The First Weekend

And so we come to the weekend.  It was actually quite boring, at least for the first half.  I took advantage of this first real breather to spend a solid chunk of time blogging and continuing the fight against jet lag by taking a 3-hour midafternoon nap.  I had bought some frozen pizza on that first day but hadn't had a chance to eat it yet, and we only have a microfridge in our room, so I crossed my fingers that the pizza hadn't gone bad from the two days in a fridge (I think Germans put far fewer preservatives in their food than we tend to) and had it for breakfast AND supper, since there were two pizzas in the box.  My first real activity of the day was meeting my double, Dani, and her boyfriend at 8pm to go to something called a "public viewing" of one of the Eurocup games.  (In case you don't know, Germans are OBSESSED about soccer.  And they're pretty good at it, so they have a reason to be.  I personally find it one of the more enjoyable spectator sports, and I definitely want to get to know my German friends better, so if bonding happens over watching soccer, so be it :])  They arrived punctually at 8pm and I met them outside.  Of the "fan gear" they had given me, I had chosen one pin and the wristband to wear, fearing that I would appear over-the-top in anything else.  Clearly I had vastly underestimated German soccer fans.  Both Dani and her boyfriend sported Germany jerseys and had German flags painted on their cheeks.  Since the flag is a simple black, red, and gold stripe, it is possible to buy a face makeup crayon which is one third black, one third red, and one third gold and paint German flags on any desired part of the body (in addition to a simple flag on each cheek, on other fans I saw many patterns - crosses, hearts, etc. - attempted with varying degrees of success).  They remarked on my lack of spiritedness and I promised to do better next time.  I could have run back up and gotten more accessories, in hindsight, as it was a full 20 minutes before my other double showed up with some of her friends.  She practically stumbled out of the car, brandishing a (rather large) empty bottle of what looked like some kind of hard liquor.  I overheard one friend ask rather apprehensively, "Wait, you drank all of that?" to which she nodded an enthusiastic yes.  Whatever it was, it couldn't have been terribly strong because she could still walk and talk just fine, she only seemed a little more enthusiastic than I thought was warranted.  We quickly made our way to the nearby square where the public viewing was held, which was already packed with spectators 15 minutes before the game.  I was introduced to all of my doubles' friends, of which there was now quite a crowd, and a couple of them tried to speak English to me although most, after hearing that I could speak German reasonably well, reverted to their native tongue.  I nodded and smiled and tried to repeat names when I heard them clearly enough, but I don't think I would remember any of them if I met the people again.

"Super Deutschland!!"

Soon the game started, and although the more serious fans in the group informed me that it wasn't a very good show, it was plenty exciting enough for me.  I declined Dani's repeated suggestions of getting myself an (overpriced) beer from the conveniently-located kiosk, but the smell of the wagon next to it selling crepes soon got to me and a group of us went over to order some.  I got one with Kinder (brand) chocolate in the middle and it was quite delicious, although I hesitate to say it was worth 3 Euros.  The game ended happily at 1=0 for Germany and Dani dragged me along to a local bar where they were going to celebrate.  Never having been in a bar before, I thought it would be an interesting experience and acquiesced, figuring that this was a very good and very safe opportunity now that I was with reasonable friends and close to home.  I wasn't particularly hungry and had absolutely no idea what to order from the menu for drinks, since this place specialized in cocktails, something I had never tried.  When I told this to Dani she couldn't believe it, but suggested we get the sampler and split it.  I agreed, not fully realizing that the "sampler" would consist of five good-sized drinks for Dani and I to split between ourselves.  Fortunately, cocktails contain relatively small amounts of alcohol and I downed a Sex on the Beach (which I liked, fortunately, as it is a relatively common cocktail), a JiJi Loco (also good, but a local specialty), and half of a Bling Bling (which was far too sour and alcoholic for my tastes) over the course of two to three hours without really feeling affected.  The night ended up costing 14 Euros, a bit expensive for my tastes but well worth the experience.  Dani and her boyfriend walked me home, which I was glad for when we encountered several fans who had celebrated considerably more than I had and I wouldn't have been entirely comfortable circumventing on my own.  It was past one in the morning when I finally returned home and my newfound German friends laughed at my insistence on attending church in the morning, but I was determined.  I made sure to drink a large glass of water before bed, to ward off any danger of dehydration (the leading cause of hangovers), and tucked myself in.

True, when my alarm went off at 8am, it was not an entirely welcome sound, but I dutifully roused myself (no noticeable headache or sour stomach, I am happy to report) and was out the door by 9am.  I wanted to be sure to leave enough time to be early to church and hadn't previously scoped out my subway route.  Fortunately it was a very straightforward and direct route with a train that came every 20 minutes to the station closest to the CDC, and after only a little bit of fumbling at the end station, I arrived at the church (which was much bigger than I had thought, easily located in its own building with a large sign out front) within 30 minutes of walking out my door.  I should tell you a little about how I decided upon this particular church, as it seemed to me to be a special Providence.  I arrived on a Wednesday but there was no question in my mind that I wanted to find someplace to worship and get connected right away, even though I was only to be in the city for a month and a maximum of four Sundays.  I began by typing "Evangelische Freikirche in Dortmund" into Google.

As I explained last year, the religious system here is divided into the Catholic and Protestant churches, which are supported by the state, and the Free Churches or 'Freikirchen' which operate similar to most American congregations, supporting themselves with the tithes of the worshippers.  The Protestant churches are mostly Lutheran (for obvious reasons) and Catholic churches are the same everywhere, so to find a fellowship similar to what I was used to I would have to scour the domain of the 'Freikirchen'.  I had already investigated Calvary Chapels, of which there are about a dozen in Germany, but none of them were within an hour's drive of Dortmund (nor Remscheid, for that matter - they seem to be concentrated in the south-east region and rather close to each other, with the exception of Berlin, so I suspect that one was started in the area of Stuttgart and the others are church plants from the original fellowship).  I'm not particularly picky, but I'm most comfortable in the young, modern churches (non-denominational in America) in which I grew up.  There don't seem to be many of these in Germany; if you remember, I ended up at a Pentecostal church last year and loved it.  And so I searched with an open mind, reasoning that if the church I found for the first week was totally whack, I didn't have to go back.  The first link I found seemed promising, so I copied the address into Google Maps to see how close it was to the CDC.  It showed that the "Christuskirche" was just on the other side of the city center, but that seemed a bit strange because the name of the church given on the website wasn't "Christuskirche."  Leaving that tab open, I repeated my search within Google maps and again, the Christuskirche was the first hit.  It was listed as a Baptist church, and the summer camp where I attended and worked for six consecutive summers was also Baptist by affiliation, so I suspected it wouldn't be too far out of the ordinary for me.  Wanting to try one more time to find other options just in case, I clicked the second link of my Google search, which led me to a traveler's site for Dortmund.  Under "Churches in Dortmund", once again, the Christuskirche topped the list.  It seemed more than chance that I had now found the same church via three different methods (and one of them evidently a mistake), so I went back to Google Maps and carefully retyped the address from the first link.  Predictably, it gave me a different place - but this one was at least twice as far from the CDC.  Well, that was an easy decision!  And so I came to the Christuskirche, and I suspect it was more than coincidence that brought me here.

When I walked into the building on that first Sunday, there was still 30 minutes until the service began.   There weren't many people there yet but I quickly found someone to introduce myself to, which wasn't difficult as many people were in the habit of greeting everyone around as they walked through the door, and there weren't many people around which ensured that they also got to me.  When they came to me I would give them a cheery, "Guten Morgen!" and they would perhaps look puzzled for a moment before saying something to the effect of, "I haven't seen you around here before.  Are you a visitor?" which was my cue to launch into my spiel about who I was and what I was doing in Dortmund (which is probably the subject I can most easily talk about in German :])  I met a few very nice people before the service started, including some student-age women who invited me up to sit with them.  The sanctuary is very pretty, modern-looking with a balcony in addition to the seating on the main floor.  I would estimate that it can hold about 150-200 people comfortably, and it seemed to be about 2/3 full on this particular Sunday morning.  I couldn't help but smile as the opening song turned out to be "Shine, Jesus, Shine" (one of my most favorite praise songs from the 90s) translated into German - I can often tell by the worship style what kind of church I have found, and I seemed to be quite at home here.  My suspicions were confirmed as the service continued with announcements, a baby dedication, and a pleasantly appropriate sermon titled "God is Love."  I know enough German to understand about 80% of the sermon, even though I was struggling to stay awake at times due to my rather short night.  The pastor emphasized that since God is love, we should also take special care to love those around us to demonstrate that we believe that fact.  My favorite of his practical applications was his exhortation to approach people who seem to be alone during the fellowship times before and after the service.  Fortunately for me, his congregation took him seriously.

