Race Car

I expressed interest last week in the Formula SAE race team here- Dr. Callis but me in touch with the captain.  I met him at the University Des Sarlandes campus to see the car and talk to him about their group.

The team competes in the electric race-car competition and has a pretty cool car.  They definitely have a lot of problems to overcome for this year's design and build.  As I was seeing the car part of me wanted to be a part of the team, but the other part was afraid to go down the rabbit hole.  I could see it getting real ugly and time consuming.

The captain was really nice, though, and understood my indecision on commitment to the group.  He agreed to put me on the email list and will let me know when they kick-off the year.  I think I will try to help in any non-committal fashion.

Also, the lab had a really cool 7 or 8 gear transmission built and spliced by ZF:

Klettern

This week I joined the local climbing gym in the hopes I'll get exercising more often.  The gym is pretty massive and has a great set up:

If all goes well I'll be spending a couple days a week here.  My first day back was pretty rough, but I had fun.

German Music

In Germany, most Germans assume that Americans have never heard their music, or that we only know the band Rammstein, which was a surprisingly popular "death metal" band.  Both of these assumptions are mostly true. SO, here is a popular song from a popular band with the youth:

Schwenken

On Saturday all of the HTW internationals were invited to one of the office's student aid's house for a Schwenken party.  Schwenken is a Saarlandish grilling experience where you build a fire and schwenk "swing" meat over the heat. This is an example set up:

The host lived really far away.  We had to take a train for 30 minutes; on the train we were joking that we were going to a cabin in the woods, or something.  Once we got out, we were picked up in a few rounds and taken to the house- it was down a dirt road in the woods!

Us wandering before the ride showed up:

Short car ride later, we found paradise in the backyard:

Everyone (12 people) brought food and the dad grilled it for us.  It was a really nice time hanging out around the fire.  The Schwenken set up was awesome- the grill came down through the roof by a wench.  We were all very impressed.

I brought pineapples and onions; it went over well with everyone. Only one other person had previously experienced grilled pineapple, which is one of the greatest things ever.

Chaos. German Style.

While I was still in Cologne my roommate shared this ad with me:

In the past weeks of gotten to experience first hand some of the troubles associated with "German Bureaucracy."  Registering my change of address with the city and my bank, enrolling in classes, gaining access to computer systems, and even playing soccer with the University have each required a small mountain of paperwork.

Germans seem to love the idea of paperwork and signature-verified records of everything.  In a country obsessed with order, I'm good to know that the Commerzbank Group can still get a little crazy with their paperclips.

First Day of School

Unfortunately, after Death Run 2014 I got sick (actually sick).  I hadn't felt 100% healthy before the run, and the exercise definitely exacerbated whatever was going on.  I was out of bed or off the couch for less than 2 hours in total between Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.  The only thing I accomplished, besides finishing 8 movies, was creating an incomplete schedule for my classes/labtime:

Monday is the only day without classes- so the plan is to devote it to working (reading/brainstorming) in the wind lab.

Today, Tuesday, I didn't quite make it to my first class, but I made it to Kraftwerktechnik, which was an interesting experience (count the commas!).  The class is supposed to combine thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, electrical engineering, and heat transfer to practical applications within power generating plants (e.g. a raffinery, biogas, nuclear, coal, etc.).  The only problem is that the lecture is entirely in German and that I didn't really follow anything that happened.

After many introductions in Germany, I think I can safely say I've nailed my elevator talk in German. Jourdan Beaumont, 22 years old, exchange student, already graduated, mechanical engineer, from new mexico, know the show Breaking Bad? yes, that is my city. I'm excited to be here.  The problem with a strong start is that people then assume that you know what's going on.  It's worsened when you instinctively make eye-contact and nod- or when you mumble "alles klar" every time someone (the teacher) directs a question at you.  In the three hours of the class, apart from my intro, I think I said "alles klar" twice, "was?" once, and "uhhh yah" once as well.

