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.