How to Find Friends

How to Find Friends

00:00:00: Stephan Hanf: ​Welcome to How to Hochschule, our audio guide about tackling life and work at Rheinwall University of Applied Sciences, one of the most international universities in Germany. So grab a cup of hot caramel latte, put on your comfy headphones and join us as we explore the world of Hochschule Rhein Wahl.

00:00:25: Prof. Dr. William Megill: All right, come on.

00:00:52: Stephan Hanf: In our very first episode, we talked about the wall, which is a big aspect of the homecoming cup. It's the final hurdle you have to take with your team. The homecoming cup is a big sports event taking place once a year, finishing off the Fresher's Week. A lot of people from all over campus compete in it in different sport events and what we actually didn't tell you was who won 2022.

00:01:17: Prof. Dr. William Megill: All right, and this is getting kind of boring because it's the same team every year. All right, well, some of you say you guys are new. I see that there are some new people. They recruited some new people. All right, well, let's have it up for our gold medalist for the 2022 Homecoming Cup, team number 30, Salty Heads.

00:01:43: Stephan Hanf: As you heard, every team has a special name and the second team had a really interesting team name.

00:01:51: Prof. Dr. William Megill: So, our second place team this year, number 46, Beer. Let's have it up for the silver medal.

00:02:02: Stephan Hanf: So what was really interesting for us while we were there doing the homecoming cup that we recognize one of the team members of team Beer. It was Carlos who actually sat right next to us during the episode, how to German. Was one of the German language students. He actually advanced in his German studies.

00:02:24: Stephan Hanf: And we met him and his team after the medal ceremony. Oh, that was quite, uh, quite a race, yeah.

00:02:31: Carlos Eduardo Cabral Holguin: Yeah, it was almost. We, we, we got first here in the wall, but the other team had a lot of, a lot of experience climbing the wall.

00:02:38: Stephan Hanf: Right.

00:02:38: Carlos Eduardo Cabral Holguin: So they did pretty fast. Like, we thought we would, we would win, but when we saw the, these guys here, they were like, ah.

00:02:44: Carlos Eduardo Cabral Holguin: Yeah. They were so too fast.

00:02:47: Stephan Hanf: Yeah, yeah. That's the first time you, you went as a team here, right?

00:02:50: Carlos Eduardo Cabral Holguin: Yeah, it's the first time.

00:02:51: Stephan Hanf: How do you know, know each other?

00:02:53: Carlos's Teammate: From drinking and partying.

00:02:55: Stephan Hanf: So you met this week, or?

00:02:57: Carlos Eduardo Cabral Holguin: Yeah, well I didn't know them. I only knew Louis and Anna.

00:03:02: Carlos's Teammate: The two of us met this week, uh, Vincent and those two.

00:03:05: Carlos's Teammate: We know each other for a few semesters and, well, through drinking.

00:03:08: Stephan Hanf: Ah, okay, okay. But for you it's the first time in the cup, right?

00:03:12: Carlos Eduardo Cabral Holguin: For, to meet him and, uh, and Vincent.

00:03:14: Stephan Hanf: Yeah. Was there, what was like the hardest part for you?

00:03:18: Carlos Eduardo Cabral Holguin: Hard part. I think that the bucket thing to coordinate all that stuff then to rise the bucket for me for at least and then run as With my life

00:03:33: Carlos Eduardo Cabral Holguin: Was a challenge, but I felt comfortable like I just raised first and then we would try to push everybody.

00:03:39: Stephan Hanf: Yeah, and you have done the race before?

00:03:43: Carlos's Teammate 2: No, nobody of us had done this before yeah first time for us.

00:03:46: Stephan Hanf: Yeah And you're, but you're all, but you don't study like all here in Kleve?

00:03:51: Carlos's Teammate 2: We do. We're studying here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But different fields.

00:03:54: Carlos Eduardo Cabral Holguin: Have a kind of different study courses, yeah.

00:03:56: Carlos's Teammate 2: Only these two are on, uh...

00:03:58: Carlos's Teammate: We're on IBM. Yeah, exactly. Internet relations.

00:03:59: Carlos's Teammate 2: IBM. Engineering. Mechatronics.

00:04:01: Stephan Hanf: Oh, yeah. Do you, do you want to compete again next year, or?

00:04:05: Carlos's Teammate: For sure, for sure,

00:04:06: Carlos's Teammate 2: we have to,

00:04:07: Stephan Hanf: it was really, it was really close. Yeah, it was closer than it looked actually.

00:04:10: Carlos Eduardo Cabral Holguin: But the next, next year we will know how to do it, how to make it better, how to more, more efficient and I think we can do it better, uh, better.

00:04:19: Stephan Hanf: So what are you going to do now?

00:04:21: Carlos Eduardo Cabral Holguin: Have a beer, have a beer and sleep,

00:04:23: Carlos's Teammate 2: power nap and then go partying.

00:04:25: Stephan Hanf: If you ever set foot on a university campus, you know that it's more than just a place of learning. It's a community, a melting pot of cultures and experiences. A whole ecosystem full of life and the potential for amazing friendships.

00:04:39: Stephan Hanf: In today's episode, we will take you through the vibrant culture of university sport and the pulsating rhythm of campus music. But why are these activities such key ingredients in the recipe for friendship? We'll be unearthing stories, engaging and illuminating conversations, and taking a deep dive into the beating heart of our university.

00:05:06: Stephan Hanf: Lesson number one, a magical medium.

00:05:08: Students singing: Oh, maybe you'd be happier with someone else. Maybe love is the reason you can love yourself. Oh, until you're hiding to yourself.

00:05:21: Charlotte Winkler: Mouthpeace, do... Open mics, where they open up the stage and everybody can read either their poems, or sing, or whatever they want, really.

00:05:30: Students singing: Down, tear it all down, down, down, down, down, I'll tear it all down.

00:05:42: Students singing: Mouthpeace is one of the independent university organizations. Basically, everybody could create a university organization. And they do events. And I do believe they also do workshops and meetups to write poems together. And then you can just let your creativity spread.

00:06:08: Mouthpeace participant: So the title of today's talk is A Wall Full of Iron.

00:06:13: Charlotte Winkler: Just like Proclivity Art is also one organization that kind of enhances your creativity in paintings and anything that you can do with your hands or whatever. Not necessarily texts. We have a lot, a bunch of university organizations as well or anything and cultural events. We try to either combine our events with or cooperate with other organizations or also with the FSRs and do Arabic nights or Bollywood night or I think we We did a Latina, Latino night as well, um, where we are ordering food.

00:06:51: Charlotte Winkler: We try to get students engaged and do something on the stage to get to know the cultures better too. That's it. My name is Charlotte Winkler and I study international relations in my fifth semester now. And I'm the AStA Chair, which is the Association for Student Interests. We help with money, we help with visa issues, or just...

00:07:21: Charlotte Winkler: Making the university more aware of racism or discrimination overall, like about gender, sexuality, ethnicities, but for me, the most important aspect to mention is that we have so many departments which are qualified to advocate sustainability or international interests or whatsoever, but after all, we're all students that

00:07:46: Charlotte Winkler: sit in the office at least once a week and all of us have an open ear for anything, really. So in case somebody feels lonely, of course, we're not qualified and the university has qualified psychological assistance, but even if you don't necessarily have to talk about problems, but just want to talk.

