It is December again. Gerhard is now 33 years old and he has fulfilled one thing he always dreamt of: he has built a house for himself, a house that he designed himself in every detail. It is a symbiosis of everything he wanted to have within his “own 4 walls”. It gives a lot of light as there is rarely any solid roof, and the outlook to the valley is majestic. The huge living room takes half of the whole building and Gerhard sits down on his couch and enjoys the vast illuminated space of the living room and the warmth and cosiness coming from the tile stove. He is waiting for his girlfriend to come home and he already has started cooking the dinner for both of them. He is looking forward to when she comes home and they can spend a cosy and romantic evening together. Gerhard’s life has totally developed into the direction he wanted. He has a job that fits his skills and pays a nice salary, he follows his hobbies with great interest and the woman he’s now waiting for at home is the one he has been waiting on for years, because he knew that she is the one. Most of his friends live close by and they still meet every week for a coffee at their favourite café at least once.

Gerhard is still crazy about skiing and he is proud of his cousin who made it to a semi-pro big mountain skier, who is also featured in some ski movies, and though has realized the thin line he is skiing on. Also, Gerhard’s hobby of photography has brought him further and provided an additional source of income. The arts are an interest he shares with his girlfriend who is passionate about photography and design. In fact, she is self-employed and runs her own studio in town, which has proved to be very successful and attracts customers from all over the country. They both manage to get off at least 2 months per year for travelling and that is when they explore the world together and get to know new people and cultures. Though, sometimes they also spend their holidays around home – hiking, meeting friends, and living from one barbecue to the next.

Today is a special day though – it’s the 8^th anniversary of the day he first met his girlfriend and later that evening he’s about going to ask her if she wants to marry him. He looks out the window of his living room as it is starting to get dark in the late afternoon and the first street lights turn on. The village is covered with a white dress of snow, and it reflects some of the peace and silence that you wish for at that time of the year. Gerhard goes into the kitchen where the lasagne in the oven is getting ready, and while he is preparing the salad and choosing the wine for the evening he hears the front door opening and closing again, and the voice of his girlfriend letting him know that she is at home. She takes off her shoes and coat and with smooth steps comes over to the kitchen to hug him and be kissed “welcome home”. The light in her eyes is the same as on the day they met and he is sure that he wants to spend the rest of his life with her.

…

Hope you liked it

cheers & be blessed,
Gergi

Although I killed most of the time these days with lazying around, watching Family Guy, and occasionally even doing something for uni – there happened also things which are worth mentioning

After my return from Goa I chilled out the first 2 days and did not to much. Then I tried to get started on various tasks for IIMK and MCI, including a movie screening diary, and a photo essay about the Club of Rome for Globalization & Culture, my autobiography for Discovering Self, and finally also my master thesis.

On the evening of the 6th Arthur left for Goa, and it wouldn’t be before today that he returned (in fact we didn’t have any classes in this time). On the early morning of the 9th at 5 am I left to the train station and took an 8-hour ride to Trivandrum, from where I took an auto to Kovalam. I had decided to go there for 2 days to meet Lisi and Sophia, 2 friends who spent their holiday in India. After having lunch at the beach around 4 pm I walked along the boardwalk at the beach and some guy asked me if I needed a room, which indeed I did need. It turned out to be a really nice room directly at the beach front with view of the sea and the sunset from my balcony

In the evening I went to a rickshaw stand to get an auto to go to Lisi and Sophia’s hotel … and that’s the point where I finally started to get really pissed on the entirety of rickshaw drivers. I knew that a maximum of 200 Rupees would be o.k. for the distance and the first guy wanted to charge 400 – which made me burst out laughing unintentionally, because he was so ridiculous. Finally I made him wait at the hotel and for both ways and waiting I paid a fair amount of money in the end. At the hotel I called the girls from the reception and at first Sophia couldn’t figure out who I was, cause I didn’t mention my name and they hadn’t really expected me – although I told them that I’d come … always remember: when I SAY I go somewhere, I also DO it. We spent a nice evening together and then I went back to my room at Lighthouse Beach.

