Monday, March 23rd 2015
The morning after getting back from Amsterdam I got up bright and early to head to Geel. Jan picked me up from outside my house. We had an awesome conversation in the car ride about the program design and how to teach user centered design. When we got to the meeting, we had a full table! It was four department heads from the Thomas Moore engineering program along with Jan, Inge and me. We had a great conversation about how to create the Social Ingenius program. You can read more about it on my education blog. Afterwards, Inge and I met about my proposal. Afterwards, I didn’t feel like I had learned enough, so I made my way to the engineering department and stopped some students to talk to them about their experience and thoughts on the new program. I actually learned a lot from them and can’t wait to discuss it at our workshop next Tuesday. I caught the train back to Leuven and literally ran to my 2pm class. One of the interesting things about taking classes in Europe is the subject context. Today we talked about the debt crisis in Grecce, which is so relevant here. That night Tessa invited me over for dinner. She made me one of her mom’s pasta dishes. After dinner, we went to Pavlov (Psychology Fakbar) to see an Open Mic night. The performances were actually really good! There are a lot of girls with beautiful voices. A group of exchange students sung renditions of Disney songs, and they were amazing! I was thoroughly entertained. Then Tessa’s friend played a song on his guitar and sung. He was amazing! Tessa says he sings in Antwerp, so I hope that we will go see him! |
Tuesday, March 24th 2015
Most of the morning I spent doing homework and preparing for a Robotics meeting. Koen and I are really making progress on our project. After the discussion, the professor said he gave us three pluses! Sounds like we are going to have no problem with this course. I then had computer vision, followed by pre-frisbee dinner with Rik. Frisbee was cold and rainy… not my favorite, but I pushed through and then came home for my hot shower.
Wednesday, March 25th 2015
After class today, my goal was to get as much work done as possible! I’ve posted blogs, worked on my decision making group project and did a lot of research on my placement. I then went to PT and she did some electrical thing to my leg that made the muscles relax and feel so much better! I made a delicious dinner of salmon with salad and roasted potatoes and onions. I love having the ability to cook my own food. It takes up a lot of effort, but when it goes well is very rewarding.
I pulled myself out of my kot to go out. I went to Rik’s kot and met all of the people that lived in his building along with their friends. It was great to have a whole group together. We started playing some card games. While playing King’s cup, Rik made a rule that everyone could only talk in English! So I got to hang out with the Belgians and understand everything that was going on. It was awesome. The girls were super nice. I really enjoyed talking to all of them and getting to know them. We then went to Oude Markt to dance. After a stop in Da Girafe, we went to Maximo’s where they had jenever shots. They were fantastic! We tried a vanilla one and a chocolate one. OMG so good. There is such interesting liquors here that we don’t have access to or see commonly in America. What a shame because they are so tasty and unique. The bar also had a huge dance floor with a very good DJ and the group that I was with loved dancing! Everyone was dancing and having a great time, especially the girls. I truly felt encouraged to kick back and just dance. Later, we went to a few more dance bars. I heard a whole range of music, from current pop, to the pokemon theme song (which everyone seemed to know the lyrics to), to salsa, to Belgian songs. Didn’t matter the music, the dancing never stopped! By the time I was walking back to my kot the sun had started to rise a bit! Pretty sure it was 6AM before I went to bed, but worth it for a very fun night (even though I had to drag myself out!)
Thursday, March 26th 2015
Today was work day at Pangaea. I wrote some essays for my courses, did some graduate school research and best of all… FINISHED PLANNING MY SPRING BREAK! Yes, it is official, every major piece of transportation and lodging is booked and done. Marie, my friend from the very beginning of my study abroad came over for dinner. We cooked together and had a really nice time catching up. I truly feel like I have made friends now, especially after seeing Suket in Pangaea. There are so many people that I can reach out to to spend time with… now I just need the time!
Friday, March 27th 2015
The majority of the day was spent in CSE class. We had some very interesting speakers and I had some time to talk to Inge about my placement. As soon as class let out, I rode directly to the train station to catch the train to Aachen. When at Microsoft this past summer, Cody (a friend that I met there who worked in the same building as me) and I figured out that we wouldn’t be living too far from each other this semester (since he was coming to Aachen to do his masters). So, I had to visit him and see his town. I arrived in time for dinner, which we cooked before I got the night tour of Aachen. Aachen is a small city in Germany near the border of Belgium and the Netherlands. Charlemagne has a lot of history in the city. There are a lot of ancient ruins that haven’t been destroyed, which is very unique for Germany. We walked through the city to see all of the pretty buildings, the lively streets and cool monuments. Before it got too late, we headed back to his place to get a good night’s sleep.
Saturday, March 28th 2015
After a stop in a Turkish bakery (they are actually the largest minority in Germany) we climbed onto the train to go to Köln (Cologne). We met up with a bunch of Cody’s friends from his time in Aachen and traveling who showed us around Köln. We visited a gothic church which had a beautiful outside. It was incredibly large and very breathtaking. The inside was pretty, but didn’t compare to the massive exterior. We then walked across a bridge to see the Rhine River, which goes through the city. On the other side there were some nice statues and beautiful views of the city. For lunch I got a German classic: potato pancakes with salmon (lox) on it. They were pretty good, but I think we do it better at home with sourcream and apple sauce. After lunch, we visited a few squares, saw the Rathuis and went into a mustard museum. After saying goodbye to the girls we went to a Chocolate Museum.