00:08:07: Charlotte Winkler: We're there and we can help you.

00:08:17: Stephan Hanf: So the Homecoming Cup is just one of many events taking place at the campus, organized by a lot of people, by the Welcome Center, sometimes by the faculties. Sometimes it's a combined effort and sometimes it's self organized. Things like Mouthpeace, open mics, parties happening more often than you think.

00:08:37: Stephan Hanf: And a big aspect of them are the people who are actually on stage, who entertain you. So, who are these people and how do they actually meet?

00:08:48: Philip Ato Amissah: I'm Philip.

00:08:48: Roy Ikenna Anyiam: I'm Roy.

00:08:49: Philip Ato Amissah: We do the same program, mechanical engineering. We both began in 2019, September. And I think I met him on the second day of school in the first semester.

00:09:02: Philip Ato Amissah: That was the second lecture for the day because I didn't see him on there very fast.

00:09:06: Stephan Hanf: But how did you figure out that you both like music?

00:09:09: Philip Ato Amissah: Uh, I, I actually began learning music when I came to Germany. So I came to Germany in 2018, but then at the time I wasn't actually into music. I wasn't playing any instrument though

00:09:21: Philip Ato Amissah: I could sing a little. But then I go to church, so church is where I actually develop the desire to learn music and to play an instrument. Yeah, for me, it's more like with church, that's where I play, but in outside church, I hardly do any stuff.

00:09:38: Roy Ikenna Anyiam: I started playing instruments more in Germany. Back in my home country, I started learning the keyboard, and I sang a little bit.

00:09:47: Roy Ikenna Anyiam: But when I came to Germany, that's when I started learning the drums. So moment I play the drums, play the keyboard a little bit, and I sing also, um, shows I do get involved anytime that, um, Rhine-Waal has like an event that has to do with showcasing our talent or shows in general, like the Winterball in 2019.

00:10:14: Roy Ikenna Anyiam: I took part in that. So basically anything that has to do with music.

00:10:19: Stephan Hanf: How did you get him out of church In, into here?

00:10:25: Roy Ikenna Anyiam: So it's more like, um, so he has a couple of friends he practices with.

00:10:30: Philip Ato Amissah: Yeah. So that whenever they have these, their shows get invited. Yeah. But then for me, um, I'm still at church. I still play, but then I, since we come to school, it's through him, I got to know that, um, you can actually reserve a place here and practice.

00:10:47: Philip Ato Amissah: Yeah. So, because he, he came here quite often before I ever did. So one time he invited me to join with his practice, and then I came along.

00:10:58: Roy Ikenna Anyiam: He left out the part that my band members liked the way you played the bass, bro, that was what, that was what made him come here regularly practice with us that a band, they, he left that part that we had a show and we were in need of a bass player.

00:11:17: Roy Ikenna Anyiam: I invited him over because I know that he's really good on the bass. I invited him over, let my other guys see what he can do. And the moment he touched the bass, they were in love with him at the first time, the first sound he made.

00:11:33: Roy Ikenna Anyiam: And so things happened and he was able to play with us for the first time as a band. So ever since then, we've been practicing together.

00:11:45: Stephan Hanf: And you do it here around Kleve or where do you play shows?

00:11:48: Roy Ikenna Anyiam: Around Kleve.

00:11:50: Stephan Hanf: Right. So for what kind of events? Like student events?

00:11:52: Roy Ikenna Anyiam: Yeah, student events.

00:11:54: Philip Ato Amissah: Yeah, so the one we played together, I think it was at Zimbabwean Fest here on campus.

00:12:00: Philip Ato Amissah: Yeah, it was on a Saturday, so yeah. That's actually my first ever play outside.

00:12:09: Stephan Hanf: How was it?

00:12:11: Philip Ato Amissah: I was a bit nervous. I was a bit anxious, but it was quite easy for me.

00:12:16: Roy Ikenna Anyiam: What are friends for?

00:12:17: Philip Ato Amissah: Exactly.

00:12:26: Marco van Heys: My name is Marco van Heys, and I'm working for the music department on Campus Kleve and Campus Kamp-Lintfort. A lot of people ask me if you could study music here.

00:12:37: Marco van Heys: That's of course not the case. Like sports, it's just a balance to the university life. And we have a, I would say, a big variety of options what you can do. When I first started to work here, I tried to figure out what are the needs of the students. What do they want to do? And they want to connect. They want to build like a group or ensemble.

00:12:59: Marco van Heys: And so we have an official university group.

00:13:11: Marco van Heys: And there are other ensembles which found themselves or I helped them to connect. And they are also performing on different occasions and several events. So you can perform actually if you found yourself and you rehearsed in our rehearsal rooms. You can also perform on grad ceremonies, for example, or scholarship dinners.

00:13:35: Marco van Heys: Freshers Week, our biggest event. So that's the main attraction for university music because we build up quite a big stage. And we have a complete evening where only students are performing for students on our university and for everyone who wants to listen. So I think we had five acts the last year.

00:13:56: Marco van Heys: They had a slot of 20 minutes and performed for everybody. And I think it was huge success. There was from hip hop to singer songwriters, there was all musical style. There was even heavy metal. So I think we did that twice in presence and both times was a huge success and people loved it. I loved it to see that.

00:14:15: Stephan Hanf: And I think it was an idea to bring in musicians from the student body itself.

00:14:20: Marco van Heys: Yes, because that was one of the first things that I try to figure out what talents do we have here? It's really great to see their professional musicians. They performed partially on BBC, for example, and they have a career going on beside their studies here.

00:14:36: Marco van Heys: It's a huge variety of musical styles from different backgrounds and people are talented around here. And I had the idea to bring them forward to show what musicians we have, if they perform. Because I think it doesn't make sense to employ external musicians, pay them, if we have students who can really perform good music.

00:14:59: Marco van Heys: So, I really prefer that.

00:15:02: Farhan Siraj: My name is Farhan and I study in T&B here in Cleve, uh, Mechatronics.

00:15:06: Efe Refik Gider: I'm Effe, I'm studying Mechanical Engineering here, I'm on my second semester for now.

00:15:13: Debabrata Chakraborty: I'm Debabrata Chakraborty, studying Masters in Usability Engineering.

00:15:17: Stephan Hanf: What, what was the song you just sang? This one, uh, "We Are Young" by Fun.

00:15:22: Stephan Hanf: When I was in school and university, bachelor's back in India, I used to listen to this song and we would play this in the, not play this, like play on the stereo. And, and this would be our like university life and how would we miss it, school life. And this song is actually about that. Why did you practice today?

00:15:42: Stephan Hanf: What is like the reason why you came together?

00:15:43: Farhan Siraj: We have a, um, um, gig.

00:15:46: Efe Refik Gider: We have five, five weeks away.

00:15:48: Debabrata Chakraborty: I know there's a gig, so I have to practice. I don't know what the gig is.

00:15:51: Farhan Siraj: It's a, we're playing for a graduation ceremony. On July 14th.

00:15:55: Debabrata Chakraborty: 16th, yeah.

00:15:55: Farhan Siraj: July 16th, my bad. Now I'm confused, but.

00:15:58: Debabrata Chakraborty: Yeah. Tell me about, at least I know the date.

00:16:00: Stephan Hanf: How did you put together the songs?

