malte's blog

Keyboard shortcut to lock screen in OS X

2012-01-20T18:32:00.009+01:00

When I leave my computer unattended in the office I usually lock the screen. Usually going to the login window or screen saver requires the mouse. Here I show how you can set a keyboard shortcut that will lock your screen and login window. I tested this on OS X 10.7, but it probably works in other versions as well.

1. Open Automator and create a new Service. Set the service to receive no input and to be launched in any application. As an action add Run Shell Script and enter the following line:

/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\ Extras/User.menu/Contents/Resources/CGSession -suspend

Save your new service.

2. Now go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts. In the menu on the left select Services and scroll to the bottom to find your new service. You can now assign your keyboard shortcut of choice.

The shortcut will take you to the Login Window from any application supporting services (i.e. most applications).

If you prefer to use the mouse, there are several alternatives. You can enable fast user switching in Users & Groups Preferences to get an item for login window in the menu bar, you can use the Keychain Access menu bar icon, or you use a hot corner to activate a screen saver.

Alpenüberquerung

2010-08-11T23:02:00.016+02:00

Die Alpen? Ja klar, hab ich gemacht!

Im August bin ich zusammen mit meinem Freund D. über die Schweizer Alpen gewandert. Da es im Internet bisher nicht viele Informationen zum Alpenüberwandern in der Schweiz gibt, hier eine kleine Beschreibung für interessierte Nachwanderer.

Unsere Route ist an die hier beschrieben angelehnt. Allerdings haben wir auf Gepäck-service, Seilbahnen, Busfahrten und Klosterbesichtigungen verzichtet und dafür die Reisezeit um 2 Tage verkürzt. Wir sind also in 7 Tagen von Flüelen im Uri nach Locarno im Tessin gewandert.

Übernachtet haben wir teils im Zelt und teils in Hütten. Währen wir es in den ersten zwei Tagen witterungsbedingt ruhig haben angehen lassen, sind wir später ca. 10 Stunden pro Tag gelaufen (einschliesslich Pausen). Die Etappen waren wie folgt:

1. Flüelen - Eggberge - Biel -Unterschächen
2. Unterschächen - Brunnital - Seewlisee Hütte
3. Seewlisee Hütte - Golzernsee - Hinterbalm Hütte
4. Hinterbalm Hütte - Brunnipass - Disentis (Muster) - Medel (Lucmagn) - Acla
5. Acla - Passo dell'uomo - Lago Ritom - Piotta - Rifugio Gazonera Hütte
6. Rifugio Gazonera - Passo Sassello - Lago del Sambuco - Lavizzara - Bignasco
7. Bignasco - Maggia - Avegno - Locarno

Hier ein google earth screenshot unserer Route und Übernachtungen. Die google earth Route kann ich auf Anfrage gerne emailen.

Mehr Photos in meinem picasa album.
wandern

Matlab svg icon

2009-04-15T23:01:00.009+02:00

I just installed Matlab under linux and realised that it does not come with a proper icon. So I sat down and played around with Inkscape for a while to make a high quality vector graphic from the classic Matlab logo. It's not completely the same, but I think it's reasonably close. For a desktop Icon it should be sufficient.

To create a desktop shortcut for Matlab in Ubuntu Linux, right click on the desktop and select "Create Launcher...". In the command field enter the path of your Matlab binary, e.g. "/home/Applications/MatlabR2008b/bin/matlab". You can then click on the icon with the spring to select another icon.

Find the Matlab svg icon here.

Btw. you can get the Matlab logo plotted as a function if you type "logo" in the command promt.

Panorama photos

2009-02-13T01:46:00.008+01:00

I just discovered the nice application Hugin. It's a panorama photo sticher, that is, it helps you to arrange overlapping images into big panoramas. Given that it's open source, it runs quite smoothly, and is available for Linux, Mac, and Win.

This is "my office". Right now I got it just for myself ;)
The picture is composed from 4 photos. The boarder is quite obvious between the two right photos, but hardly noticable between the two left shots. This was just my first try.

Here's another go. It's St. Mary's Island, pretty close to the spot where I was staying in India. It's composed from 5 shots. There's an interesting gradient in the sky changing from blue to white ;)

And now a really big one. It's Lake Wairarapa in New Zealand, composed from six shots, I took about 1.5 years ago. Maybe I overdid it with the color correction.

Kathmandu

2008-12-15T06:27:00.002+01:00

Salut!
I arrived in Kathmandu yesterday afternoon, after a rather unpleasant bus ride. Not that the bus ride was particularly bad, but I got some stomach problems and head ache and that made the bumpy road feel particularly "intense".
During the night I managed to sleep for an incredible 16h and I feel better now.

This might well be my last blog-post from this trip, as I'll arrive back in Germany on the 18th. I look forward to seeing you!

m

Trekking the ABC

2008-12-07T06:45:00.004+01:00

Yesterday, I came back from 6 days of trekking in the Himalayan Mountanis near Pokhara. In particular I went to the Annapurna Base Camp ("ABC"), which is a lovely spot, surrounded by high peaks, and just some 40km from the nearest road. I started of together with an American girl I had just met two days earlier, however on the second day she decided that her backpack was to heavy (it really was!) and she couldn't make it. So she turned around and I continued on my own. Not too bad, since now I could walk as fast as I wanted. I think I was quite fast, since my backpack was incredibly light. Partly because after traveling for some time I've learned to restrict myself to the necessary; partly because I just didn't have the right equipment for the mountains (i.e. warm cloth), and I also didn't want to buy the same for just one trip.

After three days of walking 6h, 7h, and finally 8h, I arrived at the Machapuchre Base Camp at 3500 m, which is just a two hour walk from the ABC. I stayed there for the night, as I was incredibly tired after walking the whole day and I had already gained quite a lot of altitude. Consequently I felt a little head ache and an uncomfortable feeling in my stomach. The next morning -- day 4 -- I went to the ABC. Even though the trail was not particularly difficult or steep, the thin air made it quite exhausting to cover the last part. I was happy to reach my goal and stayed at the top for until the next morning. Long enough to get a sunburn during the day, and freeze a lot after the sun set behind the mountains at 2 pm (!). I'm not sure how cold it was during the night, but it was below freezing. I'm glad I have a warm sleeping bag.
When I woke up the next morning I still felt a head ache and slight nausea, which set me in bad mood and I started descending immediately. I suddenly felt lonely and bored. Actually there really isn't much going on in the mountains. By 6 pm it's dark, but already by 4 pm it is too cold to feel comfortable outside. There were usually a few other people in the hut's but our conversations stayed shallow.
Originally I had hiking to some other places before returning, but I canceled those plans, and did the whole return trip in just two long days of walking.
I conclude, it was a great to hike up there and get closer to the amazing peaks. It was also nice go get out of the cities and populated areas, to places where there's just nothing. But that's was also the difficult part. Being on my own, I didn't want to stay in this solitude for more than a couple of days.

Now have a look at the pictures:

taking a rest on the way to the top

On the first days I was walking through the countryside. The hills were covered with rice fields ans small houses were scattered in between. In these areas there is no road access. Everything has to be carried in by man or donkey. In the more remote places it's about three day-walks to reach the road.

This is where I stayed at the top. Note the small print on the sign: "Annapurna Base Camp 4130 Meters". At first sight the base camp seems to consist only of the two lodges, catering to the many tourists coming up there. However after looking around for a bit you will find a "shrine", dressed in prayer flags (picture below), at which paper notes, photos, and some engraved metal plates remind of those who went further up the peaks and died there. Two climbers had passed only in May, this year.

I'm still alive

The whole way to the ABC is a well maintained tourist area. Shops like this on serve beer, Pringels Chips, Mars & Snickers and everything else the continental tourist enjoys. And the prises rise as you climb the hill, which is understandable, given that all those beer bottles are being carried there (and away!) by amazingly strong Nepali people.

Here are two of my favorite shots:

And at last, two shots from Pokhara. A lovely and relaxed city on the shore of Phewa Lake (see picture). I'll stay here for a couple of more days before going to Kathmandu, my last stop before 'home':

away

2008-11-30T09:23:00.000+01:00

Hey, This is just to say that I won't say much in the next 1-2 weeks.
I will head for a big trek in the mountains tomorrow. So I hope I can present a good account of my trip once I return. cheers!

News from NEPAL

2008-11-28T09:17:00.008+01:00

Namaste!
I made it, and live is great.

Right after the last update I boarded the train to Gorakhpur, closer to the Nepali boarder. It was worse than I expected, and I spent most of the night standing and sitting in a dense crowd of people next to the door. Even though I can't imagine how I managed, I did sleep for some time. It was somewhat funny as I met two students who were squeezed in next to me, and we all tried to find some position in which we could sleep. After my arrival in the very early morning I walked through the whole town trying to change some money. An annoying odyssey, but the last one. I finally hitched a bus to Sunauli, at the Nepali boarder.