In the chocolate museum they had an amazing greenhouse that mimicked a tropical climate well enough to grow Vanilla, chocolate and other exotic plants. After the educational part of the museum (where we learned about the origins of chocolate and a lot about fair trade practices and the unfortunate situation of many chocolate farmers), we went to a part of the museum that showed how factories make chocolate. The machines were actually making chocolate in front of us. It was very interesting to see the industrial methods of what I’ve been learning (both by being here and from materials science). They had a very large chocolate fountain which we could taste some of the chocolate from. We then went upstairs to explore the last part of the museum. They had many old chocolate vending machines, which were very cool to see.
By the time we got out of the museum, the very rainy day started to clear up. We took advantage and climbed to the roof of the chocolate museum to take some pictures looking over the river. We finished our day in Köln by walking up and down the shopping streets. The boys of course made us go into the Lego store. After taking the train back to Aachen, we got dinner at the Aachener Brauhuis. I tried the local Aachen beer and a very traditionally Aachen dish of beef in a sweet and sour sauce with potatoes made into dumplings with red cabbage. It had a similar flavor as to many of the things we tried in Berlin. Finally, we finished our day with a very unique experience… a night market! There was actually a line to get in, even at 10:30PM when we showed up. There were a lot of different stalls with very interesting things. I bought a few studs so I would have some different earrings to put into my ears. Cody found a traditional German dress, which I was super excited about and had to try on even though he was keeping it for his girlfriend. Overall, it was a fun experience and very interesting to see such a daytime activity on a Saturday night.
Sunday, March 29th 2015
After losing an hour to daylight savings time, we got up for an international brunch. We had the normal German breakfast and chatting with a lot of very interesting people who were also doing a semester abroad in Germany. From there we went to the Aachen Dom. I have never been more taken aback when walking into a Church. The ceilings and walls were covered with immaculate tile mosaics. The dome part had amazing paintings on top. The front had beautiful stained glass windows from floor to ceiling. Overall I was just amazed by the beauty. Definitely worth seeing. They had baskets of palms because it was Palm Sunday. From here, we caught a bus to the town of Vaals. This is where the country borders get confusing. Vaals is in the Netherlands, but so close to the border that we actually got off of the bus in Germany. We then walked up a large hill, past some immaculate views of the town. It had been raining pretty consistently for most of the day, so even at this point I was pretty wet. But nonetheless, we kept climbing until we reached the top, where we found the three border crossing.
I did a push-up while in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany… all at once. My right arm was in Belgium, my left arm was in Germany and my feet were in the Netherlands. I call that a very successful day. Soaked through, we made our way down the hill to catch the bus back. I enjoyed an original Budweiser while waiting for the bus. Yes, Budweiser is actually a Czech company that I guess the Americans ripped off. Either way, their version is much better, even from the half liter bottle that we each drank at the bus stop. It seems like in this part of the country you can’t even wait 20 minutes for a bus without a beer in hand. Even though we were cold and wet, I had to try an amazing gelato place that Cody had been raving about all weekend. I warmed up in the store before enjoying some very incredible gelato. The store is owned by Italians, no wonder why it is good! We went back to his flat to put on dry clothes before heading to the train to send me home. I ended up meeting a man who is in the Belgian Army on the platform with who I had a very interesting train ride talking to.
When I finally got home and warmed, I joined some of the girls in the house watching the Belgian version of So You Think You Can Dance while eating dinner. The show had a very similar format to the American version, although the dancers weren’t nearly as good. They had the same theme song and a very weird mix of Dutch and English. While in Aachen, I bought two big pieces of Printen, which is Aachen’s traditional and very popular and famous sweet. I decided to share them with the members of my building as a thank you for being so welcoming to me since I’ve been here. Over the next few days, I shared it with many of the members of my building. I even had four people in my kot hanging out and chatting while trying the Printen. I was glad to be able to give back a bit to them.
Monday, March 30th 2015
I had a very busy and productive morning. Less than a half hour after getting out of bed, I was in the laundromat putting my laundry in the washer. I then ran a bunch of errands before making my way to class to work on our group project. I had a Robotics meeting before coming home, doing more work and eating dinner. Tonight, I played Monopoly European Edition with a few kot-mates. The spaces were all European capitals and the entire game was in Dutch. No matter the language or version, Monopoly is still the never-ending stretched out game that it is in America. To even my surprise, I ended up doing pretty well.
Tuesday, March 31st 2015
Today was a great day for my placement. I spent the morning running a UCD workshop for Jan and Inge. I thought the experience was great and there was so much learning for everyone involved. I think not only did they learn about the design process and their course but a lot about the students taking their course. I really look forward to running the second one next month. You can read more about it in my education blog. The rest of the day was spent working, on planning my travels and my computer vision project and assignment. At night I watched the Belgian vs. Israel football game (ok soccer) with many of the members of my kot. It was great fun to watch with them, although Belgians in general don’t react as excitedly as Americans (or at least my family) does to goals and scoring. I rocked my Belgian hat that I got in Maastrict back during carnival. In football fashion, the score was 1-0… in favor of Belgium! There was a little cheering at the end as Belgium won their match.
Wednesday, April 1st 2015
Today was all about preparing for my 21 day backpacking trip. I went to class in the morning. There rest of the day was spent packing, cleaning my room and getting work done. Around 6:30 I headed to the train station. Let the adventures begin! See you all in 3 weeks!