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  • Seeing Cavalluna

    Earlier this month I attended a wonderful horse show titled “Cavalluna – Grand Moments”. Cavalluna is a traveling horse show that is based in Germany though puts on performances in other European countries too, especially Switzerland and Austria. I had a busy yet entertaining day.

    Why

    After living as somewhat of a Vagabond in Austria for about six months, I finally found and moved into a good apartment to live in for over a year. Nearby and to the west of the apartment is a large indoor event venue named Stadthalle. Events ranging from concerts to magic shows have been hosted there. I often see posters advertising the events while I am out walking my dog Peanut. I had decided that I would go to an event at Stadthalle at some point. One day in April while walking my dog, I noticed a neat poster with a white horse on it and a purple background. It was advertising a show named Cavalluna – Grand Moments, and it was to be shown at Statdthalle in May. I decided this would be a great chance to check out Statdhalle, as horses interest me. I bought a ticket online a little under two weeks in advance. By then, to my surprise, the vast majority of the tickets were already sold out. The Saturday afternoon show, which I selected, had only single tickets left. I was going by myself, so this wasn’t an issue. The seats are arranged in somewhat of a C shape in the arena. I selected a seat that was somewhat in the middle of the C, though on the outer edge and close to the bottom of the C. I printed out two tickets to make sure I would get to go. I continued on with life as usual in Graz for the next 10 or so days.

    Going for a Walk and the Flea Market

    It was now the day of the show. The weather was nice, and as usual I went for several dog walks that day. One was a long walk during the late morning and until about noon. While walking by the local Catholic parish on the way back, I noticed a flea market for kids to sell things was set up there. I had been collecting a few children’s books to learn German with. I wasn’t quite ready for them yet, because I don’t know the preterite (past) tense yet, but I will be soon. This flea market is not a regular event. For all I know it is only once a year. Seeing it as a unique opportunity to get some good children’s books, I decided that I should go. I finished up the walk, and checking the time, believed I had enough time to go to the flea market for a little bit, come home and eat lunch, and then head out in time to be a few minutes early for the show. I grabbed a 10 euro bill, and went out the door. I decided to ride my bike there to save a few minutes, even though I was close by.

    I showed up to the flea market. I don’t remember the exact number, but I think there were about eight different tables set up, with a kid or two plus maybe a parent at each one. Most of the merchandise was either toys or books. I went around to different tables and looked at books. Typically I would ask the kid or adult “Was kostet das?”, which semantically means “What does this cost?”. The first book I bought was 2 euros. I paid with the 10 euro bill, and got change in euro coins. I went to other tables, and at all but one of those I bought a book. The books were all either 1 or 2 euros. In total I bought five books. I got a good mix. Three of them are picture books for little kids, one is a chapter book, and the fifth book is a nonfiction book about the earth. The chapter book is titled Die drei??? Das Geheimnis der Geisterinset. I had not heard of it before, but as a flipped through it a bit I noticed that a movie was made based on the story, the book is not too long, and it appears to be written for kids, so I figured it would be a good next step when I am done reading books for kindergarteners. I’ve included a picture of the five books. They are titled: Die drei??? Das Geheimnis der Geisterinset, Tiere aus Afrika, Ninjago Masters of Spinjitzu: Coole Ninja-Abenteuer, Der Kleine Drache Kokosnuss kommt in den Kindergarten, and Kinder entdecken … Unsere Erde. I then went home.

    Getting to the Show and Seat Drama

    I arrived home and looked at my watch. I was gone at least 10 minutes longer than I expected, and now only had about 20 or 30 minutes to make and eat lunch. I fed Peanut some dog food. I think I ate a typical lunch for me, which was fruit (maybe a pear), nuts, cheese, and a sandwich, with water to drink. I also think I saved some of my sandwich in order to save time. I was rushed. I don’t like to rush when I eat, but this was a special occasion. Another thing I had to do that I don’t like was leave before I finished cleaning up, but whatever. I would finish cleaning up shortly after getting back. I made sure I had my two copies of my one ticket, my phone, the case of which is also my wallet, apartment keys, and ran out the door. I live maybe a half a mile away from Stadthalle, and the distance might actually be slightly less. I jogged over there, walking as I got close to the entrance. The show was scheduled for 2 o’clock, and I got in there at about 1:56, give or take a minute.

