Week 1 - Bonn, Aachen, and Heidelberg

Classes started this past week, and boy they started.  As engineering majors, we never really have "syllabus week" - we just jump on in.  I can already tell signals and systems is going to be my most challenging class.  So far it's basically solving circuits, but it's pretty tricky.  History of medicine is really interesting, and I think it's tied with physiology for my favorite class.  We started physiology with the cardiovascular system, and I am really liking it.  It definitely shows that in the future I might want to specialize in cardio.  Tuesdays and Thursdays are very long days because I have my live web-streamed differential equations lecture from 7:30-9:00 pm...it's rough.  Needless to say, life just got a bit more stressful, but it actually makes me feel more at home.  I like being back in the routine of going to my classes and learning new material.

Friday, everyone in the program went to Aachen - a city in western Germany, on the Belgian border. We toured the Charlemagne museum and the beautiful Aachen Cathedral which allegedly holds the remains of Charlemagne.  It was breath-taking to walk in and see gold and stained glass everywhere. (I have attached a picture of the main altar and Charlemagne's sarcophagus.)  For lunch, a group of us went to a brauhaus, and I had this awesome jagerschnitzel (schnitzel with mushroom sauce).  Then for dessert we bought an Aachen specialty - "printen" - a chocolate covered gingerbread.  Delicious. Finally, we went to meet with Enmodes, which is the main reason we went to Aachen.  Enmodes is a biotech company that we'll be working with this semester for our medical device design class.  We all had to sign non-disclosure agreements and intellectual property agreements, which honestly made me feel pretty special.  Although no one can discuss the specifics, we will be working on an ECMO device (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation), which is basically an artificial lung outside of the body.  I'm so excited.

On our first free weekend to travel, a group of us decided to go to Heidelberg, Germany.  It was an adorable small, typical German-looking town!  We toured the University student prison, walked around the city, played in more snow, toured the castle, toured the pharmacy museum, and hiked the philosopher's walk.  DISCLAIMER: The philosopher's "walk" is NOT a walk.  It is a hike up many, many stairs.  The view was worth it, but it was definitely a work out.  Sunday morning, Claire and I went to mass in Heidelberg Cathedral, and it was amazing.  Then we toured the cathedral's museum, grabbed some lunch, and caught our train back to Bonn.  It was a fun and successful first weekend of planning, staying in a hostel, traveling, and just navigating Europe in general!

Tschuss!