Starting Anew - Life after College

"MATCHES" ---> "BURN!"

2012-01-17T03:04:00.000+01:00

So I have this idea....it's called "MATCHES." It was invented sitting on the beach in Virginia Beach almost a year and a half ago and since then, I cannot stop thinking about whether its feasibility could really be applied to the world in some way that could help people and make this world a little better place. I've talked to a lot of people about this idea, with much criticism...and sometimes support. But I am still uncertain whether this concept is really just some crazy wandering of my imagination or a concept that could bring people of different backgrounds, cultural ethnicity, family morals, or political factions together in a world that at this point in time I think could really use some unifying...

The idea of "MATCHES" is simple. It's a code word that can be used to connect people and open them up to the possibility of starting a conversation...about anything; news, politics, weather, what was on TV last night, or the latest technological advancements in string theory....anything. The code word is the word "MATCHES." How it works is this: one person sees another person in some public place and wants to talk. That person goes up to the other person and says "MATCHES." If the other person has some time to sit down and get to know each other, that person just has to respond with the word "BURN". Voila! A connection...

Now the most common question that I receive at this point is..."How is this different from just stopping someone and saying hello?" Really...not much. But the difference is this, by using the code word, you've established the grounds that both of you want to talk, the awkwardness of not knowing whether this person really has any desire or time to stop what he or she's doing to get to know you can pass and BOOM, you might have a new friend. And how often do people really stop each other to communicate? Not much... As more and more people start to use "MATCHES," people will be encouraged to get to know each other, and I think that they would be surprised what they can find.

The trick is that for this idea to work, everyone would have to already know about the code word and the response. But I think that by spreading the word on the internet and by word of mouth in this day and age when one Twitter post can go out to millions of people is really not all that difficult. And I think that it would be easy for the concept to start small. Maybe in a high school or at church and then move to bigger places like universities and workplaces. As groups begin to commit to using "MATCHES" to get to know each other, the word will spread that the code word is out there. And more and more people will get on-board.

Think of it as real-life social networking. There's more and more social networking sites online and ways for people to connect over the internet, but with this advancement in technology there's less and less reason for people to have face-to-face conversations. "MATCHES" could help change that....

Lastly, I just want to state the obvious point that there could be some safety concerns with "MATCHES." Not all people are good, and the system could most definitely be used to exploit or hurt people. Because of that, I think it's imperative that this system be used in public, where people are always under the watchful eye of others. Until you know someone well enough to really call them your friend, it is never a good idea to go to a private place alone with them.

So that's all I'll write about "MATCHES" for now. I'm not sure if "MATCHES" can change the world, but I think that it could push people in the direction of acceptance of others rather than suspicion. And I would hope that this could make a dent in the misconceptions that people have of each other. Thank you for taking the time to read this. I'd appreciate any feedback or questions that anyone would have and whether you all think that I could go forward making "MATCHES" into a reality.

Back to grad school...

2011-08-08T00:17:00.000+02:00

After two years of grinding my gears day in and day out working the life of a young professional, I'm setting up to go back to grad school. I'll be pursuing a Masters in Systems Engineering degree from Johns Hopkins with a concentration in Modeling and Simulation. This fall will add a whole new layer of turmoil to my life as I attempt to balance work life and school life all at the same time while still trying to keep up the social spirits of a mid-twenty-year-old. Bring it on...

Oktoberfest

2010-10-01T08:39:00.000+02:00

Well, I'm back to Germany and this time its for the biggest beer festival in the entire world! After five more days back in Deutschland, I can't even explain how much I love this place. And since I'm being timed right now on my internet usage...I guess I won't.

Alles Gute aus Deutschland!

Ein bischen Deutsch...

2010-07-25T20:48:00.000+02:00

Und heute hab ich Lust eine Post auf Deutsch zu schreiben. Auf jeden fall ist mein Grammatisch und Wort-benutzung sehr schlecht aber manchmal denke ich dass ein bischen schreiben auf Deutsch konnte die fremdsprach fur mich verbessern. Fremdsprach ist so wichtig ein Kunst zu lernen, besonders fur Amerikaner. Wir besetzen hier an diese grosse Kontinent mit sehr wenig kulturisch verschieden. Damit die ganze Welt zu verstanden, mussten wir weit und breit reisen zu Fremdkultur zu finden. Wenn dies moglichkeit besetzt uns, wir sollten bereits werden. Mit die Landessprach vermitteln ist am besten weg die richtige Volkskultur zu tragen. Sprachforschung untericht viel uber die Kulture eine Lande. Ich hoffe das ich vergess dies Fremdsprach nicht und ich weiss das ich muss immer benutzen zu mir errinern. Vielleicht fang ich ein sprach-wechseln mit Skype eines Tages an. Und hoffenlich kann ich am endlich nach Deutschland Rueckreise.

Rigor in Development: How open-source science can improve our world

2010-07-09T20:30:00.001+02:00

What am I reading today?
Mathematics: The Loss of Certainty
By, Morris Kline

Not a book you should pick up for an easy read on a road trip to Disney World, but "Mathematics: The Loss of Certainty" goes through the invention of Mathematics from its roots with the Babylonians back in 3000 BC to the Greeks creation of Euclidian geometry to the quarrels and debates of its development that lasted through the 19th century and on to today. It's interesting to see how some of the most useful mathematical methods like negative numbers, the complex number system, and irrationals, were hotly debated topics for hundreds of years. Man could not accept that when you take something from less than nothing you can get even more less than nothing. And to say that less than nothing multiplied by less than nothing could equal something was just nonsense. The arguments against imaginaries were even more profound. A number that represents the square root of a number less than one? Incomprehensible. Gauss said that if the units had not been given the names direct, inverse, and lateral as opposed to positive, negative, and imaginary, "people would not have gotten the impression that there was some dark mystery in these numbers." Today these topics are basic lessons taught in high school and college math class and are crucial for use in the complex mathematical operations of today.

But it's not my intention for today to summarize this somewhat complicated and monotonous book. What I want to dive into are some of the points made by mathematicians in Chapter VII, "The Illogical Development: The Predicament CIRCA 1800." Many arguments were made as to the necessity of proofs and rigor to define mathematics. The creation of a theorem could not be fully accepted by the mathematical community until it was proven for all n x n cases. To take on such a task for complicated (but many times useful) ideas could take years of painstaking and rigorous work. And it is these types of proofs that led the greatest minds of the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries to spend most of their time debating about the validity of concepts instead of building upon them. Over four hundred years of going round and round in circles....