Of course this is totally subjective, but since I crossed the boarder everything is better. After I had some experiences with the Indian bureaucracy I expected the worst for Nepal. However, getting the visa took just about 15 minutes.
Feeling quite tired after two consecutive nights in the train, I headed for Lumbini, just 1.5 hours from the boarder, to stay there for the night.
At the boarder I met Jan, a French backpacker, with whom I've been traveling until now.

In Lumbini we visited the birthplace of the Buddha and several monasteries. Further we traveled to Tansen (=Palpa), and headed for a two day trek to Ranighat, from which we just returned. Tomorrow morning we'll set of to Pokhara from where I want to go on the one-week Anapurna Base-camp Trek.

Just look at a few pictures:

Prayer Flags in at the Buddha's birthplace

A statue of the former mentioned

The roof top is the best place to ride a bus

The mighty Himalaya from the distance. It's just amazing to see these mountains

Shaving in a river in Ranighat.

I love Nepal since the minute I crossed the boarder. It is less packed and busy than India. The people are very friendly and the landscape is beautiful (and there are smooth vibrations).

nichts wie weg

2008-11-23T16:31:00.002+01:00

Hi ho. Heute mal in Deutsch. Ich glaube alle, die hier lesen, verstehen -- zumindest ein bisschen -- Deutsch.

Bin gerade sehr aufgeregt, in so einem koerperlichen Stresszustand, weil ich mir im Bahnhof eine Fahrkarte gekauft habe. Und in dem Bahnhof waren viele, viele Menschen. Es erinnert ein bisschen an ein Rock Konzert. Und dass leute hier etwas "pushy" sind, weiss ich ja inzwischen, aber als ich fur mein Ticket anstand hat tatsaechlich einer versucht sich so richtig mit dem Ellenbogen zuerst vor mich zu schieben. Ich bin inzwischen etwas voreingenommen und vielleicht konzentriere ich meine Wahrnehmung auf solche negativen Erlebnisse.
Habe aber noch zwei weitere: Letzte woche sind Urs und ich von Mysore nach Hampi gefahren (habe ueber beide Staedte schonmal gebloggt). An der Bushaltestelle, haben wir einen Busfahrer nach Nachtbussen gefragt. Er hat uns mit voelliger Ueberzeugtheit erst erzaehlt, dass es keine "Schlafbusse" (mit Pritschen) gaebe und uns dann aufgeklaert, dass der normale Bus jeweils um 7.30, 8.30 und 9.30 Uhr von Busstand 7 faehrt. Als wir am Abend zu unserem vermeintlichen Bus kamen, mussten wir feststellen, dass es Busstand 7 gar nicht gibt, und der einzige Bus um 10.00 Uhr von Stand 3 faehrt. In dem Fall kein Problem, aber ich frage mich warum man uns so herb angelogen hat?
Aber das Beste zum Schluss. Urs Rueckflug ging am Sonntag morgen von Mumbai und wir hatten in einem Reiseburo einen Nachtbus gebucht, der am Samstag Abend schon frueh abfuhr, damit wir rechtzeitig ankommen. Als wir dann an der Busstation warten, stellt sich heraus, dass der Bus nicht nur spaeter abfaehrt als uns gesagt wurde, sondern fuer die Fahrt auch laenger brauchen wuerde, als versprochen, so dass wir nicht mehr rechtzeitig zum Flug ankaemen. Adrenalin. Wir konnten das Problem dann elegangt und mit einer guten Geschichte loesen, indem wir auf einen schnelleren Nachtzug umgestiegen sind. Da gab es nur noch ein ticket fur die "general class", fuer die unbegrenzt Tickets verkauft werden. Wir haben mit einem Inder zu dritt auf der Gepaeckablage geschlafen.

Ich hoffe, dass ich heute Nacht auch einen Sitzplatz bekomme. Wenn Alles gut geht, bin ich morgen mittag auf der anderen seite der Indisch-Nepalischen Grenze. In Berufung auf Erfahrungsberichte und Reisefuehrer stelle ich es mir auf der anderen Seite ganz wesentlich entspannter vor. Freue mich sehr darauf einfach mit anderen Europaern die Berge zu geniessen.

Photos gibt es leider wieder nicht, da ich hier in der Internet Bude keine externen Geraete anschliessen kann.

Ich hoffe bald eine ruhige Stunde und ein gutes Internet Cafe zu finden um ausfuehrlicher und entspannter zu berichten.

Auf bald!

A note from teh road

2008-11-16T08:26:00.002+01:00

Hey folkz,
Again no pictures. (You don't know how slow the internet is in this internet cafe)

My brother arrived in Mumbai almost a week ago. I spent a few days in the city before he came and was pleasantly surprised. Instead of a packed and dirty city I found a comfortably "westernized" place with cafes, book stores and trees lining the road.
Anyway, we canceled our plans about going into some dessert in the north and first went down to Goa. We were put of, when we arrived in the morning and instead of an Indian breakfast we were offered pasta. So we spent only one day in Goa and during the next night traveled for another 10h to get back to the forest farm stay where I'd been last week. We spent the last four nights there, hiking and hunting. Now we're on the road again, probably going further south into Kerala.

That's it for now.
Urs will stay for a bit more than week, and afterwards I will head for Nepal. I'll try to upload some pictures and write a bit more, before I get there.

cheers // m

noise, dust, and heat

2008-11-07T08:24:00.004+01:00

Some researchers found that when people had to sit close to other passengers in a train, they experienced adverse stress reactions. It's nothing new. There's quite a bit of psychological research around what's calle crowding. This article is just the first hit that came up on google when I was looking for something to scientifically justify my feelings.
Even though I've been "traveling alone" for the last days, I've never been on my own. I am confident to say that there is a siginificant difference in the concept of personal space (or at least it's application) between India and Germany. It's all amazingly crowded, dense, busy down here and to me that is a very stressfull experience.

For a few days I was around the town of Madikeri, which is up in some hills and pleasantly cold compared to the coastal region. For three days I was staying at a village home stay and went for trekking with a guide, in the dense jungels (http://nisargatourism.com). While I went there for the trekking, staying with a rural family turned out to be one of the most amazing and intense experiences I found in India. I just copy an excerpt from an email I sent to a friend (German):

Anfang der Woche habe ich mich bei einem Trekking veranstallter eingebucht. Ich habe fur 3 Tage bei einer Familie von Reisbauern in derbster Laendlichkeit gewohnt und bin jeden Tag fur mehrer Stunden mit einem netten guide durch den Jungel gestiefelt. Abgefahren, kann ich dir sagen. Das wandern schon cool. Jungel und so, halt. Aber bei dieser Familie zu leben war voellig krass. Es gab zwar einen Strom-anschluss, waehrend ich da war, gab es aber auch jeden Abend einen mindestens einstuendigen Strom ausfall. War kein Problem.
Gekocht hat die Frau des Hauses sowieso ueber dem offenen Feuer. Wasser zum trinken und waschen kam aus einem Fluss und wurde in einer kleinen zisterne im Bad (eine separate Lehm Huette hinterm Haus) gesammelt. Habe auserdem meine klamotten in einem Fluss gewaschen, wie es dort Brauch ist.
Waehrend die Mutter und die zwei Toechter am Feuer in der Kueche gegessen haben, wurden der Vater und ich am Tisch im "Esszimmer" bedient. Die Mahlzeiten wahren immer recht awkward, da mein Gegenueber kaum English gesprochen hat. Zum Glueck ist das Laecheln ein cross-cultural universal.
Tja, dass war schon sehr krass. Sehr gastfreundliche Menschen. Allerdings habe ich die nicht-gleichberechtigung zwischen Mann und Frau als extrem unangenehm empfunden. Sicher auch nur eine Indoktrination meiner home-kultur, aber ich merke immer wieder wie tief verwurzelt ich in unseren europaeischen Wertvorstellungen bin. Ich koennte niemals hier leben!

Unfortunately I caught a slight cold again. It's terribly anoying while traveling, as it emotionally drags me down and makes me very nervous. The stress from crowindg, which I mentioned above, is intensified, and so are noise, dust, and heat.

There's a 6 hour train ride ahead, which will get me to Margao in Goa. I'll probably rest there for a day before going on to meet my brother in Mumbai.

m

Heading for India, again

2008-10-31T06:37:00.003+01:00

Tomorrow I will start the second part of my "Indian Experience". I will leave Manipal and start traveling around for about three weeks in India and then another three weeks in Nepal. As I did three month ago, I feel like heading for the unknown again. I'm excited and a bit scared, but it's ok, and I think it's what I wanted.

Right now I'm sitting in the computer lab, writing my blog, for the last time. I'm nostalgic. I just counted and found 32 blog entries, that I posted here during my time. I'm not sure if you read all of those, but I know that some people did, and that's very nice for me. (thanks for listening!) Also it's a kind of self-help. Writing about my experiences and feelings help me to reflect on the same.

I'm not exactly sure how I will spent my during the next weeks. Most likely I won't have internet access on a daily basis, so my updates might become a less frequent.