The next day I spent at the beach and visiting the lighthouse and enjoying some good food. In the evening I took an auto back  to Trivandrum for a price much too high (but otherwise no-one would have taken me), which made me decide to avoid rickshaws for the rest of my stay as much as possible. Thus, on arriving back in Kozhikode the next morning I took the bus to the main bus stand and another one from there to Kunnamangalam – all together for 16 Rupees – compared to 220 which they normally charge for a rickshaw.

The next few days I started to write my autobiography a bit, and also found time to some minor work on my thesis. From 13th to 15th the Cultural Festival “Echoes” took place at IIMK – there was a really good program including dance and music competitions, different kinds of workshops, talks (one including Resul Pookutty, the Oscar-winning sound mixer of Slumdog Millionaire), and concerts by Neeraj Shridhar (lead singer of the Bombay Vikings and well-known Bollywood background singer), and the AWESOME “Thermal and a Quarter” from Bangalore, who really kicked off the FUNK!!

Pictures about Kovalam can be found on my FB (Kerala pictures), and on flickr. The same for pictures about the cultural Festival “Echoes 2012″ – FB and flickr.

So, until next time: keep your faith, be kind, and rock the world!

Cheers,
Gerhard

PS: already soooooo looking forward to visiting my cuz in Canada in March!

Quickly for you to catch up what happened at uni in the beginning of this 2nd term I’m here. I started off with 10 session in “Negotiations and Conflict Resolutions” with a quite nice professor, although at times I’d wish he’d talk a little louder, cause he’s really hard to understand when he whispers from behind his desk in the front the sessions themselves are quite interesting and also involve role plays.

The second course I am taking in this term is about “Globalization & Culture”, where the professor, a sociologists, mainly discussed the influences of capitalism, Christianity, and America on globalization, but also on culture. The course was really interesting (it’s 20 hours of lectures are already over) and as an additional part of it we had movie screenings in the evening where we watched films that approach the topics discussed in class in a critical way. The screenings included (a.o.) films from Belgium, Russia, the US, Germany, France & Iran.

The third course this term is “Discovering Self”, a course which is very interactive and through several exercises we explore ourselves our feelings and our relationships to others. I really appreciate this course a lot and I am looking forward to the next sessions mid of January. Part of the course will be writing an autobiography, which I am really looking forward to, as I’ve always wanted to do that and now I somehow got some pressure to begin with it and do it

For Christmas evening some of us got invited by Allegra & Hela (2 new exchange students from France/Italy and Tunisia) to their apartment – yes, they have an apartment at a guest house on campus, with kitchen, living room, TV, huge balcony and an own security guard (!) … where was I well, they invited us for Christmas dinner and had cooked a lot of great dishes, including pizza, chocolate cake, apple pie, and punch. I really enjoyed that evening. At midnight, Allegra, Koyel, and I went to a Syrian church in Kozhikode to attend the service there. This was another great experience as the liturgy is very different from what I had seen anywhere else before.

On 26th in the evening I left for GOA then to meet up with Jérem and his friend Anais there, and later join Morten at the Sunburn festival. Sunburn was an awesome experience. Although I rarely listen to electronic music I really enjoyed it a lot and danced there for hours … pictures of Sunburn can be found here (FB) and on my flickr. Robert, Morten’s friend from Denmark had also come for the festival and for 2 weeks of holiday.

During the days in Goa I mostly enjoyed the beaches and hung out there with the others … the others, that’s a good point. The number of them increased seemingly each day! At first Anu and Prashant arrived and brought along Elena from Russia. Then 3 exchange students from Mumbai arrived – Nelly, Imo & Jonas. Nelly is a very good friend of Jérem. On 30th I also explored the coast near Candolim and Fort Aguada a little and took some good shots with my cam in the evening we went out all together, although none of us was motivated in the beginning. At 6 in the morning it turned out that the night had been really awesome and we were looking forward to the last night of the year.