After the closing benediction, there was the predictable coffee and cake down in the foyer (not as elaborate as in Clausthal, due to the larger fellowship, but still good).  I grabbed a glass of water and a cookie and carefully positioned myself in the middle of the space so that I was approachable from all sides, but not close enough to any particular group of people that those observing would think I was with them.  In short, I tried to make it as obvious as possible that I wanted to be talked to, though I am not bold enough to approach others when in such a new or unfamiliar situation.  My efforts were soon rewarded as an older man with a bristling mustache and a completely bald head strode boldly up to me and began making small talk about the food.  It wasn't long before the predictable question came, "Are you a visitor here?"  to which I could readily answer about being an American student, here to study and intern, etc. etc.  At this news his eyes went wide and he leaned back a little.  "American?  Ich speaky kein English!  Hahaha.  (All the rest was in German, obviously).  But seriously, your German is so good!"  I politely acknowledged his compliment with a soft laugh and we continued talking.  It seemed the more Hartwig (for that was the jovial gentleman's name) learned about me, the more impressed he became.  I was studying Mechanical Engineering (the name Princeton meant nothing to him, frustratingly - or luckily? - enough the university is not widely known outside the US)?  But women didn't do that!  Or was it different in America? (I assured him that it was - thinking of Birgitt and Kat as well as my other several MAE female friends - a bit more common occurrence in the States.)  What - I would be entering my final year of study in the fall?  But I am only 21 years old!  (This one I can explain - Germans have an additional year of high school and usually attend five years of university, so I am two years ahead by that reckoning.)  By this point he was parading me around with one arm thrown around my shoulders, telling everyone what a wonder-child I was.  I was starting to get quite embarrassed when he turned to me and asked a question I was not expecting.  "Do you have any plans for the afternoon?"  I said I guessed not.  "Good!  Then you're coming to lunch with my wife and I.  Don't worry, we've also invited the youth pastor and his wife.  It'll be a great afternoon!"  I was taken aback but have tried to become more open to spontaneity and one-time opportunities than I used to be, particularly when traveling and on this occasion, my other plans really were limited to napping and blogging, so I figured why not.  We were some of the last people to leave the church, but soon Hartwig, his wife Ursula, and I had all piled into their expansive Audi (one of the bigger cars I have seen in Germany, which was my first clue that this couple was quite well-off) and pulled out of the parking lot towards their home, where Josua and Mirjiam, the other guests, would meet us.

The nicest people ever. They remind me of Nana and Gaffer.

Hartwig seemed a bit erratic and aggressive in his driving, but then again, I have found most Germans to be so in my estimation.  In about 20 minutes we were driving through the narrow streets of a small suburb, finally pulling up in front of a cozy two-story house with bright flower bushes surrounding the front door.  Ursula ushered me inside while Hartwig parked the car and bustled over to a wardrobe where she picked out a cardigan for me (I had overestimated the weather that morning and neglected to put one on as I left the CDC).  She then ushered me to the back door, where a small porch with a sturdy wicker table and chairs overlooked a small paradise.  I've seen pretty gardens before, but this one rivaled the best of them with its perfectly manicured, thick-growing grass, snugly-set cobblestones denoting the various paths and flowerbeds, and a neat little concrete pond in the center, filled with lilies and colorful fish with a net covering the top to keep out the predatory birds.  Colorful flowers of every description filled the rich beds, and in the tour we were given later we discovered that this was only the first layer of the garden and it actually extended out about three times farther than it first seemed, all the way back past the apple and cherry trees to the rows of strawberries, raspberries, lettuce, beans, and tomatoes along the back fence.  I gathered from conversation that there was no gardener, only Hartwig and Ursula who loved working in the dirt and tending to the plants.  Evidently they were also retired.

Soon enough the other guests arrived and we sat down to a splendid lunch of cold cuts, baked potatoes and asparagus with a delicious creamy sauce.  They repeatedly asked if I knew what the vegetable was, but since I didn't know the German word I couldn't say.  They were quite surprised that we didn't have this in America until Ursula brought out the serving dish and I happily exclaimed, "Oh, asparagus!!"  They were boiled, I think, because their normal green color was faded to a milky cream, but they were still pretty good (or at least, I was polite enough to eat my share without complaining).  Accompanying the meal we had, at the insistence of Hartwig, a hearty glass of a sweetish white wine (he asked me beforehand if I would prefer white or red, and I tried to politely decline but apparently was being misunderstood, so instead of trying to explain the different drinking culture in America, acquiesced to the white wine.  It was pretty good, though not the best I've ever had).  Afterwards Ursula brought out a fantastic dessert consisting of vanilla and strawberry ice cream topped with a sauce rich with red berries (cherries and currants, I think) and a strawberry and whipped cream on top.  She informed us that the berries came from the garden, and I'm never one to pass up a good ice cream, so I was happy.

We were all pretty full at this point, so we went out on the back porch to talk and for the aforementioned tour of the garden.  I took plenty of pictures, thinking especially of my garden-loving father and boyfriend and how they would love to have a yard landscaped like this.  At midafternoon, just as I thought things were winding down, Ursula again disappeared into the kitchen and this time emerged with the ubiquitous coffee and cake.  I went for some yummy orange rooibus tea instead of the coffee, still hoping for that afternoon nap, and indulged freely in the various cakes and pastries, again made with fruits from the garden.  Conversation went on and on, and I learned quite a bit of Josua and Mirjiam's life story (this was the first time Ursula and Hartwig were really meeting them, as they moved to the church in February of this year) as well as tales of Hartwig's growing up in wartime Poland.  When Mirjiam expressed interest and admiration for the garden, saying she hoped to start one at their new apartment as well, Ursula wasted no time in slipping on some gardening clogs and moving around the beds gathering clippings for her.  Finally at about 5:30 I began looking at my watch and fidgeting in my chair, thinking about the Skype date I had set up with Joe for 7pm and knowing it would take at least 30 minutes to get back to the CDC.  I still had hopes for that nap, but as the watch hands crept slowly towards six I began to despair of seeing my bed before the evening.  Finally Hartwig noticed my agitation, although I was trying hard to be polite and not complain.  Josua and Mirjiam graciously indicated that it was about time for them to be moving out, as well, and generously offered to drive me back, since they were headed into Dortmund anyway.  This was certainly an improvement on trying to figure out my way back via the trains, so I quickly accepted and we said our (lengthy) goodbyes.  I couldn't thank Hartwig and Ursula enough for their hospitality, but I did ask for their address and promised to send them a Christmas card at least.  They gladly gave it to me and insisted that the next time I was in the area, I would have to call on them.  If I ever am, I plan to do so :)

During the ride back with Josua and Mirjiam I repeated my basic information, which they had missed at the beginning, a little bit but mostly held my peace.  It was past 6:30 when I hopped out of the car and gave them a quick hug and a grateful farewell and "hope to see you another Sunday!"  I dashed up to my room and decided to steal the nap anyway, even though the Internet can sometimes be finicky and it can take as long as 20 minutes to get everything set up.  Fortunately this was not the case and 30 minutes later, after a refreshing catnap, I was recounting my adventures to my bemused and willing listener.  My good luck only lasted about an hour, however, before the connection suddenly and unexpectedly broke off.  I got just enough bandwidth to send an explanatory email and then headed off to bed before 9pm, figuring that I had done enough for the day and needed to get ready for my first day of German language course the next morning.  The weekend was a good mix of rest and adventure, and I was definitely ready for more of both.

A Fair-ly Good Time

Please excuse my bizarre and inadequate descriptions.  Carnival rides are hard to put into words!  I finally got pictures to upload... maybe they'll help?