This was unfortunate because the class is discussion based and only has 10 students.  The professor seemed very friendly and happy to be a teacher- I'm wishing I was 100% fluent already.  Hopefully I'll still be able to get something out of the class.

Funny things:
- one of the most common used words sounded very close to "Englisch" which really threw me off. I'm excited to try and figure out what word the teacher kept actually saying

- a couple different times we would all be sitting and then everyone would start frantically making calculations on their page- I hadn't even caught that a question was asked.  I bluffed and scribbled gibberish and used my phone to translate words-- everyone else was using theirs to look up equations/material properties.

Cool things:
- class was held in his lab, it looks like he has build a small scale power plant including a feed water heater (furnace) system.

- a kid was hungry, so he gave everyone a break until whenever that kid could get to the cafeteria, eat, and come back (about 20 minutes)

- everyone raps their knuckles on the table to end class

-----------------------------

After the class I went to the wind lab to start reading about wind turbines.  My lab mates are very friendly and persuasive- they used the "three guys here, only three beers left" logic to get me to have a drink with them (in the lab).  I found out that all three of us did Co-op programs during our Bachelors within Energy.  One guy worked within a coal mine (he loved it) and showed me pictures where he was completely black (reminded me of Zoolander).  Every male in his family has worked in the mines, some 1000 m below the surface, since 1860.  They closed in 2012.  The other guy worked in a power plant and also on the massive windfarms in the north sea.

I am looking forward to working more with them.

"Jetz haben wir einen kleinen Berg"

Friday I took the bike on the train to school. Between the train and school the chain broke. Rather than go to class, I decided to fix it so I could get home.  It was satisfying being able to make calls to Fahrradreparaturen shops in German. Eventually I found one, but they were too busy to change the chain for me. Luckily, they let me borrow the tool and do it myself.  I felt pretty smug after the whole experience.

Then I went to get my ego checked by running with a 50-60+ year old man.  We met in his office, he was with a student but invited me in.  The kid says to me in English, with noticeable surprise in his voice, "You're going to run with Dr. Calles? You know he is quite fast." I sit on the floor and do some soul searching, "why am I here right now?"

When Dr. Calles is finished, I ask him how many Marathons he has run. "40-50." Perfekt. He asks me the same, I answer with "I ran a half,"  He asks my time and within a second of my response he says, "okay we will run 9 minute miles just like your pace" (His mental math made me a little faster- bad news for me).

We head out over the bridge and along the river for the run.  Now is a good time to mention that I have gained 9 pounds since being in Germany.  I'm not proud, but it's worth mentioning as to give you an idea of my current physique.  As Carhart would say, "WIP- Work in Progress."

At some point along the river we take a left as if to turn around. I'm pretty much dead at this point and think that running all the way to the finish will still be difficult.  Instead, Callis says, "Now we have a small mountain."  I should of quit right then.  Instead, because I can't talk, I just nod and keep grinding.  When we reach the top of the little mountain, Callis takes a hard left onto a trail through the forest.

Callis soon suggest we extend the run to 20km (half marathon).  I muster the strength to yell "Bitte Nein!"  During the remaining period of trail running, I wonder what the chances are that someone would be able to find my collapsed body deep within the damn forest.

Eventually the endorphin hits and I pretty much go brain dead for the rest of the run.  All in all we went a little over 8 kilometers in 45 minutes.  Exactly a 9 minute mile pace for 5 miles.  The guy is good; I am in terrible shape.

Back at the HTW we have a beer and then I go home.  I felt pretty terrible and went to bed at 9 pm.

Das Lebe ist kein Ponyhof

Editorial note: SheiB, Sheiss, Sheiß means "shit." The word is used in the following article as it has been determined necessary to accurately represent the depicted events. 

On Thursday I met with the two professors I will report to while I am at the HTW. Prof. Dr. Müller heads the HTW wind energy research lab, and Dr. Callis is the mechanical engineering department head.

I assumed that our meeting would last perhaps an hour, and that I would pick 4 classes or so to take. I severely underestimated how the day would go and how busy this semester will be.  From 9am-5pm I was with Dr. Callis learning about HTW opportunities. It would be a gross understatement to call him enthusiastic.