On the 31st some more people arrived, with Anna from Würzburg, who had couchsurfed Anu’s place, and then also Christina arrived with her 2 friends Hanne and Brita. In the evening the 15 of us then went down to the beach to have dinner at a shack on the beach. We ate and drank there and also watched the fireworks for New Year’s there. Later we went to another shack for dancing – that day I wasn’t really in the mood though, altough I really tried to party … so I went down to the beach and sat down with a bottle of beer there thinking about life & it’s correlations and about someone who I’d write a message later that night …

1st day in the new year we hung out at the beach and said good-bye to Christina and her friends as they left for Palolem in South Goa. In the evening we went for a nice dinner in Vagator and the next day we also just lazed at the beach before Anna and I went to the railway station in Thivim by bus – 20 kms for 20 Rupees; that is like 1.5 Euro cents per km

So now I’m back at campus after having a really good time in Goa with seeing some good friends again and also with meeting new good people! Pics about Goa are also here (FB) and on my flickr. I’m also looking forward to next week when I’ll meet Lisi and Sophia in Kovalam! C u there

So far so good, hope you are all well!
Stay strong in faith & be blessed!
Cheers,
Gergi

So, this is just a short one to wish you all a merry Christmas and a blessed time with your loved ones! Also I hope that everyone of you has a great start into the new year 2012!

I’ll be off to Goa in half an hour, and you’ll hear some more from me when I’m back in the new year!

Cheers & God bless!
Gerhard

The last days of November were coined by exams and spending some evenings out with the other foreign exchange students as they all would finish there exchange semester after Term V and go for travelling … felt a little sad those days cause I found really good friends in them.

On the evening of December 1st I then left to Bangalore with Christina, Jérem, Morten & Tobias who all would leave from there on the 3rd to go on their travels throughout India. Dec. 2nd we spent together, brunching, lunching, chilling & having-dinner in Bangalore. We all stayed at Varun’s place – the couchsurfer I had first met during my stay in Bangalore for the Metallica concert end of October.

October 3rd we went for lunch at UB city mall in Bangalore (@ Café Noir – really a place to recommend!!) from where Christina left to the airport to meet with her boyfriend in Chennai for some holidays on the Andaman islands – safe travels and have a great time!!
I then accompanied Jérem, Morten & Tobias to pick up some shirts at the tailor shop and then waved another good-bye there. The rest of the afternoon I spent with some shopping and chill-out.

On Sunday, December 4th Varun and I went out of Bangalore and he showed me some spots where he likes to go trekking on weekends – there’s really some great nature just right outside of Bangalore with lakes, huge rocks and almost no people (compared to the cramped cities). In the evening we went for dinner before I left to the railway station to go to Hampi – a World Heritage site in the North of Karnataka. I met my couchsurfing host Murali already on the train – he usually goes to Bangalore each weekend to meet his family that is living there. He works in Hospet (close to Hampi) for !dea – a telecom company.

On December 5th I went to see some of the monuments of Hampi (leaving from Murali’s place in Hospet in the morning where I left my luggage). I visited Virupaksha Temple, and the adjacent hills, walked along Tungabhadra River together with a shepherd and enjoyed some cold drinks in the restaurants at Hampi Bazaar. In the evening I went for dinner with Murali at restaurant Mango Tree – really a great place there at Hampi with view over the river and great food. Also met 2 Austrian girls that day from Pinzgau in Salzburg .

The next day I went up to Hampi again to explore this unique and incredible site some more. It consists of more than 80 monuments and temples and there are many things to discover. I visited the Underground Siva temple, the Royal Enclosure, Lotus Mahal, the Elephant Stables and much more that morning and sometimes really felt like Indiana Jones entering a secret and hidden temple …
After lunch I explored Achutaraya temple and hiked up to Mathanga hill from where you get an awesome view over all of Hampi and can see the dozens of monuments you have not visited yet. I watched the sunset from there and then went back to Hampi Bazaar to get a rickshaw back to Hospet where I said good-bye to Murali and walked to the train station.

On Dec. 7th in the morning I arrived back in Bangalore where I first decided to sleep 3 hours at the train station cause it was only 6 am and I didn’t know what to do at that time in Bangalore. Later I went for breakfast and then met Carlo who had been in Bangalore for 2 days before also going to Hampi that evening (he also would be hosted by Murali). We visited Bangalore Palace and then had lunch together at Hard Rock Café (mmmmh, Steak). Later we chilled-out a little at a Cubbon park before having a cup of coffee and each of us heading for our trains. So I left B’lore at 8 in the evening and went back to Kozhikode.

