Unified…

I will not post here anymore. Follow me to: http://chatsthought.blogspot.com/

Edinburgh VS Aachen

Hallo!

Jetzt bin ich in Aachen.  I am in Aachen finally.  It took a while before I can write this entry.  I have to wander to several buildings to do many registration and have to do extra homework to catch up with the German course here.  Despite the remaining registrations and homeworks, I think I am settled down.  

I have to adjust myself to fit the way the do here.  Following is a little example of differences between here and Edinburgh. (Common things e.g. 'Car drive on the left' are omitted.)

Edinburgh	Aachen
Bus map is free.	Bus map must be purchased. :(
Push a button at the traffic light.  You can cheat the light in a suburb.	The button is only available in suburb.  For which I've found so far, it doesn't work.  I don't even know how to push some buttons.  (The sign tells me to push, but there is no push-able part.)
When there is a handle on the door, it tends to be pulled door.	The handle is always available, when there is a room for it.  If pulling doesn't work, push it.
The wind turbines can be seen so far away as a farm.	There is a wind turbine so near to the city.  It is an individual though.
Some recycle facilities are available.	Recycling is compulsory. There are four or more separate bins in almost everywhere.  You are charged €0.25 for a plastic bottle.  When you turn it in, you will get that money back.
Floors start from 0 or ground floor and continue with 1.	Floors start from EG and continue with 0.
You must register with NHS.	You must register with the town hall.  You will also get a welcome pack in which discount tickets are provided.
In a lift, you stand silently.	In a lift, you have to greet those who come and go even you don't know them.
Tipping is compulsory. You leave tip on the desk.	Tipping is optional.  You give tip to the waiter at the same time you pay.
Cows are brown or black and more hairy.	Cows goes in black and white.  They are not quite hairy.
When you are on Arthur's Seat, you see the whole city.	When you are on Lousberg, you see all trees.

I have to get back to my homework.  More on things later.

20.09.08 Update: two more entires in the table.

Along the road: Greenwich

Hi,

I went to Greenwich today.  The name of the borough should be pronounced as [GREN-itch].  'w' is a silent letter, like in 'answer'.  This word should be similar to you already because the name is usually referred as the time zone zero (Greenwich mean time: GMT).  

Me standing between west and east side of the Meridian line.

Actually, the main purpose of the time zone is to locate spatial, not temporal location. In the old time, when England is the maritime nation--connected and use the sea for commerce, there is a problem that they can not refer the location where their ship is in east-west direction.  This leads to many loss and disastrous  events.

The north-south location can be determined by angle between the horizon and the sun or the polar star. Thus, they came up with idea of using the time of the day in the mean (Greenwich) and local location to calculate the angle differed from the mean location.  This can be done with a simple math using those times with the fact that earth revolves 15 degree/hour.

Here we can obtain the longitude from local and Greenwich time.  

Famous 24-hour clock

The funny part is the method to know the Greenwich time when you are away from Greenwich.  Nowadays, we use the clock, but the first method is 'powder of sympathy'.

When one has been stabbed with a weapon applied with this powder, they will feel painful every time the weapon being touched with the powder.  So, a ship took a dog wounded by a powdered knife, and the knife is kept at Greenwich.  At noon, a keeper dip the knife into the powder, so the dog will yelp making it possible to determine the time difference.  Wikipedia said that it is just a satire, but it is also exhibited at the Greenwich observatory. :D

One may wonder that where they choose to draw the line?  The answer is easy.  Bradley Meridian happened to place his telescope at a location.  the north-south line is drawn there as a first Meridian. :D  Thereafter, another better telescope is placed away from this line, they move the line to that telescope. :S

It is not only the meridian line that is a sole attraction of the town.  Greenwich is a beautiful and not noisy as london. I think that a lot of green space in the town make me fell good.  

Spacious Greenwich VS crowded London

Let me tell some funny story. The 'Painted Hall' was intended to be a dining hall for soldiers.  Sir James Thornhill took 19 years to paint it, and it turns out to be too beautiful to dine in.  Since then, it becomes a tourist attraction, leaving soldiers to eat at somewhere else. :D

The Chapel which is decorated with not much budget.  They use the painting techniques instead of sculptures to cut the cost.  An example is shown below. 

Inside the Chapel

Fake sculpture, but real painting

True marble VS fake marble

Other museums such as Queen house and maritime museum shows their obsession of naval.  There are too many sea painting for me already.  Sorry, photography is prohibited. :)

The last funny story is about the walking tunnel connecting Greenwich with the opposite side of the Thames.  A book said that, in the opening ceremony, mayors and officials had a champagne party in the tunnel.  After they went up, the decompression of air in their stomaches make them uncontrollably fart and burp. :o  Sorry, I don't prefer sparkling liquids, especially in the tunnel.

That is a quite long and big e-mail.  Hope you enjoy and have a good time.

Along the road: London

London is quite sunny today. :) However, I decided to stay at my friend's flat to regain energy. I took Cholrphenylaime Maleate (sorry for spelling mistakes), and I can't sleep well in the coach. This makes me very dizzy on Friday. I tried to sleep, but it is not successful. Thus, I went to V&A museum and stay thereabout until late afternoon. Believe me, art plus dizziness equals more dizziness. There is a bad news in the evening. Grandma of p'Note, whom I am staying with, just passed away. He then book a ticket and go back to Thailand on the last Saturday. I felt very sorry for him.

I spent yesterday and today with German language, course plan, and arrangements. The good news, if I haven't told you so, is I've got a permission to attend the course from the next Wednesday. In addition, I also got a position on a course on October. Everything seems to be fine. For the coursework, I have to choose one out of three laboratories that I've got. There is an easy one: 'User-oriented s.th.' which everyone I know seems to take this course. However, I am bored with software development and things. I have done it for several times since undergraduate, so I am planning to take either 'Media analysis' or 'Multimedia analysis and retrieval'. The names looks familiar; I don't know about the content since the first one doesn't provide any detail. Let's find out more when I am in Germany.

I plan to go to Greenwich tomorrow. I would like to see not-so-crowded area to relieve my urban sickness. Now, I am pretty sure that I will get sick when I return to Bangkok. At least, I must have three-days recovery period.

Reopened: The second year of EuMI me

I decided to reopen this blog.  After a busy days in Edinburgh, I finally on the way to Germany!  I will write several entries for reminiscing days in Edinburgh and goes on with major events on the way.

The blog will not be regular as I decided to previous blogs, but it will be event-based which I aim to covers every important aspects during life in Germany.  The writing style will be mixed between article and personal letter style.  Those in personal letter will be sent to my friends to keep in touch.  Even if I am not there (wherever my friends are), or talking to them, it is a good thing to let them know about me.  At least, I may lives in their conversation and not forgotten. :)

MyEd login

I finally got the MyEd login. The IT office work very fast! I contact them first time on last Friday and got the e-mail to confirm my identity on Saturday (Thailand time) and got the login today.

I've sent another mail to accommodation office. In this mail, I said that Ms. Catriona will confirm my position. If this is not enough, I tell them to report which body they want the information from. I will contact them directly.

Good trend

Today, Catriona, a staff at College of Science and Engineering e-mailed me back and cc: to the accommodation office. She confirm that my position is firm and gave me my matriculation number, so I can use to retrieve MyED login. I will wait for the accommodation office to respond. As for MyED, the EASE registration system need the password, which should be sent for me by mail. Since I did not receive that mail, I wrote to the MIS office attaching e-mail of Catriona asking for MyED login. It would be great if I can get these things done within next week.