Yup I know my SEP departure date is like 1.5 months away but I already cannot keep still, as my MSN nick says "Weg mit dem Scheißsemester - kann nicht darauf warten". It means "Do away with the shit semester - I just can't wait"
Everyone asks me which German city I am going to, and I replied Mannheim, and they went blank. To most people, Germany is either Berlin, Munich (München in German) or Frankfurt.
Germany is a Federal Republic that consists of 16 States and Baden-Württemberg is one such state. Mannheim lies at the top of Baden-Württemberg (see red dot below):
And Mannheim is the second largest city in the state that in Baden-Württemberg. 
As you can see, Mannheim is actually quite near to Frankfurt. In order to get to Mannheim, I'd have to arrive at Frankfurt Airport and transit into a train to Mannheim. Pre-departure expectations
I have heard from many people who have been to Mannheim that it is a very boring and industrious city with not much things to see. They remarked that the advantage of the location of Mannheim, however, is that it lies in central Germany and also central of Europe, since Germany is already in central Europe, being in Mannheim is like being in the central of the central. Some expected that I would probably spend more time at the neighbouring city of Heidelberg where it is very beautiful, romantic with lots of nightlife and student hotspots. Only 1 teacher's (Herr Chan who teaches me German for Academic Purposes) first reaction was to remark bluntly that "I should be going there to study and not to play!"
Actually these remarks came as I was deciding which university to go to. Most of my German classmates, especially those from FASS were going to Heidelberg. Although I am from FASS, it does not seem to make much sense for me to go to Heidelberg although the university is the oldest in Europe and ranked highly for Arts. This is because in most other universities with the exception of NUS, Economics does not belong to Arts and Social Sciences but rather to Business. As a result it made more sense for me to go to Mannheim since the faculties of Business and Economics are ranked as top in Germany.
Not the first time in Germany
This will be my second time in Germany. The last time I went was after I completed German 2. It was an immersion program and I felt that one month there of being in a German environment can be compared to 1 year of learning German (after finishing German 1 and 2). This time I am going again armed with German 5.
So I was in Münster the last time I was there. It is a city northwest of Germany. I also took the chance to visit other cities but mostly in the west, as part of the immersion program. I went to Bonn (my second choice after Mannheim), Colonge (Köln in German) and Bremen.
This time round I must really go to these places:
Berlin to see the (Brandenburg Gate) Brandenburger Tor and eat the world's famous curry sausage (currywurst)
Bayern (Bavaria) to drink lots of beer in the beer halls in München as well as visit the Neuschwanstein Castle 
Hamburg to see the beautiful harbour and Europe's largest red light district and home of many theatres, bars and night clubs.
Blackforest (Schwarzwald) 
And not forgetting Köln which I really wanted to visit the Hohenzollern Bridge again, as well as Münster to visit my German mama and slack in her backyard. 
These are only places in Germany, which are definitely some but not all yet... how bout Austria? Prague? Italy? Stolkholm, which Janice liked it so much that she did not wanna come back after that. Oh man... no need to study already. Will I even feel like coming back?
In fact most students don't want to come back after SEP, to reality, simply because the grass is greener on the other side. Moreover I will be back to do my honours year which I really dread actually. Don't think I will be in the mood but its something to be done anyway, so I shall not complain and do it. Afterall I am grateful to my parents for letting me come this far as well as giving me the opportunity to go for an SEP and financial support. It's definitely something that they never dreamt about when they were students. I think I am going to spend a lot of money this time and I hope that I can reciprocrate in one way or another in the future. Also I think it will be very a very wierd feeling not to turn up at MV on Saturdays to visit the residents, considering that is how I spent my Saturdays these past 2 years plus.
