CH1. Life Goes On 14: Out on the Verge and Germany

Hello, Tim!

So many things happened in the last two weeks. I have an idea of how to start the letter of the week.
Last week during the weekends, I was sitting at one of the desks in a cafe nearby that provides the occupant a power socket to charge their electronic devices, which is a very considerate gesture from the cafe, just like their free Wifi, moderate temperature, and the jazz music. It should have been a chilling day, accompanied by a cup of latte. However, it was one of the most stressful moments of these two weeks, for I was filling out (once again) the form for German university application.
But before we delve into the murky puddle that I would spend a lot of time clearing up, let's first wind it back to two weeks ago, where happier events took place.

Still, Books = Priority

From the short notice last week, I have mentioned the last installation of the Harry Potter Saga, The Deathly Hallows, and how I failed to finish it in a week. Well, since I felt the need to read it through the last half of the climax, I stayed up until one-thirty in the morning without bothering to move a bit in the comfort of my bed to gulp down the last hundred or so pages of the book. 

I always find it hard to do my reviews on Harry Potter books, mostly because there isn't much to talk about the notions it brings to us. As a review, you shouldn't bring up too much of the actual plot, for it ruins the whole book for those who haven't read it yet. I really like the series, but somehow it feels like I am reading another one of those "a prince goes on a quest to slay the dragon" kind of story without much moral behind it, leaving me with not much but the plot to talk about. 

True, this is a book about love, friendship, bonding, and undying loyalty, and it is described to be the most powerful force in the world. I do see why a kid should be reading this series.

Here's Harry Potter, accompanied by Becky Albertalli's Leah on the Off Beat from last week.

I haven't watched all the movies from this franchise yet, but from the basic understanding of the movies and comments of family and friends, the biggest difference the adaption and the original story is the paramount amount of the love and friendship in the books that became diluted in the movies as the productions have to focus on the action part of the story, to reenact the scenes described in written words. This is a series talking about some sentimental values, and it is quite hard to cover that in motion pictures. You can create an intense scene of broom riding and magic performing if you have the technology and the budget to do so, but it's not so simple to portray and capture loyalty and friendship using a big flat green screen and top-notch CG skills. That's what I think the biggest difference is when dividing the audience of either the books or the movies.

On the way to Fujen University one day, when I was talking about my reading Harry Potter with Sabrina, talking in the fastest speed I could ever pull off on the principle of believing that she loves everything about England, she told me so out of the blue that she wasn't really all that interested in fantasy novels.

I guess, from England or not, there just isn't something that is loved unconditionally by everyone.

Just this morning, I had finished yet another book, and it is in Chinese (insert saying: once in a blue moon). However, given the fact that I have been short on time, I need to put an end to this and hurry on with the next topic.

Sunshine Reunion

Background information: Sunshine is a splendid place in my childhood. A once-dreaded-but-now-loved place. It's the after-school English class I used to go to when I was ten to twelve years old. The teachers were out of this world, so we, as a collection of teachers and students, decided to keep having classes even in junior high school. The two teachers are a couple, and one of them, Eric, comes from Switzerland, and he asked us if we wanted to have something new for our high school life, and that was when five students remained to have German for more than a year or so.

Students dropped out and students joined us in the class, but a certain proportion of us are still in touch since we had very fond/horrified and mutual memories as classmates. Our teachers, Eric and Villy (who comes from the Philippines) can be suave, easy-going and downright goofy, but can transform into head-biting nightmares if you get on their nerves or if you don't meet the academic standards. I used to be one of them who had had my head ripped off for an indescribable number of times due to my poor grammar, horrible essays, and handwriting that screams "read me and your eyes will burn until you choke". See what I have become. (Just for the record, I am proud but the credit's actually on them)

The one on the far left is Eric, and the first girl from the right in the first row will be our Teacher Villy.

On Wednesday last week was our annual reunion that celebrated the fact that we are now on the verge of a brand new, glamorous and crystalline university life. This is actually a big deal, for this is where we really go our separate ways since someone is heading for Canada, another to America, and I to Germany (hopefully. I'll get to that later. Promise.)

So we met up at an affordable family-friendly Italian chained diner and talked as if we have met each other on a regular basis throughout the year. Well, in my case, I did meet a girl called Serena around two months ago, and I just check up on a guy called Henry, with whom I was really close, once a while. Our two teachers are probably the ones the happiest to see us. Villy called me one day before the reunion and discussed with me about Henry, about how he didn't do well in the second college entrance test and got into the same private school I did. Taking Japanese as a major, he told me that it was not a good score but he could I've with taking Japanese as it is also one of his interests. I knew that there should be more emotions behind the words that were typed to be reassuring, but just with me, I don't usually poke and prod until you give me the answer I expect to hear. But apparently, Villy chatted with his mom on some occasions and found out that he was -which was not much of a surprise- down that this was all he got after the extra semester of hard work. Villy called me, seemingly to find out more about his condition in order to decide on which tactics she should you to cheer him up.