Once I finally reached my bed on that first day, I slept like a log until 8am the following morning, which is quite late for me.  I had previously agreed to meet up with my doubles this day so they could show me around the university a bit.  My original suggestion was to meet up at 9am (not too early), at which they looked askance at one another like "Who is this crazy American who does things at 9am on a holiday?"  We finally settled on a 10am meeting.  One of them texted me and graciously offered to delay our meeting until 1pm so that I would have time to "explore the CDC".  I told her I wouldn't need that much time to do that and, in fact, it took a grand total of about 20 minutes to walk along each hallway, inspect the kitchen for supplies (for instance, there is no microwave on our floor but there is on all the others) and explore the basement, where the laundry room is located.  Contrary to my spoiled Princeton existence, I will actually have to pay 2Euros each for washing and drying here, and it is strongly frowned upon to wash or hang clothes in the rooms.  Fortunately I have enough clothes that I'll probably only have to do laundry 2 or 3 times, and there is a convenient drying room across from the laundry, if you don't mind all your intimates hanging out for everyone to see (since no one goes in the basement to do anything but wash clothes anyway, I don't care - it saves a whole $2.50!).  The University also wasn't particularly spectacular on this slightly gray holiday - it took about 30 minutes for my doubles to show me where the international center (where my German classes are held), the Mensa (dining hall), library, and some of the department buildings were.  It took almost as long to get to the university, since I have the option of taking either one subway and one above-ground train or two above-ground trains to get there (and unlike in Munich last year where I lived and studied relatively in the center of the city, these S-bahn trains only come about every 20 minutes, so if you miss one you have quite a bit of a wait for the next).  It was good to learn the way to the university as I would end up traveling there apart from the group more often than not (the Wi-fi at the university is MUCH more reliable and fast than that at the dorm, so I often get there early in the mornings to send emails or do research).

The first ride we tried: High Velocity

Back at the CDC the other Ruhr Fellows were starting to get up and moving, so I met most of the other members of the group.  They seem like nice people.  There's one girl from Harvard, two from MIT, a bunch from Penn, and one other from Princeton, everything from rising sophomores to recently graduated seniors, all studying various types of engineering disciplines.  They were all going to some sort of carnival where one of the group leaders was working, so I decided to tag along.  It ended up being much further away than I thought and took nearly an hour to get there, but it was worth it.  This festival, or carnival, or fair (I'm still not quite sure what or why it was there) had basically taken over the downtown area of a small village, with fair games booths and food vendors lining the streets and rides parked in the squares.  After wandering for quite a while we found our friend and decided to split up based on the group's interests.  Mine concentrated on the rides so one of the boys and I peeled off the group and headed towards the tallest thing around, a ride where people strapped in to projections on one end of a large rod which then swung the riders up and around in a giant arc, spinning them all the while.  It was a variation on a common fair ride where guests sit at one end of a counterbalanced rod with a fulcrum in the center and pivot around this fulcrum, albeit with a couple additional degrees of freedom.  The ride cost 4 Euros but was definitely worth it.  The forces seemed more extreme than those I had experienced on fair rides in the States, but perhaps that's just because all of the local fairs in Maine use equipment that my mother remembers riding on as a child and I don't get out much past that.  After our feet were finally back on solid ground, we headed off to a roller coaster where each car was sent down the track individually and was free to spin on its base as it traveled along, but the 150-person queue and our fast-approaching meeting deadline deterred us from exploring this ride.  On the way back we found an archery booth for my friend, which I declined to take part in.  He didn't get quite enough points to win anything worthwhile, so he just handed his tickets off to the nearest small child and we proceeded onward.  I was looking for a booth where it seemed I had a good chance of making my investment pay off, and after a while I thought I had found what I was looking for at a can-pyramid station - you know, where you throw the beanbag or ball and try to knock down all the cans within a certain number of tries to get the prize.  I was eyeing the fluffy teddy bears hanging overhead and upon inquiry, found out that I only needed to knock all 10 cans down with three balls in order to win it.  I was confident until I picked up the balls and felt how light they were - the catch was that the throwing implements didn't have enough momentum on their own to be very effective.  My best efforts yielded two cans standing at the end of three tries, and the very friendly wrinkled old vendor bent down and handed me a plush keychain in the shape of a heart and bearing the words "I Love You" as a consolation prize, remarking as he handed it to me, "I think I see a Kevin here for you... or a Marvin, or a Justin perhaps?"  (Sorry, Joe ;]).  I laughed and we moved on.  While the food quality in general was much higher at this event than the normal American fair fare of cotton candy, fried dough and caramel apples, I had a wary eye on my wallet and so resisted the grumblings of my stomach and my curiosity, for the most part.  However, when we passed a chocolatier's booth I could refrain no longer and purchased a strawberry shish-kebab covered in white chocolate.  It was delicious.

The Transformer; I think that smoke is made on purpose?

Arriving at our meeting point quite punctually, we were dismayed to discover that the remainder of the group was a) 5 minutes late, and b) all together.  Apparently we two had been the only ones to hearken to the "split up" idea.  Oh well.  We had been here for a couple of hours at this point and the venue was getting more crowded as evening approached, so we headed back.  Before we reached the bus again, the group leader took a detour towards a ride labeled "The Transformer" which was wrapped in a cloud of (hopefully intentional) smoke.  She convinced four of us to try the contraption and we were soon in line surrounded by enthusiastic young teenage girls, an odd demographic for what the ride seemed to be.  It consisted of six "gondolas" of four seats each evenly spaced around a central wheel and hanging down from it.  At the beginning of the ride, the entire frame raised up and began spinning in two dimensions, so that the riders were simultaneously traveling around the circumference of the circle and spinning around the main crossbeam of the frame.  The music which played on our ride while we were maneuvered into position was the Star Wars Theme, which I found quite appropriate given that I had just watched the films the week before.  The forces on this ride were quite intense, particularly when you ended up at the top of the circle facing straight down!  My harness didn't go quite tight enough to keep me from sliding around during the ride, and I think I would have ended up with some bruises had it lasted a bit longer.  At the end one of the other riders described it as "It feels like my entire body has been squished into my skull."  That was our last ride for the day and we were soon on our way home again.  I was more than ready for bed by 9:30 when we got back to the CDC.

The next day really started the program.  Finally having gotten some rest, I started to notice how far north we are here in Northern Germany.  I woke up to a very bright bedroom and thought that I had overslept, only to look at my phone and find that it was 5:22 in the morning.  (Sunrise here is around 5am whereas the sun doesn't set until almost 10pm... gotta love the summer solstice!)  I was to do this a couple more times before I finally decided that 7:30 was a reasonable time to get up, though my first appointment wasn't until 10:30 at the bank to set up our local accounts for the summer (interesting, since I ran into more than a bit of trouble trying to set up a bank account last summer; every institution we talked to quoted a minimum 6-month stay for eligibility, but I guess when you have someone else paying the bills and pulling the strings...).  We were each given a 600-Euro (around $800) stipend to cover the cost of our plane ticket to and from Germany.  Since I had managed to find such an incredible deal at $300 (it seems even more incredible now that I'm looking at flights home from Scotland which are upwards of $1000 one way!) and wasn't returning to the States at the other end of my summer, this money was basically spending money for me, which is nice considering that my internship is unpaid and I won't have an income again until I return to Princeton in February.  I ambitiously planned to spend only the 600 Euros given me during the summer and save my work-study savings for the semester in Scotland.  The accounts were free for us, excepting a small fee taken out for "death insurance"; in the case that we should expire while in Germany, a sum of up to 150,000 Euros would be paid to ship our remains back to the United States.  A comforting thought (I have no idea why they insisted on it since we'll only be here for 2-3 months, but it amounts to only about 1.50 Euros, so I'm not complaining).  Afterwards we were free until 12:45, so I went into the library and was pleasantly surprised to find that my computer automatically connected to one of the Wi-fi networks, although further observation has revealed that this is not the network the rest of the Ruhr Fellows connect to with their student IDs, so I'm not entirely sure why my computer has the proper credentials for this network.  My only hypothesis is that those I was given last year to connect at TU Clausthal have not yet expired.  Regardless, I enjoy the fast and reliable internet available to me in both the library and the International Center, and these places are where I spend most of my time while on campus.