We met in the wind lab and got to know each other.  Dr. Callis is "the mad scientist" type and Dr. Mueller is pretty relaxed.  I had drafted a list of classes I was interested in, and together we built a schedule.  With Dr. Callis help, however, the list grew and grew. "JOURDAN YOU WILL LOVE THIS CLAAASS You MUST take it!" Boom- now I have class on Saturday. "Jourdan you said you have welded? You must join this class!" Without warning Dr. Callis yelled "SHEIß!" and left the room. 

During this period, Dr. Mueller explained that I was invited to work in his lab as a research assistant.  I was introduced to the team and given an overview of their main project- building a vertical wind tower.   Dr. Callis eventually returned and we were back adding classes to my schedule (Dr. Mueller is in the background raising his eyebrows as the list grows).  Then, Dr. Callis offers to introduce me to the professors I will be working with- we leave, and promise to be back by 11:00 (I return and 12:30).

***This is when I started thinking about my host dad's favorite quote: "Das Lebe ist kein Ponyhof," which means "Life is no pony farm." Until this point, I had forgotten that I came to Germany for work and study- not the vacation I had more or less been experiencing.***

In the hall two kids wave down Callis asking to have a meeting. He passes his books to me, pulls out his calendar, and pens them in for 1pm.

We then speed-walk all over campus to meet professors Dr. Callis wants me to know. He negotiates my seat in several classes and on several field trips.  I wish I would of worn a hidden camera. The teachers had no idea what was coming for them, and Dr. Callis was, for lack of a better word, was somewhat intense.  On my tour, I also got to see a really cool engine lab, and I'm pretty sure my participation in the lab was promised to someone.

Here is a brochure for an elective we stopped to look at:

During this period a professor walked up and then Callis introduced me. The professor was super excited that I was from the US and knew English and immediately started pitching a class to me.  Luckily, I had a conflict. But, this guy was determined, so he instead penciled me into his Masters class on vehicle technology and exclaimed "Now I can teach it in English! I love having a reason to use English." I then thought, damn, that sounds kind of binding. So now I'm in vehicle technology... maybe.

 Soon after this, we are walking to Callis office when he yells "SheiB!" and smacks me in the chest:

"What are you doing in March!!?!?"

     "I'll be working my Praktikum then..."

"We have a very important seminar you MUST come to"

     "Yeah?" (I sensed the trap, I'd caught on at this point)

"Yes, a group of 20 of us, some from the materials class you are interested in, go on a trip to study 'Material Properties in Slip Conditions' ... on snow particularly"

     "Do you mean skiing?"

"GENAU (EXACTLY!) We are going to Swizerland for a week of skiing! come to my office I'll put your name down."

So, in his office, I found out all about Switzerland.  He also sent emails to put me contact with a professor who does bicycle technology research, and the captain of the Formula SAE race-car team. Also:

"Do you like sports?"

Trap. but, "Yes"

"I host a small running club- do you want to come tomorrow?"

"I can't I have class"

"When?"

Hmmm... lie? Damn, I can't... "Noon to 4:30"

"Then we will run in the morning, I'll let people know"

I think to myself, "I'll get out of this later."

It is 12:30 now. Someone knocks. "NEIIIIINNNNN!!!!" Yells Callis. Someone knocks again- mumbles are heard from without. 

"SHEIB!" Callis gets up, tells me we'll meet again at 1pm. I tell him he has a meeting with those kids from earlier "SHEIB!!" "Meet after then"

***This story has gotten absurdly long, I'm sorry. It's just that he is probably the most eccentric person I've ever met***

Compressed remaining timeline: Go back to Wind lab. Talk to Dr. Mueller. Find out that he wants 10-20 hrs a week out of me to figure out how to manufacture the wind turbine's blades. We go the the cafeteria and he buys me lunch and tells me about his life/research.  I go back to Callis.  I use excellent excuse and he counters with "We'll run in the afternoon, I'll be waiting for you at 4:30." Check-mate I guess I'm running Friday. We talk about something else for awhile, he shows me a lot of stuff, calls a lot of people and says my name, and then I'm kicked out. I go back to wind lab and am set up on the computers.  Everyone in the lab has a beer, I'm offered a beer of a cappuccino- Germany is cool in this regard. Day is over. 5pm.

