[I fell in ❤ with] Shingeki No Kyojin/Attack On Titan

I know I know, I am kind of late. Attack On Titan has been hyped for a really long time and I pretty much read the title of the manga/anime EVERYWHERE. But being a busy person with having to find an apartment, preparing for university - the list goes on, I just couldn't find the time, nor motivation to actually get to know more about this really hyped anime.

Until ~2 weeks ago when I finally came around watching the trailer for the anime series and was BLOWN AWAY. I was thinking: "Holy shit, how is this not my favourite anime already???" So I immediately started watching episode 1 of Attack on Titan and damn, never have I been so captured by an anime that actually made me yell and cry and laugh at the same time. SPOILER ALERT! Especially when Eren was actually eaten by a Titan, I just couldn't stop yelling: "HOLY SHIT DID HE JUST DIE? DID THAT REALLY JUST HAPPEN? HE CAN'T JUST DIE, HE IS THE FREAKING MAIN CHARACTER! ARE YOU SHITTING ME? HE WAS JUST EATEN? THE HELL! WHY??? I DON'T GET THIS! HE REALLY DIED, OH MY GOD!" ... Yep, that was really me after that scene happened.

Okay, so I started consuming the anime, already looking up the manga - where to purchase, how many volumes there have been released, etc. Until now I have bought Volume 01 and 02 so far and am slowly going to buy all the other volumes that have been released in Germany. In November there will be the release of Volume 05 along with a slipcase THAT I REALLY NEED TO BUY OK?

I really love that the author is a huge fan of Germany. When I heard the first intro of the anime, I was like: "Ugh what are they saying in the beginning. All I understand is 'Jäger'..." Until I found out that they actually say a whole sentence in German: "Ihr seid das Essen, wir sind die Jäger." ("You are the food, we are the hunters.") Adding to that, pretty much 70% of the characters' names are German. Armin is pretty German, I'd say. Reiner Braun - that's like 100% German here.

Can we also just take little - really long - moment to appreciate Levi? Like damn, I am so attracted to this guy (although he is short as hell). I wouldn't mind him scrubbing my apartment floor... if you get what I mean... (cough)

[LIFE OF A 대학생] #3: 3 Cons of living on your own in a foreign/unfamiliar city

This is just a small post about the things I have experienced so far.

• You have to do everything on your own.

Cooking, cleaning the apartment, doing the laundry, making important phone calls, filling in forms, going grocery shopping, running errands, finding your way around, knowing what to do in every daily situation... the list of things your parents would have normally done for you goes on and on. But no, your parents aren't there anymore to pamper you. This is what life is really like! You have to face every situation that may seem troublesome on your own. Sometimes you can ask your parents or surf the internet for advice, but in the end it's you who has to make a decision. It can be quite a challenge to face all this on your own!

• It can get quite lonely.

This depends on how you live. Either you live together with strangers in an apartment or you're renting an apartment only for yourself. Either way, it can get a little lonely in a huge city where everything and everyone is strange and unfamiliar to you. Making friends as quick as possible is the only solution to fight the loneliness and have people around who can help you or comfort you.

• Life is expensive.

As soon as you live on your own you will notice how expensive life actually is. Your living habits will change as soon as you realise that putting on the stove to make yourself some pasta already costs a lot of electricity. Life without internet connection is unimaginable in times like these. But have you ever thought about how expensive it can get to monthly pay for your 25mbit/s? Especially as a student, things you have considered all your life to be normal, now become a privilege and a piece of luxury to you. Here are four ideas to save money:

[LIFE OF A 대학생] #2: Enrolling and looking for an apartment

English

[September 2014] Hello guys! Haven't posted in a long time because I was so busy with university and other things. Short update again: I have been accepted to three unversities - Tübingen, Bonn and Berlin.

 

After a very very long time of jumping back and forth between unis and contemplating which one is the best, I finally made a decision and sent all my papers to Berlin. It's been almost two weeks now and today I checked the status online and it said the following: "You have been enrolled. Your student ID, showing your student ID number, will be sent to you by mail."
Yay! I officially am a university student, woohoo!

 

The next steps will be: waiting for a letter from uni with my student ID which I have to show my bank so that I won't have to pay for my savings account; finally finishing all the papers I need to fill in and send to Berlin in order to get financial support; finally FINALLY find an apartment in Berlin!

 



Weeks later...

Flashing forward to October 2014 because I haven't really had the time to finish writing this post. I got all my papers from university with my student ID. The last weeks have been torture, I tell you. Looking for an apartment has probably been the hardest thing I have ever done in life. But really fortunately, my mum got in contact with a really nice guy who is a landlord and had an offer for a one room apartment which wasn't too expensive. So I moved pretty spontaneously to Berlin and have been living here for a little bit over a week.
Uni has also already started on Wednesday this week and it is really really tough already. Speaking in more detail about my major: Korean studies is really no joke. Lectures haven't started yet but I already am obliged to attend a course that's going to teach us all the basics. I have to say that everyone expects a lot of us. The Korean professor expected everyone with no knowledge of the Korean language to actually teach themselves the alphabet and how to write it in one day. So you can only imagine how glad and relieved I was that I taught myself 한글 like three years ago, otherwise I would probably be really frustrated right now. The first two days you learn about pronounciation and next week we'll get to know more about the country and its history.
You have to put your schedule together on your own. All of this happens online on a particular website of my university. It's kind of difficult to understand all of this in the beginning, like which courses you have to take when and how to book the lectures online and so on. They also tell you to go slowly in your first semester and to not book too many courses. So, if I have actually gotten this right, then my schedule isn't actually too busy. I have a Korean language course from Tuesday to Friday for two hours plus lectures on Friday about Korean history, economy and politics for two hours as well. That seems really chilled, right? But be aware of having to study loads for your Korean language course. It really takes a lot of self studying at home to become good. Because as far as I have already experienced during the two days of my pre-course, you will have to teach yourself a lot.

This post is a bit rushed because I wanted to squeez in everything that has happened in the past two to three weeks. But I hope it already gave you a first impression about what my life is like right now. I will also post a few cons of living on your own soon, as well more details about my major and about attending university. So far everything has been pretty unfamiliar and new to me so I can't really say that much. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or message me on twitter! :>

(German version of this entry after the cut - click on 'Read more')