In the modern world, how much rigor should be put into analysis before accepting and pressing forward with an idea? Engineers work for years on end to prove and reprove concepts so that no error is made. But what is wrong with taking an idea, publishing a coherent paper to the world and accepting it as true? Once it is released to the vast realm of the internet, it must submit to the scrutiny of thousands of critics through comments and response. And the more interesting the concept, the more critique it will gain. These critiques can serve as the painstaking "proof" process without hindering the development of the technology. With the advent of open-source technology and wiki articles, this concept of reducing rigor and continuing development seems to already be taking hold. But within the scientific community, the slow and painstaking process of "proof" continues. Proprietary information from large corporations cripples this development process to an extent, but the quickest and most technology savvy of companies will soon learn that the pros of expedited technology insertion far outweigh the cons of technology abduction. Companies like Google are already pressing forward with this attitude to the delight of unfathomable monetary gains. Google is the 7th largest company in the world by market capitalization and the majority of its work is done in an open-source environment. The results of publicizing information, pressing forward with advancement, and neglecting that difficult process called proof and analysis, will serve for the betterment of corporations and in the long run, the betterment of the world.

Writing just to write...

2010-06-16T23:22:00.000+02:00

Sometimes I like to read, sometimes I like to work-out, sometimes I like to listen to speeches or watch movies or play video games...but right now, all I want to do is write. It's funny how after you graduate from college the necessity of writing anything just for the sake of writing drops virtually to zero. As an engineer, the only writing that I do is concise e-mails shot back and forth to coworkers meant to convey a complicated message in as simple language as possible. Long words and phrases turn into acronyms and compound sentences turn into bullet points. Difficult computations are much better represented as an attached Excel document and in-depth presentations become PowerPoints. And the statements that get electronically transferred through e-mail must be checked and double-checked for comprehension and accuracy, for once that "SENT" button is pressed, your simple statements become living documentation demonstrating your, and the organization that you represent's signed and authorized opinion of a certain situation. E-mail's can be dangerous... One wrong word sent to one wrong person can mean a thread-ful of hurt responses. Even the choice between "TO" and "CC" becomes a matter of close scrutiny; does a person copied on an e-mail really need to read the e-mail at all???

Technical writing takes all of the freedom and creativity that existed in your high school English class and flips it on its head. The need to use symbolism and literary devices is trumped by the desire for clear and concise communication. Maybe this is why so many people turn to blogging (and Facebook) to express their needs to write...freehand...in whatever literary fashion they may so desire. Whether a post contains the grammatical inferiority of an 8 year old or the professional tone of a world renowned author, the blog-ee can always feel good about taking the words within him and setting them out to the world (with no risk of rebuttal except that of a sharply phrased comment or two...) Although I do not think of myself as a regular "blogger", I respect and understand those who take the time to keep up with the online world and freely contribute their thoughts and opinions. Thanks to everyone who does this as it continues to keep people like me (lazy internet stumblers) with a bit of Attention Deficit Disorder entertained every day. Maybe someday I'll get more involved in the wide world of blogging and give a little back myself...

What's happening at Pax?

2010-03-26T04:11:00.004+01:00

Engineers are testing the most advanced aircraft in the world, Joint Strike Fighter. In this video it demonstrates its VTOL (Vertical Take-off and Landing) mode. Amazing piece of machinery...

The Air Show called NAVAIR

2009-10-06T23:07:00.000+02:00

So far, the coolest part of my job by FAR has been watching the aircraft fly around the Navy base at Patuxent River. My entire life I've been going to air shows to see jets fly close to the ground at crazy speeds but one drive around the base here at Pax puts all of those air shows to shame.

Last night, I was driving back from the driving range around dusk and heard a roar coming off the runway up ahead. My friend and I quickly raced up to where we could get a view and were able to see an F-18 pulling up into the sky shooting its afterburners. Coming off of the thrill, we continued down the road near the hangars only to see two more F-18's being readied for flight by the land crew. We quickly raced baack over to the end of the runway and were able to see two more F-18s launch off the runway from a range of about 200 ft. The coolest part about this whole experience was that it was at dusk and you could see the flame of the afterburner shooting almost 20 ft from the back of the engine as it accelerated. Nothing compares to the sights and sounds of an F-18 launching into the night sky...

The base has a high-power catapult on a runway that simulates the deck of an aircraft carrier. Today, this runway hosted some E-2D's as they tested their launching capabilities. If you don't know, the E-2D is a big turboprop (propeller) plane that has a big circular electronics dish on the top. I couldn't believe how quickly such a large (and sort of clunky) looking machine could accelerate from standstill to takeoff velocity in such little time.

Unfortunately, base regulations don't allow me to take any pictures of these aircraft so I don't have any photos or videos to share, but if you come visit me I can take you on base as a visitor and show you some of the acrobatics in person. Believe me, seeing this in person is 100 times better than any picture or video (or air show for that matter) that you've ever seen.

New Job in Maryland

2009-10-03T17:45:00.005+02:00

Well, it's been a long time since I've posted anything in this blog...one, because I'm no longer in Germany and I haven't been for over a year now. Two, because I'd gotten very busy (and lazy) and had neglected to take the time to share my feelings in blog form.

But since my last posts I've still had lots of experiences that have been very meaningful to my life. For one, I've now graduated college and have moved on to take on the challenges of the "real world." This week, I started my first full-time job working in Southern Maryland for the government. So far, the job has been a little slow as it'll take some time for me to get through all my security clearance and paperwork so that I can start workin on real projects. Hopefully, my projects will involve some travel and I can see some more of the United States just like I got to see so much of Germany.

I should be gettin on this more often from now on and posting some short updates. Again, if anybody has any comments to make, please feel free! Comments and questions will give me a lot more encouragement to keep goin on this blog knowing that someone out there is reading.

New Blog

2008-11-03T07:43:00.003+01:00

I just wanted to let anyone who might be following this blog know about another blog I am currently writing for the college of engineering at Purdue. I'll be staying more up-to-date in it for a while so if you want to know the latest happenings in my life, check out my new blog at:

https://engineering.purdue.edu/Blogs/KyleZienin

Enjoy!

Two months in Europe (in a nutshell)

2008-05-17T12:20:00.008+02:00

It's a little ironic that the last post I wrote about was strike because it seems that I have gone on strike for the last two months from blog writing. If anybody's been following this and dying to have me write another posting, I'm sorry it's taken so long, but now it's finally here!

Phew, where to start off... I've done soooooo much since the last posting that it's gonna be really hard to get in to any sort of details about my adventures so what I'm going to keep it simple. I'm going to list the cities that I've visited, write about the first memory that comes to mind, and post either a video or a picture.........go!