Back at IIMK I tried to accommodate myself again – also with the fact to study here for another 3 months. I changed some courses to arrive at the minimum 9 credits which I still need to complete the total of 24 that convert to the 30 ECTS I need for MCI back home. The course on Globalization & Culture seems to be pretty cool – no reading material and movie screenings as part of the curriculum other than that, not much happened so far … I got to know the new foreign exchange students – Augustin, Hela & Allegra – and watched lots of Family Guy episodes …

Well, so far so good – that’s it again from my side. Hope you enjoy reading and hope to hear from some of you. Pics are on Facebook about Bangalore & Hampi and also on my flickr.

On November 11 we (Jérem, Tobias & I) left from campus around 12 for the train to Goa. Due to a traffic jam in Kozhikode we missed the train we had booked and had to go in general compartment instead. That was a REAL experience, lying on top of the luggage shelf for several hours with lots of people squeezed down below … we made the 220 kms to Mangalore in 6 hours and went for several beers & a burger there at Liquid Lounge (great place with good music – Jérem and I almost wanted to stay there instead of going to Goa ). Around midnight we then took a sleeper bus to Goa, where we arrived around 9.30 in the morning and went to our hotel where we met with Carlo, Johanna, Christina & Luigi, who had gone with other trains …

we then went to the beach in Anjuna, where Jérem and Christina met some guys from their home universities and we spent the whole afternoon there. Coming back from the beach we wanted to rent some scooters near the beach and I managed to have my first accident in India, driving into a jewellery booth … still wondering if it was my stupidity or something going wrong with the scooter that made it happen … anyway. thx God, nothing severe happened, except for a few scratches for me and Tobias – so sorry for that man!!!

Later we met Anu and some of his friends, among them 2 Ukraine models, Irina & Inna. Some of us had met him on their trip to Mumbai, and went to an awesome Greek restaurant for dinner. Afterwards we went out to several clubs, the best of them being Club Cabana on top of a hill with an entry of 1,000 Rs and free drinks from there on … there we danced the hell out of the dancefloor until 5 or so … and then went to another club in Baga until sunrise. Before going back to the hotel we stopped at another place to have a “good-morning” beer … the whole long day, starting with the accident turned out not to be a good one at all – concerning another thing as well: only saying the essence (the person who’s concerned knows when/if reading): by the end of it I had managed to severely threaten a friendship thru disrespect. I feel very bad for that, and apologize for my behaviour. It acted wrong, and I am VERY SORRY for that.

After 3 hours of sleep we went to Baga beach the next day, where Christina & I chilled on the beach, while Jérem, Luigi & Tobias went for para-sailing and jet-skiing. This day was a pretty lazy one, taking into account that we came back from going out at 8 in the morning … in the evening Anu took us to another great restaurant in Baga, where we directly sat at the beach and enjoyed our food. Anu seemed a little worried cause 1 of his friends still was on the way from the day before – fortunately in the end he made it back to the hotel …

The last day in Goa we spent at Morjim beach, where we enjoyed the typical 3S of sun, sea & sand. In the evening we said good-bye to Goa and went to the railway station in Margao from where we made our trip back to Kozhikode, where a lot of work was waiting for me (writing 2 papers and preparing 4 cases within 2 days).

On 17th we again left from Kozhikode – this time to go for a study trip to Bangalore. The trip there was hell, spending more than 10 hours on the bus for around 360 kms. When we arrived at our hotel it was almost 2 am in the morning with the prospect of getting up in 5 hours again to begin our industry visits there. That day we first visited Tesco HSC, which mainly supports the operations in the UK, but also worldwide. In the afternoon we went to ITC (Indian Tobacco Company), which started as tobacco company 100 years ago and nowadays is a conglomerate of various branches. Though, we were shown the cigarette manufacturing on-site, where 12,000 cigarettes are produced each minute (!!!!).
In the evening we went to Hard Rock Café Bangalore for a proper steak and some beers. Afterwards we went to bed at the hotel as we all were quite tired from the short night before and the long day driving around Bangalore.

