Steven’s Germany Updates

Cologne and Bonn

This past Monday was the last day in Germany for one of the Americans I’d become friends with through the RISE program, so we decided to take a little day trip.  Since we both live in the same state here, we could use our train passes to go anywhere in the state for free, so we decided to head to Cologne firs t.  We climbed to the top of the Cathedral (just like Christian and I did when Dad came to visit) because my friend hadn’t done that yet, then headed inside the Cathedral.  I was glad we did, because this time they had the area behind the altar open.  Here’s a couple pictures I was able to get of the Shrine of the Magi, the gold-gilt sarcophagus that is traditionally believed to hold the remains of the Three Wise Men, or Three Kings, of biblical times.

After getting our fill of the cathedral, we hopped on the train for the 30-minute ride south to Bonn.   The first thing we did was our main reason for the trip:  we wanted to go to the Haribo factory store in Bonn!  Haribo are widely available in the states, but if you’re not familiar they are the company who developed the original gummy bears that are so popular today.  Here’s a picture:

The store was really cool, with candy everywhere!  We both got what was most likely a little too much candy for our own goods, and I filled some orders that had been placed by friends back in Dortmund (everyone loves Haribo!)  When we had gotten our fill, we headed back to the city center of Bonn to explore a little bit.  Some of the pictures I got can be seen in the album below, and show the United Nations campus in Bonn, the old town hall in the city center, and the home where Ludwig von Beethoven, the famous composer was born.  It was a neat city.

When we had seen enough, we got some ice cream then headed back to the train station.  We stopped back in Cologne on the way home for dinner, where we found a really great traditional German restaurant along the Rhein.  After that, we headed back…it was a fun day!

This week I was busy working.  I found out a couple days ago that the abstract we submitted for a presentation at a conference got accepted.  So, I’m now co-author (along with three others) of a presentation entitled Fabrication of Dimensionally-Correct Sheet Metal Components Directly from T-6 Aluminum Alloys and Airframe Applications….fascinating, I know.  My professor will be giving the presentation at the “Global Innovations in Manufacturing of Aerospace Materials” Symposium at the 2010 TMS (The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society) Annual Meeting and Exhibition in Seattle, Washington, which I should be attending!  In other news, we’re still working on writing the paper that we hope to get published in the journal, and I will be starting some experiments this coming week for my project that I’m working on here.

This weekend I just hung out in Dortmund and didn’t do a whole lot, Dublin was expensive and I need to save money for my trip to Vienna next weekend!  I’m going with Christian, one of Christian’s friends, and his friend’s girlfriend.  We leave Wednesday night after work and come back on Monday night.  We’ll be spending a day and a half exploring the city and the rest of the time at the FM4 Frequency Music Festival, a 3-day music festival that has already sold out of the 150,000 tickets that were available!  It’ll be a busy start of the week getting experiments done, but that should be a great trip!

I also got some exciting news that one of my roommates from back at OSU, Matt, will be coming to visit for ten days in the beginning of September!  He got his plane tickets last night, and Christian and I are both really looking forward to having him come over here!

Anyways,I might put up a small update by Wednesday if there’s time, if not I should be back on here by the middle of next week (sometime around the 25th or 26th).  I hope that you’re all having a great weekend and thanks for reading!  I’m over 1,000 views of the blog so far, which I think is pretty cool!

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Read more of Steve’s blog here: http://stevesgermanytrip.spaces.live.com/blog/

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Where have all the bloggers gone?

With graduations, summer jobs, internships, and REUs, it appears that MSE bloggers have nothing to say!  In reality, they’re gearing up for a return to OSU in month with lots of stories and photos to share.

In the meantime, I thought this post from an OSU Mechanical Engineering student (we like them, too) was fun.  He writes about his first trip to the Ohio State Fair….. deep fried BUCKEYES? Yikes!

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New to the feed

Hello all. My name’s Will Weimer and I’m a MSE freshmen at OSU. I have about one hundred relevant credit hours that came with me from Columbus State. So far, OSU has been a great change. It’s more challenging and much more interesting then C State. I would recommend the transfer to anybody considering it.

This summer ‘09 is my first quarter at the school. I’m taking the Intro to Engineering courses 181-183, and Math 254. The intro courses are really cool, but time management is extremely important as there is a ton of material crammed into two five week term courses. The professors and their teaching assistants are all helpful, friendly, and smart; readily available to help anybody who falls behind or gets confused.

Also, my student advisor, Megan Daniels, with whom I’ve had correspondence for about a year, has been integral in helping me get situated here at OSU. The transfer from CSCC was at times confusing and frustrating, so I would recommend to anybody coming in to consider contacting an OSU advisor relevant to your intended major, even while you’re still attending your first institution. They will help you iron out the wrinkles and make your transition as smooth as possible.

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Career Info on MSE

Sloan Career Cornerstone Center just produced a nice podcast on the Materials field.  Find the mp3 and lots of other good information at their website: http://www.careercornerstone.org/matscieng/matscieng.htm

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My Summer Plans

First, I want to apologize for not posting in a couple of months! The middle/end of Spring Quarter felt like it took all of my energy. Luckily, I am all done and it feels great! I always have a good feeling of accomplishment at the end of the quarter, and especially at the end of the year!

I hope to have a (fairly) relaxing summer. I am taking a chemistry class at Columbus State, which starts on Monday, but that is all of the school that I am doing this summer! I’m also excited to report that I am going to be a Microsoft Student Partner for Ohio State starting this fall! It’s been a couple of years since I had an actual job, so I’m looking forward to that. Other than that, I plan to spend lots of time on our jetski this summer! Below is a picture of my boyfriend driving and me trying not to fall off!

Have a great summer everyone!

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