Dublin, Ireland - St. Patrick's Day... Probably one of the craziest trips of my life... One of the most insane times was standing in the street among thousands of people watching the annual Dublin St. Patrick's Day Parade. In addition to that, I met kids from all over the world, explored my family's history, drank lots of Guinness, and hung out in an Irish Pub or two. Not too bad of a trip I think...be sure to check out the pictures on Picasa!

Munich, Germany - My parents came and visited and after we spent some time in Berlin, we headed to Munich, home of the Hofbrauhaus, bratwursts, and all that is German beer. Among our various trips to the beer gardens we met up with some interesting people including a French nuclear physicist named Pierre.

Hohenshwangau, Germany - From Munich, we headed south to Schloss Neuschwanstein, the castle known as the inspiration for the Walt Disney Castle. Not much more to say except the whole area was incredible and I'd recommend it to anyone going to Germany. And pictures describe it better than words...

Dachau, Germany - After coming back to Munich it's just a short trainride to a little city on the outskirts called Dachau. A little suburban city that seems normal until you walk into the memorialized concentration camp that held over 200,000 people and took the lives of over 25,000 of them between the years of 1933 and 1945. The gate still holds the dark slogan for prisoners that "Arbeit macht frei" (work makes freedom). Within the camp we saw lots of chilling reminders of a horrible time in human history including the ovens that burned bodies towards the end of the camp's use...

Paris, France - From Munich, we took an all-day train ride west into France to visit the spectacular city of Paris. Although I had thought the city might be a little overrated, I found out I was completely wrong. The buildings were incredible and at night the twinkling of the Eiffel Tower lights up the entire city...

Be sure to also check Picasa for more pictures of everywhere I've been. It's really been an incredible adventure. I hope that everyone back in the States is doing well and having a good summer.

BVG wird bestreikt

2008-03-06T21:40:00.000+01:00

These three words have caused me about six hours worth of walking back and forth between my home and the nearest train station... BVG is the Berlin train service that operates the U-Bahns and busses. Bestreikt means that they have gone on strike... I think I said that I needed some exercise in one of the posts before this; I guess my wish is coming true... The strikes that are occurring in Berlin are occurring simultaneously with many others across the country. It seems like everyone in Germany is going on strike lately. From kindergarten teachers to trash collectors to airport workers and train operators, the strike across Germany has most definitely hit all areas of the German public sector. And because public transportation the primary form of transportation for Germans, the strikes have also caused chaos on the roads forcing hundreds of people who almost never drive to get out their cars and use the roads. When I was walking down Unter den Linden the traffic was backed up from museum island to Brandenberg Tor (that's a long way if you don't know). And this Monday there is a good chance that the other train union GDL will also go on strike effectively shutting down all of the trains in Germany. This means that there will be neither any inter-city trains or s-bahns that typically bring me to work... Since I work about an hour away from the city by train I don't really have any idea what I'm going to do if this happens. I guess I get a day off?

Hertha BSC - Nur nach Hause

2008-03-02T23:15:00.008+01:00

This weekend I attended my first ever German Fussball match in Berlin. The game was Hertha BSC (Berlin's soccer team) versus Duisburg (an apparently not-so-hot team ranked very low in the German Bundesliga). The games are held in the Olympiastadion that was built for the 1916 summer Olympics and just recently was host site of the World Cup. Although I didn't make this video, it pretty much sums up the atmosphere... Thousands of Hertha fans, who call themselves the Ultimas, remained standing the entire game, singing songs, waving flags, cheering, chanting, and just plain being crazy supporters of Hertha football. Before I went, I bought a blue Hertha scarf with their slogan on it:

"Nur nach Hause geh'n wir nicht"
(Translated: "Only home, we don't go")

I sang along with all the songs as best as I could and drank some German beer and pretty much had an incredible time. Hertha won the game 2-0, ending a 10 game losing streak at night games in the Olympiastadion in Berlin. I'd like to think think that it was because I was there to support them... Also, I found out that Hertha BSC is actually a friend of Karlsruhe's soccer team so when I go to University in Karlsruhe and suddenly become a Karlsruhe fan everyone won't hate me for supporting Hertha.

Now if only I could be attending some Purdue basketball games right now (Big Ten champs?)...

Hamburgers in Hamburg

2008-02-28T23:41:00.000+01:00

Although I was in Hamburg for an entire weekend, I didn't manage to eat one single Hamburger... But I did find a historic building within the city that showed the Hamburgers' undying love for our delicious American sandwich:
But not everything in Hamburg was about greasy fast food. It turned out that the city of Hamburg was filled with a rich history of destruction, reconstruction, prostitution, and refinement. Hamburg grew up (and continues to operate) as a port city on the river Elbe very close to the North Sea. As such, the sustainment of its trade operation was necessitated by its ability to satisfy the burly seamen who passed through from day-to-day. To this extent, a lonely street in Hamburg called Reeperbahn was able to develop itself into a haven for peep shows, strip joints, and other establishments of worldy desires... A walk down this street brought back memories of Amsterdam and the red-light-district, but it seemed that Reeperbahn was something different... The lights and sounds and thousands of tourists made it more of a "party avenue" than a back alley sex shop.

During WWII an Allied operation called Operation Gomorrah, targeted at demoralizing the German citizens into surrender was launched upon the citizens of Hamburg. The effect of this operation was the total destruction of Hamburg and a need to rebuild pretty much everything. From the top of the St. Nikolai Kirche I could see the whole city and thanks to some circa 1942 photos that were up there, I could also see how much the city had rebuilt since its leveling in the war. When I was there, there was still a lot of construction going on everywhere, but I think that most of it was no longer due to World War bombings. Instead, it was because of a new initiative to create a residential area in the middle of the Elbe called HafenCity. I didn't get a lot of details on Hafencity, but it looked like a sort of land creation project in which they were building a whole new district on concrete posts extending into the river. Joe and I walked around this area for hours seeing all of the construction being undertaken in the area. It was really pretty neat to see.

I've got lots of pictures of everything in my Picasa album here.

While in that area, I was also able to take a visit inside a Russian U-Boat parked in the Elbe river. It was really amazing to see the tight quarters that they had to live in for months on end while out at sea. And it was also a little unsettling to know that this U-Boat was probably primarily used to spy on (and probably prepared to attack) the United States during the Cold War. This fact was confirmed by a picture that was hung up inside the boat...