Back in Kleinblittersdorf, I relay the craziness of the day back to my host family.  Host dad responds with, "Per aspera ad astra," which is Latin for, "A rough road leads to the stars."

And then later I find this book and picture and think, compared to our cats, I've had a pretty decent day:

Stadt Rundfunk Visit

Waiting at my train stop in Saarbruecken.  The red brick and fog is pretty standard:


On Wednesday we visited the Stadt Rundfunk office (public radio and television).  Germany has an interesting set up with public radio and television. Every state is required to have a provider that is completely separated from advertising and government monetary influence- it's supposed to be for the people by the people.  To fund the services, every one in Germany who lives in a permanent dwelling, regardless of whether or not they have a TV or Radio, must pay a monthly bill directly to the programming group.

The Stadt Rundfunk office is located on top of one of the mountains (steep hills) in Saarbruecken.  We were given tours by higher-ups at the station- it was really cool.

We were taken into the symphony hall, where a philharmonic was recording a performance for a future radio broadcast.  We sat in for 5-10 minutes and got to listen to them play.  Some of the Erasmus and international students (from Jordan and France) had never heard a live symphony before. For the rest of the day, all they could talk about was how it gave them chills and that desperately needed to buy tickets for a show while they were here.

We also went into the studio for the nightly news. Our tour guide explained to us the nuances of lighting design (300+ lights required to create the correct effect) and camera positioning.  I enjoyed the behind the scenes perspective and being in the vicinity of 1,000,000 euros worth of video equipment.

After the video tours, we went to the radio DJ's recording studio.  We walked in during a back-to-back song segment to briefly talk with the DJ, but we ended up staying much longer.  The DJ was extremely hilarious, jaded, and professional.  She would be joking with us a

bout how she hated the music she played and that the grunts in the basement had the real power- until a song ended. Almost mid-sentence, she would signal for all 20 of us in her office to be quiet, quickly put her headphones on, and then deliver her spiel. Example:

"Those grunts make me play Taylor Swift, well actually people actually-" *Puts hand up to silence us*

German: "Ladies and gentleman that was Taylor Swift with her newest single Shakkeeeee itt offfff. Next up we have Ryan Adams- don't forget to call in for our prize giveaway afterwards!" *flips of microphone*

"Ugh prize giveaways can be such a disaster..."

I was left with the impression that I could never do radio.

And then we visited the youth radio DJ.  "It's pretty much the exact same thing, except hip music and the DJ uses informal 'du' form instead of formal 'sie' form."

The DJ was also really cool, and let us hang out while he did some transitions and program highlights.  He did a bit covering the German national soccer teams tie against Ireland.  The DJ caught a flub from Lukas Podolski in the aftergame interview and was brutal in making fun of him.

Background: Podolski is famous for saying, "Football (soccer) is like chess, only without the dice"

This time Podolski was accidentally optimistic about his upcoming game against "Giblatar" - instead of "Gibraltar." The DJ isolated the flub and played it on repeat for a good few seconds.

Sunday Fun

On Sunday, host dad wanted to go on a bike ride to show me a mill he likes in France near Sarreguemines.  Fabian and I accompanied him (chased after him).  It was a "healthy" pace.

 but never too fast for biking selfies

First break was at a Casino that he really likes.  He had wanted to get married in the building, but it didn't work out.

 Apparently the region used to be famous for painted tiles like this one:

Second break was at this awesome cruise-liner-replica a French man built.  He took one of the old standard Saar-ships and by himself converted it into a cruise-line look alike.  IF you notice the door, car, and person, you will get an idea of how big it is.

Destination, Mill:

We stopped and caught our breath.

