Homeless, clueless, scared shitless
Some may know this, others not: I finally quit my job at Last.fm to go back to uni. My last day there was September 12th, 2008. Now I’m at the FH Potsdam to study interface design.
On Monday the 15th, my parents picked me up and drove me all the way from London to Bremen. For two short days, I sorted out my belongings, looked at available rooms in Potsdam and went to the crappiest game of football ever seen in the Weserstadion.
On Wednesday the 17th, my parents drove me to Potsdam. I went to see three rooms immediately. The first one was way pikey, the second one for girls only and the third one turned me down two days ago. Finally, after we arrived at a small bed and breakfast, my parents forced me into a restaurant. I collapsed onto my bed shortly thereafter.
Thursday the 18th til Sunday the 21st I mainly spent in a car, driven around by my parents; or other people’s flats, trying to make a good impression. People who know me know I regularly fail that task.
Monday the 22nd was the first day of uni. I arrived 15 minutes early but lost the key for my bike lock on the way. The rest of the day was marked by uneasiness about my only means of transport being stolen.
In the morning, lots of people delivered lots of boring speeches. Around noon, we boarded two boats and spent three long hours looking at Potsdam from the waterside. (Think Sartre’s Huis clos.) Various professors abusing the speaker system to impart their knowledge of historical buildings to us made for constant background noise.
On that boat, I overcame my shyness and took a seat opposite two girls. For the first half hour, while I still had the power to pretend I was interested in historical buildings on Potsdam’s shores, they looked like sociology students to me. After one girl accidentally hit my shin with her foot, conversation proved to be inevitable. It turned out they had come to Potsdam to do their design master in interfaces for genre classification in music.1 This, and the lack of a cover-up story, made me blurb out my Secret™.2
I also half-finished their master project for them by providing a top interface. A guerilla-interface that, at the same time, is something people are used to. Put all the songs as files on the desktop. Arrange the songs that have guitars in them into a big heap shaped like a guitar. And so on. If a song only has 20% guitar (whatever that means), make the icon 20% opaque. Ding, done!3
After the boat ride, an unorganised, small bunch of old design students tried to organise a large bunch of new design students into smaller groups. Due to organisational deficits, a successful failure ensued. Eventually, 5 of the 25 interface design noobs were walking back towards the uni to be fed. With food in our stomachs and hope in our hearts, we were shown around a little: the book binding workshop; too many print workshops to remember; the wood and metal workshops; the eye tracking lab; and so on. All open 24 hours a day, all year round, once one has completed a short course in that workshop and the professors trust the student not to saw off their limbs or bind their eyelids to a bookcover.
The day was finished off with a bottle of Beck’s in the Casino, before some of us headed home early to find rooms. Finding rooms in Potsdam is like finding good beer in an English pub; almost impossible.4 I, for example, still don’t have one after a week. But I’m on top of the game now. I receive email notifications the minute new rooms are posted on various websites. I fixed up my bike so I can get to those rooms, fast. I have maps of Potsdam and Berlin on my iPod. I shave regularly to make a good impression. But well, I still suck at finding rooms.
Tuesday the 23rd was wet, and not in a good way. I took a wrong turn and found myself in the countryside instead of in the uni. Arrived rather late, which wasn’t bad, because everyone was; and soaked, which was bad, because I was cold and shivering all day. The design über professor told us how to study design, and the interface design über professor how to study interface design. We were done at 4pm. I changed my clothes, took a shower, was in Berlin at 6pm, looked for a room. Back in bed at 2am after the weirdest room showing/interview ever. I shall reserve that story for its very own blog entry, though.
Wednesday the 24th was a beautiful, sunny day. Proper courses only start October the 13th. Until then, there’s a variety of projects we can choose to participate in. The alternative is to just do nothing until then. After all, we’re at uni now.
I somehow managed to get into the eye tracking course, limited to 12 students. From 10am to 2pm, two professors taught us everything about the theory, down to the anatomy of the eye. Biology never was so exciting! I learned that people never look at the bottom right part of web pages—where Last.fm put their MPUs. I wonder if the advertisers know anything about that.
In the afternoon, the weather was still sunny. I went to see the best flat so far. It’s old and has huge rooms with lots of windows and wooden floors. My room would have a balcony. There even is a piano, so I could finally learn playing. The people there were nice as well. In the fifteen minutes I was there, two more people came to see the room and three called. That’s a lot less than in some of the other flats I’ve seen. My chances to get the room are comparitively enourmous.
Later, I cycled into town and went on a mad shopping spree that added two tees and a jumper to my dwindling selection of wearable, clean clothing. The lack of a washing machine shows.
The cafés had put chairs out in the sun, their waiters were busy. Lots of people were window-shopping to a rhythm provided by the buskers. I mingled in-between them. Then I went back to the hotel.