A Living, Breathing, History

2008-02-21T23:10:00.000+01:00

I guess last weekend was just another few days spent halfway around the world… Whenever I start to get lonely or upset or frustrated by something, I just look back at my life and realize that I'm currently doing something that some people will never be able to do in their lifetime. Right now, I'm spending my time in a city that has warred with our country twice in the last 100 years, was blocked by the Iron Curtain of communism, was fueled by the Air Lifts of democracy, tore down walls, reunified, and became one of the most desired places to be in Germany. Thomas Friedman says in his book that the fall of the Berlin wall was probably one of the most important events in our history in terms of globalization. That event single handedly could have led to the coming together of our entire world, creating the synchronous rhythms of global supply chains in all corporations, big and small. Berlin holds on to probably one of the richest, most dynamic and influential histories that has ever occurred in my life…and I'm here to see it. Whenever I feel troubled all I have to do is open my eyes and take in the Berlin air and say to myself "wow, I have truly been blessed!"

Just another weekend…

2008-02-20T23:41:00.013+01:00

Last weekend I tasted the most amazing bratwursts on the planet…three times… Friday night I went out with my roommates ins Kino gehen (to the movies!). We saw Into the Wild, the story of a boy who rebels from his parents, runs out west, lives with hippies, rows down some rivers, and does some other crazy things. It was…ehh….OK but nothing to really write about (ironic because I am…). Before that, we went to Mehringdam to have some of the most incredible Currywursts known to mankind. Doused in ketchup and served with fries and mayo, it was probably one of the least heart-healthy meals I could have ever eaten. But it tasted so delicious that I proceeded to eat that meal two more times during the weekend (I think I'm going to need to start jogging or something…). On Saturday, I went to the Judisches (Jewish) Museum. On first entry, you feel like you're a mouse entering into a maze with twisty walls and a floor that slants sideways. Nothing that you look at is straight which gives you sort of nauseous feeling that I'm sure was intended by the architects. The museum is full of random spaces called "voids" that sometimes have lights shining from the outside, are sometimes pitch black dark, or are sometimes just stone figures that echo voices through audio headsets. In one void was contained a bunch of heavy metal faces on the ground that made a loud clinking sound when you walked on them. Watch this video to see what I mean...

Upstairs were all kinds of exhibits that told the story of the Jews in Germany from the Nuremburg Laws to the Enlightenment. The Judisches museum was probably the most creative, informative, and interactive museum I've ever been to and I think it's a must see for anyone coming to Berlin (Alyssa and Ariel would really like it…lol).

On Sunday a friend of mine who is studying abroad in Italy came to Berlin. I went with her and her friends on the Berlin walking tour and learned a lot more about the city. I did, however, think that the tour guide missed out on a lot of important stuff and next time I have guests in Berlin, I think I'm just going to give the tour myself. One of the most incredible sites we saw was Babelplatz, the site of the German book burning in 1933. There are two metal signs set into the cement there. One is Heinrich Heine's famous quote written in 1820 "Where books are burnt, in the end people will burn." Right next to it was the description of the actions done 100 years later that had been so precisely foreshadowed:

"In der Mitte dieses Platzes verbrannten am 10. Mai 1933 Nationalsozialistische Studenten die Werke hunderter freier Schriftstiller, Publizisten, Philosophen, und Wissenschafler."

On May 10, 1933 in the middle of this plaza National Socialist students burnt the works of hundreds of free authors, publishers, philosophers, and scientists.

The university that organized the book burning now holds a huge book sale every year to "commemorate" this event. And books markets are set up almost every day across the street.

Later that night we went to the Staatsoper and saw a ballet in the first public opera theater in the world. The ballet was Onegin and I've gotta say I was surprisingly impressed about how much I enjoyed it. The music was by Tchaikovsky and the performers did a superb job detailing the story without saying any words at all! Not too bad of a deal considering the student tickets we got were just 12 Euro.

The Cast of Onegin

New Roommates!

2008-02-16T01:47:00.002+01:00

I guess I've kind of been slacking on this blogging thing… As you know, I moved in last week to a new apartment in Neuköln with some pretty cool new roommates. Last weekend I was able to go out with them and meet some of their friends. It turned out to be a pretty calm weekend compared to some of them that I have spent in Amsterdam or falling asleep on trains. We ended up chilling in a bar in a bar for a while and talking all night. I guess there always comes a point in the conversation which it switches to soccer, and then the next discussion will always be politics. We followed this progression although I can't say I understood everything that was going on… As much as I've been practicing, I've still got a lot of work to do before I can get in political debates with the Germans. Anyways, I took a few pictures from the night and put them up in my see all pictures place on the right.

Interesting facts about my new place:

-One of the main roads nearby, Sonnenallee, used to be a major division between East and West Berlin and there used to be a lot of crossings along the way. There's even a movie written about some kids who live around here (with that guy from Viktor Vogel for anybody who was in my German class…).
-Just down the road there's a strip of lots of different kinds of Middle Eastern restaurants. Definitely would not be very common in the U.S.
-Everyone who has a dog walks around without the dog on a leash. Sometimes you'll see the dog 20 ft in front of his owner just roaming around on his own free will. Then, when the owner calls him he'll come right back.

Last week I also went to the Pergamon Museum on Thursday, which held the Pergaman alter, a giant stairway that was excavated from the ancient city of Pergamon and brought to Germany. The museum hosted an amazing assortment of Greek and Roman statues, mosaics, columns, and other architecture that made me feel like I was visiting Rome. The frieze that ran around the main room described the Roman mythological story of the battle between the giants and the gods, for who would control the world. The scenes were incredible renderings of Zeus, Athena, Artemis, Apollo, and all of the others vanquishing their enemy and restoring order to the world (I feel like I'm back in Latin class…) The museum was really very incredible and I'd highly recommend it to anyone coming to visit Berlin. I also went to the Haus am Checkpoint Charlie last weekend and saw that museum, dedicated to the division between Berlin during the Cold War. The museum contained some pretty cool stuff like a car that had been smashed through a barricade by some East Germans escaping to the west. It really made me think about all of the history that's happened here in Berlin just over the last 50 years. Recently, I was also able to watch a German movie that really highlighted the pre-unification times called Das Leben der Andern (The Lives of the Others). It was all in German, but I turned on the subtitles J. This is an incredible film that shows the twisted way that socialism ruled the East Germans back in those days. I think it also won an Oscar for best foreign film. For most of the movie the main character has his entire house bugged and the Stasis can see every little thing that is going on in his life. It reminds me a lot of 1984… It's hard to believe now that people could live knowing that every action they made, word they spoke, person they made friends with, could be recorded and used against them.

New room in Neukoln!