Sidebar: When the two house cats are behaving poorly, they get squirted with water. Recently, host dad has started joking I will get the same treatment if I forget the word-of-the-day he teaches me.

Word of the day: Weberknecht "Daddy long leg"
    Weber= weaver. pronounced Vaybuhr
    Knecht= Servant

On the way back I took this photo of an abandoned mill:

We stopped and grabbed coffee in Sarreguemines. Sunday is not a good day to grab coffee in Sarreguemines- the only shop open was a hole-in-the-wall bar.  The other customers there and the waitress reaffirmed every bad French stereotype.

In French (Host dad can survive in French, Mom is 100% fluent):

"What will you" ***Takes a drag from cigarette*** "have?"

"Three cafe-au-lait, please"

"Three?" ***takes another drag***

"uh, yes"

***Another drag and then another and then another until she is finished, while standing at the table and looking at us***

Everyone took her lead and began smoking like it was there last chance. The lady next to us was one bright idea away from having her 17 month-year-old baby hold her cigarette for her.

When it came time to pay the bill, we waited for 15 minutes but never saw the waitress. Eventually host Dad mustered up the courage and went inside.  The waitress was watching horse races on TV.

Buttttt, the coffee was great and we had a laugh.

We got back to find someone had killed the cats:

 Actually, they were just "dead tired."

I worked more on my paper and then eventually came back upstairs for dinner.  My host Mom is a professional grade cook.

Saturday

     My host mom's brother had special-needs, the experience of taking care of him and finding things for him to do led to her other brother creating a farm and crafts-work institute for peoples with disabilities.  The institute serves over a hundred individual and employs a something like 40 care-takers and administrative persons.  All of our conversations about this have been in German so everything isn't perfectly clear, however, I think I will be volunteering with the group in some capacity as part of my PPP 80hrs requirement.  I think I will understand the situation fully then.

That being said:

Every year, the group collects apples and turns them into apple juice to sell.  My family picked up 10 cases this year- I went with my host dad to pick them up.

While we were waiting around my host-dad showed me this awesome ancient chapel on the property that was renovated a couple of years ago.  I believe he said it was 600 years old.

After waiting around for awhile, we realized we were in the wrong part of the farm.  We drove to the source.  All of those green boxes have 6-8 liters of Apfelsaft each- we got 10 of them (supply for one year).

Germany integrates solar energy into a lot of buildings, the barn was no exception.

688,504 kWh produced. An average German home takes around 3,500 kWh/yr (US 11,500 kWh/yr). That's about one years worth of energy for 196 houses potentially powered by this installation- that's kind of cool! and there are tons more of installations elsewhere.

I spent the rest of the Saturday writing a report on the German Energiewende.  Convenient topic given the field trip I had that morning.

And then in the evening I talked up Auburn football to the whole fam.  I promised them spectacle, one-sided Auburn dominance, and the most beautiful sporting experience they'd ever see.  Instead, we got to watch the German national team and Auburn lose simultaneously.

Eventually we went full-screen with football. My host brother stayed up for the whole game (1:30am) as emotional support.  It was a very nice gesture because I could tell he had no interest in the game.

SAAR Free Museum Day for the Month

First thing first, this is the main reason I wake up every morning:

This machine is more advanced than most smart phones.

SAAR HISTORY MUSEUM

For the past two weeks I've been going to the HTW for an intensive German course with other international students (Erasmus students).  Last Thursday, we all went to a museum on the history of Saarland, in the basements of the Saar Castle.  The castle has existed in one form or another for around 1000 years.  All of the exhibit signs were in German and French, which means I wasn't able to understand everything very well. Also, it's been over a week since I went there- here's what I understood and remember (I think):

The castle has seen several major renovations as it changed hands throughout its long history (Germany, France, Empire, etc.).  In the 1930/1940's it was in a French Chateau style.  Something something something and then they did some excavation... and they found the remains of the old Castle beneath the Chateau.

