How to train a graduate in Germany 2.3
It has been over two months since I continued this series, so much so that I had to gain access to a pensieve in order to recollect my memories associated to this particular timeline. For those who don't have an access to a pensieve, some basic journaling skills help. Unlike my usual doozy demeanour, I was particularly excited to write this series as a perfect closing to 2020. After all, it has been six months since I first started writing blogs, and it has honestly been comforting to me, taking me into a trance away from reality. Last I checked I had reached 2.5k views when I include all my blog posts. So yaay!
Without further adieu, let's continue with where we had abruptly ended.
Summer of 2018, with sun grinning completely of yellow tinted teeth (unlike the toothpaste advertisements where everyone ends up with a blanched teeth), I enter a dimly lit excuse for a classroom in the topmost floor of a well hidden building. While I enter this building, I feel like one of those secret agents who appear in several movies (totally distant from reality). Little did I know that by the end of this semester, I would be employed by them and work in this building for another six months (spoiler alert). In their minds :
"We will watch your career with great interest"
Palpatine, Star wars
Am I a "star wars" fanatic? No, but the dialogues uttered in star wars films have been well captured by creative artists (meme makers :D). Anyways, as I am seated in the first row of the sparsely lit room (am I in a movie theatre?), I turn around to see my batchmate enter through the door. He was shining like an vampire, or was it donuts he was holding that was sparkling. Let us call this person S. So S briefly had Y (from the very first blog, "sleeping beauty") a roommate. In S's own words, he was nearly killed by Y. Want to hear how? Let me tell you now : (even if you wouldn't want to know)
"It was a lazy Sunday morning. The clock ticks, announces 11 a.m with a soft, cheerful tone. S timidly rolls in his bed. Y walks to the kitchen in a semi-conscious state. There is only one thing in his mind : Coffee. To act in defiance to his country's traditional drink, he quickly brings up the flame and places a saucepan with some water in it. In a cup, he drops the essentials for a coffee. He lifts the saucepan from the flame and gently turns the stove knob. With a sense of achievement, having accomplished brewing a beverage in a trace state, he marches out to the balcony with anime music buzzing out of his cell phone. Annoyed by the sudden knocking of the music in a hushed environment, S stirs up from his bed and checks his phone. He senses it first, but brushes it off for a false alarm after looking at Y drinking his coffee. And then, when he snuffed the surrounding air, he was certain! He ran towards the kitchen with all his unexpiated energy, narrowly missing the world record for the fastest sprint. He turned off the gas from the stove just in time, barring Aachen from the glory of witnessing a spectacular blast. "
After S narrated this to me with his usual dramatical voice and utilizing unnecessary prop and hand actions, a friend who was listening to this narration said calmly "Scheiße (shit), what a blast it could have been!" and I burst out laughing. Predictably, Y stayed as a nomad as long as I heard from him, hopping from residence to residence. He has a couch surfer's soul deep within him, and we will continue to cherish him for that, except for a German friend, but I cannot reveal that story just yet.
Despite having studied fluid mechanics quite extensively in Bachelor's, this lecture series brought me back to level one (zero, actually). I greatly enjoyed "boundary layer theory", especially for the lectures and the course content (in german, special thanks to Google translate). The professor handling this course brought life to a course which could easily be sedimented with a thousand page book thrust on your lap while you try to balance it with several other courses. There are more stories to write about in regardance to this course, but to stay inclusive of other concurrent events, I will include their "espionage" :p
I don't want to reveal the name of this particular course, since I need to prepare myself to be part of a secret organization in a semester. The professor handling this course basically did the following, which had an one-on-one correspondence with many of my bachelor lectures.
Unsurprisingly, after the first lecture itself, only a few students turned up for his classes. Another course could be laid on the other end of the spectrum, where seconds moved at the pace of days. Despite it being the first lecture of this particular lecture, I could finish the professor's sentence in my mind much faster than he can utter (new superpower, well, not really). Contrary to the previous professor, he barely used the power point and stuck by the whiteboard. I am not under the liberty of naming these courses, but I liked the course content of the second course. It introduced me to the world of "tensors" and I always like to indulge myself in higher dimensions. Tensors held the boundary between joy and mental breakdown quite effortlessly. I would recommend anyone to get comfortable with tensors and tensor algebra in general. In the footballing world back then, Germany did not advance to the knockout stages which lead to the following memes and all eyes turned onto Belgium which had a similar flag. More about this in 2021.
Happy 2021 with a lot more reading and learning to my dear readers. 2020 as a year hasn't been easy for any one of us. As I reflect about this year, there are many things which come to my mind but they are best kept away from public space. I don't want any of my writings to be turned against me. Everyone fights their own battle, better not to judge them based on perceptions. I have some exciting projects in the pipeline for writing in 2021 (education and travel). See you next year! (I always wanted to say that!)
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