Calvin College – Interim 2019

We have been in Europe for a week and a half now and I have noticed a few different changes.

1. First, lunch does not seem to be a big deal in Europe. When we visit towns for lunch it always seems like a struggle to find a place where you can eat. A lot of places seem to be closed during the lunch hour which is frustrating and difficult to deal with. Also, they don’t have as many “fast food sit down restaurants” such as chipotle, chic-fil-a, five guys, and so forth.
2. Second, the Germans do something at 4pm every day called “coffee and cake”. During this time they take a work break and go to a locks coffee shop for some coffee and some baked goods. (Starbucks are few and far between). Others go home and relax for the time. This afternoon break is nice since it breaks up the regular routine of the day for the companies employees.
3. Third, the portions for food servings are much smaller in Europe than in America. Granted, Americans typically over indulge and get more food than they can handle. However Europeans seem to take too little food and their servings at restaurants are very small compared to the American counterparts.

I have noticed many cultural differences in Europe, from the speed of regular life slowing way down, to the difference styles of work. But the food differences have made an impact on me because I eat a lot.

-Andrew

Today we had the privilege of visiting Zeeland, MI based company Gentex. Gentex is a manufacturer of a variety of mirrors (especially auto-dimming) for the automotive industry. In 2017 they shipped over 39 million mirrors. 

You would think this visit would be pretty boring with just mirrors. However, Gentex makes a number of things we use everyday such as back-up cameras, homelink systems, and sensors used when going trough a toll booth. 

It was incredible to see the offices and distribution facilities of technology we use all the time and learn about the logistics behind them. But I think most of the group would agree that the best part was getting some insight into the future of the auto industry. In their showroom we were able to see how the elimination of mirrors and replacing them with camera and sensor systems can be very safe and is coming in the very near future. 

Next stop of the day was a visit to Germany based company Dyna-Jet. Dyna-Jet manufactures high powered water jetting systems. But these aren’t the typical pressure washers you can buy at Home Depot, they are used to clean graffiti off concrete, take bark off trees, and clear barnacles off ships. Here we enjoyed great discussion about the challenges of international business, benefits and drawbacks of working for large vs small companies, and the logistics behind having 200+ suppliers. We were however slightly disappointed because we were not given a demonstration. 

Goodnight from Landsberg am Lech.

Chase Morris

On the bus at 8AM and after some traffic jams, we arrived for a great visit at Gentex. Gentex is headquartered and has its manufacturing in Zeeland, MI. They are the market leader in supplying advanced technology mirrors to automakers worldwide.

After a “fast food” lunch, we were on to DynaJet company–a small firm that makes power washers for industrial use.

Then on to the hotel in Landsberg am Lech where we had dinner and a class meeting time to reflect on what we have seen.

This afternoon we visited the historical town of Heidelberg and the famous castle where the Heidelberg Catechism was written. Unlike Paris and some of the other German towns we’ve visited, it was easy for us to communicate with the locals in Heidelberg due to the American military presence in the city since the end of WWII. As a result, many locals have an excellent understanding of the English language and were more than happy to communicate with us in that way. On our tour of the castle we learned that it had suffered a great deal of damage in the 17th century due to an attack by the French. It suffered more damage again later in the 17th century due to a pair of lightning strikes. Nonetheless, the Heidelberg Castle is still a marvelous sight to behold and was a special experience for our group to visit the place where such an important document in the Protestant faith was drawn up.

Before and after our tour of the castle, we had a number of hours to explore the city and pop into the shops and restaurants that make up the city’s culture. Two other students and I used this time to hike up to a tower just outside the city. The 2 mile hike provided me with a great opportunity to get to know these guys who I didn’t know very well before this trip and it gifted us with an incredible view of the city and the castle. After a couple days in the busy city of Paris, the hike to the tower was a much needed change of pace and will go down as one the highlights of my trip.

Today we visited the German location for Gentex. Many of us are familiar with Gentex because of it’s large presence in West Michigan due to it’s Zeeland plant. While the Zeeland plant is where all their manufacturing is done, the plant in Germany is used mainly for distribution and outputs 300,000 mirrors a week.

The people at Gentex were kind enough to give us a tour of their facilities, provide us with great snacks, and inform us on their business operations. The company understands that car mirrors may become obsolete in the future so they have positioned themselves in other areas of the car industry. This includes becoming industry leaders in electronically dimming windows. They are constantly pushing the boundaries of what their mirror technology can do and working to integrate their products into more vehicles.

Today we visited Gentex Corporations which had a very modern facility and were extremely welcoming towards us. They emphasized that Gentex is an innovative company that is prepared for the future of technology. They have their main production facility in Zeeland, MI. Most of the production is done in-house in the Zeeland location. They make their own PCBs and electronics which I thought was really nice because they can ensure quality more easily than if they outsourced. The Zeeland location also has automated production lines and quality equipment to test vibrations and temperature among other things. One thing Gentex is known for is Electronically Dimming Windows. These windows can be dimmed to various degrees with the push of a button. They make up a significant portion of Gentex sales and are included on Boeing Dreamliner planes. 

Gentex has advanced technology relating to rear view and side mirrors. Their rear view mirrors can toggle between a standard reflective surface and a camera display of behind the car. They include an option to display the side mirrors in the rear view display and can alert the driver when a vehicle is in their blind spot. It seem really user friendly in the sense that the driver can customize whether the rear view display shows just the rear or includes the side mirrors. Gentex recommends using a setting that stitches together the views of the three cameras when driving in urban areas. 