Tomorrow I will head towards Madikeri, which is in some mountainous region in Southern Karnataka, and just 7h away from here.
On the 10th I will meet my brother in Mumbai and we'll travel the deserts of Gujarat in North-West India.
On the 25th I will take a flight from Mumbai to Lucknow from there cross the Nepali boarder a few days later.
I will return to Germany on December 18th.

I was thinking to give some summarizing statement about my the first stage of my trip. However I don't feel capable of giving any evaluation of it. It's been to confusing. Looking back I realize that I was quite unhappy for the last two weeks or so. Except for that? I don't know. I'll try to make a nice article once I came up with something. For now, all I can say is, that there really is a huge cultural difference between Germany and India!

Holiday at Om-Beach // thoughts

2008-10-29T05:11:00.003+01:00

Hey,
as announced earlier I spent the last week end at Om-Beach, near Gokarna. It's one of those tourist places. Some Indian tourists, a lot of Israeli backpackers and of course the usual European and American hippies.

It's my last week here. There was a holiday on Monday. I was sick (digestive issues) again on Tuesday, and now I feel quite in a rush to get my things done here at the university, so I can leave on Saturday.

I talked to a good friend few days ago, and after I told a bit about how I'm doing she said "you sound quite annoyed". And even though I felt it before, it was kind of a revelation. I'm not sure why, but I've been quite bored and frustrated the last weeks. I assume it has a lot to do with "the culture" and the difficulties I have getting into the Indian culture. I hope that things will become more clear after some time, when I have some distance to the events.
Given those feelings I look forward to leaving Manipal and the University and start my travels. I seesaw between being afraid and being excited.

Here's a video from the week end. I was sick already and mentally a little slow. I think that's why I talk about showing the restaurant and then don't show it. Well, it'd be right behind me.

I miss home.
cheers!

why? frustration & bad mentoring

2008-10-24T07:43:00.004+02:00

Lately I've been a little frustrated about my work. Just for the reason that nobody seems to care about it. So I decided to do the same, and in the last weeks spent most of my "work time" surfing the internet.

Yesterday my supervising professor came to talk with me about my project. She actually showed some interest and gave me some advise. That was quite nice, but after our very brief discussion in my first week, it was the first time she talked to me. And now that I finished all my work, the discussion doesn't make much sense anyways.
She also told me that I'm supposed to give a presentation about my project next week, and submit a written report.
I'm angry and I ask myself WHY THE FUCK! Why didn't they tell me about the presentation in the beginning? Why do we only talk about my work after I finished? I just don't understand it.

krank

2008-10-21T11:45:00.003+02:00

Ein kleiner Schluck, dann warten, warten, warten.
Dann wieder ein kleiner Schluck. Unglaublich lecker, erfrischend und belebend ist die Cola. Mein Fruhstuck, nach dem ich mich in der Nacht zwei mal ubergeben hatte. Ich bin erschopft. Im Ausland ist krank zu sein ist wesentlich unangenehmer, als zuhause; doch ich bin froh in Manipal und nicht alleine in Nepal zu sein.
Es ist wohl eine Lebensmittelvergiftung. S. hat sich letzte Nacht ubergeben mussen. Vielleicht die Goanische Wurst oder der Zuckerrohrsaft. Wie auch immer. Noch ein Schluck Cola.

22.10.08
So, ich bin wieder gesund. Eigentlich ging es mir schon gestern wieder recht gut, aber der Dramatik wegen konnte ich das nicht schreiben ;)

Holiday in Goa

2008-10-20T07:59:00.007+02:00

Sunrise in Goa at about 6 am after a very short night in the train

Have you ever heard of Goa? You probably have. It's not only a genre of electronic music but also one of India's most popular tourist destinations, that is for Indian tourists as well as for foreigners. I'm not sure if the tourists came because it's such a nice place or if it is such a nice place, because so many tourists came. Whatever, among all Indian states, Goa ranks third in literacy rate with 83% of people being able to read and write. And with 96% of households having electricity it's the second best state in India. At the same time, fertility rates are among the lowest in the whole country with only 1.8 children for each woman. I bet there's some causal relation!
The wealth was also notable in the superior road conditions. When we were driving on a perfectly even, four-lane road with trees nicely arranged on both sides I couldn't believe this is India.
After having traveled to some places, I feel that there are many places, much nicer than the rural, monsoon-struck Manipal. But according to the statistics (from wikipedia ), there are also many place in a far worse situation.

We took a night train to Goa, which was supposed to get us there in just 4 hours. Not much sleep for the night, but it turned out worse. The train was late by an hour, so we were waiting at the station till about 2.30 am. On the train we didn't know whether it would catch up the delay, so we had to get up well in time, not to miss our station. It turned out that the train got even more delayed. So we had less sleep, and a longer train ride than we planned. But we got to see a beautiful sunrise while rolling through the green hills of Goa ;)

After our arrival we went straight to the beach (that's what Goa's all about). Our idea was to walk up the beach for some 10-20 km to the next city. While we still managed to cross a river, we soon had to withdraw from our plan when we face impassable cliffs. We went away from the beach and more into the country and had a pleasant walk there.

Crossing a river (google maps). I carried my backpack on my head, but forgot about the documents in my pocket.

It had been cloudy in the morning, which was great for our walking, but around noon it became so hot that we decided to stop at the next beach and catch up on the sleep we missed during the night. The beach was pleasantly empty and we were only sharing the place with some 'locals':

A 'local' at Agonda Beach, Goa

The rest of the week end we spent cursing around the small state. Seeing old Portuguese cities, having fancy sea-food dinners on the beach, walking through big markets, being ripped of for souvenirs, sweating, ...

One of those houses reminding of the Portuguese reign. Panaji, Goa.

On our last day we did what I always wanted to do. We jumped on a moving train. Everything had gotten a bit delayed and after we queued for our tickets and got our of the office the train was already rolling. So we ran across the bridge to our platform as fast as we could and barely managed to jump in just before the train was getting too fast. -- Only then it was that we realized we were in the wrong train. Well, we got out, took a bus back and took the next one. Not a big deal, but a good story I hope, and a least I could jump on a moving train!

pics

2008-10-16T12:48:00.004+02:00

There's not too much going on. I spend a lot of time planing my travels, as my internship finishes in two weeks. Tonight I'll leave for a week end trip to Goa.

Here are two pictures I kept for the days when I don't have anything else to say:

cliche spice merchant

in place waste disposal on a road in Alleppey

In the mean time you can have a look at the blog of my flat mate Markus. It's written in Swedish, but there are some very nice photographs, like this one:

it's me on the left, in case you don't recognize

pics

2008-10-13T08:22:00.002+02:00

"My dreams are boring"

Germänification

2008-10-10T06:47:00.007+02:00

I have to mention some statistics about the interns whos are here right now:

17 interns in total

16 Europeans

8 German

1 French German

2 Swiss

11 male, 6 female

Do you notice a slight bias towards a certain nation? After all I wonder if there's a place where one can go for holiday without meeting other Germans. It's hypocritic, but I'm annoyed by this superabundance of fellow countrymen.

Family on a motor bike

edit: Oh, another German just arrived today...

Videobotschaft

2008-10-09T06:17:00.007+02:00

Heute mal auf deutsch:

Den gestrigen Feiertag habe ich genutzt um ein bisschen "alleine zu reisen". Mein Gefuehl dabei habe ich in einer Videobotschaft festgehalten:

Ich bin dann also einfach in einen beliebigen Bus eingestiegen, um zu sehen wohin es mich trägt. Der Bus war recht voll und fürs erste hatte ich nur einen Stehplatz in der Nähe des Fahrers. Ich nutzte die Gelgenheit mir all die Verziehrungen im Cockpit genauer anzusehen. Die Windschutzscheibe war zweigeteilt und der verbindende Blechstreifen war mit allerlei Paraphernalia geschmückt. Obenwar die übliche Konstellation von Ganesh, dem Elephantenköpfigen Gott und zwei anderen, mir unbekannten Göttern zu seiner Rechten und Linken. Die LED-leuchten, die normalerweise farbenfroh blinkend die Heiligen zieren waren ausgeschaltet oder vielleicht kaputt gegangen, unter dem ganzen Geholper der Busfahrt. Etwas weiter unten war noch eine Götterfigur, in einem kunstvoll gestalteten Holzkasten, der in seiner Form an einen Tempel erinnertet. Dazwischen war ein Dreizack, ein Insignium Shivas, auf den eine Limette und zwei Pepperoni gespießt waren. Ich glaube, dass schützt vor Unglück. Und dann war da noch ein Portraitphoto eines Mannes, dass ich wegen der altmodischen Brille in die 60er Jahre datiert hätte. Ich vermutete, dass es sich um einen religiösen Lehrer, einen Guru handelte. Wie ich von einem Passagier erfuhr war es aber lediglich der Besitzer des Busses. Scheint als ob er auf diese Weise das Schaffen seiner angestellten überwachte. Das Alles wird abgerundet von Blumenkränzen und noch ein paar bunten Lampen, die fröhlich blinken, wenn der Fahrer die Bremse betätig (nicht so oft). Ein typisch indischer Bus.