The 2nd day we visited Cognizant (a huge consulting company) and Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospital, which is a specialist facility for cardiac surgery. The visit there was very moving, as it also accommodates the largest cardiac surgery department for kids in India with currently 56 kid patients. It is a tragedy to see that young lives already face such a big threat, and seeing babies being attached to all kind of machines … and much of it as a result of malnutrition of the parents – it breaks my heart and makes me wonder even more why on earth we can allow for people starving … the hospital does really great work and also provides a telemedicine facility where the doctors make remote diagnosis for patients in Asia and Africa. The founder, Dr. Shetty can just be called a visionary and great man!!!

In the evening we went to japanese restaurant Shiro for celebrating Johanna’s birthday. We had lots of awesome stuff like shashimi and co! though, all bars & restaurants in Bangalore have to close at 11 pm (!!) and it was close to be thrown out when we left at 2o past. Arthur had brought along a friend of his which he knows from studying in the Netherlands and we later had a couple of drinks at the hotel before we went to bed.

Sunday then was probably the worst travel experience I (and most of us) ever had. It took us 12.5 hours to go back to IIMK for the same 360 kms we came. I have never been that glad exiting a bus! The last 2 days have been dominated by work for uni. Writing a report on the industry visits in Bangalore and studying for the upcoming exams – and escaping from it for a couple of minutes writing this blog entry

hope you’re all doing great!
keep strong in faith, be blessed & bless others!

cheers,
Gerhard

and remember:
… hurting others is like putting a nail into a plank: you can remove the nail and apologize, but the wound will remain – so be careful what you do and say, it always leaves something behind …

… sorry …

…

cheers & blessings,
Gerhard

Actually, not so much as been going on in the last 2,5 weeks. Lots of work for uni, like preparing presentations, writing papers, and doing lots & lots of readings & case preparations was the main tasks of my days.

So, I’ll just point out the highlights apart from study life

Two important thing about studying first, though:
1st: turned out that I only have to do 3 courses the next term, which will give me much more freetime
2nd: could change the topic for my master thesis, so I’m writing about consumer behaviour of Couchsurfers now & if it has an influence on the long tail of tourism.

The real highlight of the past 2 weeks started on October 29. First I went to the dispensary to get my vaccination against chicken pox after going there the 2 days before as well, on the first day being told that it was closed & on the second day being told that they had to get the vaccine … doh!
well, that wasn’t really a highlight so far, was it? but now it really starts: went to Paragon restaurant in the evening for dinner & then Morten, our Indian friends around Nitish, and I embarked on the overnight train to Bangalore! so what would we do in Bangalore, right? well. first of all it’s a pretty vibrant place to be, for seeing things (like Lalbagh gardens, UB city mall, etc.) and also for shopping – but that wasn’t really the reason for going there.

Our reason for going to Bangalore was ways better. We went there to witness the Metallica concert on Sunday, October 30 at “Rock in India”!! and despite waiting for hours to get into the concert area it was just awesome!!! after a support band from Delhi and Biffy Clyro from Scotland, Metallica played for more than 2 hours and literally burned off a firework of their best!!

The next day I hung out with Varun, my Couchsurfing host and his other two guests Ahamad from Iran and his wife Eeva from Finland. They are travelling since May already and want to keep doing so for the next 2-3 years We had a really great day discussing about Indian & also Iranian culture and I really learned a lot of new things that day. Later we went to eat together before I said good-bye to meet up with Morten, Jérem & Tobias at Hard Rock Café where 1 more highlight was waiting for me – the first proper beef since I left home; a 80 oz steak!! I can’t think of ever having enjoyed a piece of meat so much …

The other highlight in the past 2,5 weeks was definitly “International Day” at IIMK, where our group of foreign exchange students prepared stalls for introducing our universities & cooked some dishes from our home countries. Especially the French ratatouille, Italian pasta & Austrian Kaiserschmarrn were a hit! More than that we prepared an 1-hour program for the evening where we did a quiz about our home countries combined with a show of dancing, singing & sketches. It was great fun and I think the Indian students really liked it. After our show there was another event at auditorium where the Indian students had a competition on singing and dancing – that was a great thing too!