For the afternoon we had a presentation and tour of the Mechanical Engineering Department at TU Dortmund, accompanied by snacks and drinks as always (I don't know that Germans ever have a meeting without snacks and drinks.  In the least, I've not yet been to one :])  Everything was in English, as it all has to be for this program (six out of the ten students had no experience with German before coming here, as it was not a prerequisite for the program).  Not that I don't like English, but it's a bit frustrating for me to be in Germany and feel like I'm in a big American bubble.  I'm looking forward to my internship where hopefully I can convince more people to speak German to me :)  During the tour, I found it sad that I recognized more of the machines and machining techniques from my research internship of the previous summer than from my Mechanical Engineering education at Princeton (which errs a bit on the side of the theoretical to the expense of the practical, from my perspective).  Nonetheless, it was quite interesting and at the conclusion of the tour, each of the Ruhr Fellows was presented with a small metal trinket.  It was a rhinoceros (Nashorn, or nose-horn in German :]) with wings, made out of six pieces of sheet aluminum which meshed together to form a stand-up figurine.  The flying rhino is the symbol of the city of Dortmund, just as Berlin is the bear or Munich is the lion.  At first I was bewildered by this choice of mascot, as it doesn't seem particularly loveable, or fierce, or courageous, or anything positive.  In fact, rhinos are near-sighted, short-tempered and paranoid, and what was with the wings??  I have since heard that when the city was tasked with finding a mascot, it was upon the occasion of a large concert hall in the city center being finished.  The committee wanted something that would symbolize culture and good listening, so they picked the rhino because it has large ears (my first, and quite natural-seeming question, is why not an elephant or a bat?  They both have much bigger ears... but whatever, I'm just retelling the story).  Because they were afraid of the (quite instinctive) associations of such a choice as fat or slow-moving, they gave it wings to make it lighter.  So now you can find statues of rhinos all over the city, painted in bright colors with the logos of various businesses and associations.  Go figure (I'd add more pictures here if my internet would allow, perhaps I'll upload them to Facebook or something if you're lucky ;]).  The rhino was to become my new traveling companion, replacing the significantly more fragile ceramic rabbits figurine from last summer (which is now permanently missing an ear :P).  The only problem is his propensity to fall apart, so I may end up giving him a duct-tape makeover to solve this problem (the only caveat being, that the only duct tape I have with me is leopard printed... but who said that was a bad thing?  It's not like a flying rhinoceros can get any MORE ridiculous...).  If my luck with the internet holds out, I'll try to include some of his cameos in future posts :)

Dinner that night was going to be an event advertised as "international cooking".  I understood that to mean trying some authentic German cuisine.  What it turned out to be was COOKING some authentic German cuisine.  Just as fun but significantly more interesting, trying to follow the home-made English directions which weren't ALWAYS quite clear...  The curry wurst turned out okay for the most part, and our potato salad wasn't the best I've ever eaten, but it was passable.  The chocolate pudding, for whatever reason, refused to congeal, so we improvised at the last minute and had chocolate sauce for our vanilla ice cream :)  In attendance at the dinner were several other American students in other programs, including 3 or 4 Princetonians.  No one that I knew, but it was an easy thing to connect about, nonetheless.  I also met a very nice Italian girl who spoke decent German but only a little English.  We traded phone numbers and promised to hang out again soon, though that has yet to happen more than a week later :P  The event proved to be more of a good venue to get to know some of the other people in the program rather than food-focused, but that's also a worthy goal.  In particular, I became much closer with Dominique, a tiny, sweet russet-headed girl who just graduated with a degree in Chemical Engineering, but looks more like an incoming freshman than a graduated senior.  I discovered that she also has a sweetheart named Joe, who would be coming to visit her at the end of July, so we said I'd have to meet him to compare :)  That's okay, though, I'm happy with my Joe :D

By the time we cleaned up from dinner, it was nearly 9pm, but you wouldn't have known it from looking at the sky - it didn't look later than 6.  We made the very useful discovery that the trains go from running every 20 minutes to every 30 minutes after 8pm, although I haven't yet completely acclimated to this fact and have had to sprint to catch the train on more than one occasion (with approximately a 50% success rate).  I was more than ready for bed, though, after a very full day and a good end to my first "week" of the program.

Beginning the Long Adventure

Well, so much for my blogging streak.  I had a feeling it wouldn't last long...

And so begins a new chapter in my adventure-book.  As you already know, I had delayed my arrival from the expected date of Friday, June 1, for a combination of logistical and personal reasons.  I have many close friends in the Princeton class of 2012, as well as those who have already graduated and would be returning for Reunions weekend.  It was therefore very important to me to stay for the Commencement ceremony, even if it meant I was arriving in Germany nearly a week behind schedule.  Reunions was a whirlwind of activity, as expected, between fulfilling my working obligations to the Department of Public Safety (which provided me housing through the weekend) and saying hello/goodbye to many good friends.  I also managed to squeeze in all three Star Wars movies (the original trilogy, of course) since I had *gasp* not seen them in their entirety and was putting my serious fan boyfriend to shame.  All too soon it was Monday night and we went to the Senior Prom together, an affair which was altogether too loud and chaotic for my tastes.  By a great deal of finagling I had obtained my high school prom gown from home for the occasion, and by some miracle it still fit ;)  Afterwards we were invited to an "after-party" which was really a cover for an engagement celebration as one of our mutual friends proposed to his girlfriend immediately following the prom.  I spent my last night in the United States reflecting on all of the friendships made and the people I would miss the most.  There wasn't too much time for contemplation, though, between packing or storing every last thing, rushing off to the graduation ceremony (where I sat in the back with a graduated friend and strained to catch a glimpse of seniors I knew) and taking final pictures and saying last goodbyes afterwards.  Both sides of my boyfriend's family came to town for his graduation and I had a wonderful lunch with them before his mother, aunt and uncle were supposed to drive me to the airport.  As we were on the way his uncle claimed to need a nap and strongly suggested that Joe drive me alone to the airport - neither of us believed that this was more than an excuse, but rolled our eyes and acquiesced.

Looking back, I laugh because instead of being filled with sweet goodbyes, our conversation revolved around the most practical ways to keep in touch and which books we wanted to read together over the coming months - nothing his relatives would have been embarrassed to hear, but I was still grateful for the opportunity to spend a few more precious minutes with the person who has meant so much to me over the past year.  At the airport he dropped me off at the gate and we shared a final, quick hug before I loaded myself up with my various bags (no simple feat, considering that I had to pack for 7 months spanning three seasons, which translated into a backpack, carry-on suitcase, internal frame pack (bought especially for this trip with a mind to explore the UK on foot) and my monster black suitcase, veteran of many miles.  I waddled my way to the check-in counter and forked over the extra $70 for the additional checked bag (considering the gear I needed/extra space vs. the cost and time - not to mention address uncertainty - of shipping the pack internationally, it seemed worth it, and I'm planning to jettison enough of my stuff to not have to bring 2 checked bags back), then continued considerably more quickly to the security check.  I breezed through without a problem and was soon sitting by my gate with plenty of time until boarding.  I slightly regretted not spending more time with friends before rushing off to the airport, but had any part of the process not gone so smoothly I would have been in a quite different situation, so better safe than sorry, I suppose.  I boarded the plane around 7:45pm, Eastern Standard Time, planning to sleep for the majority of the flight's 6.5=hour duration.  As soon as I saw my seat and the hyperactive four-year-old in the one beside it, I knew those dreams were unrealistic.  Fortunately, I like children.  A lot.

The child was actually quite amazing.  His grandmother, as I presume the wrinkled woman sitting on the other side of him was, spoke only Portuguese as far as I could tell, and didn't seem to understand much English.  The boy, on the other hand, was perfectly bilingual (on a four-year-old level) and I think he entertained me as much as I did him over the long journey.  His favorite games turned out to be "off" (alternately switching on and off the seat-back monitors in front of us), "trapped" (using the flight safety card to 'trap' me in my seat), and insisting that the land before takeoff and after touchdown was "water".  He especially enjoyed a "Cars" coloring book and puzzle, which I also did until he started dropping the pieces of the puzzle off the sides of his tray table and they proved singularly difficult to retrieve.  (I was shocked, however, at how easily he reassembled the remaining pieces of the puzzle - or perhaps it has been too long since I have been around children...)  Eventually he settled down to watch "Toy Story" and I selected "War Horse" from the available entertainment options, a movie I had been looking forward to watching for quite some time.  Though the cinematography was impressive and the storyline (what there was of it) revolved around a horse, which always gets points in my book, the plot was fragmented and made little sense, and overall I found it a quite silly movie.  The little boy eventually fell asleep, of course, but soon became quite agitated at his inability to lie prone in the airplane seat and began thrashing violently, trying to find a comfortable position.  I emphasized with the little guy as I found it difficult to sleep myself, only managing to nap for about 30 minutes around sunrise (still around midnight EST).  Both supper and breakfast were provided, so at least I wasn't too hungry... I saved the plasticware for later, knowing that such things always come in handy.

