15 days

Well, with the time of this post being very early on the 22nd of March, my journey begin in 15 days.

15 days?

Uhh....yea.

These fifteen days will consist of my last week of work at Zucrow Labs with Dr. Son's research group and a whole host of preparation for my study abroad experience.

I haven't exactly been doing as well as I probably should preparing, particularly when it comes to the German language.  My knowledge of German is lacking to say the list.  This limited knowledge stems from GER 101 last fall and some Rosetta Stone lessons.  My goal is to finish Level 1 of Rosetta Stone and make a dent into Level 2.  We'll see how on top of that I'll be.

Another large chunk of these last 15 days will consist of attempting to hang out with family and friends about as much as I can.  I'll surely miss both while on my trip, but thanks to inventions such as Facebook and Skype, I should be able to speak with them much more than I would in earlier times.

My current feelings on this trip are a combination of excitement, nervousness, more excitement, and a little fear.  The excitement stems from how great of an opportunity this is.  It should be a life-changing experience to see and be in a culture in a way that most people can't.  The nervousness/fear, of course, stems from the fact that I will be completely out of my element in a foreign country with little knowledge of the local language and way of doing things.  There will surely be periods of sheer happiness and awe, as well as worry and homesickness.

And I really can't wait.


Auf Wiedersehen!

Willkommen!

Hello there.

Welcome to my new blog. This place will be a bit quiet until I actually leave for my trip, but I will try to post some tidbits here and there as I prepare for my voyage.

For those of you that don't really know the specifics of my trip or don't know me and randomly stumbled upon this blog, I'll provide some information.

My name is Andrew. I am currently a junior at Purdue University, studying mechanical engineering. I am in the Global Engineering Alliance for Research and Education (GEARE) program. As part of this program, I will be studying in an exchange program at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (formerly the University of Karlsruhe) in Karlsruhe, Germany.

About Karlsruhe

Karlsruhe is a nice sized city of about 300,000 people located in the Baden-Württemberg state in southwest Germany. It's located near the French-German border and, more specifically, where France makes a corner into Germany. Karlsruhe is known as the "fan city" due to its unique fan-like layout with several roads jutting outward from the city center at the palace. Pierre Charles L'Enfant is said to have used Karlsruhe as a model city when he planned Washington, D.C.

I will update with more facts about Karlsruhe-preferably facts which are a bit more interesting-in the future. Until then, auf Wiedersehen!

 

Karlsruhe Palace at night (from Wikipedia)