2008-02-06T23:43:00.000+01:00

This Monday I came home to my new apartment in Neukoln...at 5 AM! I came back from Amsterdam via a night train so when I got here, I had to wake up my new roommate in the wee hours of the Morgen to let me in. When I got here I had a lot of work to do! I had to plan out my new route to work, unpack, and just get situated in my new place. Truth be told, I ended up falling asleep, missing my train, and walking around Blankenfelde for almost an hour looking for a taxi to work... So it was a rough start to my new life in Neukoln...

Neuokoln is defintely a completely different place from my old apartment in Friedenau. While Friedenau was an upper middle class neighborhood with lots of school children and old folks walking around, Neukoln is the exact opposite, with mostly students and Turkish people occupying the streets. Its kinda like some type of rough neighborhood in Chicago except much safer because the gangs don't have guns... The bus stop is right in front of my apartment, though, and my U-Bahn station is only a five or six minute walk away. From there, I can get to the most active parts of the city in under 20 minutes. I really love the location and I think I'll enjoy the change in lifestyle.

Now, I'm pretty much settled in and I think I'm really going to like this place. Yesterday, I had tea with my two new roommates and just talked in general about different things to do in Berlin. They want to take me out to the bars, introduce me to their friends, go to the movies with me, and show me around Berlin. That's really a great thing because I was getting a little bit tired of not having any German friends in Berlin (it gets kinda lonely after a while...) The other great thing about living here is that I get to speak a LOT more German. Conversations can take whole new twists when half the things you say have to be defined... I think it's really exciting and I think my language skills will improve a lot from living here. Tonight, we all had dinner together. The two girls cooked turkey with rice and fruit and I did the dishes. All of the work that needs to be done in the apartment like cleaning, vacuuming and taking the garbage out, is divvied up between us. They even have a little clock schedule that shows you what task you have to do for the week. Living here is a little like being back at Phi Psi minus the huge parties and the floors that stick to your feet. Here's a picture of my new room. It looks pretty much like the old one, but it has pictures on the wall and books on the shelves giving it a much more homey feel...

Amsterdam Escapade

2008-02-05T21:05:00.001+01:00

Amsterdam turned out OK after all! Joe made it in by 6 pm on Saturday and I was able to hang out with those girls who I met in the morning until then. By the time he got there, all the touristy stuff was closed so we had to pack it all in to Sunday. That night, we saw the coffee shops and red light district. Seeing half naked girls dancing in windows down a long dark alley lit by only red neon lights was probably one of the weirdest experiences I've ever encountered. It's really something that can not be described in words and you'd have to go there yourself to really see what I mean. Coffee shops were another very interesting thing about Amsterdam with random drugs that would be illegal in the U.S. being sold at discount prices. A place called Bulldog even told stories of its history of providing marijuana during times when it was illegal in Amsterdam. The sign on this bar stool says "Our first and most successful hiding spot. A real high chair!" It kind of reminds me of being in Harry's and talking about the Prohibition days. The next day, we were also able to go to two of the amazing museums in Amsterdam, the Vincent Van Gogh Museum and the Rijks (pronounced rikes) Museum. Both had art from spectacular artists ranging from Picasso to du Jardin to Rembrandt (and of course Vincent Van Gogh). The scenes that these artists portrayed are really like nothing you can ever describe in words and its really a whole new experience when you can see the originals with their thick and thin layers of vibrant paints built up in different ways to bring about different moods and thoughts. One of my favorite was this Vincent painting of a broken down church in Nuenen called 'The peasants' churchyard' This picture though does not nearly do justice to the original hanging on the wall at the Van Gogh Museum. I have a lot more pictures of Amsterdam that I put online yesterday in my online photo album. To see them, click "See all my Pictures" on the right. Being in Amsterdam also gave me a chance to again feel like a complete foreigner, not knowing any of the language or anything about the city that I was in. This gave me a whole new feeling when I came back and could again speak German and ride on the Deutsche Bahn trains that I know and love. I think that I'm really starting to feel at home in Germany...

My German's as good as a 4-year-old!

2008-02-02T10:37:00.000+01:00

Lots has happened in the last few days... I found a new room, moved in all my luggage, and took a train to Amsterdam where they have the biggest Burger King that I've ever seen in my entire life...

Let's start with the new room. I had been looking all last week for a new room to move into on the first of the month with some German students so that I could speak more German and meet more young people. Tuesday night, I went over to look at an apartment in Neukoln and met three very nice German students. One of them was leaving for 2 months for an internship in southern Germany so he offered his room and I took it. My roommates will be two German girls, one who studies politics, and the other who has an internship in ad type things. They seem like interesting people and they really like to speak with me and my broken German. I think this will be the best thing for me improving my skills.

Thursday, I moved in all of my luggage and noticed something else really interesting about Berlin. People were moving. I think I saw ten other people with luggage moving around on the day that I moved in to my apartment. Then, I thought about it and realized that it was the 31st so everyone was doing there apartment changes. I keep hearing how Berlin is such a dynamic city, but I think seeing all those people with suitcases really drove it in to my head. Berliners don't usually settle down for life. They come to experience life in a whole new way and then move on their way...

Yesterday, I took a train to Amsterdam that I had booked a few weeks back. I had heard that the BVG, the Berlin train company had decided to go on strike so I was a little worried about getting to and from the Hauptbahnhof, but it ended up that the S-Bahns, which I needed to take, were still running. But, this meant that they were PACKED with people. While I was riding on one, I finally found that I could speak German as well as a four year old. I was sitting in my seat reading a book and writing a little bit and some little kid came up to me and asked, "Was machst du???" (What are you doing?) . I ended up having like a 10 minute conversation with this little four year old about Germany and America and how much he likes trains! It turned out that the little kids German was just about as good as mine, so our simple conversation worked out perfectly.

From the Hauptbahnhof, I was supposed to meet Joe at the next stop in Spandau. I got there...but no Joe... I called him and asked where he was and he panted that he was coming... The train left about two minutes before he called and told me that he was there. I guess I'm going to Amsterdam by myself... For a while, the train ride was really awkward because I had no one to talk to, but then I engaged in a conversation with some girl traveling to Hannover. I was able to talk to her for a while, speeding up the ride. But after she got off it was pretty boring. I got to Amsterdam and walked around the city...lost...for about an hour before finding a hotel. The city is really incredible with all of its canals and old buildings (pictures will come up later). Joe called and told me he'd be coming by train in the morning...

So now, I'm sitting in my hotel in Amsterdam writing on this computer. I did end up meeting some girls from the States who happened to be pretty good friends with one of my pledge brothers from Phi Psi (again, a really small world). I guess I'm going to walk around the city today with them and see what I can find...

Eureka!

