"Aus Sein folgt nicht Sollen"

This is the crucial and all important sentence that we learned in the Methods lecture today. Clumsily translated, it means that, erm..."'Should' does not follow Being", or something like the existence of something does not mean that it should exist. Hmm...let's see if I can put it in more concrete terms. For example, if you do a survey of the pop. and the results happen to correspond to a nice theory that you have formulated, it does not mean that your theory is proven...on the contrary, it proves nothing. This is because no matter how much you try to make your selection of surveyees a fair one, it cannot cover the entire pop, and even if it does, the survey has only taken place in a certain period of time. There are just too many limitations of your expt/survey, and too many factors to consider.

The prof gave a v good example: A man went to his doctor and complained of pains. He proded himself in the shoulder, stomach and hips, "It hurts when I prod here, here, and here!" The doctor said in reply,"You have a broken finger."

And this prof actually licked the replacement batt for his mike today, and used a bamboo pole twice his height for support during the lecture (!!). Theatrics! And he loves to 'insult' the female gender, like saying things like, "Do you know that men in general have bigger brain volumes than females?" (Yeah, gorillas have larger brain mass than men too.)

Anyway, enuff of him and school.

I went to Köln the previous weekend, and it was truly fun to be with Singaporeans and see Xizhen after dunno how many months. (ever since the end of PDC!) That goes to show how busy we all are. =p I can't load the pics though, cuz clever me left my digi cam and earrings at Xizhen's place. =p

I tried to donate blood to the Deutsches Rotes Kreuz but the doc rejected me. She asked if I have slept enough, eaten enough and drunk enough. Of course I haven't, but that is normal for me on a school day anyway, sandwich for lunch, less than 1 L of water, etc. And I had a lecture afterwards. She told me that she couldn't take my blood then, cuz I would 'kip over'. (Which was true, I never knew how my neglectful habits have been weakening my system so much that I slept at lecture today) Afterwards, as I was having dinner, she came over to my table to ask if my lecture was fine, and if I felt ok, and told me that I could always donate at another time. That was so unexpected and pleasant of her to do so! I really have a v great impression of German docs, esp having been examined by 2 of them.

Right, I must read up on the swiss govt system now. No more procrastination!

=)Leeting

P.S Who left a comment on my last entry? Jo?

Readings!!

We have a professor in our course for Methoden der empirischen Sozialforschung (d.translation methods of empirical social research), who is absolutely hilarious in his lectures. My other classmates don't find it so great though...let me give you an idea of things he said in class...(translation using 'agaration')

(at 8.00am)
"It is great to be young, isn't it? You find it tough to wake up in the morning...not like us, when you wake up really early easily and think, man, you are dead."

(when trying to illustrate the ineffectiveness of case studies as a scientific method)
"Can you imagine if physics had used case studies as a scientific method?" He imitates a scientist holding a stone. "Yeah, this is a stone. Oh look, that is a stone too! This stone falls. The other stone does too! And THERE is another stone!"

And the thing is that, he tells all these without giving as much of a giggle. And there would be intervals when he has had too much of himself, and he would burst out laughing, holding the podium to support himself. An interesting character, huh?

I must admit that I am understanding more in class, yet fearing more to speak out. My German seems to get worse with each coming day...ironic huh? There are even times when I break out in English. Terrible.


On a brighter note, I went to Ruth's place to celebrate the end of her zwischenprüfung recently. V V nice=) I love visits to her place, she makes you feel totally at home. Though I must admit that I feel kinda guilty letting her cook and wash and all=( Ruth, if you are reading this, must come visit Konstanz and let me do the washing and cooking yah? =)



Rachel, Sam, Yuhan, Me (I look the coldest huh?)



That's Ruth in the centre of the pic. Rachel, Ruth, Yuhan (from left to right)

Right, I have got 110 pages of political readings (in german!) to get through by end of this weekend. Not including extra readings we have to do to revise what we have 'learnt'. Frankly I feel that I know too little, that's why the learning is coming rather slowly for me. Bleah. Oh yeah, to illustrate how little I know about German Politics, when Münterfering stepped down suddenly as party head, I didn't even know what significance that had. (?!) But I must admit that they solved the crisis rather quickly (this means they worked on All Saints' Day! Gasp!)

Oops. Not that I don't have much faith in the Bürokratie, but the thing is that things always run so slowly for me. It seems to be just ME. My classmates don't have that problem, never.