We landed in Lisbon, Portugal at around 8am local time, which translates to 3am back home.  I blearily wandered around the airport for a few minutes to get the lay of the land before I curled up on a comfy-looking bench and caught up on a few hours of that elusive sleep.  Finally about 90 minutes before my plane was scheduled to leave I awoke and found out the gate, but when I got there the announcement read that the plane was running about 30 minutes late.  I grumpily made my way to a currency exchange office to change the remainder of my change into Euros at an extortionate rate (however, better than I would get in America from all I've read) and proceeded to a souvenir shop to commemorate my brief stay in a new country with a useless bit of kitsch (not completely - I bought a multicolored pen of not-terribly-sturdy construction emblazoned with the Portuguese flag, which will hopefully last longer than I anticipate it to).  I passed the remainder of the excruciatingly-long layover picking at the trail mix I had packed and people-watching, which wasn't so bad.

When I finally boarded this last leg of my flight and was greeted by the obligatory safety briefing first in German, it was like a breath of fresh air.  A smile broke upon my face unbidden - after all of the Portuguese which I couldn't even pretend to understand, to hear something that I could make sense of made me the happiest I had been since I got out of the van at the Newark Airport.  It went beyond that, however.  Call it intellectual stimulation, the exercise of understanding a language which is not my mother tongue, or familiarity, or what have you, but both when I first heard German and when I first stepped out of the plane, it felt strangely like coming home.

I caught another couple of hours of sleep on the plane to Dusseldorf and was pleasantly surprised by yet another meal on the mere 3-hour flight.  I deplaned without any problems and collected my baggage, once again looking quite a sight hauling two suitcases and wearing a backpack on both my back and front.  When I emerged from customs I was pleasantly surprised with a large colorful sign which read "WELCOME ERIN MILLS TO GERMANY" held by two smiling, gorgeous young blonde women.  I strode confidently up to the pair and introduced myself in German, at which they exchanged a startled glance and exclaimed, "We didn't know you spoke German!"  I was just glad they were there to meet me, since they had emailed a couple of weeks before my departure and in all of the hectic busyness I had not found time to reply with my flight information.  We then proceeded to the parking garage where we played Tetris with my bags until we fit the entire mass into the trunk and backseat of a tiny two-door Ford model which I've never seen in the US (something that small would never sell over here).  I clambered in the back with my luggage and for the next hour I exchanged pleasantries and got to know Sara and Daniela, my "Doubles".  These were students at TU Dortmund taking a class on International Industry and Business, with a focus on the United States.  For the second half of their semester, the 22 of them were split up among the 10 Ruhr Fellows and assigned to be their guides to all things German.  My newfound friends also provided me with a gift to welcome me to their country - a heavy bag which contained a cute pillow, gummies (Germans are OBSESSED with gummies, a trend I have yet to pick up), assorted Germany fan paraphernalia (I assured them I supported Germany in the Eurocup, the international soccer championship that has all of the continent up in arms - or at least flags and other extravagant displays of national pride) including a lei, scarf, wristband, and two pins sporting the German black, red and gold.  Finally, rounding out the lot was a bottle of beer - of course.  This is a German fetish which I am much more eager to explore now that I am legal in my own country and have had some opportunities to test my reaction to alcohol in much safer and more controlled situations than a bar in a foreign country. But don't worry - I'm much too paranoid about the potential consequences/value awareness of my surroundings too much to really go crazy here :P

Eventually we arrived in Dortmund and located the Carl-Duisberg Centrum (CDC) which is to be my home for the month of June.  The wonderful girls helped me get settled in my room, even lugging my obscenely heavy bags to the fourth floor (American fifth - Europeans count the ground floor differently) since the elevator was out of order.  They next whisked me off to a supermarket, since the following day was a holiday and nothing would be open for me to obtain food for myself.  Fortunately there are two large grocery stores about three blocks from my dorm - including an Aldi, which I am familiar with from last summer in Clausthal.  Upon discovering that I already had an international cell phone (still the same hideous pink replacement I got after my purse was stolen in Russia in August 2010, if you recall), one of my doubles handed me her old SIM card and we headed to the gas station across the street from the CDC to load it up (Europe is much bigger on pay-as-you=go than America, for which I am grateful).  They then said goodbye after arranging to meet the next morning and show me around the town and the university a bit.  My next priority after my Doubles finally left was to get online and signal my safe arrival to friends and loved ones.  Internet here in the CDC is only available in common rooms, one on each floor, by Ethernet cable (provided, though my gracious boyfriend has lent me one for the year).  This means that my iPod must go back to being a musical entertainment device instead of a mini-computer, which makes things like daily Bible reading a bit more complicated (i.e. I actually have to keep track of what I've read and what to read next myself, just like they did in the old days :P) The network is extremely limited and slows down noticeably with every computer which hooks up - the working limit seems to be three or four laptops, depending on the demand being made by each one.  Sometimes the server goes down altogether suddenly and without explanation.  I was quite disappointed and unsure whether Skype would be ruled out for June, if not the summer, which I dearly hoped wouldn't be the case (speaking to people face-to-face, as it were, does wonders for the homesickness!).

It being already nearly 10pm, I was exhausted so after setting a quick Facebook status (the lazy way to let everyone know at once) I headed back to my room to finally sleep in a bed - and was confronted with a locked door!!  The key we each have at the CDC opens three doors: the outside door, the door to your suite (generally a single and double room with a shared bathroom), and the door to your bedroom.  When I went to the computer room it was only for a few minutes and I left my key on my desk in the room, thinking that my roommates had already left for the night.  One of them must not have left until after I was already in the computer room, and locked the door behind her.  I had no idea when they would get back, but from what I had heard it wouldn't be until quite late.  What was I to do?  I was too exhausted to think straight - after trying the door mindlessly for a minute or two, hoping I had just missed something, I asked a passing student for help.  When she found out that I hadn't met my roommates yet, but thought they had left for the night, she told me that my only recourse was to call the Hausmeister.  I was terrified at this prospect and completely embarrassed that I had been in the house for not two hours before messing something up, but I had no other option.  I timidly crept down to the first floor and rang the bell to the private suite - soon he came to the door and gruffly asked what was the matter.  When I sheepishly explained that I had left my key in the room and now the door was locked, he headed upstairs without another word and unlocked my room with his master key.  He responded to my grateful apologies and exclamations with only a gruff "IMMER Schlussel mitnehmen!" ("ALWAYS bring your key with you!") before heading back downstairs.  My embarrassment soon gave way to relief as I made a beeline for my bed and made a happy end to my first day back in Germany.

Lessons Learned

As promised, before beginning the chronicle of my new adventure, an overview of the wisdom I gained from my last excursion, which will hopefully enlighten this and future journeys.  So, without further ado,

What I Have Learned About Germany (Working List):

• When Germans walk into a room, they greet everybody, whether they know them or not (usually reserved for closer-knit situations such as a church or special interest group, or the workplace)
• Nobody asks "How are you?" - it's a serious question here, not a simple pleasantry (now I could get used to that!)
• Filler phrases differ greatly by region: for example, OK in North Germany is "Alles klar" (all clear) whereas in Bavaria (South Germany) you're more likely to hear "Ach so" (~all right)
• I still haven't gotten the clothing thing down - six dresses is still about four too many for my main uses...
• Germans don't walk past each other without eye contact - you see someone, you say hi (actually, this seems to be true of Europeans, but being a paranoid young American woman/reserved Mainiac/after traveling to Russia where eye contact brings unwanted attention, this is taking a LOT of getting used to...)
• Americans aren't supposed to be able to speak German, at least not well (and not without a good excuse - "Do you have German family?" "Have you lived here?")
• Most everyone understands a little English, even if they're shy to use it - can be very useful in crisis situations
• The whole Du vs. Sie (informal vs. formal "you") dichotomy isn't as big a deal as they made it out to be in my German class.  In informal situations and with people of your own age, it's automatically "du"; "Sie" is generally reserved for official situations (though when meeting new people they occasionally ask before using "du" right away)
• I am a quick learner and a fast worker... but I think these are things I already knew about myself.  Patience isn't exactly one of my strong suits, and I've always been a good mimicker.  This came out most strongly to me last year with square dance and my internship work, respectively...
• You never have as much free time as you think you do, particularly for things like keeping in contact or reading...
• German hospitality tends to be ridiculous and over-the-top by American standards... or maybe it's just the amazing Christian people God keeps placing in my path...
• Germans are racist - or at least, more biased than we in PC America are trained to be, and not nearly as afraid to show it.
• A beer is no big deal in Germany - no Puritanical stigma (and at this point I have even been offered significant amounts of alcohol by fine, upstanding members of the church, something that I don't think would ever happen in America...)

