MKL Workshop I and Permit Problems

Hallo, my faithful readers.

I apologize for the week-long hiatus from my blog.  I was busy last week with MKL (my design project) and as well as having no idea as to what to write about.  I am back now, though.

First order of business, my first poll for this site asked how many objects I would realize that I had forgotten when I arrived in Germany.  I believe the most chosen answer was three, if I remember correctly.  It's been about three weeks since I moved here, and off the top of my head, I have realized that I forgot my calculator, extra folders, and my micro-sized umbrella.  There have been other things that I didn't bring but didn't realize I would need; therefore, they don't really count as being "forgotten". This includes such things as triangles, a ruler, a protractor, etc.  Considering we never do much sketching or technical drawing at Purdue, I didn't even think about bringing my old drafting supplies from high school.

On the subject of things that KIT does differently than Purdue, I have still yet to receive my student ID.  I'm currently still using a temporary ID.  The fact that it takes three weeks to receive an ID by mail is a bit ridiculous to me seeing as how I got my Purdue ID about two hours after having my picture taken for it.

More so on the subject of my studies, KIT's mechanical engineering, or Maschinenbau in German, curriculum is quite different than Purdue's.  Sure, both schools learn about thermodynamics, mechanics, heat transfer, design, etc., but KIT starts design in the first semester of the program.  Their design classes also focus a bit more on things like what bearings or gears to use, how to arrange said bearings to direct force and energy flow through stronger portions of the design, and so on and so forth.

This brings me to my first workshop for Mechanical Design IV.  We GEARE students jump right into the last semester of mechanical design for KIT students despite not ever having a real design class at Purdue.  The workshop is basically a project meeting that you have once a month.  Each workshop has certain deliverables about the project that are required for that specific workshop.  Each team is assigned a tutor that goes through what work you've done so far and asks questions about your project.  They can also ask anything  they want about material that has been covered in any of the lectures of this semester or the previous three.  Considering the GEARE basically know nothing from previous classes, my group's tutor didn't ask Steve or me anything concept wise.  This led to Steve and I receiving slightly lower scores for the "knowledge" section of the report.  We still did fairly well, though.  However, I am a bit disappointed that one team member who shall remain unnamed (not a Purdue student) that didn't do anything of note for the project received a higher score than I.  This is despite me (with some help from other groups members) developing both transmission concepts as well as our shifting mechanism.  Grrrr....

Anywho, other than spending hours upon hours sketching and discussing my project with my group, I haven't been up to too much since the last update.  We didn't travel anywhere this past weekend since half of us had our workshop on Monday.  I've played soccer behind the palace a few times since I've been here, including one time with a group of German guys.  It's fun, even though I'm nowhere near the physical fitness I was in during high school soccer.

This morning I made my way to the visa office in the western part of Karlsruhe.  Adam and I were given appointments to meet with someone and receive our residency permits.  I walked into Adam's kitchen to find him cooking at 10:15.  He had forgotten that our appointment was at 10:30.  After scurrying to find the needed papers, he hurried to catch a tram to the office.  We were a little late and hurried to what we thought was the information desk.  A woman there spoke some English and directed us to Room 018.  I don't think she realized that we had scheduled appointments because upon arrival at Room 018, Adam and I were greeted with a "Please do not enter" sign that encouraged us to take a number.  We did so and stood around for five minutes. 

Being anxious that we had no idea what we were doing, I went back to the information desk to fruitlessly explain our situation only for the woman there to have no idea what I meant.  More mindless standing around occurred before I went and sat outside what we thought was the office of our contact.  We eventually met with her and received our visas, but it's times like these that I remember it was stupid of me to not learn more German before coming here.

I'm off to play Fussball.  Until next time, Alles Gute.

Life... is full of disappointments

Dan in Real Life

As I mentioned in my previous update, a group of us Purdue students traveled (I still feel like that should have two L's) to Stuttgart today.  We went in two groups with my group (Steve, Zach, Wei, and I) leaving about an hour after the other group.  We took the Laender ticket for Baden-Wurttemburg while they bought IC tickets.