2 days ago we went to the restaurant “King’s Bay” in Kozhikode. Tobias met the owner in Bangalore and thus we didn’t have to wait for a table very long. The food there was delicious and we had a nice evening there …

well, that’s it again. a few highlights are coming up in the next weeks too. hope to go to Goa on Friday, and the week after we’ll have a study trip to Bangalore again. In term break in early December I’ll probably also go to Goa.

all u out there:
be safe, keep strong in faith & be blessed!

greez,
Gerhard

In short, the most important happenings from Oct. 3 to Oct. 10:

Oct. 3: paying my mess bill -> 3355 Rupees, that’s about 50 Euros for one month of eating breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack and dinner (although I rarely have lunch & afternoon snack).

Oct. 4: I decided to go to Sri Lanka together with Christina, so we booked flights. In the evening we went to Kadavu resort to celebrate Emilia’s birthday.

Oct. 5: celebrating Varun & Amit’s birthday in the evening. believe me: you don’t want to celebrate your birhtday in India – you get kicked in the ass, they put birthday cake all over your face and in the end – to clean you again – they pour buckets of water over you.

Oct. 6: called my Dad to say happy birthday & watched 2 movies

Oct. 7: went to a restaurant called Paragon in Kozhikode – one of the best meals I’ve had since I left home almost 2 months ago

Oct. 8: figuring out an itinerary for the Sri Lanka trip; Arthur left in the afternoon to meet some Indian guys in the city – he came back the next evening after a long, long night played pool in the evening with Varun, Vipul, Abishek, Morten & Luigi

Oct. 9: kept on working on the itinerary for Sri Lanka & had pizza ordered from Pizza corner in the evening

Oct. 10: Christina came back from the wedding of her friend in Norway & we had a chat about our trip to Sri Lanka.

So far. So good.

A little more detail now.

In the evening of Tuesday, Oct. 11 we would leave for our trip to Sri Lanka. We had booked a train down to Kochi from where we would fly to Colombo. That morning we found out that there was something like a NOC (no objection certificate) in India, for people who stay longer than half a year. That means you have to get a document from the university and the police station saying that they are o.k. with your leaving & coming back. Very strange – for what do I have a multiple entry visa in the first place?

So Christina and I first went to the International Office where we first only got the advice to just stay and not go to Sri Lanka (not a good option with booked flights & trains). Finally we could get the NOC letter from them (at 4 pm). We then went to the police station to get the same there, but 2 problems arised there. 1st: police hadn’t even processed our registration which we submitted a month before and 2nd: the only guy capable of stamping the letter (!!) had already gone home. They then just told us that we should come back the next morning at 9.30 and then we MAYBE could get the certificate.
A little frustrated we went back to IIMK where we held a small emergency session, where Emilia convinced us to go anyway Finally we left campus at 10.15 pm to go to the train station and take the train to Kochi, where we arrived around 4 in the morning.

Wednesday, Oct. 12
We waited some hours at the airport to check-in and when we finally got to security control the staff there recognized that we did not have the certificate. Although we explained everything to them they would not let us go for 1,5 hours and made a lot of phone calls. In the end (also through the help of a nice Sri Lankan Airways steward) we were allowed to board the plane and go on our trip.
In Sri Lanka our guide Den was awaiting us at Bandaranaike airport and we continued our journey towards the central region of Sri Lanka and Sigiriya rock fortress where we would stop for the 1st night. It already turned out in the first hours of our journey that Den was a great guide and would become a friend through this journey. On the way we had great lunch at an Arabic restaurant and visited a Buddhist temple in the hill region. We arrived at Sigiriya late, but found a very nice accommodation where we also had dinner.

Thursday, Oct. 13
In the morning we went to Sigiriya rock fortress where we first visited the museum and then went up to the ancient ruins of the fortress which are on the top of a huge rock. The entrance fee is quite expensive, being 3,330 Sri Lankan Rupees (approx. € 22,-). Afterwards we went for an ride on the back of Mutu. Mutu is a 21-year-old elephant. The ride was quite an experience, but still: I would never do it again. I felt bad for Mutu and the job he has to fulfill all day long …
After that we went on towards Kaudulla National Park where we saw some happier elephants – altogether more than 80 (!!) at once. This was a much better experience, because we could actually see them in their natural habitat. In the national park we could also see water buffalo and lots of birds, including egrets & peacocks. Leaving from the National Park we headed towards Nilaveli Beach on the East coast where we would spend 2 nights. We arrived already in the dark and chose to stay at the Sea View hotel (€ 33,- for the room) the 1st night (I think we were the only guests there) and have dinner at Nilaveli Beach hotel, which is a resort-style hotel directly at the beach. While having dinner there we decided to stay at that hotel the 2nd night (€ 80,- for a room).

