Surviving Engineering Degree!

It is actually a long due post. When I first started Chemical Engineering, I was quite nervous like any other students. Then I started searching tips to pass this course on internet. That led me to this article, which actually motivated me a lot. At that time, I promised to write my own version of it once I graduate. Now, exactly a year after leaving University, I am fulfilling a promise I gave myself 5 years ago.

So many students ask me about Engineering life, mostly “How difficult it is?”, “Can you give me some hints how to pass it” and “What are the future prospects of this degree” are the very common questions students ask me. Here in this post, rather than saying do this and do that, I will mainly write about how I completed Engineering degree and what are the things I had to do to survive this course:

1. Managing time efficiently

University is not school anymore. You are responsible for managing your own time. At the start of the year, you will be given a yearly plan for all the courses. All you have to do is make your own plan one step ahead of a professor. Especially, in terms of coursework, do not procrastinate! You cannot leave anything for the last minute.

2. Team work

Since our first year, we were encouraged to work in a group. We had group in every lab session or problem based learning session because Engineering is all about group work. I actually found few people being uncomfortable working with opposite gender. In that case, I would worry.  There were so many times when I was the only girl in my group. Just be comfortable working in group. This is Engineering.

3. Increasing the network

When you are stuck, ask for help! More people you know, more help you get. Specially in my case, there were so many times when I was standing outside lecturer’s office just to clear some doubts. If you have a good friendship with your teacher and colleagues, they will happily explain you. Also, communicate well! You can’t stay in one corner and finish 4 years of Engineering degree. Communicate with others. Talk about academic or non-academic things. Get involved in societies. After all, its all about improving your interpersonal skills. 

4. Staying awake whole night 

There is always a room for improvement. There was not a single time in coursework when I was happy to submit or felt I had done everything. No deadline was enough for anything. So many times, me and my friends stayed up whole night to finish the coursework. Many times, I was still writing until final 10 minutes to submission deadline. At the end of the week, you are completely worn out but the important thing is, you should be able to say ‘I couldn’t have done anything better’. You shouldn’t regret. 

5.  Multitasking 

I don’t know about other countries but from where I graduated, students are piled up with coursework and exams all the time. Coursework from different subjects are due at the same time. You just have get used to it. It's hard to find happy Engineering students who has done everything on time. You are mostly running behind but work smart and remember, this is very common.

6. Making library my second home

I wrote library here because library was like my second home when I was at University. It totally depends on where you are more productive. The main thing about this point is, you have to have a strong work ethic. You have to read but not get bored. So, improve your reading habits. Most importantly, stay focused on your goal. 

7.  Teaching

Everyone knows teaching is the best way of learning. Whether it was me teaching my friends or my friends teaching me, we have found this method really effective way to improve our own knowledge. Mostly I found it an effective way of remembering in exams. So, when you are helping others, you are also helping yourself.

8. Attending every lecture

I never skipped any lecture until final year. Final year was filled with dissertation headache and there was a time when my dissertation appointment clashed with lectures and unfortunately, I had to skip some of them. Still, I suggest not to skip any of it. Even though you are yawning in the class, you are still picking up something and when you are revising it later, it is not totally stranger.

9. Attempt all past papers

There has been a time during my Engineering degree when I left out past papers due to shortage of time and exam was similar to past exams. Then I promised myself that I will never leave past paper out again but I think my teachers heard my promise and they never repeated that mistake.

10. Be independent 

I said earlier to be a team worker but now I am saying to be independent. What I mean here is, you cannot rely on others to do all your coursework. You can discuss in a group but at the end of the day, it’s your work and your degree. This point is especially applicable when you are doing dissertation. During this time, you are completely alone because everyone has different topic. If you are trained well to be independent, you will survive.

The Empty House by Rosamunde Pilcher

My Review: 2/5

A sweet story about love and life! This book is about getting a second chance.

