(3 minutes or less, I really need to get to class)
I took a physics/mechanics based engineering course on bridges and machines with Calvin profs at TU Berlin in the heart of the city. We also had an extra german culture course for the fun of it… German is an exciting language! I never thought it would be any use to learn it, but it turns out my whole family comes from Germany, and it just so happens to be an engineering capital of the world!
We lived in a former palace for the entire trip, unless we were on an excursion somewhere else in the country. We ventured to the spectacular Klon Cathedral, Wittenberg where the reformation started, Heidelberg where the catechism comes from, a sobering concentration camp, museums about the former soviet and nazi rule, and much much more. I even organized my own trip with a few others out to Hamberg to see the largest model train exhibit in the universe. Speaking of which, everywhere we traveled, we rode high-speed ICE trains, 170mph through the countryside… you can imagine I went wild.
At the end of the trip we actually had a free week to explore elsewhere in Europe, so naturally we summited a mountain outside of Geneva, and Isaac Spackman and I plowed, seeded, and harvested fields on a remote organic farm outside of Tarragona in the Mediterranean countryside.
I so recommend this experience to anyone, engineer or not. Go to Deutschland!!!!!