Some random thoughts.

Today after class I was buying rice at a Thai grocery shop, and while paying the lady asked where I am from. I told her Singapore and she replied that she thought I was from Thailand. She said I looked like a Thai, which I don't think so? That made me think of another incident on the plane from BKK to Frankfurt. The air stewardess asked me in Thai, if I was Thai. And when I stared blankly at her cos I did not understand her question, she blushed. And in Mannheim there was an exchange student from Thailand as well. When we first introduced, she was quite surprised to learn that I was from Singapore because she too, thought that I have the Thai look. Now I am wondering if I have been abducted before or not...

My first week of school was already over, although for 2 modules International Marketing and IT in Service Industry will only start this week. I have been thinking all through this week if I should drop Corporate Finance or not, and whether I will really benefit from taking the module. I have already mapped 5 modules already, and taking Corporate Finance would mean I take 6 modules. Now I have never came across anyone who's taking 6 modules on SEP. I think everyone would think I am crazy to do that since SEP should be taking a break from school. At first I was thinking of taking 6 modules in Mannheim so that my year 4 can be totally devoted to the 8 level 4000 econs modules. But now I am having second thoughts of taking Corporate finance here. I guess I am just too ambitious or that I am just worried that I will die under Basant or any level 4000 econs lecturer when I return. Maybe I should just drop Corporate Finance now and find some crap GEM/Breadth module back in NUS next sem and SU it, since I have 2 SUs left and I will never use them all up upon graduation no mater what. If only I can sell them for $1k, and I will gladly sell it.

On the other hand, there are 2 modules in Mannheim which I enjoyed a lot during the first lesson. One is obviously European Economic Integration. I feel that the lecturer is very good and I understood fully what he was trying to convey during the lecture. It is a real pity that I am only allowed to take 1 econs module in Mannheim, all because of my coordinator who's very calculative over module mapping. I really wanted to take the International Trade module in German here, but I can only choose between European or International Trade. Damn sian, always faced with such choices everytime!

The other module which I found it was not bad was the module on German financial market. There are only 22 students in this class and this course is really looking into the German stock, bond, commodity and fund market. And like financial econs which I took last sem at NUS, this course requires us to maintain a portfolio. What surprises me is that the lecturer actually said that you can put all your 100k Euro into Sparkonto (savings account) if you feel like it. That's like damn slack! But the exciting side of the course is that there will be 2 excursions, 1 to Straßburg which is in France near the German border where the European Parliament is, an another excursion to Frankfurt to visit the European Central Bank. Of course we gotta pay for both trips but I am sure that it will be an eye-opener. What an irony, since I have never visited MAS or SGX before. Also, to take this course, I had to pay 15 Euros, and I am purely doing it for enrichment since there are no modules in NUS that I can map this to. And if you are thinking whether there are good looking girls in this class, the answer is a dismaying no... its a male-dominated class.

Tomorrow I will be having English Linguistics (which I found terribly boring but taking it to fulfill requirements at NUS), International Marketing (which I am very sure that its gonna be flooded with exchange students like me), as well as German Grammar for level C1. I am looking forward for the last 2 lessons, in particular the German Grammar course (which I paid 15 Euros also, for enrichment, since I can't map it to German 6 at NUS).

And tonight I will bring this question to bed: Should I let go of Corporate Finance?