Friday, Oct. 14
After getting up we went for breakfast/lunch at the Green Park hotel in Trincomalee (about 10 kms from Nilaveli Beach) and visited a Hindu temple (under construction) on the way. Driving around the area we still could notice the tracks of the 2004 tsunami. After that we checked-in at Nilaveli Beach hotel and immediately went to the beach there to relax a little. At the beach Kamal, a boat tour guide, offered us to bring us to a reef for snorkeling, going to a lagoon to watch birds and then having dinner at his place near the lagoon. As we had nothing better to do we agreed and the trip was worth every cent!!!!
We first went to the reef for snorkeling which was quite nice and then also had a little swim around the rocks standing out from the water. Then Kamal took us to the lagoon he had told us about where we were able to spot a sleeping crocodile in the water, which just woke up when Christina took a picture of it
With this experience in mind Kamal took us to his house where his wife had prepared a meal for us – rice & curry, fresh fish, crabs & prawns. I might have said that at another point while blogging about this semester abroad but THAT WAS DEFINITLY THE BEST MEAL I HAD SINCE I LEFT HOME!!!!! After dinner Kamal organized a tuk-tuk to take us back to the hotel, where we decided to jump into the pool as it was still early. Before going to sleep we took some pictures of the rising moon and had a cocktail at the beach bar.

Saturday, Oct. 15
After getting some nice shots on the beach at sunrise we left the hotel early around 8.30 as we had a long journey ahead of us – back to the West coast. On the way we stopped several times for having snacks or do some more sightseeing. We stopped at Dambulla rock temple (near Sigiriya), which is a really great place if you want to see large Buddhist sculptures. We also made a stop at a huge vegetable market and at “Happyland” Herbal & Spice Garden, where we got an explanation of different spices and also an ayurvedic massage – also we shopped some spices of course
We then continued our journey to Kandy where we had a look at the local market and shortly went to Den’s house to meet his wife (Emma from England) and his 1-year-old son Lometh. They welcomed us very nice and we had a cup of coffee & cookies before we went on to Negombo (about 30 kms North of Colombo) where we would spend the last night. On arrival we had a look at rooms in 2 different hotels and decided for a room at Village Inn (€ 25,- for the room), about 50 m from the beach. We then said good-bye to Den and went for dinner at a nearby restaurant where we had some prawns and fish again

Sunday, Oct. 16
After having breakfast we went to the beach for an hour and did some souvenir shopping before we went to the airport. Around noon we left Sri Lanka again and 1 hour landed safely in Kochi, where we would have to wait for the train for 4 hours. We decided to go to Fort Kochi (a part of Kochi that looks like an old European town rather than an Indian one) and had dinner there. The rickshaw driver who was supposed to take us to the train station in Ernakulam town stipped us off at the wrong station, but fortunately another driver rushed to the right one just in time …
After a 3.5-hour-train ride we arrived back in Kozhikode and at IIMK. Upon checking my mail I realized that I had to finish two presentations until the next day

Well then, as the exciting part is over – back to short format

Oct. 17: not much happened; meeting the other foreign exchange students again who had gone to Mumbai for the weekend & finishing the 2 presentations (which I had not to present in class in the end)

Oct. 18: just 1 class that day, but had to prepare 2 more presentations for Wednesday – this time for real … in the evening Arthur and I made a run down to Kunnamangalam & back.

TODAY, Oct. 19: after presentations I went to International office with Arthur where we got informed about a study trip to Bangalore mid of November. Afterwards we went to Kunnamangalam for shopping fruits & snacks.

