In short, our trip to Germany was fantastic. We were based in Berlin but traveled to other cities almost every weekend, plus we could travel on our own the last week we were there. We visited Heidelberg, Koblenz, Cologne, Bremen, Wittenberg, and Lubeck as a group, and during my last week, I traveled to Salzburg, Munich, and Prague.
My favorite city was Munich because it was a very nice city with lots of the things to see. Our group stayed in a place called The Tent, which was literally a giant tent with around a hundred bunkbeds for people to sleep in. The Tent had a kind of summer-campy feel with ping pong tables, beach volleyball, basketball, and a barbeque on Saturday nights. During the day, we traveled around the city using the fantastic transit system that made it simple to travel. We went to church at Saint Luke’s Church on Sunday, then went to the Deutsches Museum for the rest of the day. The Deutsches Museum is essentially the German equivalent of the Smithsonian, and our group only went to the main branch focused on technology. On Monday, our group went to the English Gardens in the morning and saw people surfing on a small section of the river running through it. In the afternoon, we walked around the downtown area and did a little souvenir shopping. In the evening, we dined at the Hofbräuhaus, a restaurant in the style of an old beer hall with live traditional Bavarian music.
While the most memorable parts of the trip may be the places we visited, we also learned fascinating things in our statics and dynamics class. We learned how to adapt previous physics ideas into new environments as well as how to deal with things like square-threaded screws and multiple pulleys with different radii.
Overall, the Germany trip was a blast and totally worthwhile. While the statics and dynamics course did have a decent amount of daily homework, it was not overwhelming and left time for hanging out with friends and exploring Berlin. In the end, I am very thankful for this amazing experience that I will never forget.