I have been asked in the previous week on how to follow this blog. If you have found it useful there are two ways you can follow it. You can follow using RSS reader or using any social media that supports Fediverse.
I thought about enabling email notifications but I now decided against it. For what I know one will surely start disliking the mails and it is bound to get ignored. I know because I do the same as well.
Go to the bottom of this webpage and click on the RSS icon. (A white dot in the bottom-left corner and two curved white line)
Copy the URL and paste it in the RSS reader of your choice.
Fediverse
Fediverse is a distributed social media for people who would like to keep their privacy. You can read more about it here. There are several apps that are part of Fediverse like Mastadon, Peertube etc.
In this blogs we will talk about using Threads as this is the most well know app. Important to notice is that Fediverse is in Beta in Threads. One major issue that I observe is that it only displays short posts. Hence I will highly recommend using the above RSS reader method currently.
Firstly, to use Threads in Fediverse it needs to be enabled. Then you can look for the blog and follow it just like any other account.
Enabling Fediverse
You can find the detailed instructions on the official site. I am just copying it here for convenience.
Click Menu in the bottom left, then click Settings.
Click Account at the top, then click Fediverse sharing.
Follow the onscreen prompts to learn more about sharing to the fediverse.
Once you’ve reviewed the information, click Turn on sharing.
Following the blog
Go to the bottom of the page and click on Fediverse button.
Copy the profile address which appears there (@blogs).
Search for this address in your Fediverse app and follow.
It has been the inaugural welcome week, it’s been very interesting. There has been a lot of information flow and we are meeting and making new friends from various parts of the world.
The whole feeling is so surreal. Sitting in the classrooms after so long feels so amazing and refreshing. Also, meeting people with whom I was only chatting for so many days also feels wonderful.
Throughout the week, we have been repeatedly told how very hard it is going to balance the extremely challenging coursework, part-time job, social circle, clubs and hobbies. But the challenge is a welcome.
Amongst all this, I am already experiencing the effects of different cultures. For the first time, I truly recognize the comfort that comes of familiarity. I had known it all along, but the environment amplifies the feeling.
Then there was the visit to the Audio lab at Fraunhofer – a dream come true.
Brown Magnet
I realized that I am a Brown magnet. I gravitate towards, and attract other Brown people more. This is not racial comment, rather just a casual observation.
When I was in India I saw people grouping up with people from their own states. Now I see the same thing happening at a different level.
I often find myself striking conversation or being approached by people from similar background. I observe that the humor works similar in India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. The pronunciation is similar and it makes it slightly easier to converse.
Whereas, when I speak to people away from India they are different in their body language. It is tough to guess what was meant as a joke.
These are small differences but somehow I now feel they are crucial. Even though we all speak English, it is not the same information we convey with this language. I am thankful to Hollywood which makes some communication common.
Of course, by the end of the course I shall have more in common with the rest. I will hopefully learn their cultures, language and humor.
A packed classroom
Audio Labs
Today was also the first lab visit. The excitement felt like that of a 5-year old going to an amusement park. Like the good feel that you get when you are hungry and you get Biriyani?? No? I guess that analogy works only for me. But you get it. It was crazy excitement behind the composed face.
The Audio Labs is one of the FAU facilities which is inside the Fraunhofer research labs. Under my degree program there is a possibility to focus on audio processing. But I am not sure if I will choose that path.
I am not an audiophile but today I know that I experienced good music. I have been to theater halls, but I have never experienced good audio like today’s. I experienced really loud music which still managed to retain its quality.
Demo
Then also the demo on audio codecs was cool. The small software in the mobile which converts and transmits the audio goes unnoticed. Today in the demo the codec from GSM and LTE full hd quality were played simultaneously. The difference was significant.
Something funny
Although it was a cool demo the discussion with the professor slightly dampened the enthusiasm. Since so much is around multimedia and music I had a natural question if one has to be good with music to research in this field. The answer was slightly disappointing. Having a good sense of music is desirable, just like, to find a job easily in Germany knowing German is not necessary but highly desirable.
Pretzel and drinks
Now what?
The week hasn’t concluded. This is still the fun part – enjoying the demos and instructions. The tough part is yet to begin – studying. But we are ready for the challenge. We know we will make it just like 40000 other students in the university.