I feel like I should explain the difference between our methods of travel.  My group's "Laender-ticket" is essentially a group ticket that lasts for one day.  Deutsche Bahn offers this lovely deal (as well as a weekend long, "Schoenes-Wochenende", ticket) for up to five passengers.  The ticket allows all five of you to travel anywhere within the German state for which you bought the ticket for, in the Laender-Ticket case, 28 euros which is split up to five ways.  The ticket covers all regional and local trains and buses.

Well, all the regional trains that aren't IC (Inter-City), ICE (Inter-City Express), or EC (Euro-City).  These trains are typically faster and make fewer stops.  Hence, they are more expensive.  I say they are typically faster because my group's lowly Inter-Regio Express train took the same amount of time as the other group's IC train.  Correction:  it took a whole minute more for less than half the price.

Anywho, upon arrival in Stuttgart, we did the typical lost tourist routine and desperately searched for a map.  We finally found our El Dorado and figured out what buses to take to the Mercedes-Benz Museum.  We, of course, didn't realize that there is a train that runs directly between the Hauptbahnhof and the area of the museum.  Oh well.  If we had taken the train, we wouldn't have seen this:

  Bier Bike -- a multi-pedal vehicle on which people drink large amounts of beer

  We walked to the museum and past the soccer stadium, Mercedes-Benz Arena.  The ticket booths were still closed, so we went ahead to the museum.  It was only four euros for admission to the giant six-story museum.  Being an engineer and a history nut, I really enjoyed the museum, though it was a little long.  The free audio tour (in English!) was very helpful at times.  Disappointment number one of the day was the closure/remodeling of the super cars area of the museum.

After leaving the museum and getting a little grub at the restaurant there, we walked back to the arena with about 30 minutes to go until kickoff.  We walked up to the nearest ticket booth to find out that the game was a sellout.  With there being four of us, it would have been impossible to find scalped tickets all together or even in groups of two on the cheap.  We talked to a couple of guys selling tickets, but they didn't have enough.  I suggested we stand in front of the arena until after kickoff to see if there would be anyone really wanting to get rid of tickets.  This fruitless endeavor was disappointment number two as we longingly stared at the stadium like puppies in the animal shelter.

The day was not lost, however, as we decided to forgo the Porsche Museum and go to the Fruehlingsfest (spring festival).   We spent a good amount of the time ogling at the impressive rides which we deemed too advanced/dangerous for the typical carnival worker to correctly, and safely, put together.  Eventually, all of us summoned up the courage to ride one of the roller coasters.

When I say roller coaster, I don't mean the small Matterhorn "roller coaster" you typically see at county fairs.  I mean a real coaster with trains, a chain-lift, and, why not, a loop.  No wait, make that two loops.  And it pulls 4 G's.  It was enough to make me question my decision to ride as we reached the summit.  This uneasiness was probably increased due to my lack of trust in the ride builders/operators.  Luckily, all of us survived the coaster.  We then grabbed some pizza and made our way back to the Hauptbahnhof. 

What we neglected to remember was that the soccer game had just ended.  Inconveniently, our train to the Hbf also picked up at the stadium.  After watching three trains filled to the brim go by, we tried our luck at the fourth.  The hot, packed train made for an uncomfortable ride that was prolonged by frequent stops due to traffic.  Eventually, the train station was in site, and we eventually hopped on our train back to Karlsruhe.

Having been back in Karlsruhe for a few hours, Zach, David, Steve, Adam, and I decide to go to Hooters at 11.  We had seen a poster that said "American Dream:  free admission and wings with American ID".  We were a bit stumped by the "admission" part, but hey, other things are different in Germany.  Why not Hooters?  We awkwardly walked into Hooters, sat at one table, realized that we would never be seen there, and sat at another table.  This was when our waitress informed us that "American Dream" is a discothek that Hooters was going to deliver wings to later in the night, thus completing the list of disappointments.  Don't get me wrong.  It was a good day overall, and the wings were still really good.  But things didn't go quite as well as planned, and wings never taste as good when you have to pay for them.  C'est la vie.

I should be getting to bed.  We begin really working on the project tomorrow at 11.  Gute Nacht und Alles Gute.

MKL

We (being the GEARE students) were given our design project (MKL) for the semester.  I am in a group with one Purdue student, Steve, as well as a German student, a Chinese SJTU student, and a couple of other ID students.

The basic idea of our project is to design the entire "back half" of a racing scooter.  Apparently in Mechanical Design III here, the students designed the front half.  Seeing as how we are just starting in Mechanical Design IV, it will be interesting to see how much exactly we know about the project.

