vidallo

username: elric [member=508]	Joined: March 8th 2007 Photos: 26 Clubs:0
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About the Photographer:
What is this all about?
http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/ELRIC/
http://www.myspace.com/elrick_2007
http://elrich2007.hi5.com
I spent a three month school term studying abroad in Ulm, Germany at the Fachhochschule Ulm. This also gave me many opportunities to travel throughout Europe. I tried to keep a weblog, with entries mainly covering my weekend travels throughout Europe. Now that I am back home in Manila, I am working on reorganizing the entries by date, filling in some of the gaps, and linking the entries to the many pictures I took while I was over there.

I also have lots of photographs from Germany and Europe posted in the pictures section of my website.
Reflecting on my experience in Germany and Europe
A little more than a year ago, I boarded a plane for a trip that would take me to Ulm, Germany. (The "U" in Ulm is pronounced like the "oo" in school.) I spent my Spring 2003 school term studying abroad at Fachhochschule Ulm - Ulm University of Applied Sciences. My experience in Europe was great, and I highly recommend it to my fellow students. I spent almost as much time traveling as I did at school that term, so I probably have as many stories from outside Germany as I have from Ulm.

One of the best parts of traveling is meeting new people. While I am not very outgoing by nature, the reward of talking with people from other cultures motivated me to strike up conversations with strangers. It seems to work well by starting the conversation with something like "Do you speak English?" (or "Sprechen Sie Deutsch?" or "Parlez-vous Anglais?" as applicable). In England, I liked to start conversations with "Where are you from?" While that is a strange question to start off with, they will inevitably ask the question back to you. Saying you are from Manila immediate gives you something interesting to talk about.

It is useful to know how people socialize differently in a particular culture, After just a couple days in Germany, some of the differences.