This is a quick guide on how to connect with eduroam, zoom and vpn at FAU. This guide is in addition to How to setup Gmail client for FAU mail which was for the email.
Eduroam is a convenient way to access the University Wifi across multiple universities. Eduroam helps in easy authentication of students internationally even when working or traveling to a different university.
The detailed instructions for connecting is provided in the FAU site here. I summarize the steps here for android and windows.
Android
Download geteduroam app from playstore. You can also click here.
Search for FAU Erlangen and when prompted for username and password just enter the idm username and password.
Bamberg is a neighboring city of Erlangen. It is a UNESCO World heritage. I could have visited this place on any other day but I would have missed the Antique Market. This morning when my flatmate asked if I would like to join I said yes spontaneously and it turned out to be a good decision.
Antikmarkt
After a 40-min train ride we reached Bamberg station. The city felt busier as soon as we exited the station. A 10 min walk on the Luitpold Strasse – the main street right in front of the station, took us to the Luitpold Bridge (Bruke). This is one of the many bridges across the Main Danube canal. It is the same Canal which passes next to my house in Erlangen.
Luitpold Strasse
Upon reaching the bridge we found that the main attraction seemed to be on the nearby bridge. We walked over to investigate and found a flea market there. Many antique stuff were on sale – old telephones, camera, coins, iron boxes, paintings and a lot of other things. It was crowded but enjoyable.
Antikmarkt
When we asked around what this market was and we understood that this is a yearly Antique market. It happens on the 3rd of October. The things sold here are strictly regulated so that nothing new gets sold as antique. There is also a group of experts available on site to can confirm if the object is truly antique or not.
St. Elisabeth Church
We continued our walk without buying anything at the flea market looking for the famous Bamberg Cathedral. We entered the Old Town area. This is where the UNESCO World Heritage buildings are. Many buildings date back to the middle ages here.
The first prominent building we encountered was St. Elisabeth Church. The building dates back to before 1300s.
Bamberg Cathedral
The roads kept climbing and getting narrower. At the top they suddenly opens into the vast open space. This is where the main buildings are located.
Bamberg Cathedral
I do not know enough about architecture to appreciate it. All I can say is that it is a huge building. You really need to be inside it to feel the scale of construction. The roof stands 26m high with the towers being 81m.
One interesting thing about the cathedral is that it has been rebuilt over on top of the same area 3 times. This significantly raised the ground level. I recently watched a video on this concept and I was happy to see it.
This Cathedral was initially built over a settlement around 1000 AD. A fire in 1081 burned it down. It was rebuilt a second time in 1085 AD and a fire in 1185 AD brought it down again. Finally, the current cathedral is built in 1237.
A section of the old cathedral can be seen inside the new one, though the entry is restricted.
Old Cathedral inside the new
New residence, Old court & Ice cream
Stepping outside the cathedral we saw the Neue Residenze and Alte Hofhaltung, the new and old residences of Bamberg’s Bishops. These buildings were both majestic buildings to look at. Both are now used as museums.
New residence
The view from up here was stunning. The entire city was visible below.
Bamberg from Cathedral
After enjoying the view for some time we decided to walk down. On the way, we found an ice cream stall. I had never had a lemon flavored ice cream. So, I gave it a try. It was essentially frozen lemonade. It was too sweet for my liking.
Lemon flavoured ice
We also passed Schlenkerla brewery which is famous for its smoked beer – though wouldn’t know the difference so we simply crossed it towards the Altes Rathaus.
Altes Rathaus and the bridges
The old town hall (Altes Rathaus) of Bamberg has an interesting story. Evidently, the bishop of Bamberg in the 14th century refused to give land for constructing the town hall. The town people came to with an ingenious plan. They built an artificial island in the middle of the water and built the town hall on top of it.
Altes Rathaus
Two bridges connect Rathaus to either side of the riverbank. The Rathaus walls are decorated with murals. One notable aspect is a 3D leg protruding out of the painting.
Mural and the leg
Further
The city is interesting and a single visit isn’t enough to explore it all. There are a few things that I missed. The next time I’ll hike to the monastery up the hill, take a photo of the Rathaus from the smaller bridge, which offers a better view of the Rathaus. Also, visit the “Little Venice”.
Overall the city is a nice place to spend time walking. So I might visit it a couple more times in the future.