Yes, all very interesting things that almost without fail have stories behind them... but you probably read all about them already in my blog last year.  Now on to fresh adventures... :)

A Detour in the Opposite Direction

So, my summer and fall plans were set.  But there's one other adventure I haven't told you about yet.  One of the biggest reasons I joined the shark tracking project was the promise of a trip to Santa Catalina Island, California, during the week after spring exams to test all of our work.  I was particularly excited about this as it would be my first opportunity to visit the West Coast (before this, I'd only just been west of the Mississippi River when I went to St. Louis, MO over fall break for a medieval ball, and that was because the airport we flew out of just happened to be on the west bank ;]).  A good friend of mine, with whom I planned to room next year until I made the decision to study abroad, lives very close to Long Beach and I explored visiting her either before or after the trip, but her final exam the weekend before and piano recital and marathon the weekend after precluded that opportunity.  I still hope to visit her sometime, but it has been indefinitely delayed.

There was one more flurry of activity before we left as I realized, rather suddenly, that the free study abroad storage provided to me by the university (which conveniently also extended over the summer) was only available to me before I left.  It was a frantic three days of collecting my entire room into four piles: bring to Germany, store at Princeton, store with friends (anything I needed until the day I left or wouldn't fit in a box) and send home to have at Christmastime (which opportunity was only graciously provided by the wonderful Danielle, who happened to be visiting relatives in Boston the same weekend my mother and sister were going there for college visits).  Somehow it all got done, and my amazing, wonderful, servant-hearted boyfriend helped me trek no less than five small boxes, 2 under-bed totes, 2 plastic chests-of-drawers, and three large boxes across campus in the blazing heat to the basement where they will rest (hopefully) undisturbed until my return in February... I only dread lugging them back out in the dead of winter without his help, let's hope it's another snowless one!

We planned to be in California for nearly a week; flying out Sunday morning and returning Saturday morning.  Packing was quite the ordeal; to save on shipping costs, my advisor wanted us to bring many of the materials and robots with us as checked baggage instead of FedExing them across the country.  I didn't want to have to check a bag in both directions but didn't own something that I could either leave in California or fold up into my carry-on, so instead I volunteered to bring the PVC piping for the sensor frame and extra material for the steering fins.  When I finally began packing two days before departure (which is actually pretty good, usually I pack the night before :P) I discovered that the two-foot lengths of PVC were too long for any of my carry-on bags which were a maximum 22'' long.  After emailing the group several times about this problem and getting no response or suggestions to buy a mailing tube to check the pipe (which I thought very silly and unnecessary), one of the other students on Saturday night FINALLY said that he could probably fit the pipe in his checked bag.  They slid in without any problem, of course, and took up hardly any space, and we were off.  We did each end up having to check a bag, for which our advisor promised to reimburse us later, but I was skeptical as I would be in the country only a few days after our return before being abroad for seven months, and I doubted he could get an official reimbursement in that time (I was correct - he ended up handing me a $20 bill in the airport and saying "I owe you $5", but I doubt I'll ever get it... oh well, everything else was paid for so it's nothing in the long run :P).  We all got to Los Angeles without incident, where we met the other professor we would be working with, a marine biologist who works at CalState Long Beach.  We drove to our (more than a little) sketchy hotel for the night after transferring the important equipment to the biologist's 26-foot boat for transport the next morning.

We got an early start in the morning, catching the 8:30 Catalina Express over to the island.  Catalina Island boasts itself as "California's Only Island Resort" and it's been kept amazingly wild, for California.  Apparently a lot of Westerns were shot on the island and it now has an imported population of buffalo (unfortunately we didn't see any of these during our trip).  There are really only two towns on the island, Avalon and Two Harbors, and the rest is mostly undisturbed desert-grassland with only a couple of dirt roads to get from place to place.  We stayed in a house in Two Harbors, a beautiful three-bedroom, two-bath arrangement where the other female student and I took over the master bath and bedroom upstairs and left the first floor bedroom and couches to the two boys and the professor.  The facility where we worked was one harbor over from Two Harbors; about a mile by boat and three by road.  Each morning the biologist, who slept on the boat all except the last night, would drive over to the pier at Two Harbors around 7am to pick us up, and we would start the day with hot breakfast in the  research facility's cafeteria at 7:30 before getting to work.  The cooks were amazing and made really good food.  We always had bacon for breakfast, which made me happy :)  The weather was amazing while we were there, sunny and 70 every day.  Unfortunately there was more than a little breeze from the north-west which made it a bit chilly most days, and I had only brought one light jacket (after all, we're in California!) so I was often a tad uncomfortable.  But the weather was the least of my complaints.

As I've already explained, I stayed away from the coding aspects of the project during the year.  The goal of our Catalina trip was to test the new, multi-robot system.  Since what I had done first semester dealt with the particle filter, which at this point we were doing post-processing and not real-time (not to mention, that my methods had made it worse, not better), and my second semester work was determining the best frame configuration, I didn't really have anything in progress that I could work on during the week.  The other students worked hard at implementing the modem, debugging their controller code, and creating a user interface so we could control the robots.  In the meantime, when I wasn't helping take the robots apart or put them back together, I sat in a corner twiddling my thumbs and (almost) wishing I had done something more complicated or not finished it by the time we got to Catalina.  I don't like feeling unproductive or like I can't contribute, so it was really hard for me to accept that the menial tasks I was doing were as helpful to the project as the other students' contributions.  Sleep was also an issue, as the professors and other students seemed happy to work far into the night, often not returning to Two Harbors until after midnight.  I resented not having the opportunity to sleep a full eight hours in a night - I've never been a good "low-sleep" person and knew that I would need all the energy in my reserves to make it through my incredibly busy last weekend in the US.  I got so fed up that one night at about 11pm I asked my advisor if I could do anything else to help, and when he (a little peevishly as he prefers self-starters, which as I noted before, I am not) replied that there wasn't, I announced that I would walk back to the house.  I was only about 70% serious (and will admit that I was being a little bit of a drama queen) but when neither my advisor nor the biologist seemed flustered by my declaration, merely saying "go ahead, then.  It's pretty safe", the tables were turned upon me.  It was actually one of the best experiences of the week, hiking back silently in the dark (I had a flashlight but didn't use it) on the winding dirt road by the light of the full moon.  At one point I startled a large doe standing not ten feet off the road, who couldn't decide whether I was a real threat and so stood there, majestic in the moonlight, as I strode past.  I covered the three-plus miles in about forty minutes, but had been back at the house for less than a quarter of an hour before I heard the others tromp in.  Still, that hour was better-spent in my opinion than it would have been had I chosen to stay and mope in the lab until we all packed up for the night.

One of the biggest redeeming factors of my time in California was the daily snorkel we enjoyed just before dinner on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  The water still only being about 60˚F, we used wetsuits.  Initially I protested about this (I've swum in water FAR colder than 60˚) but after seeing what was IN the water I was quite glad for the extra protection.  I don't think I've yet fully explained why we chose Catalina Island as our research station.  The goal of our project being to track sharks, we needed to go somewhere we could find them.   It just so happens that the bay that the CalState Long Beach research facility is on is a very popular place for female leopard sharks to congregate, right in the shallows next to the shore.  The researchers postulate that these are pregnant females, and the warmer water in the shallows helps speed up the gestation process.  In any case, the sharks gather there in swarms during spring afternoons, milling around to soak up the warm water.  Leopard sharks stay rather small, growing to only about 6 feet in length.  They have long, thin bodies, with the largest ones only being about as big around as an adult man's thigh.  They are a quite harmless and docile species, and they have very small teeth with which they feed on worms and other small bottom-dwelling creatures.  Nonetheless, it was an awe-inspiring and slightly unnerving experience to be floating there in three feet of water and be surrounded by no less than two dozen sharks.  They quickly skittered away if I paddled forward, but if I lay still for long enough they would cease to be wary of me and even swim right underneath, their petite dorsal fins nearly grazing my belly on their way by.  On the first day I almost didn't dare move as they came close, but after being reassured by the biologist that he had never seen anyone bitten by a leopard shark, on the second and third days I slowly drifted my hands down into the sharks' path and would let my fingers skim across their backs as they swam by.  They didn't seem bothered by this, and their skin was surprisingly soft for everything I'd heard about sharkskin being used by ancient peoples as sandpaper.  The important part is, I TOUCHED A SHARK!!!  Not only a shark (for there was both a 1-foot horn shark and a 2-foot swell shark in the touch tank at the lab, which I regularly petted on my way by) but one nearly as large as myself!!  Seeing the beauty of the kelp forest and experiencing the thrill of swimming in the middle of the shark swarm more than made up for all of my feelings of inadequacy and uselessness.  (P.S. I discovered through this experience that though I'm petrified of spiders, which in 99.9% of cases can do nothing to me, I'm not scared of sharks which are much more likely to do me damage... go figure!)

