Day 8 - May 22 2018 - Interviewing in Germany

Good afternoon,

Today, after a weekend full of traveling, it was back to the classroom. In the morning, the class was challenged with a problem-solving exercise involving water and sewage drainage control in an area just north of Philadelphia. The teams were tasked to define the problem that needed to be solved, lay out our own criteria and what we needed to learn about the issue, then dive into research and actually designing a solution. The problem-solving exercise allowed for the class to really go through the steps that an actual engineer would go through when a problem does come up. The problem needs to be defined, and criteria set and then go through the options that are available for that area. Tomorrow the teams will present the final products of their design so it will be interesting to learn what other people thought of.

Figure 1: Students hard at work on the problem solving exercise in the classroom

In the afternoon, after some discussion on the presence and type of energy existing around the world over the course of time, the class was tasked to interview Berliners which consisted of multiple assignments to increase the interactions between the students and the Berlin population. The first assignment that my group did was to walk down a street and say hello to everyone we passed. After passing about 20 people and getting one hello back and multiple confused and angry glances, it was time to move onto the next task of asking for directions.
We walked to a park that was about a 10 min walk from our classroom and searched for people that wouldn't mind helping us. We spotted a girl about our age on a bench who was writing in a notebook. We asked for directions to the nearest metro station and she was very helpful with her verbal directions. In our task, it said to play dumb and ask for more clarity in order for more interactions but I felt dumb playing dumb when her directions were so clear so I thanked her and moved onto the next task.
The last task was to ask someone about their day and ask them about their routine. After feeling a little hungry and hot from the weather and walking around, we decided to stop into an ice cream shop and ended up talking to the vendor owner there. He was an Italian guy who lives in Berlin for most of the year and Italy for the winter months. We talked with him for a bit about how he likes living here and how his routine typically goes. He talked about the different people he interacts with on a daily basis and that his life is just running the ice cream shop. Sensing that he was becoming a little uneasy with all of our questions, we decided to start to head back to our apartment, discussing our interactions throughout the day and since the beginning of our trip.

Figure 2: The group enjoyed ice cream after a day of talking to the locals

About the Author:

Allyson Cleary is a rising Senior Civil Engineering student from Alton, New Hampshire. Some of her hobbies include climbing mountains and petting all the dogs.