    I quickly found my seat, and the show had not started yet at 2 sharp. However, there was a woman in my seat who was there with her husband and daughter. I tried to talk to them in some broken German, though the conversation soon switched to English, which the husband spoke fluently. I had the ticket for seat 70 in the back row, and he had the ticket for 73, but there was no 73, so he and his family each shifted down one place. There was no one in seat 69 or the next few seats, so I sat in it.

    However, a woman and a group of girls, maybe her daughters or daughter and some friends, showed up like two minutes later. Me and the man told them the situation. I kept sitting in the seat, and one of the young girls sat on a step. The show hadn’t started yet. I told the adults near me that I would go look for an employee to talk to. I explained to an usher the situation, and offered to move seats if one is available, by typing a long sentence or two into Google Translate, showing her both the English and German versions of what I was trying to say. The usher followed me and I pointed out the seats. She talked to the man that had a ticket for a nonexistent seat. He then told me that the usher said I can take an open seat, and that there was one. I think he said the open seat was at the other very end of the row, seat 1. So, I went looking for it while the show was starting up. When I got there, that seat was occupied, but I noticed something better. I saw several rows in front of me was a group of three unoccupied seats. I asked a young woman sitting next to the three seats if they were free by pointing at a seat and saying “Ist dieser Platz frei?” and she said that they were, so I sat in the middle one. I now had quite a bit of space in an otherwise crowded venue. No one ever showed up and claimed those seats, so I was fine. I looked around a bit. While I think the typical audience members were parents and their daughters, there was quite a bit of age and gender diversity there. Cavalluna – Grand Moments was now going on.

    The Show Itself

    Horses and performers at the Cavalluna show

    The Cavalluna show itself was neat. I think there was a story, but it was narrated in German and I hardly understood a word of it. This wasn’t an issue, as there was not much narration at all, and I was mainly there to see horses. The show included various horses and their very skilled riders, plus acrobats, dancers, music, and some sort of clown like main character, who looked like a mime in regards to face paint. There was music, which at times was pre recorded music played through the speakers, and at other times was live piano music. The lighting was pretty cool. There were colored lights which often shown blue, purple, or red, and there was a giant projection screen at the back which was on sometimes, often showing scening views. Other times it was off and so all of the focus was on the performers. The horsemen and horsewomen would do tricks such as riding while standing up, or while standing sideways. A couple of the dancers were men who can do flips. A cute bit of comedy was added to the show by the inclusion of some small creatures that I believe were ponies. Overall, the show was great. Whether you are a kid or an adult, male or female, I think you would find Cavalluna to be an entertaining show

    I man standing up while riding with a group of horses.

    Conclusion

    Although I had to hustle to avoid being late, I had a very entertaining day. I got some good books and not only did I get to see the inside of Stadthalle, I got to see a great show.

  • Deciding on a School


    How did I pick the university that I ended up going to? I didn’t throw darts. It was a complicated but ultimately eventful process. I got accepted into several schools, then narrowed it down to two, applied for scholarships, looked into housing options, prayed a bit, and then made a final decision.


    I got accepted into TU Graz, HSLU, USI, and Aalborg. JKU basically rejected me, though I think the main reason was that they requested additional information which I didn’t send in, as by that time I had already decided not to go there. Thankfully, I had gotten into the schools I was most interested in.