2008-01-30T23:28:00.000+01:00

Today, I had by far, the most productive day at work that I've ever experienced! All of the work that I have been doing for the last 2 weeks finally came together to allow me to make ten pages worth of beautiful plots showing everything that happens in my combustor, from the velocity that the air is traveling at to the heat which is being produced by the combustion to the amount of pollution created by that ridiculous chemical reaction. Not only was I able to make these plots for one run of my code, I was also able to run another code that computes everything differently to check if I could get the same results. What I ended up with was a huge document full of amazing pictures that I would love to show on here (but I can't because they are highly proprietary...) My results showed me that the new code which I was working to validate performed even better than the old one and it was able to do so with less work from the user (by allowing unstructured grid generation for anyone that cares). Now that I have all of these pictures, I can present my work through a link call to the CFD group back in the U.S. How cool is that!? I'm going to be presenting what I have done over here in Germany back to my old boss and all of the people I worked with over in Indianapolis.

Tomorrow, I'm going to do something even more incredible. I'm going to automate the entire process of what I did (at least most of it anyway). I think this is the part that I like most about engineering. Not only can you set up a program to give you all of this incredibly detailed information that tells you everything that is going on in a very sophisticated combustor, you can also take this whole process and automate it so that no one will ever have to do it again. In essence, I am working to eliminate my own job! Everyone talks about how globalization and industrialization is taking away all of these jobs from the United States. I am actually working to industrialize the very work that I am doing. And this won't get me layed off. It will instead allow me to move on to bigger, more important challenges that need the attention of a human being. No computer could ever take over every job that needs to be done in our world. If it could, we'd all live pretty good lives doing nothing but sitting around and enjoying our time. Engineering allows one to continue to improve a process until it works seamlessly with no need for further improvement. This will slowly and surely change the way our world works and how people live. And I get to be a part of that...

weekend with the Dutch

2008-01-26T01:15:00.000+01:00

Last weekend Ton's friends came from the Netherlands to drive him home, but before they left, they decided to stay for a "mini vacation" over the weekend. These kids from Holland were really awesome people. I can't really describe it, but they just had this goofy attitude about making everything fun. We ended up walking around Berlin all day Saturday, seeing all kinds of historical and interesting stuff. One of them was the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtnis-Kirche, this amazing looking church that got bombed almost to rubble during WWII. The remnants were left standing with a new church built right next to it an a very modern fashion. The two different styles side-by-side make a stunning scene that is hard to capture in one photo. The other incredible building was Sony Center, this very modern structure located in Potsdamer Platz. Walking into the building, you feel like you're walking into the future with its huge plasma TV's hanging on the walls and the interesting looking swirling ceiling. Potsdamer Platz was really an incredible place to see. We also went and saw Checkpoint Charlie. I really had pumped this place up as one my places to see in Berlin, but when I got there, I was rather disappointed. All that is left of the historical crossing from East to West Berlin is a little guard post and a sign that says you are leaving or entering the American sector. It really wasn't very exciting...

That night, we went out to some more clubs. I missed my stop again on the train (gotta work on that) and called it a weekend...

Uni here, Uni there, Uni Uni everywhere

2008-01-23T22:14:00.000+01:00

Every day this week I've been eating lunch and taking my "afternoon walk" (another common thing in Germany) with Ton. It's kind of sad that he's going to be done with his internship this week and leaving back for the Netherlands this weekend. We talked a little bit about the school systems in Europe and how they are very different from ours in America. I guess you don't typically do a mere "undergrad" program in engineering. Most students will make it a 5-year program and end up with their Masters at the end of it. In addition, you have to cap your studies off with a 9-month "project" that you can do either at your university or with some firm. I guess Ton just has this left and then he will graduate. We also talked a little bit about the differences between a public funded and private funded university. I guess in Europe, it's very rare for Alumni to give back to their university. University is seen more as a necessity than an entirely new era of your life like it is in the U.S. Colleges here rarely have campuses and students usually just live in random apartments somewhere close to their University. There is no place that builds up that "college life" culture like at Purdue. In addition sports are not common at all for universities. Usually, there will be some club teams but they are not nearly as competitive as college varsity sports are in the U.S. People who are looking to go pro in something don't go to college. Instead, they will attend a sports school to further their development in the sport their interest. I guess that makes sense, but I couldn't imagine going to college somewhere without the huge rivalries between schools merely due to their athletic programs. On a side note, I hear Purdue basketball's doing pretty good this year. I hope you kids still at Purdue are going to those games. I'm cheering for us over here (not that I can see the games but I watch the highlights on ESPN). That's another thing, I guess ESPN doesn't exist over here. I can not imagine a world without ESPN. Well, back to my point, without all of these programs that inspire school spirit and build university culture, alumni don't really care about their university too much after college and give back the ridiculous sums of money like they do in the U.S. Instead, the government does! Better? Worse? Not necessarily...just different...

der andere Praktikant

2008-01-20T23:10:00.000+01:00

Last Thursday I met another intern at Rolls-Royce who happened to also be from the Netherlands. His name is Ton and he is also working for my boss doing some different CFD work. It turns out that when I started, I actually took his spot because there wasn't any other room in the office, but he was moved to somewhere else relatively close so it was no problem. Ton's native language is also Dutch, but he likes to speak English rather than German because it's difficult to switch back and forth. It was very interesting talking to Ton about Germany and Berlin because he too is somewhat a foreigner here.

We ended up going out together over the weekend along with Joe, the other kid from GEARE who lives in Berlin. First, we went from bar to bar, talking about random things and then we went to this place that Ton knew of called Kulturbraurei. I guess this used to be one of the largest breweries in Germany but after it got shut down, they converted it into a bunch of bars and restaurants. Here's a picture of it, but it's hard to see because it was dark out. We ended up going to a club here called Club 23 (original huh?) We didn't get there until about 1:00 AM and the line still took us about an hour to get through... Germans really like to go out late... The place was a stereotypical insane German disco with four floors and LOTS of crazy techno. They also had some other rooms with hip hop/R&B and also another room with "classic rock"-ish American music. We had a great time dancing the night away with hundreds and hundreds of other Germans. I didn't leave till about 5:00 and slept through my train stop on the way home making the whole trip take another 2 hours. At 7:00 AM I finally got home and fell asleep to the sounds of birds chirping outside...