Und zum Schluss, ohne Zusammenhang, ein Zitat aus dem Anthropologie Buch, dass ich gerade lese:

For his part, the anthropologist assumes that the native is doing what he is doing, namely "culture." And so, as a way of understanding his subject, the fieldworker is obliged to invent a culture for him, as a plausible thing to be doing. But since plausibility is a function of the researcher's viewpoint, the "culture" that he imagines for the native is bound to bear a distinct relation to that which he claims for himself.
Roy Wagner: The Invention of Culture

reflections / Holiday in Kerala

2008-10-07T06:09:00.011+02:00

reflections:

"Culture is made visible by culture-shock, by subjecting oneself to situations beyond one's normal interpersonal competence and objectifying the discrepancy as an entity"
Roy Wagner: The Invention of Culture

It's been 9 weeks since I set foot in India and there's another 4 weeks to go, before I will finish my internship at Manipal University and start traveling. My project is going to finish as well, and for the first time I feel that there is something like a deadline and that I should obtain some results. At the same time I'm making plans about my trip after the internship finishes. Most likely my brother will come over and we will go around the tropical South India before I'll make my way to Nepal.
However, it's not only a time to look forward, but also to look back and reflect on what happened in the last two month. It has been a moving time for me, as I had to adapt and overthrow many of my believes and ideas.

I was naive when I came; very naive. I though I could just walk away from home, from Germany, from my social surrounding, and dip into a completely new live. I though I could reinvent myself without any relation to my previous experience. I had big plans on developing a new personality, that I somehow wanted to integrate into my previous existence, once returning home. That sounds like a childish and impossible idea now; and it seemed even worth just after I came here.
In my first week I was overwhelmed by "the culture". I felt insecure and deeply confused. Especially after being ripped of in a taxi, just an hour after my arrival in Mumbai, all my experience was biased by this frustrating experience. Traveling this country (alone) seemed exhausting, dangerous, impossible. I hadn't booked my return flight yet, and I was considering to shorten my internship and just go home again.
Fortunately I know myself well enough to be aware of the volatile nature of my emotions. So I stayed, I waited, and I tried to be open. It took me almost two weeks, but then I started feeling more comfortable. The painful sensation of loneliness ceased and I felt more stable, more capable, and more secure. After the initial culture-shock-confusion I found a place for myself within the new environment.
It took me another six weeks, but now, finally, I'm self-confident enough to actually look forward to traveling (alone).

I believe that self-confidence is increased by every new experience one makes. Whenever one copes with a situation (probably even if not successfully), one acquires knowledge on how to deal with such problems and is more capable in future. So, as I see it, one of the great things in traveling is making many new experiences and consequently increasing one's capabilities and self-confidence. From subjective experience I can say that - at least for me - this approach works quite well.

As said, on the way to regain self-confidence and comfort I had to adapt and overthrow many of my believes. Most notably, my plan to immerse deeply in the Indian community failed completely. In part I blame it on the circumstances (naturally that's nicer than blaming myself): I don't work with Indian people. In my project I'm working on my own or with the Japanese intern. I don't live with Indian people. In my flat I live with other interns from Europe. And that's just the circumstances. Additionally there is "the cultural thing", that let's me easily connect with "Western" people, while it makes it difficult to interact with Indians. And the difference between easy and difficult is very important here, because it results in a difference between pleasurable and boring. Maybe it's because their humor is different, or because we lack a common background, or just because we're in dissimilar situations; but whatever the reason I don't enjoy hanging out with Indian friends very much. It's interesting from an anthropological point of view, and it's "cool" to have international friends, but a relaxed and comforting conversation is something I only share with the other interns.

Let me give you an example: The other day the iaeste members (that the local students who organize my internship) organized a treasure hunt game. The game involved several teams of one intern and one Indian student each, and mostly comprised of running back and forth on campus to solve questionable riddles for 3 hours. The running in the heat of the sun was demanding, I was completely wet from sweat, in my view it was far beyond the funny. However what was most intriguing was the competitiveness the Indian students expressed. While to me (and us) a game of this kind is more about the fun of playing together, for them winning was the most important. Consequently the price is not sweets and drinks for everybody, as you might expect, but a voucher of Rs 500 each, for the winning team. 500 Rupees are a lot of money! And the relative value is comparable to 50 or 100 Euros. To me this game was more annoying than fun, and I participated because I didn't know and for politeness of course. I think this illustrates the differences in everyday culture and "having fun", that make it difficult for me to develop a deeper friendship with most Indians.

Holiday in Kerala:

Given those circumstances you might understand, why I enjoyed a week end trip just with some of the other interns. The last weekend we went to Kerala, the state south of Karnataka, where I live. Kerala is one of the most "developed" states in India, with high literacy rate, good infrastructure and the lowest infant mortality. You can actually see the meaning of those rankings. There are none or only few animals on the streets, the roads are in good condition, and there are book shops! The region we went to is characterized by a number of lakes and canals, called The Backwaters, and is a major tourist place, attracting foreigners and Indians alike. We set out for a house boat tour, driving through the lakes and canals and sleeping on the boar for one night. It's amazingly decadent. The three bed rooms on the boat had individual bathrooms and showers with hot water. A standard we usually don't get here. Furthermore the crew of six men included kitchen staff cooking for us and serving food on the boat. Experiencing this kind of luxury is an awkward feeling, but a nice experience ;) And while usually I don't enjoy touristy places, being on a boat we were somewhat secluded and just enjoying our own company in a truly beautiful scenery. Here are some pictures:

A "traditional" houseboat of the kind we were in. There are hundreds of these boats catering to tourists, but still the place doesn't loose it's tranquil atmosphere

I've also taken a short video clip from one of the ferries. The boat operates like a public bus and provides affordable transport for normal people. In the video there are also Hisashi and Sarah, two friends of mine.

Thanks for reading. I'm happy about any comments!

cold

2008-09-30T07:10:00.005+02:00

Howdy!
The weekend was mostly quiet. I spent pretty much the whole Sunday in bed, eating, or watching movies. That was great. Just because you're in a foreign country, doesn't mean you have to go out and see strange things all the time.

I got a cold again. The third one now. Honestly, I expected my Immune system to adapt faster. In addition there's the strange feeling in my stomach that comes and goes every now and then. By now it feels normal not to be healthy.
Given that I decided it's time to see a doctor today. So I did, went to the hospital, was checked, seems all ok, went to work, wrote my blog. The hospital in itself is quite an experience here. Last time I was there -- accompanying a friend -- she had to go to six different desks in order to see a doctor and get a blood test. For me it was surprisingly easy today. After the registration I just had to wait for some 45 minutes and then was examined. Privacy is not a big concern here, and I met the doctor just in the waiting room. I believe the separated chambers are only used if the examination involves undressing.

Last Saturday I set out for some anthropological field work. Together with some Indian and some white friends I moved to a night club to study this part of Indian culture.
Observation 1: Going out is extremely expensive -- compared to other things. A beer in a club is Rs 100, which is four times the price of a cheap meal. Admission is Rs 200. I interpret this as an indication of the different subcultures being addressed by food and night clubs. The prices are on completely different scales, and accordingly the people going there are completely different. Well, the rich might settle for a cheap meal, but the poor will never have access to a night club. Is that similar to Germany? I'd say there's a similar trend in Germany, but to a far less extend.
Observation 2: Indian girls are hard to get -- at least for me. With determination I tried to talk to or dance with some of the natives, but I've been explicitly ignored. This is certainly not the level of general openness to be found in a comparable establishment in Germany. Furthermore I noticed that people came in groups of either boys only, girls only, or one boy with a group of girls. Balanced groups are rare.
Anyway, this was just one biased observation. I guess further study is needed before any meaningful conclusions can be made :>

Here are a few pictures:

Rickshaw

Yet Another Temple

Hitler Star

Holiday in Hampi

2008-09-24T07:19:00.014+02:00

On the week end I went to Hampi, a popular tourist destination in the vicinity of Manipal. We took a sleeper bus with "beds" there, and despite the bumpy road I did get some sleep during the 14h ride. I wasn't able to capture the interior of the bus on any picture, but looking out of the bus you might see something like this truck passing by. Notice the decorations and colors on the truck. That's normal.

Hampi is famous because of the many ruins dating back about 500 years. In a very small area, there is (or better "was") an amazing lot of more than 50 temples and I wonder if people in the old days did anything else than praying and building more temples. The ruins are situated in beautiful landscape of hills covered with boulders.

Nowadays there's no sign of any powerful and rich civilization any more and some ancient ruins are inhabited by modern people. The clash of elements that I categorize to completely different times is representative for whole India.