    I narrowed the decision down to two schools. These two were HSLU and TU Graz. I liked HSLU primarily because of two reasons. One is that it is in Switzerland and Switzerland is not in the European Union. Despite wanting to move to a European country, I dislike the organization known as the EU. At the moment I try not to talk about politics on this blog, so I will leave it at that. Two is that I liked the two professors I talked to. Both of them were kind, welcoming, and cool. I felt a small personal connection with at least the first one I spoke to, and didn’t want to disappoint him by going elsewhere. TU Graz interested me because the degree program allows students to choose from a wide variety of electives, and Graz has relatively nice weather compared to Swiss and other Austrian cities. Both schools are good. I had a tough decision to make.

    A big factor in whether I would go to a school or not was whether or not I could find housing nearby. I was bringing my dog Peanut with me, and the vast majority of student apartments in Switzerland and Austria don’t allow pets. I would likely have to live in an apartment for adults in general rather than college students specifically. I also wanted a furnished apartment. Finding a furnished apartment that accepts pets in Zurich and Graz was difficult. The first year for students in the program I was interested in at HSLU actually takes place in Zurich rather than Lucerne.

    I looked around on various websites that I found via internet searches and a list of apartments provided by TU Graz. To clarify, TU Graz provided the list, not the apartments. They don’t have dorms like typical colleges in the United States do. There were a few options here and there, but of those some were either much more expensive than other apartments in the area or were far away from the respective university. I also was still considering USI, located in Lugano, Switzerland, in case I couldn’t book a place to live near HSLU or TU Graz.


    The curricula of the programs were another big factor. The program at HSLU was more straight-up computer science, while the program at TU Graz is called Information and Computer Engineering, and includes a wide variety of courses to pick from, since it is basically a mixture of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that there weren’t many electives in the HSLU program. It was more like here are the required classes, which basically fill up the whole schedule. There were a few electives, but of all the Computer Science courses, the only one that I was interested in was the Internet of Things course. The other courses included topics such as algorithms or cybersecurity. Those are important topics and probably have interesting aspects to them, but as a whole they don’t interest me much. I wanted to go into robotics or industrial automation. However, I wanted a Computer Science degree, so I was willing to put up with a lot of classes that I am just so-so about. Also, only the first year would be like that; the second year I would be working on a project under the guidance of a professor, so I could pick something I’d be more interested in. Plus the program at HSLU is a three-semester program, while the TU Graz program is designed for four semesters. TU Graz definitely had the more interesting program though.


    At various times during the months leading up to my decision and as I got very close to making it, I would ask God to help me go where he wants me to go while I was praying. This was a big decision, and I wanted to make the right choice.

    I was leaning towards HSLU, though I hadn’t finalized anything. I started looking into the visa requirements for me to go to Switzerland. I noticed that as part of the student visa I had to submit a letter from me saying that I would leave Switzerland upon the completion of my studies. While I know that there are ways to immigrate to Switzerland, as many have done it (though typically not people from the U.S.), this requirement did concern me, because I wanted to permanently move to either Switzerland or Austria. Austria has a more straightforward way for people with masters degrees to stay there after completing their studies.

    I then found myself more interested in TU Graz. I found a temporary apartment for the first two months of when I would be there, and then another one for after that. I could book those places without signing a lease. Instead, I would just pay rent for a month or so.

    I liked the degree program at TU Graz more, and I would have a better chance at staying in Austria afterwards than staying in Switzerland. I decided on TU Graz and booked the temporary places to live. I also submitted a form via TU Graz’s application portal to finalize with them that I would be going there. I also let the other schools know via either email or their online portals that I would not be attending.

    I felt a little bad about not going to HSLU, as I had told one or both of the professors I talked to that it was my first choice. I emailed both of them explaining that I would be going to TU Graz, because I didn’t like the lack of options in picking courses at HSLU, and I am trying to emigrate to a German-speaking country, and it is difficult to move to Switzerland as an American. I then mentioned in the email “One thing I liked about HSLU is that I actually got to talk to two professors”, in order to add some positivity. Both professors emailed me back, thanking me for letting them know and that they understand.


