Sunday, 27 May 2018 Free Weekend

Today concluded our free weekend to explore and travel around Germany. Although we’ve been in Berlin for two weeks, we haven’t seen all the city, so I stayed in Berlin, Germany with a group of my peers. 

We stayed up Saturday night into Sunday morning exploring the night life of Neukolln, one of the boroughs in the southeast of the city. The rest of the day was spent traveling around Berlin trying new food and exploring the city. We’ve found that the street food here is the best place to get German classics and they’re typically open 24/7, which was super convenient on some of our excursions. My favorite part was that none of it was planned, we had no predetermined location, just an idea, an empty stomach, and time to kill. 

We concluded our day at dinner with everyone that was back from traveling. We gathered at the apartments and Dawn “Coach” Noyes led the way to the restaurant. Over dinner people shared stories of museums, culture shocks, nightlife, getting lost, and unplanned adventures. The dinner was a great way to bring us all back together, especially to recap our weekend and share all the memories, it reminded me of Sunday dinners at home when the whole family gets together. Today also marked one week left in our Maymester classes. Most of us couldn’t believe how quickly the time passed and little time we have left here.

Dinner at the restaurant 

Restaurant patio

Rabecca Hucksoll

NUCC, Class or 2021

Electrical and Computer Engineering

27May2018

       Today we went to see the Adlershof, this place is known for its green energy. We started off the day with a presentation of the history the place and then went into all of the statistics of the place. One thing that surprised me was when the question was asked about nuclear energy, our guide said how they were trying to move away from it because they had no reasonable way to dispose of the bi-product.

https://www.adlershof.de/en/the-location/overview/ 

        When we went to go on the tour of the university, the thing that stood out the most to me was how they used solar panels in their designs and how many of them they used. Traditionally I had only ever seen solar panels on top of roofs or in fields. This place used them on the side of their building or even as awnings for windows.

      

      The other part that really stood out to me was their efficiency with heating or cooling and the unconventional ways that they did it. To combat the dorms from getting too hot during the summer they put the shades on the outside of the building so that the sunlight never touched the windows and they could prevent the rooms receiving unwanted heat.

JT Laurion

NU21

Construction Managment 

27May2018

       With the free weekend, I decided to stay in Berlin to try and get to know it from a different perspective. I tried to stay away from the touristy side of it so that I could view it as it was. I went on a run through the city, it was interesting seeing the local architecture and design of the buildings.    After that, I took more of a casual day. I walked around the city taking the subway to different parts that I hadn't been before.

       

       When it got later we went to walk around the city at night. We came across a dance club. When we got in we were met with a totally different type of club than what we are used to in the U.S. It was a local club that only let Berliners in. Luckily, we didn’t have to talk, or we wouldn’t have gotten in. The music was majorly techno and it was hard to adjust to their dance style which consisted of slightly moving your feet and swaying your body back and forth. I am glad I got to experience that, but it was more of a onetime thing for me. 

       After having enough of that experience we were feeling a bit hungry so we walked around the city until we found a street vendor that was still open really good food from a street vendor and then went back to sleep. which luckily we got a good days sleep from that.

JT Laurion

NU21

Construction Management

26MAY2018                                                                                                            Munich, Germany

A Free Weekend

This weekend was adventurous, my friends and I went to Munich. Why Munich? Because Munich is a city where you can experience the Bavarian culture.
We started the day off by going to Olympiapark.

From the Spiridon-Louis-Ring 21 looking out to Olympiapark

Olympiapark was the place where the 1972 summer Olympics were held. A big park with many facilities in good condition. There is a point at Olympiapark where you can look out into the city. The park was massive
and I was thoroughly impressed by how
some structures were held by its unusual placement of wire rope. During the walk through the park, we saw many bike stands for an electric bike (ebike) race. The Olympiapark was defiantly worth going to.

BMW i8 electric car

After the park, we went to the BMW museum and Walt. The BMW museum/Walt reminded me of the Autostadt.except they had cars, motorcycles, electric cars, and jet engines on display. We saw the development of BMW, starting in 1916 as it originally produced aircraft engines. Only in 1923 did they create the first motorcycle and in 1928 produced the first car. BMW was a booming industry, and in WWII was needed for its good aircraft engines. By 1944, BMW created the worlds first jet engine, the Jumo 003. Seeing the engine first hand was remarkable. After WWII, BMW slowly got back into the motorcycle and car industry. Since then it has been growing with new sub-brands such as Mini and Rolls Royce. After visiting the museum we went to the Deutsches Museum, Technology Museum.