So far, so good – pictures are to be found on Facebook or flickr.

greez to all of you reading!
keep strong in faith & be blessed,

Gerhard

Well, what else happened since I last left some lines here …
First of all, lots of reading and lots of classes at IIMK – it’s really no holiday here the profs require lots of readings though most of the people don’t do them anyway and so many classes end up in a monologue of the lecturer. I also had another group presentation in MoS – this time it was about the Service Blueprint of High Octane (i.e. the café at IIMK campus) and it went quite well. I prepared a prezi and I felt that the prof liked it (recognizing that his face brightened up a little again after it had become more and more frowning after each of the preceding presentations). I also figured out that I have to get used to getting assignments (like case studies) at 10 in the evening and preparing them (including a powerpoint) until the next day … anyway, I guess you’re not that interested in what happened in the classes I’m taking here although some of them are pretty interesting like Consumer Behaviour and Social Media & Consumer Driven Marketing …

One highlight happened on Friday two weeks ago when we went to the recently opened KFC in Kozhikode – this must be the freaking best running KFC in the world!!! there is a queue front-doors and another huge one in front of the counter. I guess it took us something like 40 minutes to get our (fast) food
The next day I had no classes so I joined Christina, Emilia, Morten & Carlo for an excursion to Thusharagiri waterfalls, which turned out to be a great decision. At the bottom of the waterfall there was a natural pool where we could swim and it was also possible to stand in the middle of the waterfall and take a shower there! Our driver was Jafar again, the same guy who had brought us to the backwaters some weeks back – he’s a really great guy. In the evening I ended up having some drinks with the guys again …

On Sep. 20 some of us (Gesu, Sanjeet, Carlo, Varun, Christina, Emilia & Johanna) went to Beypore beach to witness the sundown there. Beypore is about 45 minutes drive from IIMK and a bit south of Kozhikode city. At Beypore there is a mole reaching about 1 km into the sea and we walked up to the tip of it to watch the sunset, which was really beautiful and the spectrum of colours reached from gold, orange & yellow to pink, violet and dark blue …
In the past few days I also set-up a google+ account and changed FB to the timeline-view (which looks like myspace some years back I’d say). Also I started going to the gym regularly and doing some reading (despite the readings for university). Just 2 days ago i finished my second Paolo Coelho book: By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept – a really great reading! Moreover I had the idea for a little project and I started working on that as well – I will tell you more about that in one of the next entrie …

Last Sunday I had 2 classes in the morning at 9 am and afterwards went to Kappad Beach with Morten and Arthur. We had a great time there chilling at the beach and going for a swim – though I drowned my mobile phone in the Arabic Sea, because I forgot to put it out of my shorts’ pocket before going into the water … fortunately it was not an expensive one (I told you in an earlier entry) and I got a new one just 2 days later. Before leaving the beach we had a beer at the beach bar and watched the sunset from there.

On Tuesday I only had 1 class of Consumer Behaviour and thus went to do some shopping in Kunnamangalam afterwards. Arthur and I walked down to the village to get tons of fruits (pomegrenate,, bananas, papaya, mangos, lemons, avocados, apples, …) and also some cookies – it’s just great to have fresh fruit each day!! In the evening I met with my Marketing of Services Group and we went to see the manager of High Octane café to talk about the project we are doing about his business.
Thursday I received a parcel from flipkart (the Indian version of Amazon) where I had ordered an external hard-drive to be able to store tons of movies which are available thru P2P-sharing here at campus. In the evening I watched the last few minutes of Sturm Graz’ match in Athens where they won 2:1

On Friday there was a party at Morten & Carlo’s room, which was supposed to start at the 11 pm. After waiting for about 1 hour or so some people turned up and the party started rolling. We only had beer to drink this time as police had caught the guy who’d bring the liquors from the neighbouring state (because it is ways cheaper there). that didn’t disturbe the party much though after a long day and getting pretty tired I went to bed around 2.30 …

Yesterday was a pretty lazy day, although I managed to do some readings and I also had 2 classes in Social Media. In the evening I watched the new Red Bull Media House production “The Art of Flight” – great footage and editing I have to say, but I still prefer the way Nimbus Independent is doing their films … Also talked to my brother Christian on skype and found that my mum’s knee surgery had turned out smoothly – thx for that Lord. Later in the evening I started reading my next Paolo Coelho: “Like the Flowing River”, which is a collection of short texts.

That’s it again – I hope that tells you a little how life is here in Kerala and I hope you enjoyed reading. Some new pics can again be found here. Some of the shots can also be found on my flickr-page.

So, wish you all the best out there in the world, wherever you are!
Keep strong in faith & be blessed,

Gerhard