    I had made a decision. It came down to a few key factors and would have a big impact on my life. I believe I made the right decision.

    For Further Reading

    Applying to Schools

  • Applying to Schools


    Did I wake up one day in Austria, with no memory of how I got here? No, and I didn’t magically get here, nor did I show up at a random school in Austria. First I had to discover various universities in the countries I was interested in, and then apply to them before their deadlines.

    My school search began in the summer of 2023. At that time I knew I wanted to be a master’s student in another country, though I didn’t even know what country. I did have a few ideas however. The countries I was considering included Austria, Italy, Switzerland, and a few others. I wanted to study either computer science, or something very similar such as software engineering. I have a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering,
    but found myself more interested in computer programming. I also wanted the peace of mind in knowing that I had a degree that is obviously programming heavy, more so than electrical engineering. I used ChatGPT and internet searches to look for schools. Once I found out about a school, I would visit its website to see what programs it actually has and what the admission requirements are. I used Apple Notes to keep notes about schools, as there was a lot to remember. Within the main Apple Note I used, I categorized the potential universities by country. Although it would be over a year before I left America, I was excited, and knew that I had to pay attention to application deadlines. It would soon be time to start applying,
    and I might have to take a standardized test or two before I apply.
    I would be taking two standardized tests soon. The first was the TOEFL, an English language exam. Although this wasn’t required by many schools since I had a degree from the U.S., it could help make the application process smoother in some cases, and I thought getting a really high score would make me look good compared to other applicants. The second was the GRE. The GRE can be thought of as the SAT for grad school, even though it is made by a different organization. Besides helping with admissions, I wanted to do well on the GRE because I thought I could have done better on the ACT and SAT back when I was in high school. I didn’t do bad on those, but I could have done better, as I didn’t study as much as I could have. Now I had a shot to study hard. ETS makes both the TOEFL and the GRE. I studied hard for both of those, and am glad I did. The TOEFL was not as easy as I thought. I thought it would be a simple test of whether or not I could speak English, but it was really more of an exam about essay writing, reading comprehension, and listening comprehension. The listening comprehension section would have gotten me by surprise if I hadn’t studied and learned strategies for it. The GRE was tough, but I prepared well for it.
    Some schools require letters of recommendation from college professors. Thankfully most of the schools I was most interested in did not. I didn’t have terrible relationships with my professors at Texas Tech, but I certainly could have done a much better job of connecting with them. Thankfully, I did a decent job, and so had a few that I could count on. I reached out to two of them and they both said they’d be willing to write me letters.
    I had identified several schools that I was very interested in. The first of these with an approaching application window and deadline was Technische Universität Graz, more commonly referred to as TU Graz. Some of the master’s programs at TU Graz require completing an admission procedure in order to be admitted, which essentially means I would have to apply between October 15th and December 15th, and the number of study places, spots in the program, is limited to 30 new students. All of their master’s programs that I was interested in had an admission procedure. Since my bachelor’s degree is in Electrical Engineering, not Computer Science, and I would be competing for 1 of only 30 spots, I decided to apply for admission to the program named Information and Computer Engineering, which I call Computer Engineering for short. Computer Engineering is a hybrid of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. One thing that particularly appealed to me about this computer engineering program was the fact that it is very elective based, in which I would get to pick my classes from a wide range of subjects. To be exact, there are ten subjects, which can be thought of as categories. They range from Signal Processing to Software Technology. A student picks one of these as a major and one as a minor. Although I didn’t have to decide on a major at that time, I was interested in the Robotics & Intelligent Systems major. TU Graz does not ask for letters of recommendation for admission, but a letter of motivation written by the applicant is required, so it was good to have a specific interest to mention. I was sure to give it my best effort. The letter consisted of an introduction, a paragraph about my interest in the program, a paragraph about my value as a candidate, and a conclusion which includes a thank you. In the interest paragraph I talked about robotics and computer programming, and briefly mentioned a few other subjects. I also said that I am learning German and would like the opportunity to live in a German-speaking country. Additionally I said “Austria in particular is a great country, and I would love to contribute to its technological advancement”. The value as a candidate paragraph consisted of me mentioning some relevant successes I’d had, along with saying that I’d like to research robotics with one TU Graz’s professors. I showed my draft of the letter to my parents, made at least one revision, and then applied.
