Sunday, March 30, 2014

I Left My Heart Valve in Aachen

Personal

After finally finishing up most of the Otto Bock presentation, I and a few friends visited the Black Forest. We had a bit of a rocky start trying to get a rental car, but we eventually made our way onto the road. After stopping at a McDonald's for lunch (very American, I know), we finally got to our hostel in Baden Baden. We had an awkward but pleasant interaction with the owners, and the accommodations were very quaint. In the morning, we made our way to Offenburg for breakfast at a café and then strolled through the open market. Our first destination was Triberg where we hiked around the famous waterfalls. We then drive around to Feldberg and Belchen mountains. Our final destination before lodging in Titisee was the Todtnau Falls. While Triberg Falls was beautiful, these waterfalls were breathtakingly tall and magnificent. We hiked up to what we thought was the top but the waterfall seemed to keep going up. The next morning, we lingered at the edge of Lake Titisee and observed the ducks and their odd habits. Finally, we did a tour of Hohenzollern Castle, built by Frederick William IV of Prussia. While it was built somewhat recently, it has very medieval architecture and our experience felt quintessentially German.

Program

This week was very stressful in terms of school work. Since the Otto Bock presentation is this coming Friday, we had to wrap everything up in preparation. Our designs were nailed down and our presentations were evaluated. On Thursday, we had a pleasant break from the project in Aachen where we visited the Department of Cardiovascular Engineering. We had a fascinating tour of the facilities that seemed to excite all the biomedical engineering majors. It gave us an enlightening view into the fun types of things that we might get to do after graduation. We also visited the Aachen cathedral which was gorgeous and unique because of it's octagonal Palatine Chapel of Charlemagne and Byzantine inspiration.

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