It is known that every girl has to have one unhappy love affair before she finally meets the right man and settles down and gets married. Virginia, a 27-year-old widow and a single mother of two children goes to Cornwall to recover from flu but instead, encounters with a man she fell in love 10 years ago. At 17, she was too vulnerable to fight for her first love and in distress, chooses a wrong person to marry. It is already too late before she realises her mistake but God give her second chance. This time, she is strong and doesn’t want to repeat that mistake.

The reason I am only giving 2 stars is because I thought an author spent too much time describing something, which is not relevant to the story. I found her writing style quite boring as well. Story is good but not memorable. Overall, it can be a good one for anyone who is looking for a quick read.

Rich Dad Poor Dad

My Review: 4/5

Once I wrote an article about what I will teach my future children. One of the points was “I will tell them that managing money is more important than earning”. This book motivates towards exactly same philosophy- ‘It’s not how much money you make. It’s how much money you keep’.

Written by Robert T. Kiyosaki, this book is labelled as #1 personal finance book of all time. I totally agree with that. I actually found this book quite inspiring in terms of investing. I remember when I first started thinking about stepping into stock market and investment; I was really scared, just like Mr Kiyosaki has mentioned in the book: people’s life are forever controlled by two emotions: fear and greed. However, the truth is, as an author added 'often in the real world, it’s not the smart that get ahead, but the bold. People should learn to take risks, be bold, and let their genius convert that fear into power and brilliance'.

Rich people in the world become rich by being financially intelligent. The secret of being financially intelligent is ‘investment’. The book encourages you to invest in real estate but I would say, invest in your education first and then, real estate is obviously a powerful investment tool. The secret of investing in real estate is making profit as much as possible while buying. Most of the middle class people invest in mutual funds and get away with that because that has lower risk. Rich people in fact invest in higher risk because high risk means high return. Remember, its not a gamble. Only invest the sum that you can afford to lose. Here is the tip: Invest in the new company and sell it after 1 or 2 years because most of the start up don’t last more than 5 years. Don't be put off with failure or loss. It is there to make you stronger and smarter.

Another lesson from the book is to make sure you pay yourself first. What that means is, start your own business! When you have a job, you get your salary after the tax has been deducted but the good thing about doing business is, you pay all the business expenses first and the tax is deducted only from the profit. So, you might have seen rich people travelling in business class, staying in expensive hotel and travelling to different countries. That is because they include those expenses in business expenses that means they don’t pay tax in that. Smart huh? That’s called financially intelligent.

The interesting thing about the book is, it differentiates the meaning of liabilities and assets, which most people confuse (including me but not anymore). I will give you an example of both here. If you buy a house and live there and pay mortgage, that house of yours is not asset but liability because you are paying interest on it. However, if you rent that house, and that rent covers the mortgage and every expenses, and at the end of the month, you have at least small amount of that rent going into your pocket, that’s your assets.

Although I agree with most of the things an author has mentioned in the book, I actually found his book criticising the academic schools. It might not be the case but quite often, it came to me that an author in the name of his ‘Rich Dad’ empathised on the fact that the schools don't teach about finance and they are designed to produce good employees instead of employers. For me, I think you can only become good employer if you are a good employee. Also, education is important. The skills you get from the academic life plays vital role in making you understand ‘financial intelligence’.

So, the moral of the book is: Invest….... Invest ……. And invest !!

PRAGUE- CZECH REPUBLIC

With Good Friday, weekends and Easter Monday, we had altogether 4 days holiday. Again, it was another opportunity to step outside Germany for a while. During my first few months in Germany, I was still feeling like a guest  but now, after spending 7 months here, it is more like a homeland. So, now and often, I prefer to travel outside. If not anything else, it gives a sense of peace and consciousness of being away from the work for a while.

On train, we passed through beautiful scenes that gave the feeling of both peaceful and forlorn life people might have there. Tall hills and river in the bottom reminded me of my country, Nepal. The strange thing about Europe is, there is no border. I don't actually know how they decide at which point each country starts.  We didn't know we entered into Czech Republic zone until the stations' names had unfamiliar umlaut in alphabets. 