Serena was also having stressful times. Studying a year behind the rest of us, she is only on the verge of deciding what to pursue as a university major. She is on the fence because she knows that her interests are not something her big sister wants her to pursue. She understands that her sister means well, and it's always such a horrifying thing to make big decisions that would alter the path of your life inevitably.
We really had a lot to talk about, and the discussion circles kept changing and rotating around the rectangular table, and we even went as far as to talk for half an hour without ordering anything. We really had to thank the restaurant on their hospitality and the way she handled unreasonable customers like us.
Besides Henry, I didn't tell any of my other classmates in Sunshine about my sexuality. First of all,

although repeated self-assurance, I never really convinced myself that everyone, my teachers especially, will be fine with it. I don't want to think that they get to have a say regarding my identity, but I don't want to prove myself wrong by taking the risk of actually being right about my involuntary and repulsive assumption. I surmise that some already guessed, but I would never know how to make sure about that. Still, I made that (while writing this now) a resolution for myself, that in the future reunions, I would officially bring that fact into the light, but it (coming out) should, as Simon said, be something that belongs to me.
Here's to my friends' future, and to bravery.

Finally Talking About my Education 

I found that I have subconsciously been avoiding this topic on my blog, mostly because it had been mind-plaguing when I was dealing with this matter, and this place would be like a hideout for me, taking my mind off when the pressure levels rocket up. Now I don't even know where to start from. 

I'll try to keep this short and simple. In June, I sent out my application for six German public universities, five of them with the help of an agency that is said to save you from all the migraine-bestowing little details during the application process.

I thought after that, all I had to do would be to kick back and incline into the depth of my sofa with a glass of coconut water with a little tropical umbrella atop, slowly but progressively preparing myself to bid farewell to this eighteen-year-old heaven and all my friends and family as well as every single speck of dust about Taiwan I have grown fond of. For the first few weeks, I acted in accord with what I envisioned, munching away book after book while taking my time cooking, chatting the hours away with my girl friends until one day I received an e-mail informing me that the status of my application had been altered, telling me that all of my applications were, however unfortunately, rejected.
To be honest, I was quite struck by the notification. I know that when I was filing my application, there were some institutions that should, in theory, be too far out of reach, but after the advice given by the agency, we thought that there would at least be one letter of acceptance. Sometimes, I would think about all the people who had given me assistance during the application process and feel knocked down and dismayed, but slowly, I had decided that it wouldn't be much of a big deal, considering the fact that I could still apply for the next intake of international students, which would evidently take place at around March 2020.
But then, my cousin pulled up out of nowhere, a list of private German universities, and asked me to one by one called then, e-mail them and ask whether there still are places available for students like me. I have to say this, once and for all, that I am grateful for her, who pulled who-knows-how-many strings to help me find a way to have my higher education in Germany.
The private universities surely are made of different things than the public ones, given that they processed the documents so fast that I was invited to a Skype interview two days after I submitted my application form, and the letter of confirmation came into my inbox not five hours later.
So yeah, I was admitted to a private German university called SRH Heidelberg.
I know that I should've sounded much moor cheery, jumping up and down and screaming and belting out several high-pitch birdsongs, but it was quite a vacancy in my emotional system. Not just because it wasn't like I had any other German schools to choose from and this letter of acceptance doesn't really look much like a ticket away from the previous defeat, but more importantly, I was practically exerting time and energy on building a mindset ready for the Fujen Catholic School with a French major, aiming for the exchange program in the second or third year, but now everything was altered again, and it sort of felt like having your lavish LEGO castle demolished before any of your little figurines could head inside and appreciate the crystal blocks that you build the chandelier with. It's sad. I thought about leaving my loved ones all over again, and even tears threatened.

The school opening ceremony

After a night's sleep, though, the morning after the acceptance letter, I felt again the rush of excitement coursing through my veins with a newly-induced vitality. I get to go to Germany! The language, the buildings, the people... it would be just like visiting Oxford for the first time again, considering that Heidelberg has the same kind of educational atmosphere like Oxford.
There is one caveat, of course... (Please tell me you understand now why this is both exciting and tormenting for me...) 

I don't have the visa yet. The application was sent as soon as possible, but there is just no knowing when the visa would be issued. The courses will start on the fourteenth of October, and if I don't report myself to the school office by then, I will not be included in the courses.
This whole shenanigan has been like a cyclone, raking at my brain and demanding my attention. Even with a school day like today (it's Monday now, and the university life has started) I still have to try to push the progress of the German visa application even if the country is now still so far out of reach, and my cousin and I also have to worry about the insurance...
Anyway, this pretty much concludes my up-to-date story of German education. It really is a tiring thing to do, and I hope that the fruits of all of our labor will indeed, be sweet.