This week we had german class in the morning, and then after lunch we had our seminar class, so this was a very eventfull week.

Monday we went to the schools lab to try and pressure test some bricks. Their facilities was amazing compared to the ones I’m used to at DTU. Everything was modern and looked pretty new, at DTU everything is basically from the 1970’s. We tested a brick with holes in it, where the holes were filled with insulation, and it held up for much more force than anticipated. We also tested a block of concrete that a student was working on as a part of a master thesis. It was crazy strong. I can remember what the concrete was needed for, but the mixture he had made was really strong (especially compared to the one with the holes in it).

After school Anne, Molly, Javiér and I went into the town of Darmstadt to try and find a bag we could use next week, where we are going to southern Germany for an entire week, so we won’t have to bring everything with us, but just what we need, as the hotel has made a room for us to put our bags in while we are away. We actually managed to find a very nice bag for a reasonable price. Molly and I got the same kind, but in different colour, Anne didn’t need to buy one, as she is German and probably has a bag already. After, we got dinner at a mexican restaurant where they, on mondays, had a dice game when you buy drinks. So you order a drink, roll a die and the number it hits is the price (in euros) that you pay.

Tuesday in our seminar we visited a place called the IWU (Institut Wohnen und Umweld – Intitute for housing and environment). They told us a bit about what they do, and the problems they meet, and the trends in where people lives. We also got a guide to the building which was a old building that was renovated to be very low energy, so we saw the venitlation system and got a lot of knowledge of how they did it.

After that we went to the place where two “Solar decathlon” houses were standing. the solar decathlon is a semi annual event where universities all around the world design a plus energy house (so the house produces more net energy over the year than it uses) and then they compete to win the best design. Germany won the first compitition, and then the policy was that they had a garantied place the next time. The second time, they won again, and then the policy was changed, so they weren’t in the next event.

In the evening we went on a pub crawl, where the german students showed us the best bars in town. Molly and I hadn’t really gotten that much to eat, so in bar number two (the Hobbit, where all the foods and drinks were named after the Lord of the Rings universe) we shared a pizza with Anne. The two first bars we went to we got drinks, but that took too long so the germans decided we only would get shots, and not drinks. I think we went to 6 or 7 bars, where we stayed at the last one (Krone – Crown) and got some drinks and partied until we ended the night. We got home at about 3 AM after walking home, because the trams and busses didn’t drive at that time.

Anne and Molly at the Hobbit

Leerey, Javiér, Mia, Chelsea and Nataliia also at the Hobbit

A meeting room in the old government building

Wednesday we took a trip to a government building, I can’t remember what it exactly was, where we got a presentation where we all were basically sleeping after around 5 hours sleep at best. They also showed us some posters about the environment and energy use and stuff. We got a guided tour around the buildings, which were all very old.

My favorite design

Thursday we played with a competition the school had held, where students had to design a mobile house for a forrest man/hunter, that could be placed in the forrest easily and that wasn’t dependent on outside energy for water and electricity. We had to evaluate the designs and choose our favorite (the students from the same country evaluated together, so Molly, Javiér and I were alone). There was a very large difference in our favorites, I liked the one where the entrance could be folded up to secure the building. The actual winner of the original conpetition was a 3 storeys building which could be pulled upright via pullies and a tree.

In the evening we had another German movie night, where we also got home-made dinner, made by the Germans. Originally the plan had been to make “lokal” food”, so each country would make something from their own country, but we couldn’t get a room with enough kitchen space, so the germans offered to make dinner. The movie was a romance between a guy from Turkey and a german girl.

Getting ready for dinner!

 

Delicious!

 

Playing cards in the park

Friday we had our German exam, where Nataliia left early, because she was so good at it so she didn’t need more time. I needed all the time to finish it. We got the rest of the day off, so I got myself back to the hotel where we relaxed. Molly and I didn’t want to stay home all day and not do anything else, so we contacted the others over facebook and agreed on getting dinner at a local italian restaurant. Afterwards we went to a park close to our hotel and played some cards.

Saturday we went to a climbing park in the outskirts of Darmstadt. We got geared up and got to play for some hours. I could basically only do the two easiest difficulties, both because I lack muscles and coordination, but also because I’m too short for a lot of the more difficult ones. We had so much fun, even though I would wish they had more of the easy tracks for me to do, so I didn’t have to do the same track more than once. The rest of the day was basically relaxing.

Sunday we had a trip to Frankfurt to visit the construction site of the new European Central Bank. We didn’t get to see the site inside the building, but we took a walk around it where we got some info about it as well.
After that it was “free play” time so Javiér, Molly, Mia, Chelsea and I went to a museum where we got a children book (as the nice lady at the counter said we looked under 18 – all of us are over 19 at least, me being 26) to fill out while looking around. The first spot we found was a “try out a knights armer and weigh yourself”, but we just goofed around with the armor taking pictures and having a great time! I think we spent 3 or 4 hours in there.

Me, getting on the armor

The hotness is overwhelming at the construction site!

 

Phew. That was a lot of text and pictures. I might have to make next week into smaller segments, because we go to southern Germany, and have so many things we need to see, so I’ll have a crazy amount of pictures to show.