After my students life, I decided to take a separate apartment and live alone...but thought why not give a try of living in shared apartments (Wohnen Gemeinschaft -WG) with Germans...it was certainly a new experience for me which gave a great insight of German life style...It certainly helped me in my cleanliness part and organization of the room...which I never cared when I was in India... :D It was mixed experience with the room mates in WG...but was quite lucky to have Friederike as our room mate after some hard experiences...the communication was one to one...she was very open when compared to other German girls...spoke amazing English...
She promised me to take to her boy friend's farm house in Uelzen before she leaves our apartment...It was a great day with Friederike, Henerik and his parents in Uelzen. Henerik helped me to ride the tractor in his farmland...never imagined I would ride a tractor in Germany being a software engineer :D followed by wonderful grilling with the wurst and potaoes..Certainly a day to remember...all the best Friederike in all your future endeavours...alles alles gute... :)Cheers,
Sathish Kumar S
Long long ago on the Christmas eve, I just asked Mr. Merkel whether I can visit him in Tegernsee in Bayern to experience Bavarian Alps and their culture. After long time, it all happened at the peak summer when sun was shining to the core in Bavarian Alps. Took a day off on Friday and started earlier on Thursday to reach Gmund (Tegernsee). It was a long journey in German standards for almost 7 to 8 hours in ICE.
Tegernsee derives its name from the Tegernsee lake on which it stands. It has got some lovely landscape and rich history. It was a lovely experience to experience this beautiful place with Mr. Merkel and Mrs. Merkel who accompanied me and showed some lovely landscapes in and around Tegernsee. We did some bike tour for almost 40 kms wandering around the lakes, mountains etc. The weather stayed decent on the first day and really sunny on the second day. Had a chance to go to the top of the mountain Wallberg (around 1722 m high) which gives a panoramic view of the city of Tegernsee and other mountain peaks nearby. Sun was shining really hard, prayers were going on in the church, could hear the music nearby, Saturday afternoon, stretch of alpine mountains blushing at me…lovely moments. It’s always a great experience to travel in all these cable cars in Germany, Austria and Switzerland which clearly shows their strength in mechanical systems.
After experiencing the landscape, its time to experience the Bavarian food and alcohol ;) To say I always cherished Bavarian food – Weisswurst, Schweinshaxe, Grill Chicken, Weiss Beer etc and etc. Had a chance to go to Wallfest which is the cultural festival for Bavarians in summer. Resembles similar to Octoberfest which I saw last year in Munich where people were dressed up with their lederhosen in typical Bavarian style. 
All in all, it was great a time with Herald and Regina. I really admire both of them and made me realize that life doesn’t end even after 60s. Both of them are immensely active even in their age and very sportive and active than a 26 year old lazy guy ;) I was quite lucky to have Herald as my German mentor during my studies, who did more than mentoring to integrate in to the German society. Not many of my classmates have contact with their mentors. It’s a good feeling that we both enjoyed our company on a friendship level even though he is totally of different generation. Well intellectual conversations don’t depend on the age ;) Thanks Herald for helping me to explore Bavarian Alps and culture to the maximum.