and Every day shall be a Caturday

Okay some serious shit again. Oh well.. yes and no. As I find posts without photos boring I have to add some to this one too. As I actually don't have any selfmade material and am already over using weheartit.com I decided to use some cutrsy NON-RELATED CATURDAY PICS! Yaaaaay! Everything from icanhazcheeseburger.com Love them.

K k k.. I think the current issue knocking my door at the moment is the one concidering university applications. As you might know I have sent all my papers to Uni-Assist weeks ago and am now waiting for them to tell me my average note (NC) so I know where I have even chances of applying. This is really driving me off the edge as the applying time starts already on 15th June and lasts till 15th July. I have to be prepared for every kind of shit (eg. some certificate that I forgot). If they let me know too late about some problem with my papers, I may not have enough time to organize it before the applying time closes! I'm flying home to Finland on 24.6 - 12.7 which means that I have to have applications sent and German signatures/stamps organized before I leave.

To the most of my three readers the info in this post won't come as a surprise. But for the fun of it I'd like to enlighten everyone about my current plans for studies. Yay \( ^___^ )/.
Generally my plans have varied a lot during the past year or so. Come one whose haven't. However for the last 6 months I've felt real positive about applying for Japanology, a subject concentrating on Japan, it's language, culture, people, geometry and technology. Shortly: japanology focuses on everything connected to Japan. Sounds real nerdy right but I've always been into Japan and Japanese. Visiting the country on 2008 with my hostfamily on my exchange year in Hong Kong, China just assured my interest. I was totally taken by the food, people, surroundings and hightech toilets. I was feeling like Alice in Wonderland, having known nothing about this fantasy world next to mine. As I'm good with languages, interested in different cultures and having some knowledge & experience of Asia, I thought such a subject would combine my interests, talents and hobbies perfectly!

Hamburg has the second biggest Japanese community in Germany and it's Uni has one of the oldest history with the subject. I would have of course also applied for Marburg, where my honey studies, had they offered the subject but they quit the faculty the year before. Yeah yeah lovely irony pocking me in the eye around every corner.. What sucks is that: Hamburg Uni has only 35 places for Japanology annually. Not good. There are far more than 100 applicants. Worse. Germany has abolished the compulsory army and non-military service in 2011 which means all those guys will put in their applications already this year, which means double amount of applicants. The worst! What might better my chances, is the horrible nuclear crisis of Fukushima. As cruel as it may sound. I bet there are fewer applicants willing to study Japanology, now that the country is in trouble and the fear of radiation hunting in the back. What can I say. Simply: Japan is no longer sexy..

Anyways, I bet you noticed that my chances to get the place in Japanology aren't that strong. Logically I should get some extra points as 10% of the study places are given to foreigners. Well, thanks to my EU-membership I am an equal to all inhabitants of this country, meaning I am also evaluated the same (= no extra points)! Geeez.. not fair as I still have to work harder and pay way more to even be able to apply! Oh well crying over it won't change a thing. Rationaly I need a plan B, C and D. I'm so sick of this lifestyle of working here and there, living from hand-to-mouth, organizing things and killing my time. I want to move on with my life, create career and achieve bigger things! I want to be part of that crazy college life and have a daily school routine again while getting closer to my dreams. This endless waiting is seriously messing with my brains.

Thus we come to the recent development of discovering other studying options. I went through the Green Monster book of all studying possibilities in the whole Germany again, trying to find something for myself. What it came down to were Interior Design and Architecture. I chose those two as I always enjoyed reading books/ magazines and watching TV-shows/ tutorials of Interior Design. My parents were active in the field at home and by dragging me to such design fairs and shops, which enabled me to develop an eye and courage needed for decorating. My father is a building contractor, who designs and builds the houses he sells. He has pushed me to architecture as long as I can remember so, even I hate to admit, the thought has slowly matured in my mind. I'm not yet sure which I prefer above the other.

Getting smarter too late, I had tragically unfortunately passed the main applying dates for Interior Architecture in almost every Uni as the universities for the subject wanted always either a portfolio and/or an entrance exam. It was thus too late to make a portfolio, send it and to sign myself for an entrance exam. The only Uni in the whole Germany that doesn't insist on either of them is Darmstadt Hochschule.

Without thinking too much of it I decided it to be destined for me to apply there. I have no idea what the place or the school is like but my options are running short here. Blindly or bravely I put in the application to Uni-Assit, signing myself up for 1. Interior Design, 2. Architecture and 3. Economics in Darmstadt HS. BAM there are my B, C and D-options! I can start happily with any of them and if the subject doesn't please me, I am still able to change after the first semester. Greeeeaaat!
Looking now more closely into my choices, I am beginning to warm up more and more to Darmstadt. It turned out to be located half an hour away from Frankfurt, one-and-a-half hours from my love in Marburg! This would be actually perfect as I would still be relatively close to an airport and would be able to travel more often and free of charge with the student ticket to visit my boyfriend! Darmstadt is also smaller and cheaper than Hamburg, aspects which both fit me better than a glove. As most applicants for uni also prefer big cities over the small ones, thus I might have a teeny weeny better chance of getting in in Darmstadt. Seems like my plan A just dropped to 4th place...

Ok not a cat but like c'mon.. look at him!

Why? Well I took part in a theme day, actually three, in Hamburg university organized by the Japanology students and teachers. They were presenting the problems of modern day Japan and talking about the community and chances the country is going through. The topic was divided into discussion panels, run by professors and professionals.

This might have been all very interesting but the information sadly wasn't anything new and the translator sucked big time. What destroyed me the most was the open discussion with these pros later. Many of the Japanology students seemed to be worried about their future. After studying up to Bachelor of Arts, they still had no clue what to do in future. None of them. It seemed to me like their money spent on the studies was thrown away. These desperate young people heard there the cruel reality: you don't make a career by studying the subject only, you always need some extra skill/subject. I had realised the danger already before but naively thought that I could combine Japanology with Economics perhaps and that way get around it. To my lesson there was a girl who had done exactly that and freshly graduated from HH Uni. She said that economics as a side subject, won't help a thing, as it simply isn't enough. She still had no idea what to do with her Bachelor's Degree. This girl then asked one of the panel members, a man working in a international firm in Japan, what her chances in the job market in Japan might be. She was rudely laughed at, straight to her face. "If you as a woman want to work in a Japanese firm,  you can count on making coffee for the men at least the first 3 years of your career!"

If you are not the person to understand Lolcats, I feel deeply sorry for you. Maybe you can still enjoy the thought of me cracking totally to each of them!