The First Week in Germany

 The jet lag was not much fun but it wore off fairly quickly. We started by applying for our german visa's. It was fairly quick, just filling out some paperwork and handing it to the AIB staff. The next thing was a lecture about how to behave with our host families. A few important points about how German culture may differ from American. That afternoon Professor Wasser took us to the House of History which is a museum of german history covering 1945 to 2000. On Wednesday we went on a hike up the Drachenfells. This is one of the hills in the Siebengebirge, the seven hills outside Bonn. The dragon reference comes from an old legend of a warrior that killed the dragon living in the hills and bathed in it's blood. Similarly to the Achilles myth, this made him invulnerable except for one weak point that eventually killed him. After the hike a group of us went to lunch and then met up with another group at a bar. This was my first taste of german beer. On Thursday we started classes; discussion of the project, signals and systems (aka hell on earth) and german. The german teacher seems really nice but we spent most of the class period introducing ourselves rather than learning anything. Friday we went to Aachen to meet the people from enmodes company. We also visited the cathedral which was quite impressive.

Our project is thermoregulation of patients undergoing ECMO treatment. During the treatment the patient's blood is brought out of the body to be oxygenated at which point it loses a substantial amount of heat. We need a method of keeping the blood warm during oxygenation that does not involve heating the patient's skin or warming the room as these are either uncomfortable or impractical.

The weekend was uneventful. I spent most Saturday studying and then in the evening we went out to a bar. I didn't like it much; it was crowded and loud. I bailed early, 10:15, and went home. On Sunday I ran in the morning and then headed into Bonn in the afternoon. I walked along the Rhine for a while then went home. Sunday dinner at the neighbor's house, I met a couple of other American students from Pennsylvania. 

That's about it for the first week.