In the picture you can see how huts made from palm tree leafs are build around an old temple, right on the "main road". Walking the streets is like walking through an open-air museum, or even like walking through people's living rooms. All the life here seems to happen not in the small huts, but right on the street. It's the place where you see people eating, sleeping, working, playing, raising kids, taking care of animals, washing cloth, making fire, selling goods, ... just everything.

While in Germany the default state of a person is inside the house, and you go out only to complete a certain task, here the default state seems being on the street. I wonder what people actually do inside.

As usual there are animals:

And curious kids:

The most fun part was hiring mopeds. Click on the picture to see a video of me and my flat mate Markus going for a ride. We were asked neither for a driver's license, nor for any identification. We also didn't get any helmets or protection. In general hardly anybody in India wears helmets when biking.

Here's a very boring picture of me, posing somewhere. No travelogue is complete without it:

And there's a nicer picture of a temple during sunset:

pics

2008-09-19T10:58:00.005+02:00

A few pictures.

Wohnzimmer

Strandgruppe

The first photo shows the living room connecting the three bed rooms in our flat. Even though each bed room is equipped with two beds (and that's usual for student hostels) we're just three people right now. Hisashi from Japan, Markus from Finland and me. In the picture below 2nd, 3rd, and fourth from the left respectively. There are some characteristic things: a fan, a laundry line with hand washed cloths, water bottles, the locked door to the kitchen we can't use, and the speakers we bought for more fun in our flat.
The second photo obviously shows the residents of our flat including Nima from Iran, 1st from left, who went home again already.
In the third picture I used a dark room, a torch, and 5 sec exposure. I would have written something more meaningful if I'd had a laser pointer. The object is a fan speed controller (that doesn't work), above a power outlet and switches for the outlet, the fan, and light. Interesting, isn't it ;)

p.s. Tonight I'll leave for a week end trip to Hampi. Supposedly a beautiful place. I'll show some photos on Tuesday!

"Nazi India" ;)

2008-09-16T05:46:00.006+02:00

Mein Kampf is available in any major book shop. Seems to be quite popular here. When I found it on the shelf of an Indian friend I was surprised though. Apparently Hitler doesn't have such a bad reputation in India. He's considered a great leader and his kill score does not matter. Well, Napoleon and Caesar are considered great leaders and nobody blames them for the deaths they caused. I'm still a pacifist, but I had a few interesting conversations. It's easy to be a pacifist if you life in Germany, a safe country with no big enemies. But it's different being in India under the thread of Pakistan, or being in Lebanon, which is regularly attacked by Israeli.
Anyway, I will set out and try to explain my point, because I don't think Hitler was that great.

nothing special

2008-09-15T08:14:00.003+02:00

There's nothing special to say. I took it slow on the weekend, and spent most of Sunday dozing on the beach. So here are a few pictures I took lately:

This is me with the mustache, I've been growing for about 6 weeks. I think I mentioned at some point the mustache-growing-game I had with my flat mates. Well we all shaved on the week end.
Also worth noting is the bright blue shirt I'm wearing. Since men usually don't wear any fancy traditional cloth, I got this shirt in a color that's might seem extreme or gay in Germany, but is quite normal here :o

This is a construction site. It's typical, to find a massive, wooden scaffold but no tower crane or other machinery. Heavy materials are usually just carried by a group of people, as you can see, including women workers.

Here I just want to show the dirt, that's piled right next to a small shop. The improvised roof, made from blue canvas is typical for slum housing and can be found almost everywhere. There are no trash bins on the street, but piles of trash everywhere. Often I've been searching for a trash bin for very long and considered the ethical implications of throwing my stuff on the street. In the end I usually find that I'm not a good person, and throw my stuff on the street. It's tempting.

A group of women waiting for a bus in Manipal. In contrast to men, all women wear colorful, traditional cloth. As far as I know the color and style of the cloth also communicates some information about cast and region of origin, but I don't know about it.

about my work

2008-09-13T07:33:00.009+02:00

Today I will elaborate a bit on the project I'm doing. After all I came here with the official purpose of doing an internship at a University.

In short I'm setting up a system for image recognition, that can classify images of irises of different people. Everything I do happens on the computer. There is no camera or anything. I just use a data base that contains photographs of eyes from a lot of people, looking like figure 1.

Figure 1

The whole thing procedure is very easy, at least on a conceptual level. So bear with me and you will soon understand how biometric iris recognition can work.

The first step is to find where in the image the iris actually is. I've come up with a very efficient solution for this problem, in copying code that was available on the internet. Roughly speaking it works because the pupil is very dark, the iris is not quite as dark, and the white part around the iris is not dark at all. So detecting changes of image intensity (=brightness) is enough to find the iris. If found, that can be visualized as in figure 2.

Figure 2

Now there is the problem that irises change in size. You know that your pupil becomes larger when it's dark or when you take drugs. As the pupil becomes larger, the iris becomes smaller. But since you're still the same person the iris recognition system should not care about the absolute size of the iris. Therefore I transformed the image from a ring to a rectangular shape of constant size (see figure 3). This does not only solve the problem of varying size, but it also makes work much nicer, since rectangular images are easier to handle on a computer.

Figure 3

Now comes the magic. Because it's exhausting to work with a whole image and compare whole images, we want to extract only the important parts of the image. This is called features extraction. There are various ways to extract features and people argue which is the best way to do it. As I have no idea about this business at all, I let the other people argue and just chose one approach that seemed easy to implement. It is the Wavelet Transform. While there is an amazing number of books discussing it in all detail with more formulas than words, using it is much easier than understanding. I just know the matlab command [C,S] = wavedec2(I,4,'Haar'); and that's it. With some more magic the image becomes a reasonably short, one dimensional signal:

Figure 4

Now what we have is one funny signal like the above for each image in our database. So from now on we're not going to work with the images anymore but with their representation as funny signals (or feature vector as you might call it).
Now we want a machine that can learn to discriminate between signals from different persons. We will show the machine some signals from each person to learn first. After that, when we show the machine a new signal it should be able to classify it as coming from one of the persons. The machine we use is called Artificial Neural Network (ANN). It's a set of cells, grouped into some arrangement. Figure 5 shows a schematic representation. Using this system of connected units it is possible to do some computations, in a way that is remotely similar to how the brain works. That's why it's called neural network. The word artificial tells there is no actual network on my desk, but that it's just simulated on the computer. Anyway this network is capable of learning which kind of signal belongs to which person and it can make quite a good judgment about signals it has never encountered before.

Figure 5

Now you know what I do the whole day. For me this is quite interesting, as I learn something about image and signal processing as well as neural networks. Especially artificial neural networks are something I was very curious about. Also I learn that it's quite easy to implement a system as the one described above, without really getting into it. Modern software (Matlab) allows to do great things without understanding anything. So while 'doing it yourself' is certainly a good way to learn something, 'just reading' also seems to be an important part.

That's it for today. Have a nice weekend!

big ass bureaucracy

2008-09-10T14:42:00.001+02:00

The text is about an experience of bureaucracy

For use in our research project we need access to an online database. Access is granted upon faxing a request form. Not a big deal I though. Well, actually it might take some time, given the (non-)availability of fax machines and the sophisticated bureaucracy here in India.

First we went to our supervisor to download and fill the form on the computer. That was easy, and despite the fact that we had to use a printer in another office (only few offices are equipped with printers) the task was done in only about half an hour. Next we went to the Student Welfare Office, which is the nearest(and apparently only) place with a fax machine. We were told to come back later, when the Associate Director was there. We came back later, and met the Associate Director of Student Welfare in his office. He politely explained to us that for sending a fax it is essential to have the "Requisition for Fax Message" form filled by the Head of the Department. We went back again to the Head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Fortunately we didn't have to wait. Though the Head of Department told us, to get the form filled by our project supervisor, only then she will sign and stamp it. Well, everything else would have been too easy. Our supervisor was not there for the afternoon, so we had to wait for a day to get the form filled. Once that was done, we got the approving signature from the Head of Department. All requirements fulfilled. We went back to the Student Welfare Office, and when I saw the fax machine, I understood why there was such a fuzz about using it. The machine looked like some kind of alchemist apparatus and also reminded me of an old gramophone, because of the wooden box around it. I assume the fax machine has been here since founding of the University, 51 years ago.
Well the fax was sent, we got the paper back with a stamp denoting, date and time of delivery as well as a reference number. The reference number probably refers to the notes that were made in a large book where - I assume - all fax messages since 1957 are listed.