Prague had temperature of about 20 degree Celsius. It was like heaven for someone coming from the cold weather. I found the overall expenses quite cheap compared to Germany. Not because of exchange rate though every time we converted the Crown into Euro before buying anything. I was hugely impressed with the train system there. They were very efficient, clean and punctual. If you are travelling for few days, there are tickets available for 24 hours and 72 hours. Since we were there for 3 days, we decided to get 72 hours ticket that cost 320 Crown. That ticket gave access to all trams, buses, metro and funicular railway (one of the attraction). We actually didn't know funicular railway was free with that ticket. So, we bought extra ticket and later on, we were busy selling those tickets to others. The strange and good thing about Prague is there are free tour guides available. The only way they make money is from the tips people give them after the tour. The tour starts at 11 am and 2 pm every day in Astronomical Clock and Old town square. I would highly recommend this service.

PRAGUE CASTLE

Prague castle is the main attraction in Prague. It is situated in the hill, bit higher level from the town. From this spot, people have opportunity to enjoy amazing panoramic view of the city. The castle expands in an area of nearly 70000 sq. m, recording its name in Guinness world record book as the largest castle in the world. Actually, it is known that it wasn't that large in the start. Many kings from different countries like Germany and Poland have ruled Czech in the past. Every king wanted to make something that represents him. So, the castle kept increasing its size. There is a famous incident that president of Prague stole golden pen from one of the conference in Chile. After he came back to Prague, many people signed a campaign to send him pens in a mail. At this point, our guide said Czechs are very popular in stealing, everyone laughed but my housemate and I checked our bags. 

Around the castle, you can roam around for free but there are specific places where you need to get ticket for, such as Palace, Golden Lane and Powder tower. The ticket costs 250 Crown but 50% off for students under 26 years old. The Cathedral was really beautiful. I loved the architecture of it. Looked like every little detail was given an attention while constructing it. To be honest, the places we visited with ticket were bit overrated. For eg. the palace had nothing inside and Golden lane was just a small congested road with smallest possible shops at the side. To go inside those shops, people had to bend themselves. 

Cathedral- you can go inside for free

Inside the Cathedral

Attention to detail inside Cathedral

PRAGUE VIEW FROM THE CASTLE

Around the castle is really nice and more than anything, view of Prague city from there is breath-taking. We visited the castle on both days. If you are visiting every corner of the castle, it takes 3 to 4 hours. I don't know whether it was because of holiday but there were just too many people. After a tiring tour of the castle, resting at the side and looking towards the city, you forget all the tiredness. It looks so peaceful and beautiful that it was difficult to leave that place. 

Prague view 1

Prague view 2

Prague view 3

CHARLES BRIDGE

Between the Prague flows a river called Vltava. It has many bridges but the most famous one is called Charles Bridge. Apparently, the bridge was originally built up of wood in 12th century but later on it was badly damaged by flood. So, in 14th century, Charles IV built another stone bridge in the same position. Apparently, he built this bridge in such an auspicious time that nothing could destroy this bridge after that, not even 2002 flood that covered half of the Prague. There were local people at both sides of the bridge trying to sell their business. Although the bridge was very crowded with tourists, it was cheerful.  

View of Charles Bridge from far

Walking in the Charles Bridge- Look at the statues at the sides

The bridge has 30 statues of famous figures in both sides but what struck me the most was a statue with 5 stars around its head. So the story is, this statue is of a Priest during Charles IV reign. The king had a suspicion that his wife was cheating on him. He went to church and asked this priest about his wife's confession. The priest being obedient servant of the God refused to tell the king about his wife's confession. The king tried to get a word out of him so many times but the priest never told him anything. So, finally, he killed the priest and threw his body in the river from Charles Bridge. That night, 5 stars were seen in the sky and because of that, his statue has 5 stars. Some locals believe that after his body was thrown in the river, an angel came and took him to the heaven but some people believe his body ended up in Germany because Vltava River forms Elbe River when it comes to Germany. 