R&T @ RRD - Rolls-Royce Deutschland

2008-01-16T22:08:00.000+01:00

This week I started work with Rolls-Royce Deutschland. It is located in a little town called Dahlewitz waaaaaay far south from Berlin (actually located in Brandenburg). I have about a 1 hour train/bus ride each way to and from work. I guess I get to be a commuter for a while... My work is going to involve the same sort of things that I did last summer in Indianapolis working for Rolls-Royce North America. I'm going to be performing CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) on combustors for gas turbine engines. By the way, Rolls-Royce does NOT make cars anymore. They moved out of that business a long time ago and gave the name to BMW. Rolls-Royce is technically in the market of making gas-turbine engines, mostly turbojets and turboprops for aircraft. So when I say I work on a combustor, it's the part of the engine where the fuel mixes with the gas and burns, creating LOTS of energy. Anyways, my job is to try to help the team that improves the program which models the combustor. I'm doing this by setting up a grid with all of the geometry of the combustor and then describing what is happening at all of the boundaries. Then, I run the code and obtain lots of data. If my data matches what scientists think actually happens in the combustor, then I have good results. This type of work is very interesting as it allows me to purely learn about what goes on in combustors without having to have any prior knowledge. I run my code and "discover" all of the inter-workings of these very advanced combustors. It's pretty cool stuff and I think it's definitely going to help me prepare for some type of aero work in the future.

The office space is very nice with huge windows overlooking the rest of the factory. It's very open and you can see all of the other people working in your team at the same time (unlike my narrow little cubicle I had in Indy...) There's also free coffee that you can drink all day long! This will really help my work skills... My boss seems really nice and I was able to talk with him for a long time about my project and other random computer stuff. He's originally from the Netherlands and his native language is Dutch, but his English and his German are both really good. He seems like he's a very smart guy and I think that I'll be able to learn a lot from him. I guess I'm going to see how much I can pick up during my three months here...

Living in Friedenau

2008-01-15T20:05:00.000+01:00

Sunday night I moved into my new room in Friedenau. The neighborhood is straight out of suburbia but German style. Everywhere you look, there are four or five story apartment buildings that look like giant houses lining the roads. Each apartment is some middle class family's home sweet home. In the mornings, there hundreds of little kids walking around with their big backpacks going to school. Some of these kids look like they could be four or five, but here they are, walking down the street and sometimes taking trains with no adult supervision at all! I guess that means this is at least a safe neighborhood. It's really funny to hear these little kids speaking German to each other because when I hear them talk, I know that they are probably better speakers than me! I don't think I've ever been able to translate what these little kids are talking about... There's also a lot of people that bike around this neighborhood. I've really gotta be careful about getting in their way because they WILL plow you down. If you hear a little *ding ding* of a bell and you happen to be standing on a bike path, WATCH OUT!

My New Room!!!

A bit o' banter with the Irish and the Ausies

2008-01-14T19:00:00.000+01:00

Now, I have to talk about the bar scene... The Friday I was there I ended up going to the pub downstairs from our hostel. There, we met a ton of young people. We talked about the differences in culture between all our different countries (by discussing the ins and outs of finding a girlfriend...) and drank rather heavily... The bar was showing on a big screen a mix of Tarzan/caveman/pornography that was rather disturbing but as the night progressed it became increasingly funny. Later, we set out to go to the bars with some Ausie girls only to get lost in Alexanderplatz and end up eating McDonalds...

For the rest of the day Joe and I ended up hanging out with the Irish girls and having an incredible time. We public transported all around the city and saw all kinds of cool things. First, we took a tour of an old German bunker that was used during the world war too. The most fun part was that the whole thing was in German... For the rest of the day we walked around trying to see everything we could in this huge city of Berlin. The Irish people were hilarious and I couldn't stop laughing when I had one of them say "Luck o' the Irish." We also learned some other Irish words like posh and banter... They were really some crazy people those Irish. We found a nice little restaurant in Eastern Berlin where we ate some vegetarian pizza-type stuff that was surprisingly delicious. Then, we walked along the wall and saw all the graffiti on it about freedom and oppression. I think the graffiti is the most interesting part about the Berlin wall because you can really see how the people in Berlin were feeling after it was torn down by the drawings that they made. Finally, we went back to the hostel because Joe and I had work in the morning and said goodbye to our new friends. But before we did that we decided we would plan a trip to come visit them for St. Patrick's Day. If that happens, I'm pretty sure it will be the most amazing trip in the whole world. Hopefully, we can get it all set up and make it work out. I'd really like to see those Irish again...

On to Berlin!

2008-01-12T07:38:00.000+01:00

Last Thursday I trained into Berlin from Karlsruhe with Joe, another GEARE student. The train ride was very fast and very smooth and only took five and a half hours, mostly consisting of me sleeping... We checked into the Circus Hostel and went to bed. Our first few nights in Berlin turned out to be amazing. The Circus hostel homed many young people from all over the world, looking to go out and have a good time. We met students from Australia, Ireland, Argentina, Britain, Brazil, and even some good ole Americans. The hostel itself put out a very "young" atmosphere. The halls ran diagonal past the rooms; the reception area played the most random of music (from classical to Beatles); and the bar downstairs had Happy Hour pretty much every night. Unfortunately, a lot of my time in the hostel was spent on the wifi downstairs, trying to find somewhere to live so that I didn't end up on the streets while working at my ensuing internship on Monday.

We did, though get to walk around a little bit and see the sights and sounds of Berlin. Our hostel was located in a very central location near Alexanderplatz and within walking distance of the Bundestag, Brandenburg Tor, and all the other touristy destinations. One day we set out to see them and I was truly amazed of the beauty the buildings exuded. I was stupid and forgot to bring my camera, but I'll put up some pictures later. The downtown "political" area of Berlin really reminded me of being in Washington DC in the states. You could tell that a lot of very official business was done in this neighborhood. Again, pictures explain this area best so when I get those pictures put up, I'll tell you more.

Then, I was able to have a meeting with some students whose room I was looking at renting. This was the first time I really was able to feel a huge difference in cultures. I tried to talk to them and make jokes like an American, but nothing I said seemed to catch their interest. They really didn't like me... Then, it got even more awkward as they let in other people who were looking in to renting the room at the same time as me. This was the first time I really felt like a foreigner. Needless to say, I didn't get that apartment and had to continue my search.

Eventually, I was able to find a nice little room that a German lady was renting out in Friedenau (southwest Berlin). The area was pure suburbia, a bunch of nice apartments lined up along the road with school children walking around on the streets. The area was very nice, but there was not much to do around there for a college student so I agreed to rent the place till the end of the month and then try my luck again in finding some housing with students...