00:16:03: Debabrata Chakraborty: We kept on suggesting and then we kept on practicing on it. There was a lot of songs that we tried but didn't work out. There were a lot of songs that we couldn't play because of constraints, because we have to be within those instruments, the constraints.

00:16:16: Stephan Hanf: So your positions on instruments, are they fixed or do you switch around?

00:16:20: Debabrata Chakraborty: If you're talented enough, of course, why not? I am trying to learn keyboard, I mean, uh, piano. I want to learn piano, it's really... So that I can also switch places.

00:16:30: Stephan Hanf: So you're the lead guitarist of the band?

00:16:32: Efe Refik Gider: Not lead guitarist, we have two guitarists and I am one of them. So we switch places. Like I sometimes play rhythm, and when the other members...

00:16:41: Efe Refik Gider: Present. He plays rhythm and then we play solo.

00:16:45: Stephan Hanf: Ah, alright. Yeah, how did you find each other?

00:16:48: Farhan Siraj: We have a group on WhatsApp called HSRW Musicians, where other musicians can find each other. And it was made by Marco, who's heading all these events and stuff. So, through him, we got in contact. He auditioned. I mean, he knew Jochen already.

00:17:04: Farhan Siraj: Jochen is very talented on the drums. We all just signed up later. Yeah, and we all just love playing.

00:17:10: Efe Refik Gider: So I came here to audition, and we meet with some incredible musicians. Unfortunately, some of them couldn't later keep up because they have their own studies and internships, but right now we have around like five people so they're all pretty nice musicians and I like to come here sometimes like Wednesdays I like to come practice songs and sometimes we even go out of the boundaries with Jochen I think, I mean, we like to play some rock songs, some metal songs.

00:17:43: Efe Refik Gider: And even though we won't play them in the upcoming gig, we still sometimes have fun just playing, messing around.

00:17:52: Stephan Hanf: Is it like the first time for you playing the band?

00:17:54: Debabrata Chakraborty: Um, when I was in school, um, I was, I used to be, actually my base is not from Western music. My base is from Indian classical music. I used to be participating in Western music as well, but not

00:18:06: Debabrata Chakraborty: this kind of band, but it would be something similar. So a little bit of experience I have, but not so much. I think they have way better experience.

00:18:16: Stephan Hanf: Did you play in rock or metal bands before?

00:18:19: Efe Refik Gider: Uh, not rock and metal bands, not specifically, but I had a high school band that Played in some shows and played in some competitions before.

00:18:30: Efe Refik Gider: Not so serious competitions, but I think that made me like playing with a band. So that's why I'm here right now.

00:18:38: Stephan Hanf: Did you play this first band for you or did you play the band before?

00:18:41: Farhan Siraj: Not in a band. This is my first time.

00:18:43: Stephan Hanf: That's your first band.

00:18:44: Farhan Siraj: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:18:45: Stephan Hanf: Did you know each other before?

00:18:46: Farhan Siraj: Oh, no, no, no one.

00:18:49: Farhan Siraj: Oh, all through the band.

00:18:50: Debabrata Chakraborty: But I met him at the open mic. Yeah, our university organizes open mics, so I was genuinely interested, and you know, I'm from Kamp-Lintfort, the other end of the university.

00:19:01: Stephan Hanf: Oh, really? You come extra from Kamp-Lintfort every year?

00:19:03: Debabrata Chakraborty: Every Wednesday. So, yeah, I came for that. I was like, okay, let's meet new people.

00:19:09: Debabrata Chakraborty: And then I met him and Marco, of course, suggested them because I knew Marco from university. Um, um, they had a talent show thing. So from there. He suggested me to meet them. And then when, when in the open mic, then from there to here, yeah, that's how the connection built.

00:19:28: Stephan Hanf: And you probably would never meet here if the music didn't...?

00:19:32: Debabrata Chakraborty: I always look for new opportunities, try to go out and go out of my boundaries. Sometimes, you know, it's important and look for opportunities, new people, and you never know what you're going to find new things, you know, that's really important. That's how I met these guys and that's how I'm here with the mic, otherwise

00:19:49: Debabrata Chakraborty: I wouldn't be here.

00:19:51: Stephan Hanf: And out of this came the idea for the band?

00:19:53: Marco van Heys: Also, this came from out from this like a course, like a sport course. So we wanted to guarantee to have a regular appointment a week. And we have our brilliant employee and drummer Jochen van Bentum, who is leading this course. The goal is that they will perform regularly on both campuses for different events like the Freshers Week, the music night.

00:20:16: Marco van Heys: Or for grad summer nominees or whatever is coming up.

00:20:20: Stephan Hanf: I think it's hard to form like a fixed group.

00:20:23: Marco van Heys: Definitely. That's why we had the idea to form a course like with one drummer who is responsible and is an employee. He is in his position as a drummer. He is always there. I hope he wants to do it for a long time.

00:20:38: Marco van Heys: And of course we have like a fluctuation of students. And yes. But I think if we have a bassist. And at the moment we don't have a bassist. We are looking for bassist, by the way. But if there is a guitar player and another guitar player is interested to play in the band, we try to bring him in as a second formation.

00:20:58: Marco van Heys: Also, if someone gets sick, he can replace like in theater pieces. That's the goal. That we have a second formation on it. And if people are leaving the university or go for an internship for half a year, that we can replace those musicians because we have not that huge amount of students, like on other universities.

00:21:17: Marco van Heys: What we found out is that if we have like small courses for guitar, for example, which were quite okay. It ran out after a while because you have to find people on the same level who want to improve or want to get forward. And I found out they come much better forward if they work on their own level with one teacher.

00:21:39: Marco van Heys: And lucky wise, all from the music school in Kamp-Lintfort and also in Kleve, the teachers speak English. And they make individual appointments because some students can afford to take a lesson a week, but other students maybe only once a month and you can make individual appointments with your teacher.

00:21:58: Marco van Heys: That's really good. And so you can also avoid the problem with the school holidays. So you really can keep on practicing on your instruments. Others say, okay, I need one lesson. And then I can rehearse for two months. Others say I need more input. So you're really free how you create your lesson environment.

00:22:19: Marco van Heys: And there are also beginners. And for this, for example, we connected with the local music schools because all the infrastructure is already there and they have reduced prices for lessons. And they can book also rooms to rehearse their free.

00:22:35: Stephan Hanf: When did your interest in music start?

00:22:37: Marco van Heys: Oh, when I was a teenager, then of course I wanted to be a famous musician.

00:22:42: Marco van Heys: And yeah, when I went to Paris, I got a taste of what it would be to live from music because I'm a huge fan also of world music. And I got connected with some world musicians and the world music scene in the nineties was really the center in Europe was Paris. During that period, when I was in Paris, I heard about the profession of

00:23:03: Marco van Heys: atemsprechend Stimmlehrer, which means your vocal coach and learn about the right breath. And that was an official profession that you could study here in Germany. So I came back for that. That was near Hanover before I returned to Kleve. I was giving speech therapy and besides, I was interested in recording and producing.

00:23:29: Marco van Heys: And so I was visiting studios, I got lucky to get introduced with good studios and people in the audio scene. So besides my work, I got myself skills to build up a studio on my own. I was working for 20 years as a recording engineer and also producer to mix and mastering audio. And also I was running live shows as an audio engineer.

00:23:56: Marco van Heys: I'm connected to the local cultural scene, of course, of my job, and I think that was one reason why it would be a good idea to employ me on the university because I can connect with the city as well.