    I considered applying to the Robotics, Process, and Control program at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, though I did not because I though either a computer science or computer engineering degree would have broader appeal with employers, in case I ended up not going down the robotics route, and because ETH Zurich had recommended either scores or percentiles for the GRE, which I did not meet. I did well on the GRE, but ETH Zurich is a very prestigious university and so they have extremely high standards. A third reason was that they required letters of recommendation, which although I knew I could get, I wanted to save asking for those from the two professors for only when I really needed them. I thought that my letters would be wasted in applying at ETH Zurich, since I didn’t have the recommended GRE scores.
    Moving on, the second university that I applied to was Hochschule Luzern, which goes by HSLU for short. HSLU is in Lucerne, Switzerland. HSLU and TU Graz were my two favorites, so I was especially sure to apply in time. This time the letter was more about computer science rather than computer engineering, so I talked about web and mobile application development instead of robotics. However, I did mention internet of things, a subject that is similar to robotics. I mentioned Game Shrew, the iOS app I made, in the introduction, which I had done in the TU Graz motivation letter as well. Of course, I talked about Switzerland instead of Austria. HSLU allowed me to submit my TOEFL scores has part of the application, so I did that, wondering if they would be impressed or not. I applied in December of 2023. A professor from HSLU reached out to me. He set up an interview with me via a video call. The interview went well, though during the interview he mentioned that he looked at my LinkedIn profile. In my mind I was like “uh oh”, because I don’t use LinkedIn much and so don’t update my profile often. Apparently nothing on it scared him away, because he seemed interested in me becoming an HSLU student. He then set up a second interview, this time with me and himself again plus another professor. That interview went well too.
    The third university I applied to was Università della Svizzera italiana. This school is called USI and is in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland. Their main campus is in the city Ticino. I initially became interested in USI because it is a Swiss university that accepts GRE scores, though the Artificial Intelligence Specialization of their Informatics program interested me a lot because it includes a robotics course. I wrote the letter of motivation largely be reusing and modifying content from my previous two letters. One big difference was that I broke up the interest paragraph into two paragraphs. The first was largely the same as that of my HSLU letter, though I said it would be cool to learn Italian in Ticino, in place of talking about German of course. I mentioned robotics and data analytics in the second interests paragraph. I also wrote two paragraphs instead of one for the value as a candidate section. The first of those is about future plans so I said I want to become a robotics software engineer, and in the second value as a candidate paragraph I said I would like to work with a professor to research either robotics, machine learning, or computer vision & pattern recognition.
    I applied to two other master’s programs. One was the Master of Science in Computer Engineering programme with a specialization in AI, vision, and sound at Aalborg University in Denmark. The other was Master’s degree program in Computer Science at Johannes Kepler University Linz. I wrote letters of motivation for both of those. As usual, I based them off of the ones written for the schools I had previously applied to, making necessary changes. I worked on the JKU letter while I was sort of watching the Super Bowl at my dad’s house. Upon applying however, I found out that JKU Linz doesn’t accept letters of motivation during the application process. I’m not sure how I didn’t notice that beforehand, but whatever.
    There were a few other schools that I was thinking about, though at this point I had already applied to all of my favorite schools, and those other schools had deadlines more in the future, so at least for now I was done applying.

    I managed to apply to the universities which most interested me before their application deadlines. Prior to this I did a good job studying for and taking both the TOEFL and the GRE. I could now relax a bit, since I was done with application deadlines for now, but I still had to wait to find out if I was admitted, and I had a while before I would actually move to another country to attend one of those universities.