It was an odyssey, but a very funny one. I don't try to understand anymore. I just observe. It's quite funny if you have time and things are not important, but if I'd been in a hurry to sent this message it might have been frustrating.
Did I ever mention how much I like German bureaucracy? Things are so quick and easy! :)

random picture of the day: stairs in my flat with (my) bike

Wo der Pfeffer wächst

2008-09-09T11:07:00.001+02:00

I try to write about my week end activities every Monday. Yesterday however I spent most of the day in bed, as I got a cold and considerable fever again. It's much better today. I'm actually surprised how much better. The fever seems gone and I plan to go to work in the afternoon to post this message. Right now I'm writing on my flat mate Hisashi's laptop using Japanese Windows, which is quite an adventure ;)

For the week end an Indian guy invited me and the other interns to come along with his friends to the "near by" coffee plantation owned by his family. Including some
breaks it took us about 5 hours for the 100 km trip. Quite tiring. The coffee plantation was interesting since all kind of stuff was growing there: Pepper (!),
papayas, coffee, tee, oranges.
The striking thing however is, that the annual income from this family business is about 1.5 mio Euros!!! My Indian friend owns part of it and it sounded reasonable, when he told me he started studying, because he was bored. I wasn't surprised that they have "servants" for cleaning and cooking. On the next morning, one of the "servants" collected our left over beer from half empty bottles. And our host explained to us, that they do this because they are to poor to afford beer.
What The Fuck! Why are these people so poor?
I just can't understand it. An annual income of more than a milion Euros (just think about how much this would be in Rupees) and servants who can't afford to buy beer (which is about 0.80 Euros a bottle). I didn't ask how much they pay their people, but apparently not too much.
At the same time I was surprised how friendly and humanely our host interacted with the servants, and I was also surprised by his hospitality which exceed all hospitality as I knew it.

This place is strange. I think I have a negatively biased view becauase I'm sick right now. The social inequality makes me angry.

Better news to come ...
malte

"Pfeffer!"

"Diener"

the place we stayed

Ganesha Chaturthi

2008-09-04T08:47:00.003+02:00

Yesterday was the birthday of Ganesh, the God with the funny elephant head. It's a public holiday, so no work. Along with some Indian guys I went to a religious ceremony. I forgot to take my camera, so no pictures. The best thing was the food anyway. Compared to some dry bread and a small sip of juice, the Hindus have good sweets and spicy rice with their prayer. Very nice!

The afternoon I spent at the beach with other interns. I didn't forget my camera:

Note the mustache!

WTF?

Holiday in the hills

2008-09-01T07:46:00.006+02:00

It's been one month, since I came here, and by now many things have become just normal. What I perceived as a 'culture shock' really lasted only for a few days or a week. I'm impressed how quickly one adapts to a new situation.

For the week end I went on a trip to Udhagamandalam (or just 'Ooty') along with some Indians from IAESTE and other interns. Ooty is located in the hills, a bit south from here and offered familiar climate with temperatures around 10 C and rain. Though the scenery was beautiful and the our group was nice. As usual the journey took quite some time, but was exciting as I was going in a sleeper train for the first time. The train has some kind of compartments with six "beds" each, but there are no doors, so everything is open. It's quite weird to sleep in such a setting with so many people around, but still I had a good sleep.

Just see some pictures:

Tea plantations. I will bring some samples for you to test!

Some places looked just like Austria, with rivers and pine trees instead of beach an palm trees. I enjoyed the familiar setting

As in many places, also in Ooty we found monkeys. The prevalent species is the Bonnet Macaque (Lat.: Macaca radiata, D.: Indischer Hutaffe). They are very tame and hang around wherever food waste can be found (i.e. everywhere).

note the name

One of these characteristic Indian shops, where they sell just about anything you need. Ranging from single cigarettes to soap, and phone cards to food. I usually go for the amazingly sweet sweets.

pic

2008-08-28T08:33:00.003+02:00

This is the nearby river Sati (or something like that). I went there yesterday with some other interns and an Indian friend. We got a ride on the "Stocherkahn" and enjoyed the tranquility.

The price you pay

2008-08-27T07:48:00.004+02:00

The next Apple Store is in Bangalore, a 12h drive from here. However, things are not that bad. The University has an own Apple service, that's just about 12 min walk from my office.
I just brought my iBook there, and I was shocked, when told that a check up costs 2000 rupees. I'm quite sure that the main board is gone, and that there's no help anyways, so for a moment I considered not having the computer checked. But wait! I converted the 2000 Rs to Euros and found that 30 Euros isn't too bad for such a service. At Gravis Apple Store in Germany you pay 30 Euros for 15 minutes.
Still 2000 Rs is a lot of money compared to other prices. A three hour train ride might be 20 Rs. A meal with starter, drinks, and desert might be 200 Rs. (I usually get meals for around 50 Rs). You see the point? Not everything here is cheaper by the same factor. While work of uneducated people (see my post about the shoe maker), food, and transport are extremely cheap, you pay comparably much more for technical goodies (laptops, iPods and cameras are no cheaper here than in Europe) and educated workers. What becomes apparent again is the huge gap between the educated/rich and the uneducated/poor!

No pictures today. Since my laptop is gone, it's a bit more difficult to sort and process the pics for upload.

:(

2008-08-25T05:52:00.005+02:00

Hey mates,
Hope you had a nice week end. I certainly did. Along with some other interns I went to nearby Malpe Beach (notice the similarity to my name). I had great fun running around the beach, playing in the water and sitting under the palm trees, drinking from a coconut.
We also paid a visit to the famous Krishna temple, as it was the birthday of Lord Krishna (Hanne, I think it's the same festival we went to in Wellington). According to the news papers around 100.000 people were there. It was quite crowded. We saw dancing and music on the street and I received blessing from an Elephant!

The unfortunate news is, that my little iBook stopped working. It just went of and refuses to start up. The next apple shop is in Bangalore, which is a 12h ride from here. Given the situation I'm pretty relaxed. I think the laid back Indian attitude got me :)
It's a bit ironic, as for a long time I didn't want to bring my laptop anyways. I think I can get around without it pretty well. Let's see...

Lost and found

2008-08-23T05:50:00.002+02:00

The interesting things are those that change. Constant is boring. Today I will write about how my picture of India changed. Or more precisely, how my picture of myself changed. After all I'm primarily concerned not as much about the country, as about myself.

I chose India because I wanted to see something different. Something as different as it gets. I wanted to leave Germany behind, and Germany means a lot. Germany is bad weather, Germany is annoying family, Germany is boring friends, Germany is low self-esteem, Germany is an unsatisfying carreer, Germany is a stupid people, Germany is a boring me.* I was running away. It wasn't so much about what I was going to get, but what I was going to leave. Consequently I wanted to take with me as little as possible. Only few cloth, I wanted to get new, Indian cloth. Not my laptop, I wanted to find new ways to spend my time. Not my music, I wanted to listen to a new sound. Not my habits, I wanted to change. Not my fears, I wanted to become fearless.

During my first week I was dedicated to this plan. I didn't get my laptop out of the bag. I didn't listen to any of my beloved music. I didn't eat any familiar food. I didn't drink alcohol. I didn't like to spent time with white people. Instead I tried to talk with Indians wherever possible. Hanging out with the mostly European intern community was too familiar, too easy. This all made me feel pretty uncomfortable. It was a deep break with to my old self, and now I know what a "culture shock" is. I was quite successful in leaving myself behind.

Was I? After all I'm not sure.
Thinking about it now, my first week seems a long time ago. I was then very confused, insecure, homesick, overwhelmed. By now I feel routine in what I do. I don't miss home too much. I feel safe and comfortable. I know what to do and I feel I'm in control of my life. However on the way of reacquiring this comfort many habits I wanted to leave have reappeared. For example I started listening to my familiar music before sleeping.
Also I feel homely in the intern community, much more than I ever expected or intended. And I spent much time with them. Much more than with any Indian people. That's nice, because I don't wake up with an unbearable homesickness anymore, or feel feel completely lost in a hostile country. Instead I'm actually quite satisfied with me and my life.
But on the other hand, I feel I'm missing out on things. It's not the total conversion of my personality I once wished. And I'm not completely immersed in an Indian community. Rather I feel like establishing my identity as a "tourist". At the same time many things have become so familiar that I don't consciously notice them anymore. Like the head-nodding that confused me a lot during the first days, or the noise on the streets, or the women's cloth.

I'm not quite sure, what to make of all this, however I have two concluding thoughts: First, seeing another culture is nice, but observing how the own mind deals with the situation is the truly amazing part. Second, I'm impressed how capable the mind is of adapting to a strange situation. That is how quickly strange things become normal, and how strong and resistant one's identity is rooted.

---
* Don't get me wrong on this one. There's a lot of pleasant things in Germany, but for the sake of the argument I'm listing the bad ones here.