The back half of the scooter includes a one-cylinder internal combustion engine (like in some motorcycles, go-karts, and, well, scooters), the clutch, the transmission, and the traction drive to the rear wheel.  Since Purdue doesn't exactly cover all of these components in class (several clubs do) and I didn't really work on cars when I was younger, I know exactly jack squat about what we're going to do.  Needless to say, I'll be spending a lot of time researching.

In other news, the majority of the group of Purdue students is heading to Stuttgart Saturday.  We plan on going to the Mercedes-Benz and Porsche museums as well as the spring festival which happens to be going on in Stuttgart for the next few weeks.  I,  personally, plan on attempting to go to the VfB Stuttgart soccer match against Bayer Leverkusen.  One would be surprised by the amount of Germans and other people who seemingly can't believe that I like soccer as an American.

That is all for now.  Until next time, Alles Gute.

Heidelberg and the Beginning of the Semester

If you've looked at my photo album (^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^), you've noticed that I went to Heidelberg this past Saturday.  Heidelberg is a beautiful city with a few landmarks, namely the Schloss, the Alte Bruecke, and the Philosophenweg. 

The Schloss, or castle in English, was very neat, though the walk up there wasn't.  Upon arriving at the Heidelberg Hauptbahnhof (main train station), we decided to walk the 1.5-2 mile trip to the castle.  No big deal.  Dev brought his GPS from back home that had European maps on it.  "Score.  This should be easy."

Well, it was easy until we decided to go against the GPS for what we may have thought was a "shortcut".  Our path instead lead us to a shortness of breathe as we essentially hike a half mile uphill out of the way.  Being used to Indiana, we apparently thought that the hill we were on would lead us to the castle.  I mean, a city with numerous hills?  Preposterous!

After realizing that we turned off the correct route at the most inopportune time, we headed back and continued on the right path to the castle.  Much of the castle was in ruin, but the view that it provided over the city was spectacular.  See below.

Heidelberg

After spending a decent amount of time walking around the outside of the castle, our group split ways as some people wanted to go inside, others wanted to take pictures, etc.  Zach, Wei, Steve, and I went down from the Schloss to the Kornplatz and the city center.  We ate a doner and went to the Alte Bruecke (Old Bridge).

Statue in the Kornplatz

We waited on the bridge for a while for the other group, but they apparently went to the slowest restaurant in the Neckar Valley as it took an hour for them to get their food.  We used the time to rest and snap a few pictures (see album).  I am almost certain that a group of college-aged girls took a picture of our group on the bridge as the camera was pointed completely in our direction with nothing of interest (maybe a hill) behind us.  Even if they didn't, it won't stop me from telling people they did.

After waiting for what seemed longer than it probably took to build the bridge, we decided to go ahead to the Philosophenweg.  The "Philosopher's Walk" is a path high up on a hill overlooking the city.  The leg-straining climb to the path was worth it as the views were great.  We finished the path and decided to catch a train back to Karlsruhe.

Today was my first day of class.  It consisted of about 4.5 hours straight of class, though one of those classes is a class that I probably won't take.  My thermo professor seems like a good guy.  We'll see, though.  I may pick up another class, but we shall see.  I don't need to as I only have 14 and 12 credit hours for my last two semesters, but it may not be a bad idea.  Maybe I could take bowling or something.

Until next time, Alles Gutes.

Do you have German citizenship?

Hallo.

Since my last update, I've walked around a bit more and gotten more stuff done.  "Getting stuff done" means filling out and signing forms that are completely in German about which I have little knowledge.  Suffice to say, if I don't return in August, I could be in the German army.

While at city hall registering for the city, I was asked to sign a couple of forms.  No big deal.  Suddenly, Vida, a girl from the international office at KIT who was helping us, chuckled a little and asked if I had German citizenship.  I, of course, responded, "No, why?"  She then points to the form that I had just signed, and it reads "deutsche" under citizenship.  It was a quick fix to "amerik".  Though, I wouldn't mind having dual-citizenship, if only in the city of Karlsruhe.

Tomorrow, all of us Purdue students are heading to Heidelberg.  Heidelberg is a city that's fairly close to Karlsruhe, about a 40 minute train ride.  It's an old city with old architecture, bridges, and, like most places around here, a castle.  I'm just hoping we figure out the trains.