Miners being depicted as they determine

how level the surface is

The museum had everything you could possibly want to learn in the sciences. From coal mining to maritime navigation to solar energies, the 8-floor museum building wasn't enough for one day. I made my way to a couple of

exhibits such as the mining exhibit and I was in shock on how in-depth it was. Going through this I saw the methods that were used in going down to the mine, how they transported things through waterways. Having to build the infrastructure to mine before you can start operations underneath was amazing. The equipment necessary below the ground and above was truly one of the most eye-opening experiences. I gained a whole new sense of respect for miners and there hard work in not just mining, but transporting it, communicating and coordinating with machines and people many meters above and below.

After the experience at the Deutsches Museum,

we thought to go to a less mentally exhausting museum. Since we were in Bavaria, we had to go to the Oktoberfest Museum. We learned how Oktoberfest was started in 1810 and its development to

Men in lederhosen playing some traditional

Bavarian music at the Hofbräuhaus     

bringing horse races, Bavarian food, and beer coming together. We also learned that it is a multi-day festival that lasts for 17/18 days. After a hard day of walking around and acquiring new information, we thought to have the most Bavarian dinner we could find. At the Hofbräuhaus, we had some traditional Bavarian food, such as Ox, potatoes, stuffing. It was a good time. Munich has a good amount to offer and its festivals. It reminded me a lot of Vienna, but in its own unique German way. 

Marlon Cammarano

NUCC, Class of 2020

Construction Management 

  

25MAY2018 Kaiser Wilhelm Old Tower and The New Church

What remains of the old church, the entire left side
was leveled and parts of the roof are missing.

Light shines through the blue glass of the new church.

In the middle of a popular shopping district here in Berlin, sits whats remains of a church almost completely destroyed during WWII. On its sides stands a bell tower and new church to serve as a memorial for its destruction. A translated excerpt taken from the minutes of the first meeting following the destruction of the church and provided by the museum read, "The chairman reported as follows: As a result of the raid of 22nd November, 1943 our church has been destroyed and made unusable. In the parsonage, the 4th floor, the roof and the loft are completely burned out and in the parish hall, similarly, the 3rd floor with the meeting-rooms, deaconesses' apartment and the organ blower. After an all-out effort the meeting-hall was sufficiently cleared to make it possible to hold services there on Christmas Eve 1943." This excerpt stuck out to me. Often times, we glorify war in the US because we've never experienced losses like those experienced across Europe during both World Wars. This quote made me feel the pain of those innocent, oppressed, caught in the middle of the war and simply trying to survive. Following the war, the allies refused to rebuild the church because they believed in was a symbol of excessive national pride. Instead, a new church and bell tower were built to serve as a memorial. Inside the church, walls of blue glass amaze church goers and tourists. The modern take on the church by the architects is anything besides what one may expect for a church. Theres no wooden benches, instead, there are rows of single chairs. I sat in one of these chairs for about 10 minutes reflecting on the pain Berliners at the time must have felt after losing so much then having to rebuild as a result of a an evil man who was able to manipulate the people of Germany. Overall, it was an eyeopening experience to see one of the many scars war has left on Germany.

Cracks go through a mosaic on the old church's ceiling as a
result of nearly being destroyed. 

Alaina Sill

NUCC 2021

Mechanical Engineering

Monday, May 21, 2018

21 MAY 18

Today we traveled back to Berlin with some assigned readings to be done and naps to be taken when we got tired of the readings.  We took a train into Cologne where we had a few hours to get lunch and then to a short train to the airport where we took off for Berlin. This wrapped up our first week in Germany and I think that the group is starting to get a sense of the culture. I am looking forward to the upcoming trip to the Volkswagen factor in Wolfsburg this week.  With our weekend traveling trip we were able to see and visit many different places and the Wolfsburg trip will get us out of Berlin again but I think that I am most excited to stay in Berlin and get to explore more of the city.

-Brian Olmstead

Sunday, May 20, 2018

20 MAY 18

Today we traveled to Essen to visit Zollverein mining and coking plant.  This was one of the biggest coal mines in the world used extensively during world war two to power the German war machine.  The plant specialized in excavating, processing, refining coal which was largely used to produce high quality steel on sight.  The plant employed anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 people with most living in houses surrounding the plant, as the city of Essen is located several miles away.

            The plant has been shut down in recent years as the rampant production has removed almost all the coal from the area in about 100 years.  Today it has been converted into a park and museum memorializing the industrial revolution which I thought was fascinating to see the astonishing scope of the facility.  In one area I counted 12 railways in parallel and I don’t think I can imagine the amount of material that can be moved through the facility utilizing this many rail lines.

Photo of the Mining Plant

Photo of Essen from the top of the Plant

Photo overlooking part of the refinery

-Brian Olmstead