How to train a graduate in Germany 2.4

Back to rejoiceful writing! We left our story on a cliffhanger. Germany didn’t make it to the knockout stages. But before I get onto this, I realized that I missed major sections of the storyline and deliberately skipped to this moment. Let’s rewind a bit shall we? This story fleshes out how I lost many of my inhibitions and got out of my comfort zone in Germany.

I captured this on a Halloween. Funny how ironical it is to state it now.

Myself and three of my classmates (Mexican man U , Spanish woman A  and German woman S ) decided to meet in Elisenbrunnen to witness salsa dancing  wherein the floor is open to anyone to dance. For those who haven’t been to Elisenbrunnen, you have saved yourself from the pungent smell of sulphur. It was primarily a spa for the kings back then. Dancing on a floor which housed the great King Charlemagne is something to be proud of right? (highly debatable) But usual banter aside, It sure is an architectural beauty with excellent lighting to capture the essence of Aachen. Little did I know that we would be “dancing” there. I for one haven’t made any rhythmic motions with my hands or legs to constitute something close to a dance in my entire life.

U and A had dancing in their blood (or part of their culture at least). S was also a pretty good dancer and a very cheerful person. A told me that we should enter the dance floor while U and S were entering it. I freaked out! I told her this, “I will just embarrass you” to which she replied “Doesn’t matter. Nobody cares here“. She started demonstrating and assisting me with basic steps of salsa. She did the laborious “male-equivalence” of salsa by spinning me around  . I obviously made many mistakes going offbeat and then we switched partners and S did the same basic steps with me.

Photo by Ardian Lumi on Unsplash (No photographs taken on this day)

And then, I danced with U wherein he taught me more complex steps and I messed up totally, to which we laughed our heads off. So overall, I had the time of my life and nobody else cared in the audience. Safe to say, that was the last time I had danced until now.

Let me recall an event from my first semester. Precisely this, wherein I had to make a walk of atonement before failing to make it to the karaoke night. Say what about second chances in life, I got to prove my adept singing skills🎤🎶 once again! To make sure that I don’t make any obtuse decisions again, I accompanied my German friend to the Bahnhof (railway station). Well, talk about strange encounters, I had one in our sufficiently short journey.

I had an American batchmate who I would rename as Bob (I don’t really remember his full name). Bob was the textbook definition of eccentricity. So much so that, you can actually rename him to be “eccentric” rather than “Bob“. In the first semester, when I was seated in examination hall of DAV, Bob lazily entered the examination hall. He headed straight towards the invigilator (who was also the tutor of DAV) and asked absent-mindedly :

“Hi, Is this where DAV exam is held? I am not sure if I am in the right room.” – Bob. (fair question to ask if you haven’t been to the lectures) This isn’t the amusing bit. After the invigilator confirmed this was the right room, he continued

“Oh cool. I cannot take this exam, can I leave now?” – Bob.

I couldn’t contain myself being in close proximity to their conversation. This is what the invigilator said

“Sure, but you didn’t have to inform me.” To which Bob replied “Oh I knew that. I’m leaving now.“

After Bob left, the invigilator couldn’t contain his laughter. This unexpected event took out my examination stress, sincere thanks to Bob for that.

Do you think Bob wouldn’t repeat this? Well, he actually repeated this again. He travelled 1.5 hours to Juelich to just convey that he wouldn’t be able to take the exam to the professor handling this course. Stay eccentric, Bob.

Surprisingly, when my batchmates decided to meet together for a karaoke night, Bob out of the blue wanted to join us with his girlfriend. We rarely meet Bob anyways, so we agreed. During this bus ride, his girlfriend asked me if I was from any of the Asian countries? Well, my brown skin and accent does narrow down my ethnicity, to which I replied

“Yes, I’m Indian.” Her question to this made me dumbfounded.

“Oh! India is in Asia too?” And there ended our conversation for the night. My German friend was much more considerate, she held a healthy conversation with her for me to save face.

England’s greatest philologist directs his jibe at German.

But in hindsight, I was just being inconsiderate. I don’t even know the name of many states encompassing USA and I am surviving just fine. General knowledge need not be too generalized, it could just be beneficial.

Anyways, we reached Cologne (a location in Germany not perfume) to get to the karaoke bar which was owned by a Chinese couple. After keenly observing the beauty Cologne has in store for the night, we entered a sufficiently large room which was meant only for us. I know what you might be thinking. No, it is not a torture chamber like in the “SAW” series, but there exists some parallelism. There were some good singers in the room and then there was me. Let me describe the environment to you, so you can understand better.

Cologne/Köln. A sweet sunsetting moment.

Have you seen movies involving mafia and crime, where they always have the “meeting room” scene? The lavish shocking-red cushioned sofas and dark teak wood round table with baroque lighting. Well, the setting was similar barring the lighting. A room engulfed by darkness with a hint of light radiating from the karaoke system transfixed in the corner. The system contained a finite number of songs to choose from. We were offered complimentary drinks and snacks (roasted peas😶). Of course, none of this was “complimentary” as a hefty 120 euros was slashed at us to book the room for three hours. There were twelve of us, so it was a decent split and I had a great time.

To clarify further why this replicated the chambers of a horror movie, this particular moment will add weight to my stance. I chose to sing🎤 “All of me” by John Legend (RIP John after hearing to my “cover“) along with a dear friend of mine who overestimated my capability to sing. Yes, my voice resonated and reverberated throughout the room and the people who were present in the room have this cursed memory impeached in their brain. Thank goodness the song ended in a few minutes, I cannot meet those soulless and distressed eyes again! Of course, I am being a hyperbole but I restrain to sing in public after this🙊. I am always grateful to my taco-loving-friend to explicitly state how bad my singing was 😀 He is a wise wise man who never sang barring a group performance of Dragonball’s or Pokémon’s theme song where his voice was well contained.

To comfort the trauma caused by my singing, our tutor who handles “Quantum mechanics” sang a Chinese song with his angelic voice. Of course, I didn’t understand a word he uttered but his voice was really soothing in comparison to my diabolic screech. And there ends my singing exploits in Germany. I have never set my foot inside a karaoke bar since then, primarily not wanting to blow my own trumpet. In the future, if any of you are planning to invite me for a karaoke night, you have been explicitly warned.

Ahoy, Look ! Indian flag hoisted right within RWTH campus.

Intertwined within these two rather canny moments was a heavily stressful semester. The next blogpost which would be conclusive of the second semester would dive nose deep into my coursework, exams and reshuffling life in between which would result in not a very pleasant account barring FIFA world cup.

Stay tuned!