00:24:11: Stephan Hanf: What you're doing today is something like world music, to be honest. Like, the Hochschule band bands they come from different countries you have someone from Germany you have someone from Turkey.

00:24:20: Marco van Heys: Yeah, definitely so that is a lot of fun of course the variety of musical styles here at our university is

00:24:28: Marco van Heys: immense and I really love it and to bring the people together and to mix all those styles. Yes. So the circle is closed somehow. And yes, and due to my background, I also installed a sound crew on campus. So students from HSRW have the opportunity if they're interested in the technical part, it's a technical university, but if they maybe not doing music or playing an instrument or want to do both,

00:24:57: Marco van Heys: they can get in touch with me and they get workshops, how to run the live equipment and to support the musicians on all the events, because we're on most events, we are handling the audio equipment on our own, and we don't need to rent external audio companies, PA companies, we can do it on our own.

00:25:17: Stephan Hanf: You do shows like open mics.

00:25:18: Marco van Heys: Exactly. There's

00:25:19: Stephan Hanf: something like Mouthpeace.

00:25:20: Marco van Heys: Mouthpeace. We're in touch with them as well, but they are quite independent. They also asked for our equipment sometimes. And we try to make everything possible as well. And those are the regular live shows. We have a little light set up as well. And if you want to record like we do now, we are in the audio lab.

00:25:41: Marco van Heys: And if you want to record your music or podcasts or interviews, it is possible in Kleve or already. And in Kamp-Lintfort Thomas Laubach is installing also an audio lab audio recording studioIn T&B, a band o Of professors has formed and they are also, they also recorded music here already. It's also very interesting mixture.

00:26:07: Marco van Heys: There is a classical cello and there's mandolin and it's guitars, acoustic setup. Really great. I think they get better day by day. They perform regularly on the graduation ceremonies of T&B.

00:26:20: Stephan Hanf: Has the music scene change because of the university?

00:26:23: Marco van Heys: Yes. When I did music in the parks, when I was a teenager, I got thrown out and I saw partially angry passengers, but also some who enjoyed it.

00:26:34: Marco van Heys: Of course, it could also be my music, but I really enjoy the sight of seeing students all over the parks in Kleve and it enriches the view of the city, it's a vivid scene and it brings life flavor. I think it's only advantage.

00:26:51: Stephan Hanf: I find interesting that they have the opportunity to meet each other. And of course, music is a common language, right?

00:26:57: Marco van Heys: So that is music is a magical medium to connect. And to communicate on another level, that's the beauty of it. That's what I like about my job the most, that people are connecting on another level and come together and have fun. And that's really, on our international school, it's a language, a common language, which everybody understands.

00:27:21: Marco van Heys: No matter what the background is, if you're a classical music player or, and you can join in with a world music player from India, as well, it works.

00:27:41: Stephan Hanf: Maybe you should add this to the roster. It was really good.

00:27:45: Efe Refik Gider: Thank you.

00:27:51: Efe Refik Gider: Lesson number two: sharing a passion..

00:27:54: Leonardo dos Santos: Three, two, one. Oh, nice. Good job. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is a specific part of Judo or Jiu Jitsu itself that's called the newaza. I'm not sure. I'm sorry if I'm butchering this, like I'm coming out of the blue. So a bit of the idea of the judo, like for the basics is you try to get a Ippon, right?

00:28:17: Leonardo dos Santos: So you try to take your opponent down with their back on the ground. And if you manage to do that, you win the match. Jiu Jitsu, or more specifically Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, expands a bit after that. Like we say, okay, the match is not over. The opponent sits on the ground. Yes. He's still, yeah, he can get up. He can get me back.

00:28:35: Leonardo dos Santos: So our idea, it's by using leverages, like how we position our body. So like, I use the strength of my whole body through my hips, through my back, on a single limb. So that's, so if I can target the arm, because I have my whole body, the whole biomechanics of my whole body. Like the weight on a single limb, I can cause a lot of damage with very minimum effort.

00:29:00: Leonardo dos Santos: And once you have a broken arm situation is a bit different for you to continue. And that's the idea of behind Jiu Jitsu. Or you like in the, this is in the self defense scenario, right? Like in a competition, in a sport, you will never go that far. But yeah, or you give up or you risk getting choked out or suffering some

00:29:20: Leonardo dos Santos: joint injury. Yeah, so that's the basics of Jiu Jitsu. It's the whole idea of minimum effort with maximum damage output.

00:29:29: Stephan Hanf: Can I ask you a quick question? What do you study?

00:29:32: Jordi Pla Moliner: I study international relations.

00:29:34: Stephan Hanf: What do you study?

00:29:35: BJJ Student: Mechanical engineer.

00:29:36: Stephan Hanf: How did you find the class?

00:29:38: Jordi Pla Moliner: I think it was on the website of the university.

00:29:41: Jordi Pla Moliner: I wanted to join some sport and I saw Jiu Jitsu and I said let's give it a try.

00:29:45: Stephan Hanf: For you as well?

00:29:46: BJJ Student: Yeah.

00:29:47: Stephan Hanf: Why did you pick Brazilian Jiu Jitsu?

00:29:49: BJJ Student: Because I'm only available at this time.

00:29:53: Stephan Hanf: It's the first time for you doing Brazilian jiu jitsu?

00:29:55: BJJ Student: Yes.

00:29:56: Stephan Hanf: Have you any martial art experience?

00:29:58: BJJ Student: Yeah, before.

00:29:59: Stephan Hanf: What about you?

00:30:00: Jordi Pla Moliner: It's my first time doing Brazilian jiu jitsu, and I had a bit of experience with the classical jiu jitsu, like the other kind.

00:30:06: Stephan Hanf: But do you enjoy the class?

00:30:08: BJJ Student: I enjoy this class a lot. It is really nice.

00:30:10: Jordi Pla Moliner: Yeah. And I feel like in this month and a half, I've progressed and learned quite a lot and really happy about it.

00:30:17: BJJ Student: Yes. I learnt a lot and I would like to use it in real life, but I'm not pretty good at it yet.

00:30:24: Stephan Hanf: But did you pick it to just for the fun of it or what was the main inspiration?

00:30:29: Jordi Pla Moliner: Fun of it and I also think it's a very complete sport. So I thought that, yeah, I'll say when I have to fight my brothers. No, no, but Yeah.

00:30:39: Jordi Pla Moliner: I think for the fun of it and because it's a really good stress reliever.

00:30:42: Stephan Hanf: And you also have to fight your brothers or

00:30:45: BJJ Student: like for me, actually, I suffered Corona after I got over it. I thought I need to do some workout because I suffered a lot compared to my friends.

00:30:53: Stephan Hanf: Does a workout help?

00:30:54: BJJ Student: Yes. Yes, it does.

00:30:56: Stephan Hanf: And did you do any other workout before, or is it like the first class you did?

00:31:00: BJJ Student: For this is the first class. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

00:31:06: Stephan Hanf: And for you as well, I

00:31:07: Jordi Pla Moliner: studied this semester, but I'm also doing the full body workout.

00:31:11: Stephan Hanf: But you did before sports, how would you compare? Because probably you did something before as well.

00:31:17: BJJ Student: Yeah, like before I learned Taekwondo, but compared to Taekwondo, it's like ground fighting.

00:31:24: BJJ Student: Taekwondo is always standing and kicking and this is ground fighting. And I think this is more useful for real life fighting.