Statue of a Priest in Charles Bridge

HISTORY AROUND THE CITY

Rudolfinum

Every city has its own history. Most of the Prague's history is more related to World War II. One of our stop was a big concert hall called Rudolfinum. It is situated in the bank of river Vltava. The building was designed by architect Josef Zítek and Josef Schulz, and was opened in 1885. The statues on the top of the building are of famous music composers from Jews families. When Nazi captured Czech in 1939, this building was working office for them. They wanted to take the statues down but never succeeded because people who were responsible for taking it down struggled to figure out which statue was of Jews and which not. Now this building is used as a concert hall.   

Hebrew number and roman clock in Jews quarter

Jews quarter is another history as well as an attraction of Prague. The history of this place goes back to 13th century. During that time, walls surrounded this place and only Jews could live here. The surrounded land was 4 m lower than normal level so just imagine how they lived in case of flood. In 1700, Jews people became more liberal and they were allowed to go out and live in other places. In 1850s, Czechoslovakia decided to destroy this place but there are still some old buildings remaining. This place later became memorial of World War II. In one of the building has a collection of the pictures painted by children in concentration camp during World War II. Apparently, there were about 15000 children. Our guide told us that once an old man came to his touring group and claimed that he was one of those children who survived concentration camp but he was only 2 years old during that time. Nearby this area is Jews cemetery. The area is really small and fully walled. Jews people were only allowed to bury here. The space was so small that people were buried on top of each other. 

Frank Kafka

Frank Kafka was one of the popular Jews writers in Czech Republic. Apparently, once he saw a dream where he was followed by an empty suit. It followed him everywhere. This statue is to remember him and his famous dream. He wrote many stories but during his last days, he decided not to become famous and told his friend not to publish anything he has written but his ex-girlfriend and a friend published them. He then became very famous but when Nazis took over, they burned all of his books. After Soviet Union clashed, his popularity was still on and tourists who came to Czech Republic asked about him. Then Czech thought his name is a very good business so they named most of the things after him. Later, his books were translated into Czech language. 

Astronomical clock

Astronomical clock is one of the popular tourist attractions in the heart of Prague town. The clock (upper dial) consists of black map, a globe from 1400. It was installed in early 15th century. The clock has roman numbers at the outer edge which represents the timescale of normal 24 hours a day. There are four statues, 2 at both sides of it. Apparently, These four figures represents the vitality of the people living in that era. The first man on the left has mirror in his hand which represents 'insecurity of his look', the second is holding gold in his hand that represents greed. Another statue on right is a skeleton that represents fear of death. The final figure is a man in turbine that represents entertainment. At 11 am everyday, all the tourists including tour guides gather here to see the show where a skeleton rings the bell and all other three statues shake their heads to step aside death. The two blue doors above the clock opens and 12 men are seen one by one each representing one hour. 

The lower dial was built in 19th century. The outer layer of this circle has names around it (which can't be seen in this picture). If a child is born in Czech Republic, you have to pick the name from there to name your child. There are 365 names, one name for children born on one day. If you want a name that is not listed there, you have to prove the government that it’s a real name. For someone like me who has already chosen names for my future children, it would be worry to give birth in Czech Republic :P. In the second circle towards the centre is the picture of harvesting in different seasons. The third circle is of 12 zodiac signs. In the middle is the Castle, which is the symbol of the city. 

The dancing house, built in 1996 is another attraction in the city. Its architecture is amazing. If you look at the houses, the house that's twisted is supposed to be a woman and the house next to it is supposed to be a man. So, buildings represent man and woman doing salsa dance. 

So that was all...... Once someone said- 'Your mood depends on what you know is coming in future'. A day before leaving for Prague, we were totally stressed out with our work but still we were happy inside because we knew the trip was on the way. On the last day of the visit, we were having fun but we were sad because tomorrow, we were returning. On the way back on train, my friend and I constantly frowned looking at each other. Usual days were waiting for us in Germany.