A few days ago Hisashi from Japan arrived, and now we're working on my project together. It's much more fun. Here's a pictures of us and as you can see we've been quite lucky with the weather lately.
And another picture I took last week:

"Fische"

child labor

2008-08-20T10:46:00.003+02:00

On one of my shoes the sole was coming off in the front and I decided to bring it to one of the shoemaker stalls on the main road to get it fixed. That was last week. The lady working there told me to pick up my shoe tomorrow. When I came back it wasn't done. The man working there at the time told me to come again tomorrow. I came another three times and the boy there told me to come back tomorrow. Actually not he told me, as he didn't speak English, but some bystanders translated. I came again, when more than a week had past since I brought the shoe. I didn't expect it to be ready and it wasn't. I wanted to get it back, a bystander explained, and then the boy agreed to do it immediately.
I sat down in a chair next to the stall and watched the boy of maybe 12 years stitching my shoe. Only in that moment it occurred to me, that this was actually child labor. Just a minute ago I was still angry about him being lazy and not sticking to his word. Now I felt very awkward, ashamed. He was humming a melody while working and I didn't see him as a shoemaker anymore, but as a child. As a poor boy, who should rather be in school, or play with his mates than work for money. Without going to school and learning English he will probably never get any other job than that at the shoemaker stall.
Which role do I play in that part? Did I just support child labor. Is it because of people like me, the customers, that this boy can't go to school? Or is it good I went there, so he made some business and safes some money to go to school some time? I don't think that will happen. I'm rather pessimistic about his future. I feel like buying him an book, or sweets, or anything to make me feel better about his situation.
He finished the job. I gave him Rs 20 (0.30 Euro). That was twice the price I was told when I came the first day, and a comparably high pay for the 5 minutes of work it took him. But I neither had change, nor could I ask him about the price, since we had no shared language.
I took a photo, I left, I still think about him.

"shoemaker in Maniapl"

How would you describe it?

2008-08-19T05:33:00.006+02:00

I'm generally skeptic, especially when it comes to travel guides. While on the one hand a travel guide is essential because you just have to know what's up where, one the other hand it can severely distort you experience. You find what you expect. A travel guide, telling you about how to perceive and evaluate a phenomenon is powerful. It might sell you a random castle for a 'fairy-tale fort' or just about anything as 'breathtakingly beautiful Buddhist art". In some cases these descriptions are justified, in some cases they are definitely not. It might be fine, if you don't think about it, just believe it, but I don't. I hate the thought to be in a foreign country and come back with exactly the experience, that a smart journalist prepared for me. For some reason it seems as if the authors were trying to sell you the country. (Probably selling a book implies "selling a country", who would by a travel guide telling you about all the boring places, not worth visiting.)
Given these thoughts I don't believe the lines on the back covers. "Country of opposites", "magical place", "dream destination" ... whatever; typical advertisement phrases.

I figured, though, that there are exceptions to this common scheme. The renown travel guide Lonely Planet India opens:
"Nothing can fully prepare you for India, but perhaps the one thing that best encapsulates this extraordinary country is its ability to inspire, frustrate, thrill and confound all at once."
And I think there are damn right! I couldn't have come up with a better way of describing this country in a single sentence. Now, when I reread the first pages I could totally understand why they call India " an invigorating assault on all senses". Concluding, "Love it or hate it - and most visitors seesaw between the two - India will jostle your entire being."

"Independence Day"

"Overload"

Freedom...

2008-08-18T06:04:00.002+02:00

... is riding a train, sitting at the open door with your legs hanging outside, feeling the wind; the outline of palm trees drawn on a full moon sky!
The rhythmic sound of the train engine, the passing lights of houses scattered in the forest, the air and rain drops playing on my fingers, the breeze in my face, the moon in the rivers, the speed. Pure bliss!

Yesterday I went on a day trip with my Romanian flat mate Alex. We went up the coast to the small place of Murdeshwar. The 60km bus ride took about 3 hours and was quite an experience in itself. Riding a bus is more bumpy than riding an elephant or a horse. In Murdeshwar we saw yet another huge temple (not pictured, from the outside they all look the same and inside no photos can be taken). The special thing here was the giant statue of Shiva. See the people on the picture to get an idea of the size.

The statue and the temple are on a small hill right at the coast, and a lot of fishing is done at the place. Here one of the many small fisher boats is pulled into the water.

As everywhere in this country the women wear colorful cloth

To save us from another bumpy ride we took the train on our way back. It was late by an hour, so we had some time to watch the trucks riding by. When the train finally came it was to dark to take pictures, but it was amazing!

cold rain

2008-08-16T10:46:00.002+02:00

I wrote the following a few days ago, but didn’t get to post it earlier. So here it is, read, and I will post more soon. By the way, I’m much better again.

[12.08]
I finally got a lot of time to write my book. I'm sick. I caught a cold. It must have been the fan in our bed room, swirling the whole night, or the air conditioning, that freezes me to the bones whenever I enter the lab after just getting soaked in the nice monsoon rain.
The monsoon might last just for 10 minutes, usually the 10 minutes you are walking home from work. And as soon as you reach the door it stops as suddenly as it started. It just doesn't need more because those few minutes are more than enough to get you wet to your underwear even if you do have an umbrella.
Sometimes though, it stays and we have rain for the whole night. Lucky are those who don't have to leave the house.

There are a few things that go together with the monsoon. First of all the fact that the sky is always cloudy. Seeing the sun is rare and only once have I seen a star, briefly appearing on the night sky before being covered by thick clouds again. Second, the air is always humid. The cloth don't dry on the line, everything is in danger of getting moldy, and every night, I feel a disgusting dampness on my mattress and pillow.

[oh, just after writing this paragraph I picked up my backpack, which stood in a corner for a week, and is well covered with mold now. I'm grateful for any ideas on how to keep things from rotting.]

Maybe I'm also rotting. After being here for more than a week I had some issues with my stomach/digestion for the first time.

And here a few more pictures.

This is our seventh room mate, the lizard. He comes in every now and then through the small hole in the wall next to the window. He's a relaxed fellow but a bit shy, so I'm very happy I got this picture of him.

This is the building in which we live. I was told that the moldy black color appears after only one monsoon season. So it's not surprising the buildings here aren't as clean as in Deutschland.

And this is the view we have from our apartment. Depending on the conditions, the boarder between green and gray can be closer or farther away.

visual stimuli

2008-08-12T08:35:00.005+02:00

So finally here are some photos to give you a more vivid impression of my environment over here.

From left to right: Miguel from Portugal (my room mate), me, Majd from Lebanon and Nima from Iran. The Romanian and the Californian guy who also life in the flat are not here. In appreciation of the Indian style we all started growing mustaches. Obviously I'm slightly disadvantaged.

Our flat is in the building on the left. It's just another monsoone day. Note that were the girls is walking, is the Manipal main road!

All the following pictures are from our weekend trip to Mysore. Compared to Manipal it's not just a university in the middle of the Jungle, but a "proper" city ;)
As everywhere in India the roads are shared by all kind of vehicles.

A popular sight is an old Palace, that is illuminated at night.

Some important temple on a hill, asides as special object for a special friend. And me and two friends on our way to that temple.

The other pictures propably don't need any explanations ...

Thanks for the comments and other feedback on my blog. I'm very happy whenever I hear from you! Please use the comment function.

btw. facebook is blocked at the university, so I'm not using it atm.

Today I am...

2008-08-07T13:27:00.002+02:00

... sad, angry, frustrated, melancholic, happy, touched, confused, ambitious, brave ...

Being in India is like being at a huge party with a different atmosphere in every room. But the rolling beat of the music always gets you going again.

I wasn't happy in the morning. I met my professor today. She gave me only some vague instructions what to do. Just "play around" with the software I'll use for my project. I didn't feel taken care off. When I sat down on the same slow computer as yesterday and noticed that the software wasn't installed properly I became frustrated and almost angry when none of the technicians (there are 2 technicians in each computer lab) was able to tell me how to get the software or when they could solve the issue. I felt totally alone, only given a task but no help at all. Surrounded by people who were incapable of helping me.
I was deeply touched when I came back from lunch break and on my desk I found a new, much faster computer with all the necessary software. So after all the technicians saw my need and put quite some effort into getting me what I wanted. Only in a way that I'm not used to. While in Germany they might have told me in the morning, we'll get this computer ready for you, here all they say is "yes, yes" and "maybe", and than it's just there. I feel a bit guilty for condemning them in my thoughts. Maybe I'll present them some of the Haribo sweets I brought from Germany tomorrow.

With this positive experience my bad feelings from the morning are completely revolted. Also after staying in the lab for the second day I recognize the faces of the two technicians there (as it goes with the unfamiliar, I had some problems discriminating the faces of some Indians in the beginning). I feel a bit connected to the place and can glimpse the imagination to work there for the next three month.

I had lunch today with an Indian student whom I met in the computer lab yesterday. Following my agenda to get in touch with locals I got his phone number and we met in one of the many cheap restaurants today. He showed me some good food and we had a nice conversation. When he gave a ride back on his motor bike we passed by an elephant standing on the street. When I later when back to that corner the animal had magically disappeared. You have to expect everything in this country!

Thanks for your emails and comments. I'm very happy about every message I get from the familiar world. Just as I still didn't get my laptop connected I use internet only from work or internet cafe and haven't gotten trough to write more personal messages yet.

Stay tuned!

penetrating culture

2008-08-06T07:54:00.002+02:00

Today I met my Professor. We talked briefly and agreed that I shall do some project on neural networks. If I got it correct I'm supposed to meet somebody later, who will supervise my work. For now I was brought to a computer lab to "browse the internet" until some necessary forms are ready: India is very bureaucratic.