00:31:31: Jordi Pla Moliner: I totally agree. And also like the kind of Jiu Jitsu you studied was more. Focused on the technique and the katas and this is more fighting and I enjoyed more because of that and also yeah It's very different from what I used to do

00:31:43: Stephan Hanf: Did you know anyone from here before?

00:31:45: BJJ Student: No, I mean, I just met him last week.

00:31:47: Jordi Pla Moliner: Yeah

00:31:49: Leonardo dos Santos: We have somebody from Egypt, somebody from Bahrain, somebody from Germany, somebody, like, people from Brazil, which is me, ahaha. Um, we have people from Italy, South Korea. Yeah, it's, like, from the top of my head, it's very diverse.

00:32:10: Andrew Morgan: So,

00:32:21: Andrew Morgan: I've never done, like, Jiu Jitsu before, so, I just wanted to, like, wrestle, do some sort of wrestling again. I really do, I like it a lot, actually. Methodical, or whatever. I feel like wrestling is like more it's more aggressive and like more like it's quicker faster paced But but that's good for me because I think I like I'm used to like a more aggressive style But I then I think sometimes like when I wrestle with Leo or some of the other guys They know more of the moves and they know how to hit them.

00:32:45: Andrew Morgan: But yeah, it's been good. It's been different and like it's good to try something out.

00:32:50: Leonardo dos Santos: Uh, it's a huge history and it's like very connected to Brazilian history also because it's like our thing, you know, it's like our sport and we're very good at it and it just took over the world. So I gotta say it's something that I'm really proud to, like, to

00:33:07: Leonardo dos Santos: know as a Brazilian that we created such a amazing sport and such efficient martial arts. For the people listening that they have some background of martial arts, a jiu jitsu practice can be very different like a Brazilian jiu jitsu. So like we we blast some good music, we enjoy ourselves. Of course, there's the part of the discipline and the respect as

00:33:27: Leonardo dos Santos: every martial arts should have, like we bow to each other. But it really has this friendship kind of vibe. We really like the, our partners, our sparring partners. We respect their integrity, integrity. So yeah, because it's, in Jiu Jitsu you can really fight without actually injuring yourself. Because since it's a lot about techniques, if you feel some discomfort, you tap out, the person would immediately stop.

00:33:49: Leonardo dos Santos: That's like a sacred rule for us. If somebody taps, you stop. So yeah, so whenever somebody feels comfortable, uncomfortable, they just tap, it's over. And that's like a very safe, I don't know, barriers, like people don't cross that. So it's, and there's no, no actual striking. There's no kicking in the sport.

00:34:11: Leonardo dos Santos: Like you cannot slam your opponents on the ground, like certain techniques that because of their risk, they're only allowed for higher belts. So they make sure that you have a certain experience of what you're doing before you actually allowed to do the technique on the fights. So yeah, it's, it's a lot about safety and that's something that we take very seriously.

00:34:29: Leonardo dos Santos: So we really respect the integrity of all practitioners of Jiu Jitsu. So yeah, if you guys are curious, don't worry, come. It's super safe. Right now, there's a, which is something unusual for martial arts, at least from the ones for the gyms I've been to, there are a lot of girls practicing also, so it's a very safe environment for all genders.

00:34:48: Leonardo dos Santos: We respect, respect, it's the most important thing for us.

00:34:54: Andrew Morgan: Oh, it's been great, actually, to meet these guys, to meet Malte and Leo and Jasper and all the other guys here. Yeah, it's, I don't know, it's a lot easier, I think, to make, like, friends here more than, like, in class. I think it's like a leisurely activity.

00:35:09: Andrew Morgan: You're not in class, you're like... Trying to follow along with the guy and like, with the lecture and you're, I don't know, it's, you're not there for fun, you're there for a reason, you're trying to focus on class or whatever. Um, it's here that everybody's interested in doing jiu jitsu, so you have a common interest, like right away.

00:35:28: Andrew Morgan: But, yeah, it's, it's great for that. It's, I think, really important because, to, to not just go to class, join a sport or something, join an activity, a club, to, to make friends.

00:35:41: Leonardo dos Santos: My name is Leo. I come from Brazil. I used to study medicine back in Brazil. So I came here with the idea of studying medicine, but for other many reasons I couldn't continue.

00:35:54: Leonardo dos Santos: So I still wanted to keep in contact with the medicine aspect of academic and biology. So I saw this course of bioengineering and I was like, okay, that's my thing. That's what I'm going to do now. I started actually like when I was a little kid with karate. I did it like for, I don't know, maybe two years, I'm not sure.

00:36:12: Leonardo dos Santos: And then I quit, but I always was very into martial arts, so I would do something every now and then. And then I started doing jiu jitsu when I was in high school because the gym that I used to go to, they had jiu jitsu and a bunch of friends. It was like a gym close to the school, so all my friends from high school, they would go to jiu jitsu and they're like, bro, you should try it.

00:36:36: Leonardo dos Santos: And at first I was very reluctant. It looked weird. All the techniques, the wrestling. I used to really be into Muay Thai and kickboxing. So when I saw that, I was even a bit like, uh, does this even work? I was like, what are they doing here? I don't really understand. I'm feeling a lot of people, when they see Jiu Jitsu for the first time, they don't really understand what's happening, they might think that's boring, because they don't really get it.

00:37:00: Leonardo dos Santos: They see it, but they can't make sense of what's going on there. And then I tried it, out of, like, peer pressure pretty much, and I enjoyed it, I really liked it, and then... I did it on and off for about five or six years. Um, I started to get a bit more serious here in Kleve, with the Brasa team, which Miguel Braga started, like a good friend of ours.

00:37:27: Leonardo dos Santos: And I think he wanted to expand Jiu Jitsu. I never really questioned that, because in my head it was pretty logical, like I had the knowledge. Like, if I were in his position, I have the knowledge, I love the sport, why not bring it to more people in a, like a, with a bunch of nationalities and, like, really bring jiu jitsu to the whole world?

00:37:46: Leonardo dos Santos: For me, I think I would have taken the same decision. I think you would also. But I never really thought about this idea of, I'm gonna make, through jiu jitsu, Germany a bit more like my home. Maybe that's a bit of what Miguel was thinking. So with this, uh, Miguel thought it was a good choice to keep going with the course.

00:38:06: Leonardo dos Santos: And he said like, yeah man, why don't you take over? Cause it's a very personal project for him also. He was very proud of starting this project and like expanding the reach of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and I think it was very I don't know, very sad, very tragic for him to just, because he left the university, right?

00:38:26: Leonardo dos Santos: So I think it was a bit too, too sad for him to let it go and he wanted to keep the project going So he decided to go with me even though I'm not that qualified to go with it. I wasn't Even going to take the position as a coach because I didn't feel like I was qualified enough. But, so I talked to Miguel about that.

00:38:45: Leonardo dos Santos: Very comforting with the idea. He said, no man, I'm going to be behind you. I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to support you. So with the practices, I'll guide you. I'll help you with everything. Like he sends me the training from Brazil, like what he does with his team there. He instructs me like, okay, you should do this training, like all techniques that we've have covered before in our years of practice.

00:39:10: Leonardo dos Santos: I'm really hoping maybe at some point somebody's going to come and they're like a higher belts. Because like in my position, I agreed with the training, but I won't graduate anybody. I have maybe when I leave, the things are going to end. I'm just hoping that somebody will come or maybe we'll talk, we'll find somebody.