If you haven't noticed by now, I've taken a few pictures and have uploaded them to Picasa.  You should be able to see eight thumbnails at the top of the blog.  Feel free to check out the rest of the gallery.

Until next time, Alles Gute!

Retroactive flight play-by-play

Here is a series of thoughts that I had over the course of my first flight-- a direct flight from Chicago to Frankfurt.  All times are approximate.  Excuse any typos to my lack of sleep in the last 36 hours.

3:20 p.m. -- "We are now boarding all remaining rows."  Alright, here we go.

3:25 p.m. -- Hmmm...the stewardesses are wearing traditional garb.  I know Air India is going for that exotic look, but this may be a bit much.

3:27 p.m. -- Alright!  Tv's in the headrests of every seat.  Fo sho.  Why do I have a feeling that "Everybody Loves Raymond" is on the list of programs to watch?

3:30 p.m. -- I knew it!  But why would they only have one episode?

3:45 p.m. -- *cautiously play on my phone for a few minutes*  Please no one else get in my row.

3:50 p.m. -- Awesome.  The whole row to me.

4:00 p.m. -- Did they have a freshman computer graphics major do this safety video?  These "3D" animations are awful.

4:05 p.m. -- We've been going down this runway for a while.  Is the pilot going to pull up?

4:30 p.m. -- Hmmmm...Sherlock Holmes.  Why yes, I will watch.

5:00 p.m. -- *first bit of turbulence*  We're all going to die!!!!!!!!!

5:05 p.m. -- Phew, thank God, that's over.

5:10 p.m. -- *more turbulence* WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!

6:30 p.m. -- Mmmmm..... dinner time.

6:45 p.m. -- Is this sour cream?  It looks like sour cream, but that's a lot of sour cream if so.  And, what do we have that you'd put sour cream on?  Ok, look around to make sure that no one is watching.  Eat a little with your spoon.  Ewww...definitely not sour cream.

7:30 p.m. -- Time to watch Young Frankenstein.

8:00 p.m. -- Marty Feldman's "Igor" may be one of my favorite characters of all-time.

10:00 p.m. -- *movie over, begin to play with virtual flight maps*  Hmm...749 mph.  Are we really about to break the sound barrier in a 777?

10:04 p.m. -- Whose idea was it to include the locations of significant shipwrecks on the flight map?  My apologies to those affected by the sinking of the Titantic, but I don't really like to be reminded of transportation failures while I'm 36,000 feet above the Atlantic.

10:40 p.m. -- We'll see if I can sleep.

10:45 p.m. -- Pro of having row to yourself - You can actually lie down to sleep.  Con - my head being closer to the engine only makes me more likely to hear any possible sounds of mechanical failure.

11:30 p.m. -- Well, that didn't really work.

11:45 p.m. -- Fine, I'll cave. *starts Everybody Loves Raymond*

12:10 a.m. -- Hmmm...about an hour left.  Music?

12:12 a.m. -- They have a "Bratz" album.  Really?

12:13 a.m. -- Rubber Soul, it is.

12:30 a.m. -- Time for some Buddy Holly.

12:40 a.m. -- *more turbulence as the plane starts to move downward*  Wait, didn't Buddy Holly die in a plane crash?  *changes to Johnny Cash*

1:00 a.m. -- *seat belt sign comes on*  Maybe I'll move to the window seat.

1:02 a.m. -- Being an engineer, I know that safe structures bend and twist, but that wing is worrying me.  Maybe I shouldn't have moved.

1:30 a.m. -- I hope this pilot went to class on "How to Land" Day.


As you can probably tell by this post, the pilot did go to class that day, or at least borrowed someone's notes.

I'm currently in my room in Karlsruhe.  The flight to Frankfurt and train trip to Karlsruhe were both relatively painless.  It was my first time on either a plane or a train, and neither were too bad.

I haven't taken any pictures yet, but after my meeting with Lorrin, an administrator in the International Department (ID) where I live, I may walk about and snap a few shots.

Until then, Alles Gute.

In Karlsruhe

I've arrived in Karlsruhe and am in my room.  The flight and train were relatively painless.

Sorry for the quick update.  Retroactive flight play-by-play coming soon.