I am thinking a lot. All the time I try to make sense of the things I see, relate new experiences to previous knowledge, classify impressions, ... understand. Only when they don't work you become aware of all the subconscious routines guiding you through daily life. When I see somebody on the street in Germany I can make a pretty good judgment about that person base on their movement, cloth, language, and so on. Here even the facial expressions are different! There is this sideways nod of the head, that a shop owner might give you after a deal. In Germany this gesture in combination with the expression they use means contempt or "you're stupid". I hope here it means something different, as I was just given the same look by my Professor. Wow, that's irritating!
Social cognition doesn't just flow. It needs a lot of conscious effort. Experiencing this I have now a lot more understanding for all immigrants who come to Germany and don't integrate into the culture.

When I came here I expected I could completely integrate into Indian life. By now I think that's utopic (impossible). The cultural constraints are strong. Together with the culture comes the social group. So far I got to talk to only few Indians and it is hard to get into an established group of friends. That's difficult even in you're own country. On the other hand there's the community of other IAESTE Interns which whom I have much more in common. We life together, we come from similar cultures, and above all we're in the same situation of being strangers. There's a strong sense of community with the interns and occasionally I feel like a soldier in a colony during the 1800s. With our small white community we walk through the city, just not fitting in there and not understanding the people around us.
I will to try to engage in some activities with native students, and stay attentive and open to learn. In any case I haven't been here for even a week and usually things change unexpectedly ;)

I will write more on my perception of cultural differences and my mental reactions soon (including pictures).

First days in INDIA

2008-08-04T13:42:00.004+02:00

Here I am, listening to bollywood sound from the radio, sitting in a small, far too hot internet cafe on a dirty road in Manipal.

Whatever you think about India, it's different. The first day here I felt more like a movie, or better like a drug trip. Everything is new and so different from the known that it's hard to associate the impressions with previous experience.

It's too much to comprehend and give any concluding statements or evaluations, but I'll try with a few impressions.
Pictures will follow later when I get internet on my own computer.

I arrived in Mumbai airport at midnight, when August 1st was starting. Mumbai airport is not a big city airport, it's more of a construction site, and it took me quite a while to get my baggage. Since there were no indications I was waiting at the wrong luggage belt for about an hour. I had to wait for my connecting flight which was at 11 am, so I left the airport and was immediately approached by a taxi driver. Despite all the mental preparations and what I knew I ended up in his car. I had a very hard time convincing him that I will not take a hotel which he was offering me for "very good price". He told me that I couldn't stay at the airport, because the domestic terminal was closed during the night (Which wasn't true), and he drove me around Mumbai for an hour, before he dropped me of at the airport again. First he drove me into some kind of slum, stopped the car and made me pay around 20 Euro, which is a horrendous amount of money here.
Anyway I saw some slums, poor people, dirt, and the coast.

I then spent the rest of the night sleeping in a chair at the airport, closely holding my bags and waking up every half hour checking my belongings. My trust in Indian people was pretty devastated.
Finally I caught my plain to Mangalore Airport. The view from the plain was great. Mangalore, as well as Manipal (close to Udupi, which one can find on google maps) are in the rain forest. I was picked up by a driver from the University and we took 1.5 hours for the 60km to Manipal. Just the ride was an adventure as such. The first thing we came across was a group of cows in the middle of the road. Then the normal indian driving. The road is bumpy and shared by cars, busses, trucks, motor bikes, bicicles, rickshaws and pedestrians. Instead of breaks people use the horn. Driving is supposedly on the left lane, but usually in the middle of the road if there are no other cars. Sometimes people also drive on the right.

In Manipal I found my flat with 3 rooms. I share a room with a Portuguese, in the other two rooms a Lebanese, an Iranian, a Romanian and a guy from the USA live. We're all doing internships at the university and part of the community of about 30 interns here. So far I'm well integrated in this international community, but I have talked to few Indians except for those from IAESTE (the organization arranging the internships). However the people here in Manipal are all nice and I have regained my trust in Indians :)

Manipal a suburb of Udupi. More accurate its a university and a number of houses and shops in the jungle. It's not comparable to a city or village in Germany. I hope to be able to upload some videos soon. A picture won't be sufficient to capture the life, noise, dirt, color and heat in the streets. It's crazy!

I haven't met my employer yet, since she's ill today and I hope to see her tomorrow.

That's it so far. More to follow as soon as I get a proper internet connection (which should be by the middle of the week, but in India things can take longer ...)

Greetings to all my friends and family!
Namaste!

Detmold...

2008-07-28T01:05:00.007+02:00

... is the Kathmandu of Germany. Approved by my Nepali friend Prabhakar who visited me for a weekend in my home town. We visited some tourist attractions that I hadn't seen in the last 10 years (see figures). I also learned a few words of hindi which I forgot again already. Anyway. My flight to India is on Thursday and I'm excited like hell. It's full monsoon down there. Hot and thunderstorm every day, and the forecast hasn't changed in the last two weeks. http://in.weather.yahoo.com/INXX/INXX0127/index_c.php At least it's not cold :)

vaccinations ...

2008-07-20T20:27:00.003+02:00

Poliomyelitis, diphteria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis A+B, cholera, rabies, typhoid fever, and japanese B encephalitis vaccinations. Additionally large supplies of anti-malaria drug. I'm immortal!

Tü2

2008-07-12T10:05:00.001+02:00

The sun is shining in Switzerland and I had a beautiful view while approaching Zurich airport.
I returned form Helsinki to spend a few more days in Tübingen before I'll go back to my parent's place. While it was great to see my brother, there were some bad vibrations and I'm happy to be back in Germany.
I still have this feeling of disconnectedness, that follows me since I left Bremen. I left what has become my 'home', and with the travels ahead, a new 'home' is not in sight yet. Though I'm getting more and more comfortable with the idea

Helsinki

2008-07-06T11:49:00.005+02:00

A few days ago I arrived at my brothers place in Helsinki.
Here we are quite far up the northern hemisphere and consequently it doesn't really get dark at night. This photo is taken around 2am:

Yesterday we went for a BBQ in the forest. It was great fun until our car got stuck in the mud, on our way back. Some five times we had to lift the car with the jack to put logs underneath the wheels. Puhh, quite some work...

Tübingen

2008-07-01T14:52:00.006+02:00

I just spent a few days in Tübingen, my favorite city in Germany. It was a great time relaxing in the sun and visiting many dear friends, whom I hadn't seen for ages. It's all so enchanting and I'm more and more convinced to come here for my master studies next year.
Check some pictures below:

Ahoi!

2008-06-22T00:47:00.003+02:00

[English below]

Hallo liebe Freunde,

Ich habe lange darüber nachgedacht, was ich an dieser Stelle schreiben sollte, aber es ist mir nichts eingefallen. Offensichtlich habe ich einen blog gestartet, und dies ist der erste Eintrag.

Wenn es um neue Technologien geht bin ich eher konservativ, und das Konzept des bloggens würde ich bestenfalls als zweifelhaft beschreiben, aber ... vielleicht irre ich mich ja. Mit dem Abschluss meines Studiums und dem Auszug aus Bremen habe ich viele gute Freunde zurück gelassen und die Entfernung wird noch größer, wenn ich im August nach Indien reise. Zeitgemäß möchte ich mit diesem blog versuchen die Kommunikation zu fördern und mit weniger Aufwand mehr Menschen zu erreichen ;)
Ich bin gespannt ob ich es schaffe regelmäßig zu schreiben, und leser zu interessieren.

Und weil dies der erste post ist, gibt es gleich noch zwei videos:

Shishir Jhain ritto [youtube] ist ein Musik Video zu einem Nepalesischen song. Mein Freund Prabhakar singt und hat das Video geschrieben, regiert und gefilmt. Ich schaupsiele.

Malte singing Dragostea Din Tei [youtube] ist ein Tribut an meine Rumänischen Freunde, die den Song glaube ich gar nicht so lustig finden wie ich. Anyway, wer die Musik nicht mag kann sich über meine kläglichen Versuche an der Gitarre freuen ;)

Genug für heute. Bald mehr.
m

Dear Friends,
I thought a lot about what to write here, but I couldn't come up with anything. Obviously I started a blog and this is the first posting.

I'm rather conservativ about new technologies and I doubt the usefulness of blogging, but ... maybe I'm wrong. Now that I finished my studies and moved out from Bremen I left many friends behind. It will be worse when I travel to India in August. So I started this blog to keep in touch. I wonder if I'll manage to post regularly and in such a way that it's actually interesting to read.

For now, check these two videos:
Shishir Jhain ritto [youtube] a music video for a Nepali song. I'm acting, my friend Prabhakar is singing the song, came up with the script and did the shooting, directing and editing (praise him!)
Malte singing Dragostea Din Tei [youtube] is what the name says. In appreciation of Romanian culture and all my Romanian friends ;)

That's it for now. more to come.
m