00:39:29: Leonardo dos Santos: I don't know. Let's hope for the best, but it's, we see the basics, people are having fun, people are doing some physical activities, they're connecting with each other, making friendships, and yeah, it's just overall a very nice environment. Maybe it's the, a bit of the personality of the people that are interested in this sport, maybe it's just like the context, maybe it's the respect.

00:39:49: Leonardo dos Santos: But, you're on the mat, you're, you're chatting, you're creating some bonds, you're meeting new people. It's impressive the amount of, like, very cool people I've met training, especially here at, uh, Hochschule. Oh no. Your... Knee. Yes. Yeah? Can you bring me? Yeah. When you were doing, like, your knee was just on my arm.

00:40:14: Leonardo dos Santos: So it's not a traction. So let me see you guys doing it. Oh nice! Hey guys! Those are also OG Jiu Jitsu guys.

00:40:26: Peter Garzke: First of all, we need a coach who's going to take care of that. So we always ask when the new people come, Hey, is anybody has like some kind of specialty in some kind of sports? And then we can get on.

00:40:38: Peter Garzke: Now they do the first eight course and then we ask them how many. Uh, hours they want to do and it's all that. And then we start with the course slow and then we see how it develops, but it's mainly the person that is leading it. And of course some sports they die out because the coach is gone, done with studies.

00:40:57: Peter Garzke: And then in the end of the day, we just hope somebody else jumps in. Of course we ask at the end, Hey, you maybe have somebody for us who can take over. But of course, sometimes it doesn't happen. And then we move on. But at the same time, new sports start and so it's an up and down and we kind of keep the level.

00:41:16: Stephan Hanf: How do you find coaches?

00:41:19: Sarah Pullich: The coaches come to us or Instagram or Facebook and for the Freshers Week. But we need today a coach for beginner swimming. It's very important for our students and we have not enough coach for the course. We asked other students, other coach, Instagram, and yeah.

00:41:44: Peter Garzke: Word of mouth. And of course the coach that is actually in charge at that moment, we asked them, like I said before, if they have somebody that can jump in.

00:41:54: Sarah Pullich: Hi, my name is, uh, Sarah. I'm from the university sports in Kleve and Kamp-Lintfort.

00:42:00: Peter Garzke: Hi, I'm Peter. I've been doing this quite a long time as well, taking care of university sports and trying to improve our variety of sports all the time. I've been doing pretty much all sports. No soccer. I love to watch soccer, but I never played myself. But my main sport for sure is more focused on board sports.

00:42:21: Peter Garzke: When I was like seven, eight years old, the sport of windsurfing came up. And I grew into that sport like 150 percent and I was living off it for 20 years as a professional windsurfer doing like World Cups and traveling the world. At the same time, I would study sport in Cologne, just that way you more sports and you learn more about sports.

00:42:46: Peter Garzke: I finished that and I left it on the side for all the years I was windsurfing professionally.

00:42:51: Stephan Hanf: What is your Connection with sport? What is like the first sport you did?

00:42:55: Sarah Pullich: Uh, was for years, I'm starting with Voltigieren. This is acrobatics on horse, with a horse, with a team. And this is my, yeah, my favorite sports.

00:43:09: Sarah Pullich: I start at the university in Münster. I work at the university sports and this is Sport and Fitness Kauffrau, call it. And yeah, start in Münster.

00:43:21: Stephan Hanf: Yeah. It's an apprenticeship. I think it's work. Did you make a Ausbildung?

00:43:25: Sarah Pullich: Yeah. Yeah.

00:43:25: Peter Garzke: Sarah could bring all the knowledge from, from a place where they really do university sports for a long time and bring

00:43:32: Peter Garzke: all that knowledge to us. And that was very helpful because I'm not too much of an administration person. I'm more in the practical field trying to develop new sports and all that. And she is very much in that administration. That's why we actually fit perfectly together.

00:43:47: Stephan Hanf: Who came up with the logo?

00:43:49: Peter Garzke: Actually, Professor MeGill came up with the idea, we have to have a logo.

00:43:54: Stephan Hanf: And we have to explain the logo because it's important.

00:43:56: Peter Garzke: Yeah. It's a swan. Like we are in Kleve, it's a town of the swan. You can see it on the castle is a huge golden swan on the, on top of the castle. And so Professor Megill. came along with some student and he developed that logo for us.

00:44:13: Peter Garzke: And then we came up with the stickers, we painted it on the wall and have flags. So that was in the beginning, more an idea for giving that just to the team. So the team, the swan teams for futsal and cricket and whatever. He's like a aggressive sportsman.

00:44:31: Sarah Pullich: And the teams, they call it Swans.

00:44:33: Stephan Hanf: And he already has a mascot if you ever, I don't know if you ever use mascots.

00:44:36: Peter Garzke: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I never, never thought of that. That would be actually funny to have that, but it would be hard to get that. Maybe. Yeah.

00:44:42: Stephan Hanf: What were your experience on making friends from sports activities?

00:44:48: Sarah Pullich: I think you can find It's about sports, friendships for the life. You have one thing together and have fun together and you need not one language.

00:45:02: Sarah Pullich: You can understand with the sports and not about a language and this is important for sports that I think.

00:45:10: Peter Garzke: Yeah. Sports. It's like a fight. It's like a war. Sometimes you have that goal, especially as a team and you fight for it. It's in that. It just merges you, it brings you, you're on a mission. And that way, in the end of the day, you're so connected, more than you can be in any other field, I would believe.

00:45:31: Peter Garzke: And it's easy because it comes natural. It's fun, but it's also sharing the misery when it's not working well. And then in the end of the day, you just one unit.

00:45:40: Stephan Hanf: So what is like the difference from the teacher side of it to see how people who are complete beginners develop their skills? It's, it's, that's something that.

00:45:48: Stephan Hanf: It's help building relationships or how would you see it?

00:45:52: Peter Garzke: Yeah. They're thankful they hover and stall on a certain level and they don't, they cannot improve when you just give a little bit of input and a little bit of feedback and all of a sudden it works. And that makes people smile. That's why it's such a nice relationship then after all, because they see something in you and you can see something in them and it connects as well.

00:46:14: Stephan Hanf: It's there like a certain sport where you would say, okay, that's a little bit easier for someone who has no certain abilities to get into the sport and maybe find a community there.

00:46:26: Sarah Pullich: Team sports is easier to find friendships that I think you are play with the team in the hall. Or outside. In individual sports, you are alone for you and you can talk about before or after the course.

00:46:45: Sarah Pullich: It's okay. But on the place you are play together and that I think is this easier for, for friendships.

00:46:54: Stephan Hanf: Yeah. Yeah. Of course.

00:46:55: Peter Garzke: That means sport of course helps to find people to, to build friendships. You group up and you can talk to other people that have the same problems. Yeah. Yeah. And the courses at night when they're waiting now on the bench, because the field is not open, you start to talk and you talk about the things that happen during the day.

00:47:14: Peter Garzke: I think that helps. And then if you did sport before, if you go that way and you really want to want to push through on one sport, you really have to cross borders and it's sometimes frustrating and that actually builds you up for life too. So you can prepare yourself for life with sports. If you're really into it and if you're doing it with passion, you can socialize with people and talk about your problems.