No zoom - I was actually this close.  Don't worry, these are the little ones.

What's more, on Wednesday the biologist lent me his waterproof camera case, and I took pictures as I snorkeled of the fish, sharks and rays that populated the cove.   That was the other exciting animal I saw - whether bat rays or skates (for I heard them called both), the large creatures with flat, pointed "wings" flew through the water with grace and speed before settling on the bottom in a cloud of sand, stirred up to hide them from unwelcome predators.  There were always a few gathered on the bottom in the deeper part of the cove, and it was quite fun to dive down towards them and see them shoot away through the water (never too close, mind, I saw their stingers...)  On Thursday many of them were flying up through the water column (some a little close to the surface for my comfort...) and when we asked the biologist about this strange behavior, he said "Oh, they only do that when there's a big predator around.  It's safer because then the sharks can't dive-bomb them."  So apparently we were also swimming around with something even bigger than ourselves, since on the previous days the rays hadn't seemed to view us as a big enough threat to put themselves in a state of alarm.  I'm not sure if I would have wanted to see a tiger or white shark swimming by or not - I wasn't scared of the leopard sharks because they really didn't look like they could hurt me, but I had seen too many deep-water horror movies and read too many gruesome accounts of shark attacks to be so assured about the big guys...

And so I had my first experience of California.  My advisor didn't seem to mind that I wasn't pulling my weight (or so I felt), so overall it was a positive one.  Fortunately our flight was changed at the last minute from a red-eye leaving at 10pm to an afternoon flight arriving then, so I didn't lose another night of sleep (though I still napped for the majority of the plane ride even though I tried to stay awake and see the country from the air...).  My advisor, who was also returning to his house in Princeton, called us a shuttle from the airport and I enjoyed a rather pleasant hour's ride back to my dorm during which we discussed his views on education and parenting, and I got to hear plenty of stories about his children.  As I said before, he is a wonderfully laid-back person and would make a great friend, but his approach to independent research and mine differed too much for him to make a good advisor for me.  Yet I still learned from my experience and enjoyed California, so I would say that this year, all told, was a success.  It certainly went out with a bang, as I will describe in my next post!!

Led to a New Place

While the independent work project basically took over my year, it wasn't all I did.  While I had to drop Kindred Spirit (the Christian a cappella group I am a part of) during the fall, I rejoined in the spring and my life was greatly enriched by the fellowship of the seven wonderful new members.  Because of the independent work project, I had to move one departmental class from this year to next, but overall I've completed nearly all of the requirements for my degree (yippee!!).  Though the schoolwork was tough, breaks were fun.  Fall Break I went to Fort Wayne, Indiana, to meet my boyfriend's family (same boyfriend as last year, in case you didn't know ;]), and for Thanksgiving he came home to meet mine.  Christmas was home as usual, though I spent nearly the whole time working on my independent work project and other term papers and such.  Even so, my fall semester exam period was quite grueling, and I ended up having to stay up three days straight to get everything done.  In the spring I purposely lessened my course load, taking only three classes besides my independent work project and rejoining KS.  Troubles in the dining hall stemming from mismanagement and abuse of power have led me to stop my employment there, so when I return next year I'll either have a lot more free time or get way more involved down at Public Safety.  I applied to be an RCA next year in December, but was rejected in the first round, which really hurt since everyone had always told me what a perfect candidate I was.  When I went to the dean about it, he told me I wasn't confident or strong enough for the position, which really made me stop and re-evaluate where I was personally.  Hopefully I've been able to use the criticisms productively and can continue to grow with the feedback I receive.

In fact, this January I went through a season of rejection.  Several elected or appointed positions which I thought I was highly qualified for I didn't receive: KS Fellowship Chair, PEF Officer/Service Team Leader, RCA, and Dining Hall Student Coordinator.  Again and again I was passed over, until I began to wonder what God had in store for me.  I figured He wouldn't just close all of these doors without opening some amazing opportunity that was truly His plan for me.  (To be fair, I was led to this conclusion by the wonderful wisdom of Danielle, the PEF staff for the junior girls; on my own I would likely have been more tempted to despair about the situation).  So I prayed about what He truly wanted me to do with my senior year; it seemed that, one by one, my ties to Princeton were being severed.  Just before Spring Break it occurred to me that taking a semester to study abroad, something which I had always wanted to do but thought that my opportunity had passed when I chose to do a year-long independent research project, was once again a possibility.  I considered my options and talked it over with my parents, who were more than enthusiastic for me to go.  (My Spring Break was spent in Florida with my family, a very nice week considering I otherwise wouldn't have seen them for an entire year!)  Coincidentally, just about the time I started thinking about this again there was an information session for the Institute for Study Abroad (IFSA), an organization which connects with foreign schools and sets up integrated semester and year study programs for American students.  The benefit of going through a third-party program like this is that many of the administration details are taken care of, and an American transcript is provided at the end of the program.  Originally, I was considering Australia or New Zealand as my destination.  (At this point my options were either Germany or an English-speaking country; although Mom was confident that my French would return quickly enough should I choose to go there, I was less sure.)  The only problem with a southern-hemisphere university was the schedule: their second semester begins in mid-to-late July, and the German internship I had applied for didn't end until July 31st.  So, after much back=and-forth with both my internship coordinator and the Institute for Study Abroad, narrowing it down to the United Kingdom and then researching the course options at each of the universities, I decided on the University of Edinburgh in Scotland as my program of choice.  I quickly found the class equivalents I would need to fulfill my remaining degree requirements and got them approved by the Mechanical Engineering undergraduate coordinator and department chair.  I spent a day running around to all the other departments acquiring signatures of approval for other courses for distribution requirement credit and handed in all of my forms, just in time for the deadline as usual.  There was a brief scare when none of my paperwork seemed to have gone through by a week after the program deadline - it turned out that there was an unexpected death of someone on the IFSA staff which threw a wrench in the works.  Everything was soon sorted out and my application sent off to Scotland while I finished up my spring semester, fortunately with much less stress and more sleep than the fall had produced.  Spring Exam period was relatively relaxed, but as three and then four weeks went by without any word from Edinburgh I began to get anxious.  However, as God is wont to do, as soon as I (finally) prayed about it I received an email the next morning expressing the congratulations of the IFSA staff on my acceptance into the fall 2012 program.  I'm still not sure if it's really sunk in that I won't be at Princeton for the fall, but I am truly looking forward to the break in many ways.  While a good friend of mine earnestly encouraged me to take a year off to travel instead of replacing one of my semesters at Princeton, I think I will be glad of my choice.  While I love my school, it has really worn me out (or perhaps, the way I have chosen to do it has worn me out) and, more than any other year, I am very close to the class of 2012 and Princeton won't feel the same without their presence.  Studying abroad for a semester is a form of escape for me, for good or bad, but I intend to take full advantage of the opportunities afforded me by the experience.