The entire underworkings of the Chateau were excavated and now part of the Museum.  I got to walk around and this was the only place I could take pictures. 

 At some point, this was a cannon position within the fort.  It is weird to see it, because it currently points at a wall from a more recent time.  Additionally, everything you are seeing is about 20-40 feet below he current day soil line (I guess over a 1000 years they have filled in the castle hill with a lot of dirt).

Within a different part of the basement/catacombs/maze beneath the Chateau is the Saar history musuem (no photos).

Saarland 1900-2000

This part of the museum was really interesting and made me wish my German was better. Perhaps I'll go back at the end of my stay here.

Saarland has switched between France, itself, and Germany something like 8 times in 200 years (5 times since 1900).  The museum's purpose is to tell the story of the Saar from 1900- present day, which includes a lot of history.  Here are the things that caught my attention:

1. Saarland used to be a large manufacturing and industrial capital.  Lots of the steel/iron/coal that two wars required came from Saarland.  This means in both wars it was heavily attacked and defended.

2. From 1920-1935 Saarland was to some degree controlled by France.  In 1935 the people, who were ethnic Germans, voted to return to Germany. At the time it looked like 2 years of Nazi Socialism would be good for the economy.

3. NS reintegrated Saarland. Saarbruecken was the capital.  The city theater (quite beautiful) was build for/because of Hitler (this was some advanced German, but the pictures supporting the text corroborate this clam).

4. NS took over the Schloss as the Gestapo headquarters.  This was actually a very hard part of the museum to walk through- the curators had done a great job to remember the victims of Gestapo ethnic cleansing.  In one of the cells of the Chateau, victims destined for Concentration camps were held.  While stuck in the cells, they scratched their names, birth dates, homes, or current condition into the walls, in the hope someone in the future would see them.  The markings have been preserved, and the museum has found the stories for many of the people whose names they could make out. The stories of each person, their scratched message, and photos of them are built into many o the displays surrounding this portion of the musuem.

5. The rest of WWII was intense as well.  It showed some of the bombings, evacuation of cities, and atrocities of war.

6. The period after WWII of Saar independence included a lot of information about the region rebuilding itself and the manufactured products that made them famous (including tobacco and pop-art).  Another interesting portion was a room full of political posters associated with major Saarland referandums and elections.  "We've seen the fruit of Nationalism once before" was a common theme- the region was very hesitant to support radical political ideas, etc.

Dorf Life

 Dorf means village.  Village means really small.  So small, that everyone knows everyone, which is really cool.

On my first day here, my host mom saw her friend as we were approaching the house and invited her to coffee (an afternoon kick).  We sat and drank coffee and I got to meet the friend.  She was super friendly and insisted I join her husband for soccer practice that night with the "Old Men's" team.  Sure enough, at 6:30 he was outside and we went and played soccer together.  Every day I am here I see more and more friendly connections like this one.

This past weekend the Dorf had its annual fest to celebrate a good harvest (I think, based on old church tradition).  They set up in the square (75yds x 75 yds) with a tent for food and beer, as well as tables to stand around and talk in.  Tucked in different parking lots were different rides. Well, actually, just this one:

 And "Box Autos" :

Kleinsblittersdorf is very friendly and it creates a noticeably different environment than my previous living situation in Cologne (more family oriented and social).

And here is "the main drag" :

My host family goes to the catholic church shown above- I am excited to go with them next week.

My host mom is a really awesome cook.  I feel like a giant 22 year old baby eating real, home-cooked meals again.  Especially when I go double-down on dessert:

This last week, I got to fulfill a lifelong dream by playing on clay-tennis courts with my host brother:

Back in Saarbruecken:

I think I know how I will make millions while I am here in Germany: onesie-pajama import/export business:

On Tuesday I borrowed a bike and road to German class. In Saarbruecken I passed this awesome park/water-feature built from the remains of an old industrial building by the river:

And here is what France, between Kleinblittersdorf and Saarbruecken, along the bike path, looks like:

The 13km ride in the morning and afternoon was very enjoyable despite the wet weather.