00:47:41: Peter Garzke: And of course, if you have really have a bad day, you can let it all out on doing sports at night and then you maybe refresh for the next day and you can start all over. Cause you need to concentrate on that sport and you don't have more capacity to know, think about other stuff that happened during the day and that's healthy.

00:48:01: Peter Garzke: Yeah. That's why I love sports where you really have to be focused that much that there's no chance for problems or anything else to sneak into your mind because you have to be a hundred percent focused. Yeah. That's good. It's more about sharing a passion and then you want to talk about the passion that What brings you together and you can exchange ideas, help each other.

00:48:26: Peter Garzke: That's why in individual sports, you can also group up, but in the end of the day, you on your own, and especially in competition, it's, it's hard on my field. I know. You had a few people you would really connect to and the rest was more like you would watch each other and not really connect. It was more like a little aggressive level all the time to, to survive in that field.

00:48:53: Stephan Hanf: But you were on a high professional level. It's not, I don't know if there are here at situations,

00:49:02: Peter Garzke: it's the same thing. It goes down to the lowest level. Wow. When, when our teams go somewhere, like a few months ago, I watched the cricket game. Those guys, if something goes wrong and they're not happy with the referee, I thought I have to go down and separate them.

00:49:20: Peter Garzke: I think it's always the same. It's in the nature of sports. Yeah. So it doesn't matter where you are in the end of the day.

00:49:27: Sarah Pullich: This is the same with our futsal team. They live for the sports. They live for futsal or cricket. We have different sports in Rhine-Waal. We have a flat rate. You can book one course and all the sports.

00:49:43: Sarah Pullich: You can go for one time and look for this. And Yeah, when it's not the right course, you go to other sports and this is the easier to find the right sport for you. All the sports we have, when you have enough time for this and yeah.

00:50:00: Peter Garzke: There's a few exceptions though, like tennis and sailing excluded because they're too pricey, but pretty much like 90 percent of the sports you can.

00:50:10: Peter Garzke: check it out and do it. Yeah. They've been, because of that system, I think there's a lot of many people, many soon that actually find new sports for themselves, but of course they also bring their, their history with them and people have been doing sports in their own country and then they prefer that sport when they come here because of course they have already worked up their level in that sport and that, that feels good.

00:50:35: Peter Garzke: But nevertheless, they trying other stuff and they start to appreciate that too.

00:50:41: Sarah Pullich: But in Rhine-Waal, yeah, it is difficult to find person to a new sport, the Quidditch. Quidditch is a game with Harry Potter, you know.

00:50:52: Stephan Hanf: Oh, I didn't know that people actually are playing that.

00:50:54: Sarah Pullich: Yes, there are competitions.

00:50:56: Stephan Hanf: Really?

00:50:57: Sarah Pullich: Yeah, yeah.

00:50:58: Stephan Hanf: But they're not flying how

00:51:00: Peter Garzke: they run. They just run around with the stick .

00:51:04: Sarah Pullich: Yeah. Easier when you have more students there, they are feel, feel free in a new competition and sports and Yeah. And they have different, to find enough person to play courage and in Münster it's easier, you have more students to find.

00:51:24: Sarah Pullich: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

00:51:26: Stephan Hanf: How do I find out about Hochschulsport? What kind of activities university sports are offering?

00:51:31: Sarah Pullich: We have our homepage. You can book the course online. We start with the semester. We start one, two weeks later. That's the beginning of the semester. Then you have your plan, your study plan for the, for the, for the study courses and you can check it and yeah, you can begin.

00:51:53: Peter Garzke: Yeah. Just to make people understand, we start later because a lot of coaches are students and they don't know their schedule yet. So we had it in the beginning that, that we would actually have the whole system. Everything was done, the schedule, and then we have to turn it all over because the coach has said, ah, I have a lecture at that time.

00:52:10: Peter Garzke: I cannot even do it. And that's why it's starting later.

00:52:15: Stephan Hanf: And certain events, how do they happen?

00:52:18: Sarah Pullich: HSRW Football Cup is one time in the year, and yeah, more than 100 students, yeah, play football together. And this is a competition.

00:52:29: Stephan Hanf: Is that something that developed like the Homecoming Cup? That's how, do you remember how that developed?

00:52:34: Stephan Hanf: Or

00:52:35: Peter Garzke: I think Andre kind of came up with that idea. Yeah. Um, he said, Hey, we want to have a nation cup. So like the Spanish would play against Italian or whatever, Indians. And that was a nice idea. And it just took off. And then there's other competitions. You see, it's not really working. Then they die out.

00:52:56: Peter Garzke: But in general, we have competitions all over the place. We have some badminton competitions, some volleyball competitions. We go to Münster for the Nikolaus Tournament once a year. It's a huge tournament in the university sports from Münster at the University of Münster. And it's once a year around Nikolaus and like from many universities, people move there and they play against each other.

00:53:22: Stephan Hanf: Was there ever like an event Kleve against Kamp-Lintfort?

00:53:26: Peter Garzke: Yeah. Now the soccer.

00:53:27: Sarah Pullich: Yeah. We have two teams from Kamp-Lintfort and 10 teams for Kleve.

00:53:33: Peter Garzke: I think they came third, right?

00:53:35: Sarah Pullich: Yeah. Yeah.

00:53:35: Peter Garzke: So they were part of it. Of course, we always try to connect, but it's hard. It's hard to go and, uh, yeah, it's, it's sad.

00:53:42: Peter Garzke: It would be much easier if they would just be around the corner or we would be around their corner. Yeah.

00:53:47: Stephan Hanf: Uh, what is the difference between Kamp-Lintfort and Kleve from the program that, that You can join.

00:53:51: Sarah Pullich: Yeah, it's smaller, smaller. It's not so many students in Kamp-Lintfort that we have football, badminton, volleyball, yoga, dancing.

00:54:03: Sarah Pullich: We have for the semester, the first time, Jujutsu in Kamp-Lintfort. Peter called it when we have a coach and enough students and I go to the sports and yeah, we are. Open for, for new course,

00:54:17: Peter Garzke: the problem was in Kamp-Lintfort for it in the beginning was easier. People, students would actually live closer to the university.

00:54:25: Peter Garzke: But then I think it was maybe because it was cheaper somewhere else. They moved out to cities and it would use the train. And then in the evening hours when university sports. is happening they're not around anymore. Why we always try new sports and then we see, oh, it's only four people going and then we have to cancel it again.

00:54:44: Peter Garzke: So that's very important to know it's not us trying to make Kamp-Lintfort for smaller. It's, it's actually because people are moving away in the evening hours when university sports is happening and that takes away the quantity.

00:54:56: Stephan Hanf: Normally, if you go here locally to Kleve it to a club. Probably only meet people from Kleve, but here you can meet actually the whole world in a class, more or less.

00:55:06: Stephan Hanf: Is there any classes that are more or less diverse or is it hard to say?

00:55:09: Sarah Pullich: Yeah. Cricket, cricket, yeah.

00:55:12: Peter Garzke: There's a lot of Indians, but there are also other nationalities. So volleyball is mixed. So it's, the Indians are pretty on it all over the place. I would say in those sports, volleyball, badminton, and cricket, yeah.

00:55:28: Peter Garzke: But still there's other people sneaking in and it's fine. It's cool. They connect any sport is mixed, a big mix. And it's good.