Karlsruhe, a University town

2008-01-10T22:48:00.000+01:00

Next we traveled to Karlsruhe to see the city in which we will be attending University in April and to apply for our work Visa and register as a student. Karlsruhe is a hustling and bustling college town that has a pretty impressive downtown area with a big castle (der Schloss) in the middle and an INCREDIBLE strassenbahn system. The street trains run up and down the streets pretty much all the time, transporting people anywhere you want to go in the city. We stayed here for three nights in a pension (type of hotel) rented out by a nice old lady who didn't speak any English. It was kind of fun to practice our German skills with her. All eleven of the GEARE students came here so we were finally able to meet up with all of the other Purdue students in Germany. The time spent in Karlsruhe was very exciting and we got to see all kinds of crazy things and meet very nice people while we were there.

On the first day, we walked around the streets. One of the most interesting things we saw was the crazy art on the streets of Karlsruhe. This picture shows a statue that is off one of the main roads. We decided that it was a depiction of a bunch of ghouly looking people shooting out of some "water" like a fountain and falling back down into it. It almost looks like souls coming out of the River Styx. If you look in my photo album, I have some other pictures that you can see of it so that you can decide for yourself what it really is...

On the third day (Wednesday), we were walked around the city to take care of all of our registration stuff and putting together all of the information we needed to apply (and hopefully obtain) our work Visas. The "tour guide" was a Karlsruhe student named Angela. She was very helpful in putting up with all of our stupid questions about the German registration papers. We walked all over Karlsruhe, checking off the various tasks that were required for our visa papers that we were supposed to be getting the next day. Although stresful at times, it was really interesting to see the crazy process foreigners have to go through to get in to another country (and this was nothing compared to getting in to the U.S.)

The next day we went to the Rathaus to the appointments we had scheduled to get our Visas. I was actually a little nervous when I went in and spoke to the official, not sure whether she would accept all my papers and give me the Visa that I desperately needed to start my job next week. When I went in, I spoke all German and gave her all the papers she needed. It turned out OK and she accepted everything and gave me my 180 day Visa stamp in my passport.

On one of the other days we were walking around Karlsruhe we happened to stumble across the two other GEARE graduate students who had been studying at the university. They offered to bring us to their apartment and give us some Belgian beer (which is perhaps the most amazing drink I have ever imagined). It turned out, the room which they were staying was the same place that we were going to be living when we went to Karlsruhe (the International Department) so we got to have a sneak peak at what was to come....

phones and marriage

2008-01-07T18:11:00.000+01:00

Yesterday, we made our very first endeavors into the German shopping experience. We retraced our steps from last night and went back to the shopping district in the north to look for cell phones. This turned out to be a very interesting experience. Our little group of four Americans would walk into a store, look around for prepaid phones, and then huddle in a circle and talk amongst ourselves, all with no one from the store saying one word to "encourage us to purchase their services." We walked from store to store, visiting 5 or 6 in all, never once speaking to the store associates. This itself was a big culture shock not having service reps all over you to buy their product. Finally, we went back to some stores and asked some questions in German and figured out the place with the best plan, Tchibo. Then we were able to purchase the phone and figure out how to activate it, all in German (with a few stupid mistakes). After that, we decided we needed to get out and do something so that we could go back to sleep that night. So we decided to try to find "die Kneipe" (the bars). One of the kids we had been with the other day told us they were southeast of our hostel so we set out to find them. We walked a good mile and a half before we found the little square of bars, but when we got there we realized that they were less than a block away from our hostel... We stayed out for a little while and I ended up talking for a long time with this German girl who came in with a veil on her head and a box full of chocolates and other little items. It turned out that she was selling them to "raise money" for the party that would follow her wedding that week. The whole thing was actually a sort of bachelorrette party for the girl to go from bar to bar with all of her girl friends as a last harrah before she tied the knot. I talked to her other friend about more German marriage traditions like the friends of the people getting married coming to their house to smash all of their dishes on the walls outside. It doesn't sound like a very good idea to me but hey, they're German...

I'm in Germany!

2008-01-05T22:43:00.000+01:00

Yesterday, I arrived in Germany and already I've had lots of random adventures...

The first occurred on the plane when I just happened to be sitting in the same row as a girl who had gone to not only my high school, but also my elementary school for my entire life. In fact, she lived just down the road from me back in my subdivision. It's crazy how small of a world it can be that sitting in an Air India flight to Europe I run into (and even sit next to) someone who lives right down the street from me. It turned out that my friend and the girl sitting next to her were both heading to Europe to study abroad, one in Paris and one in Spain. We had a good time reflecting on days of past the whole plane ride and agreed that we'd visit each other during our stays in Europe. Surprisingly, Air India had remarkably good food and service for the amazingly affordable prices that they provided (only $504 round trip to Frankfurt so if you want to visit me, you know what to fly).

The Row 70 ABC Crew --->

I landed in Frankfurt am Main along with four other students from Purdue in my same study abroad program. We took a train to the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof and got our first glimpse of the incredible German train system (Die Bahn). The Frankfurt station was a HUGE building with trains that led to almost anywhere in Europe all at incredibly fast speeds (more than 200 mph). The station was a bundle of activity with travelers everywhere moving from train to train or settling down in a coffee shop while waiting for one to arrive. At the train station we were able to purchase a BahnCard 50 so that we could get half price train tickets anywhere in Germany. This was a very good deal for students such as us who would be doing a lot of traveling within Germany and I would recommend it for anyone staying in Germany for an extended period of time.

Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof (Main Train Station)

Very quickly we found a hostel to stay in and got settled down. All of us were badly jet lagged after the flight and desperately wanted to sleep, but we knew that it was only 11 in the morning German time and we needed to stay up. So we decided to walk around Frankfurt and take in the sights and sounds of Germany. Frankfurt is a beautiful city with lots 0f tall skyscrapers and a river (Main) running directly down its center transporting barges with goods to ship around the world. It also had a beautiful skyline that reminded me of a smaller version of Chicago. Although the weather was not so nice, we still had an amazing time walking around the city reading all of the German signs and noticing the subtle (but constantly apparent) differences between life in Europe and life in the States. One of the major differences was the mix between new and old buildings throughout the city.

This large cathedral is called Saint Bartholomeus' Cathedral and it stands looking over the river Main and on towards the highly modernized downtown area. If you look closely at the picture on the right, you see that the buildings in front of the skyscrapers are very old houses from the 15th and 16th centuries. This is the altstadt (old city) district nestled right up against skyscrapers built within the last ten years. All of these buildings are still functional as homes, businesses, and museums. This is the type of layout that you would never see in American cities.

Later that night we met some kids who had been foreign exchange students in Germany for the last few months and were now going back to the U.S. They walked us around the city and gave us some info on the culture and the language that they had experienced. We walked around the streets drinking a few beers (which is apparently legal in Germany) and let them reflect on their good times while we could dream of good times to come....