The Pros and Cons of Erasmusing

Part I : The Pros

First and foremost, the "Semester card"! this little piece of paper will open all gates for all of us poor broke sudents. With it you can get for free, not only in all the urban transport, but also on all trains of Niedersachsen, which extends till Holland on the West, the Northern Sea, obviously North, almost Köln South, and halfway to Berlin East. You can go to Hamburg, the second city ( I don't know in which aspect) of Germany, to Bremen, Celle, Hameln ( the village with this polpular tale of the guy who played the flute to lead the rats to the river so they drown, what a cruel way anyways), and a lot more!
Just don't get too used to the fact of travlling " for free", because then you'll be in trouble when you get to places outside the reach of the card. Does this sound too real? it is! I had to pay 40 euros "Straff" in Dresden; believe me, it hurts!

Another good thing of being an Erasmus student, is that if you don't know an answer when asked in the classrom, you just say the magic word (i.e Erasmus), and the teacher will look somewhere else, almost feeling guilty. Some of them don't react like that though, and keep it up with the hastle. In that case, just say that you do know the answer, it's just that you cannot translate it in German. If still that doesn't convince him, well you should then admit your ignorance and hope you don't blush too much, now that you built it up for five minutes. That will make the rest of the class get the usual conclusion :" he/she is Erasmus, he/she doesn't have a clue about anything, and even if (ok, let's drop the sex thing and say "it") it would, it couldn't translate it. So why did it come here in the first place?!". Congratulations! you just contributed to feed our already grand reputation of stupid aliens. Keep up the good work! (next time just cut it short and answer a plain : "Ich weiss nicht" (= I dunno) ; nobody really cares.)

The best thing about being an Erasmus though, is the fact of knowing other Erasmus people! Of course you needn't be an Erasmus, to meet the Erasmus, but for a reason that I do not know, it creates some secret bonds. Ok, maybe there is an actual reason, or a big bunch of them, especially the fact of always being lost in translation, lost in place, time and everything. Union makes the force, isn't it?

Learn some German

First rule to survive in Germany: be able to speak German!
It might sound excessive, but it really is not. It is true that the breaking majority of Germans do speak English, but sooner or later you will get stuck and regret you didn't take that German crash course some blog strongly recommended.
At the university all the lessons are in German, and the subjects are hard enough per se, so that there is really no need to spice it up with a language handicap. At the beginning, it was sadly a usual thing that we got out of a lesson without even having understood the subject they were talking about.
Besides, you will be much faster than expected asked to write reports...in German. And then again you'll be stuck. That will either make you want to carry on, learn quick and catch the train, or just pretend you are doing quite well with your English until you wake up some day in a room with other 3 students, subject to an oral exam, to which you have to answer in that language you decided to bry deeply underground.
You don't want to live such frustrating experiences!! so plug in your batteries and "know kung-fu".

Dónde estamos?

English

Primero lo primero: dónde está Hannover?
Partiendo de lo más o menos evidente, está en Alemania. Más concretamente, en el Bundesland de Niedersachsen, lo que viene a ser Baja Sajonia, y del cual es la ciudad capital.
Alemania está dividida en 16 Bundesländer, más o menos comparables a las Comunidades Autónomas de España. Niedersachsen es casi el Bundesland más norteño. Ojo, esto no significa que es el más frío, el sur es bastante peor (aunque ahora mismo fuera hace menos 12 grados, lo que tampoco llamaría calor).
Hannover está a medio camino entre Berlín y Amsterdam, y existen posibilidades interesantes de desplazamiento. Por ejemplo, para ir a Amsterdam, existen unos billetes que se pueden comprar solo on-line, y con un mínimo de 3 días de antelación, que cuestan 20 euros (40 ida y vuelta) en tren.
Hacia Berlín se puede pillar un autocar ( 15 euros one way), el tren aunque sale bastante hachazo, o por último el Mitfahrgelegenheit.
El Mitqué??bueno pues significa literalmente "posibilidad de viajes conjuntos". Aqui es muy usual que una persona que viaje sola en coche ponga un anuncio en la web para que otras personas que vayan a hacer el mismo viaje compartan gastos de gasolina. Es bastante fiable, y sale netamente más economico.
Para ir a España, hay vuelos desde el mismo Hannover, y sinó, para aprovechar el Semesterticket, desde Hamburgo hay muchos vuelos. Eso sí, antes de comprar billete, asuguraros de que hay conexión con Hannover a la hora de llegar para no tener que pasar noche en aeropuertos, o peor, en la calle!



First things first: where is Hannover?
Obvious statement is that it is in Germany, in the Bundesland Niedersachsen, or Lower Saxony, from which it is the capital city.
Germany is divided in 16 Bundesländer, which are Federal states.
Niedersachsen is q quite Northern Bundesland, which does not mean it's the coldest!the South of Germany is much worse...(even if right now it's minus 12, and Would not call that warm).
Hannover is halfway between Berlín and Amsterdam, and there are interesting possiblities of travel. For example, to go to Amsterdam, there are on-line train tickets that should be bought a minimum of 3 days in advance, and that cost around 20 euros.
To go to Berlin, you can take a coach,( 18 euros one way), a train, even if it costs way too much, espacially in IC, or, last but not least a Mitfahrgelegenheit.
A Mitwhat??literally, it means "possibility of travelling together ". . Here it not uncommon that a person who travels alone posts an ad in the net for a carpool, so that other people that travel the same day share the gasoline fees. It's quite trustable, much cheaper, and sometimes faster.
To go home, there are flight from Hannover itself, or, to make good use of the Semesterticket, flights can be booked from Hamburg ( be careful with Lübeck, if you travel with Ryanair, that it outside Hamburg and you'll have to pay 16 euros both ways). An important detail to check before booking is the time you have to be at the airport because there aren't any early trains from Hannover to Hamburg, and you will probably have to sleep " a la belle etoile ".