00:55:35: Sarah Pullich: Our course are all in English. And this is easy for all the students to go to the different course.

00:55:42: Peter Garzke: swimmer beginning courses, for example, of course, that's people mainly from Africa in here because they don't learn, they don't have the chance to learn to swim.

00:55:51: Peter Garzke: And therefore the, um, this is the group of people that joined swimming, which is interesting. I mean, I did a few courses and it was like amazing to teach a 20 year old swimming. It's very different. And you would have to start very Slow on, on a level. When I was in Cologne, they taught me how to get people, get used to water, pouring water over their heads and making them go down and, and, uh, below with the nose.

00:56:20: Peter Garzke: And I thought, gee, what are they telling me here in Cologne? I will never use that. And here I come. And it's the main thing.

00:56:27: Stephan Hanf: Makes sense that you are afraid when you are older, then of course, of course if you're younger, you don't think so much about it, but when you're older

00:56:32: Peter Garzke: Yeah. And then on the other side.

00:56:35: Peter Garzke: There's huge courage. It's naive. It's, yeah, that's what I would call it. And they come to water ski and they can hardly swim and they said, no, I can swim. And then they almost drown, you know, you really have to take care because they're not aware of what can happen. So it's very important to learn to swim.

00:56:53: Stephan Hanf: What advice would you give students that Uh, I'm sure of joining Hochschule sports.

00:56:58: Peter Garzke: Just come with courage and don't be afraid of failing. You don't have to be an expert in sports. We also treat beginners in a very nice way, I believe. And I hope it is like that's what the coach is supposed to do. Yeah. So just come and check it out and appreciate the options you have and don't let them.

00:57:22: Peter Garzke: pass through without trying. And then in the end of the time, you're done with your studies and you're thinking, oh, maybe I should have learned to swim. And that's sad because you could just take it with on. That would open a huge field for you.

00:57:35: Sarah Pullich: You can relax by the sports by yoga, Pilates, and you have new friendships.

00:57:43: Peter Garzke: Talk about sports in the Mensa to people where you know of that they go and do some sports at university sports and let's go with them. Maybe that makes it a little bit easier, you know, you know, somebody is taking you with and then you see what comes.

00:57:58: Stephan Hanf: So what is the difference between how friendships are formed during

00:58:03: Stephan Hanf: university sports and other activities like music or partying or, I don't know, study groups? What do you think in your experience is like the difference?

00:58:14: Peter Garzke: Wow. I don't see a difference. I think it's exactly the same thing. Like I said, you're sharing a passion and to talk about it and that the other person.

00:58:23: Peter Garzke: loves it too. And that's the connection. And it doesn't matter what you like. If you like reading, talk about a book, or you like a certain kind of music you want to play in a band, or if you in a team and at volleyball, it doesn't matter. It's just another option to experience that

00:58:44: Stephan Hanf: Lesson number three, find people from a lot of places, second place,

00:58:51: Carlos Eduardo Cabral Holguin: we could and we had a lot of fun.

00:58:56: Prof. Dr. William Megill: It's harder with silver. You need more help.

00:58:58: Stephan Hanf: So Carlos, how was it for you when you first came here? Besides learning German?

00:59:03: Carlos Eduardo Cabral Holguin: It was not very hard. Like it's not so different to Spain, but yeah, like living by my own, um, Like the first time I saw my room, I checked it to the pictures in the, in of the app.

00:59:18: Carlos Eduardo Cabral Holguin: And I was like, Oh, it doesn't seem as the same thing. This is much older and dirty than what was in the picture. But I was like, but maybe with months I will get used to if the people in my house, because I'm living in a WG, uh, I'm sharing with other five people. Uh, if people is they are nice, I think I can get used to very quickly.

00:59:39: Carlos Eduardo Cabral Holguin: And yeah, so I think, I thought that. People would make the experience better. Yeah, I get homesick. When I phone my parents and they're saying, Oh, we've doing like a barbecue in family. We've gone to this place. We're singing. We were doing that stuff that I used to do with them. Homesick because. That, that close love my family give all these years, I don't feel it here, like for much that I find like friends and all that stuff is not the same.

01:00:07: Carlos Eduardo Cabral Holguin: It's not the same feeling of closeness and most my sister, like, because my sister was like my best friend far away from her. It's like very hard to me, but I tried to not think. Yeah, I'm homesick. I want to come back to my home country, to Spain. I try to like see the positive part of where I'm living in today, what I can do here, like all the possibilities I have.

01:00:31: Carlos Eduardo Cabral Holguin: So like I'm, I focus on that. But yeah, like for me, Germany, the German people are nice. Like when you talk to them in Spain, we have that stereotype, like German people are too cold and they only work and all that stuff. Like it's not the same, like in Spain and people are. If you talk to a stranger, like, it's not that, that difficult.

01:00:54: Carlos Eduardo Cabral Holguin: Like, they can try to help you, or they try to be nice, or I don't know. But I don't feel like people here, they don't want to help you or that they are very cold. I have a lot of friends, German friends, and they are very nice people when you talk to them. But maybe at the beginning, like they're not so extroverted.

01:01:13: Carlos Eduardo Cabral Holguin: For example, myself, because I think I'm very extroverted. Like I can talk to a stranger in seconds and have a deep conversation or because that's my cultural way of being. Like I always grow like that in my family and in my country. But I don't feel like people here are cold. They just have another cultural way of dealing with people.

01:01:36: Carlos Eduardo Cabral Holguin: Like, when I talk with Spanish people, I feel more myself because I can express, yeah, my ideas in a better way. Like, in English, I cannot do some types of jokes or expressions or... Saying the things I want to say in that exact way, I have to find another way because it's not my mother tongue that's comprehensible.

01:01:56: Stephan Hanf: So how do you approach that?

01:01:58: Carlos Eduardo Cabral Holguin: I don't really like to be only with our groups or because we all speak Spanish or because we all come from the same country. We should give it a try because that's the, for me, the goal of an international university, to find people from a lot of places. In my case, I don't stick a lot with the Latino group or because I really want to have like friends from different parts of the world.

01:02:22: Carlos Eduardo Cabral Holguin: So I have friends from, I don't know, Ghana or Cameroon or and now there's from Egypt and others from India and I'm trying to have a relationship with all of them and to yeah have my international group instead of having to fit only with the Spanish group because for that I would stay in my home country.

01:02:48: Prof. Dr. William Megill: Thank you to Peter for helping to organize this. Hey, take a place over there. Let's have it up for our silver medalist team Beer.

01:03:08: Stephan Hanf: Thank you for listening to the How to Hochschule Podcast. We hope you enjoyed the show and feel free to follow us and recommend us to your friends. If you have any thoughts or suggestions or just want to let us know how you'd like the episode, please don't hesitate to drop us a line at podcast@hsrw.Eu.

01:03:24: Stephan Hanf: We're always looking for ways to improve and we really appreciate your feedback. Also, be sure to check out our show notes for links and more information on today's topics and guests. Next time on the How to Hochschule Podcast: but why isn't there something called a Free Lunch? In the upcoming episode, we invite you to join us as we focus on managing the critical aspects of funding your studies and delve into the monetary complexities of life at Hochschule Rhein-Waal.

01:03:51: Stephan Hanf: I'm Stephan Hanf and this is the How to Hochschule Podcast. Thank you for joining us and we hope to see you again next time. Tschüss!