I did an Austauschprogram in Germany in the 2000-01 at a large German Uni.
I shared a WG with seven other students. One was from Shanghai. It turns out that she had been living in her little dorm room for seven years at that point. She attended one class per semester so that she would be deemed a uni student and thus qualify for her cheap housing (at that time it cost 70DM per month). We also got to travel on public transportation for free.
The bitch then worked full time at the Lufthansa counter in Frankfurt. Since she was making good money, didn't have to pay for her train, hardly paid any tuition fees, and only paid a bit for rent, she was raking in the dough. She was actually married and had her husband move from Shanghai and become a uni student too. He got his own room (uni students couldn't have roommates), but they would trade off sleeping in each others' rooms every night. She hooked him up with a job at the airport as students were allowed to work up to six months per year in Germany w/o needing to get a work visa (Arbeitsbewilligung).
The bitch had the moxy to convince even more friends and family to take advantage of the system, and during my year abroad 20 other people from Shanghai showed up and claimed they were there to study. They all got jobs working at Fraport or something. Friday nights they would all convene in the WG and cook some noxious fish-head stew while taking up the entire kitchen. All my other flatmates were basically driven out those nights when the Shanghaiese would show up.
Obviously I was annoyed by her, primarily because she was completely taking advantage of the system, didn't give a shit about it, and also treated her flatmates with little respect. But it turned out fine in the end when the Uni administrators basically told her that she had to complete her studies by the end of the year since it shouldn't take her over seven years to get a bachelor in education. She cried and screamed for a few days when she realized the jig was up. I had a shit-eating grin on my face the entire time.
My year abroad in Germany was the best year of my life thus far. I've since lived in Germany on and off over the last 15 years and still work for a German firm in the States and speak the language daily. If you're even remotely interested in the country and language and could imagine studying in a foreign setting, please do it! You won't regret it.