So, now that you know what I'm doing for the fall I should probably also tell you what and why I'm abroad for the summer.  After last summer in Germany, which certainly had its ups and downs, as those of you who read my blog know, I was enamored with the country and the culture.  My one goal this summer was to get back to Germany somehow, and preferably without having to do research again.  By the time I started seriously looking for internships at Christmas break, most of the deadlines for Princeton programs (the German Summer Work program, the International Internship Program) had passed.  My heart was beginning to sink until I came across a program through the Keller Center for Engineering Entrepreneurship called the Ruhr Fellowship.  This program lasted for the months of June and July and consisted of one month of language and cultural exposure (tours of the local university, excursions to various companies) followed by a one-month internship in an engineering company.  This being exactly what I was looking for (an industry internship in Germany) I immediately applied, although I hedged my bets with another internship or two as well.  This made things interesting for a while.  I applied to an online math tutoring job, figuring that perhaps I could do that in my spare time even with another internship.  I hadn't noticed that this was a year-round position, and so was quite surprised when the company contacted me right away for an interview and subsequently with a contract.  I momentarily considered taking the job in place of one of my campus employment positions, but it didn't pay as well as any of them and would have ended up not being as flexible as I would have needed, so I politely declined their offer, saying I might contact them in the summer if I became more available.  I am considering reaching out to them now even just to say that because of my sporadic internet connection and the time difference, I won't be able to do anything this summer either, just to keep my word.  We'll see.  The other internship I applied to was LeadAmerica, a sort of selective summer conference for bright and promising high school students.  I was also accepted to this position, surprisingly enough (after my first ever phone interview went astonishingly well), the catch being that they wanted a final answer about a week before I heard about my acceptance to or rejection from the Ruhr Fellowship.  It was a season of learning business etiquette and how to be tactful.  I ended up calling the director of LeadAmerica and personally asking for an extension on the deadline (again, on the advice of Danielle and one of the career counselors); he was so impressed at my courtesy that he granted it with no problems.  A few days after that I heard for sure that I had been selected as a Ruhr Fellow and called the director back, a little apologetically, to tell him the REAL reason why I couldn't accept his offer.  He was very gracious about the whole thing and told me he didn't blame me a bit for choosing Germany, wished me the best of luck and asked me to remember LeadAmerica in the future should I ever need summer employment again.  I am sure blessed!!

All this was also because the Ruhr Fellowship program was originally scheduled for June 1-July 31, and I was looking into possibilities for August.  As plans continued to unfold, however, I learned that Princeton's Commencement (Graduation) ceremony was held June 5.  The paperwork I began to receive from the Ruhr Fellowship seemed to indicate that the start date was not yet set in stone; crossing my fingers, I wrote "June 5" as my available date to leave the US.  When I noticed another place to indicate interest in extending the internship portion of the program, I quickly filled in that as well, though I had not at this point ruled out studying abroad in New Zealand as a possibility.  Though I had discussed my need for a later start date with the people in the Keller Center and gotten a green light, the program director in Germany was less than enthused and for a while it seemed that she might revoke my acceptance, though when I agreed to extend my internship to August 24th it appeased her and she continued to welcome me.

So now the plan was to stay at Princeton through graduation, fly out as soon as possible (the evening of Commencement) to Germany, where I would stay until the end of August.  Orientation in Edinburgh begins September 5 - that gives me approximately 2 weeks to get from Germany to Scotland (I worked it so that I would have enough time to tour leisurely through Europe, though I wouldn't quite have enough time to make a return to the States worth my while).  Although this means I won't see my homeland for a whopping seven months straight, it opens up exciting new opportunities to travel to places I haven't yet seen.  As of now I haven't planned anything concrete, but I have vague notions of meandering through the Netherlands and Belgium before dropping down to France (Paris for 2-3 days, perhaps?) and zipping under the English Canal to the United Kingdom, where I will continue to take my leisure through the rolling English countryside, nonchalantly arriving in Edinburgh on the correct day.  Regardless of how it actually pans out, I'm sure it will be an adventure.

Speaking of adventures, now I'm off to have a few more so I can tell you about them later... we'll get to Germany eventually, I promise ;)

Junior Year

Well, here I am again.  Off on another international summer adventure.  I guess I have something against staying in the US when I'm not in school?  Anyway, this adventure is looking to be even bigger and grander than the last, and I'm quite excited.  Keeping the tradition of previous years, I'll give you a quick overview of my activities in the intervening year, as well as my lessons from last summer, before diving into my chronicle of the present adventures.

So, this year was another busy one for me, but then again, they all are. :P  Looking back I'm not quite sure what possessed me, but for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to do my thesis/independent work requirement this year instead of next.  Granted, I got to work on a really cool project, and the professor is really nice as a friend, but it was a difficult experience and I struggled a lot during the year.  The professor was visiting for the year from California Polytechnic Institute at San Luis Obispo (CalPoly for short) and teaching a class in the fall about autonomous robots.  Since that's my main area of interest within mechanical engineering, of course I wanted to take the class.  Unfortunately, it directly conflicted with my Mechanical Design course, which I was not allowed to delay until next year.  So, I asked Dr. Clark if he had any research projects going which he wanted undergraduate help with, since I didn't want to pass up this opportunity to learn from an expert in the field.  He replied that he wanted students for two projects: cistern mapping in Malta and shark tracking in California.  Of the two, sharks sounded more interesting, so I volunteered to work on that project and have this professor as my advisor.  After much finagling, I got ahold of my departmental advisor and he told me how to get the project counted for credit, and I was delighted when the undergraduate coordinator for mechanical engineering informed me that this project would fulfill my independent work requirement for the department (read: I don't have to do a thesis next year).

The project was using an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV, it looks like a torpedo) equipped with acoustic telemetry to track organisms underwater.  Apart from all the technical jargon, it works by catching a shark (or fish) and clipping an acoustic tag to it.  This tag sends out a signal (beep) at a certain frequency every few seconds.  The AUV is equipped with hydrophones (acoustic receivers) which pick up on this signal.  Since there are two of them, it determines the direction the signal came from using the difference between when each of the hydrophones received the signal.  It can only do this in a single plane (not 3-D) and cannot distinguish between the two sides of the robot, so we adjust our driving pattern to figure out whether the tag is on the left or the right.  The professor has been working on this project for a couple of years, so they had already implemented this system for a single AUV and were now looking to extend it to multiple AUVs.  This, of course, introduces difficulties such as sharing information between the robots (we installed a modem on each robot so they could communicate), controlling them so that they work together to provide the maximum amount of information, and designing a motion planner so that they don't run into each other.

I was shy about the coding aspects of the project, since I had never taken a computer science class past the introductory one, and so I volunteered to do what sounded easiest, which was to verify and refine the sensor model for the receivers, and build a new frame for the hydrophones.  I did the first part during the fall semester, and learned a lot about self-directed work in the process (namely, that I should have tried harder to work on it during the entire semester instead of leaving it all until Christmas break when my advisor wasn't available).  I had a really hard time with the report, as well, since I had never really written anything of this magnitude before (73 pages!) and was unclear on the format.  In retrospect, it was a terrible paper, particularly since I didn't really understand what I was doing and my advisor told me five days before the report was due to redo all of my results because my method didn't make any sense.  When I did it the way he wanted, the results got worse compared to the default method, which changed all of my conclusions and sent me scrambling to explain why I spent all semester doing something that hurt instead of helping.  I also had a poster session the first week back which I completely bombed, because I had no idea how to make a poster in the correct format, chose to hand-make it instead of printing and left it until the last minute.  I was 20 minutes late to the 1-hour poster session and my poster was smaller than the minimum requirement.  Despite all that (and it was rough, let me tell you) I got a B- for the semester, but I vowed to learn from my mistakes and do better in the spring.

This worked slightly, but since the system I needed to test didn't come in until after Spring Break and my advisor had a couple of poorly-timed conferences to attend near the end of the semester, I still found myself in serious crunch and had to reach out to my friends for help with the experiments I needed to run (since they required holding the tag and receivers 50, 100, and 150 meters away from each other, I obviously couldn't do them by myself, not to mention transporting all the materials the 1.5 miles from the E quad down to the lake).  But the members of the Princeton Evangelical Fellowship once again showed themselves to be amazing and I had no less than five separate people come help me gather all my data.  The second-semester report was much more professional and polished than the first, but there were still some serious flaws.  I attribute at least some of my poor experience to the lack of feedback I received; to illustrate, consider that though I sent my advisor a draft of my report three weeks before the deadline (even though I hadn't done any of my experiments yet O.o) and he promised to read it, he forgot and I didn't know that until 5 days before the due date when he asked why I hadn't sent him any thing yet.  Regardless, my poster was also much better (properly sized and completed on time), though in the 2.5-hour poster session I only talked to about 4 professors (25% of your semester grade for the project comes from the grades assigned by the professors at the poster session, less the highest and lowest grades). All told, I ended up getting a B for the second semester, which I thought a rather small grade increase for the additional amount of work I put into the project for the spring :P

All was not lost, however.  Through this experience I have discovered that I do not do very well with self-directed independent work; I much prefer to be given small, concrete tasks to complete and to be regularly supervised.  I suppose that's a good thing to know for next year when I'm looking for a job I'll enjoy.