and cold. There was almost no snow.
I was so grateful that exactly for my birthday there was so much snow that it was enough to build an iglou.
I really enjoyed spending time with my parents, sisters and grandma, especially my grandma 🙂 She is a real special one!
After i came back from the business trips the spring was in full force, which was a blessing as i think i am a sun-addict.
I wonder how i will stand the next winter here.
Because now i am actually in Zurich.
I stopped working in the 3d printer company. Being there was so interesting, i had an insight into real engineering of the future. I saw the rise of a startup in almost a clichee kind of way. You could have thought they just made a movie out of it and called it “Jobs”
Then i learned for the university entrance exam, which was hard.
After 3 years of not sitting on a school bench i had to look into my old folders again.
I felt completely lost. i could not even recognize my own handwriting.
Who finished this test, who calculated this exercise? my mind was blank.
It felt hopeless, where to start. After 3 weeks i learned enough of the math basics to start with physics.
However big my anticipation of the exams, i seemed to have done good enough, as i passed and started university a week ago.
Being in University is exactly what i was craving. The ETH in Zurich is a established technical university and it feels a bit like being back in school.
Great! A place where i go and people teach me stuff, i don’t even have to ask them to do it… i really missed that.
My expectations have so far been exceeded, but it is the first week and the level will definitely increase, only 45% pass the first year.

Anyhow i decided to write this blog-post, because i felt you faithful readers deserve a proper ending of this story.
When i arrived in Germany i was so happy not to write blog anymore, i could just be in the moment and if i did not take a camera with me then that was okay, because there was nobody to take pictures for.

I hope you guys are all doing well

I am so happy to announce that i found a home to grow roots. Its beautiful, a big garden, a meadow with sheep, a lake very close and its still only 15min away from Zürich. And best of all i have amazing house mates. It makes me really happy to walk down the street and see the house that i will call my home for (at least) the next 3 years.
So long
Ole Mueller
(to be continued?)