Settling in Aachen,Germany | With Tips | Part 2

Hello Guys,

Thank you for all the feedback for last week.
I was thinking; based on your feedback that, was it that good?! I mean everyone who wrote me has only praised it. Are people just being nice to me?! But why would they do that?! I am neither some kind of prime minister or president nor I have power to even change a single day of their beautiful lives. So, There are two reasons for this; that they are actually nice people, who wanted me to feel good or(and) the blog was good. Both the ways, thank you.
And other reason is, I am enjoying this. So I am going to continue.
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" Adit?!? " she asked as I was getting down from my train. I had a pretty good journey from Frankfurt to Aachen.
" You Viktoria? " I asked. She came to train station to pick me up.
" Yes. Hello, welcome to Germany and Aachen." She said as we shook our hands.
 Thanks to the international office of RWTH,university; I had one local contact. They call it BeBuddy program. They assign you a current student, to help you with your local works and to resolve your questions before or after arrival. So, she was the only one I knew in Aachen at the day of my arrival. And how lucky I was, to find a student who actually wanted to help. Some people might not be this much helpful. 

As I wrote previously, I had this three big bags and one hand bag(with only one strap) with me. So I was struggling to take it down from the train. "Here, let me help." Viktoria said. Though I was struggling, I denied it politely. Because I felt shy. I thought that she is just doing the formality of asking, as I have seen many people doing that before. But she wasn't. Now, I need to push 2 big bags and carry 2 on my shoulders. We went downstairs to the main lobby from the platform, till then she could see that I was not in position to do that anymore. She took the bag from me and said it's ok. And I was so relieved. 'Thank you.' We went to the bus stop, which was right outside the Railway Station. Then she explained me about bus system and in which buses and trains I can travel free with my student semester ticket after I get one.

The bus arrived and we went in. As, I din't have the semester ticket, I had to buy a ticket for my self. In my mind I was like:"Man, How much this ticket costs? 1-2 euro? oh that means 80-160 rupees for 2 km? "(Of course in Gujarati) My mind was not prepared for EU currency yet.
Viktoria had that semester ticket. So, I asked to the bus driver, 'One ticket to Ponttor please..'
He said, "Bist du ein student?"
"What?"
"Are you a student?"
"Yes, but I just arrived from India and I don't have the semester ticket."
"But you will study here right?! OK. No need to buy ticket. Welcome to Germany."
"oh..Thank you very much."  Kind person!!
 We reached to my temporary house, which I booked from Airbnb for a week, because in Aachen, it is very hard to find a permanent accommodation and as far as I know, it is same for all the major German Cities. I tried very hard from India but I couldn't. Even Viktoria also tried for me  but the result was same.
On the streets,We searched the house for a while because the address was somewhat complicated. Then Viktoria called the host and she came to receive us. Now, the house was not on the ground floor.My luggage!! As Viktoria was already helping me with it, the host also asked me if I need help.. Again this time , I said no. But she said "I think you need help." Again, 'Thank you'. I was sweating. We reached upstairs and She offered us water and showed the room. It was a nice room. The apartment had three rooms, one was rented to other Indian guy and the host was living in other room with her husband.We had to share kitchen and bathroom.
The hosts were very nice and generous. Then I settled in and learned how to open window because its different here. Lol. Then Viktoria told me more about Aachen and German people. I opened my bag and shared some food with Viktoria. I didn't know how to thank her for all that she had done.As a good gesture I gave her a packet of Khakhara the Gujarati trademarked food and also she liked besan ke laddu(Magas) which were prepared by my aunt(Bhabhu). Viktoria asked for the recipe but I keep forgetting to ask my aunt. And also, I only met Viktoria once or twice after this, before 3-4 months.

So, overall I had a warm welcome in Aachen, due to Viktoria, the Hosts and of course the bus driver. And I would like to thank them for what they did. I was all alone, with no internet and no contacts. It may look small to you all, but for me it was a big deal at that time. And I think you might feel it same way if you were at my place.

By the way, the hosts of the Airbnb room, where I had a really good stay, and who helped me carrying my luggage and helped me several times in the week, while living next to my room, were from Pakistan.
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As some of you requested, I am now also sharing tips in each blog regarding studying in Germany. Here they are:

Tips from today's blog:
As I mentioned above, you will get a ticket for whole semester, from your university and it will be valid in several local trains and buses within the particular state or defined area.
Most people are generous here. You just need to ask for the help. In my case, they asked me, but generally it doesn't happen. Here,they find it rude if someone tries to help them if they haven't asked for. If they need help they will come to you.
Always be in contact with International office of the university. You can search on social media, there will be some groups of your community which will help you. Like, AISA for Indian students in Aachen.
Try to find accommodation from India itself before coming here, if you don't get it, then book something temporary as I did.
For permanent accommodation, you can contact International office of your university. Also, there are apps like: Wg-gesucht, Roomster, ImmoScout 24 etc. You can also search for private hostels; but choose only those which allow you to do Anmeldung(Registration) with city government office.
For temporary, again you can go with hostels, but here you will be living temporarily, so you don't need city registration. And also Airbnb.

Next weekend, I will write a guide about why Germany, the admission procedure and requirements. 

Jai Shree Krishna.