I thought it was really fascinating when they showed the different rear view mirror hardware housings to satisfy the markets in different continents. The North American design had some exposed wiring and did not have a housing that covered all the hardware completely. This is unlike Europe and Asia which both had a housing completely covering it. I could tell that they put a lot of thought into how to minimize the space needed on the windshield and kept in mind that distractions and obstructions of visions had to be minimized. This can also be seen in how they made the rear view display look like the view would look using a standard reflective mirror; they tried to make it natural in a way to avoid attracting too much of the driver’s attention. 

Another thing Gentex is working on is a built-in module that will pay tolls automatically. This would take the place of the EZPass or IPass that many have adhered to the inside of their front windshield for tolls. This particular product does not seem all that game-changing to me personally but the presenter mentioned that it can be extended to applications such as paying for gas or coffee automatically. 

Gentex owns Homelink which works on integrating technology into the home. So, one version of their mirrors involve buttons that can be programmed to, for example, execute a set of commands upon nearing one’s home such as unlocking smart locks, opening garage doors, turning on lights, and communicating with Amazon’s Alexa. This is interesting but comes with inherent security concerns. To address this concern, Gentex has developed  biometric iris identification for which a user simply has to look into the rear view mirror and is quickly identified. Once a positive identification is made, different features such as the ability to unlock one’s home or make automatic toll payments can be enabled. This biometric identification has a setting that allows the car owner to create restrictions on aspects like speed, location, and Homelink features for other users of the car. Gentex emphasized that this could be used for geofencing and monitoring for parents who allow their children to use their car. 

Overall, Gentex had a lot of very interesting and innovative products and ideas that could really change the experience one has while driving a car. They seem to have a focus on quality and forward thinking; also safety and usability seem very important to them. I really admire their passion to drive automotive technology forward by advancing their products. 

This morning we departed our hotel in Hockenheim around 8 o’clock for a 9 o’clock visit with Gentex at their German distribution/sales center. Construction on the autobahn delayed our arrival by about an hour, regardless the Gentex employees were very welcoming and eager to show us their site. They began with a presentation noting Gentex’s main products and a description of the work they do specifically in Germany. The building we visited is not used for manufacturing rather acts as a distribution/support center for European automotive manufacturers like Mercedes and Audi. They ship out over 300,000 mirrors a day and receive similar amounts from their counterparts at the headquarters in Zeeland, Michigan. They gave us a demonstration of a few of their products including camera-controlled rear view mirrors and self-dimming Boeing airplane windows. We then continued to walk through their large warehouse where all of the storage and shipping/handling takes place. The facility was very clean and it was clear to see they put emphasis on being ergonomically sound.

Many members of our group, including myself, have ties to this company which made it even more interesting to witness their overseas operations. Zeeland controls the most vital parts of Gentex’s business, however, without sites like the one in Germany, they would not be a near 2 billion dollar company like they are today.

We started the day off with a trip to Speyer, a historic town about a twenty minute drive away from where we are staying in Hockenheim. In Speyer, we walked to the nearby cathedral and toured its sanctuary and the famous crypt. The crypt is a large underground burial chamber below the church that has a chapel as well. After touring the cathedral, we had some time to explore the rest of the city. Speyer has a nice little downtown area only a short walk from the cathedral, as well as a couple of other churches just down the road.

After seeing some of the sights of Speyer, we hopped back on the bus to make our way to Heidelberg. We began our time in Heidelberg with a few hours of free time for lunch and walking around the city or hiking up the hill across the river. After free time we met back up to start our tour of the castle and part of the old town. It was cool to hear a lot of details on the tour that would be easy to miss without a guide. Once the tour was over we had a few more hours in the city to find a place to eat and see some of the historic sights at night. We ended the day with a bus ride back to our hotel in Hockenheim.

Drew Smits

After leaving Paris I’d have to say the biggest cultural experience I’ve had was witnessing multiple Yellow Vest demonstrations. This group of Yellow Vests is mostly composed of middle class workers who are upset about the tax burden on the middle class, as well as increased fuel taxes and cost of living.

The first demonstration we saw was on our first day coming into Paris. Some Yellow Vests had deliberately stopped their cars on a very busy highway, resulting in miles of backed up traffic. The police had surrounded the people who caused it, but it was going to take a lot of work to get all of the traffic moving again.

The second demonstration I saw took place at the Arc de Triumph. A group of us went there to check it out, and on the way there the train skipped about 5 stops in order to keep people from getting off into that mess. This was clear when we saw men in gas masks to resist the tear gas at the one of the stops we passed. But we’re defiant college kids so we found our way to the Arc de Triumph. On our way there we noticed that the road had been blocked off, and when we got there we saw that every road leading to the Arc was blocked off. There were more police officers than I’ve ever seen surround the Arc, and in the middle were the Yellow Vests just walking around and chanting. It was pretty peaceful for the most part. A couple cans of tear gas were thrown on the opposite side and we later realized some Yellow Vests had been throwing bricks. Along with all the police vans (and tanks) there was a water truck that they later used to spray the Yellow Vests to keep them under control. But for the most part, the police officers just stood there and let the protestors do their thing, only intervening when necessary.

Overall, it was an insane experience. Before the trip I had briefly heard about the Yellow Vests, but actually seeing some demonstrations made it so much more real to me. It allowed me to get a first hand view of what’s happening on the other side of the world. I was able to see how passionate the Yellow Vests are about their beliefs, and how much work the French government is doing to keep it under control.

P.S. We remained at a safe distance at all times.

After staying in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and now Germany, I’ve enjoyed seeing how aspects of Europe are universal no matter the country you stay in. I think one of the American employees at a company tour put it well when he described Europe as being more compact in many ways but often of higher quality. They have smaller cars, smaller streets, smaller buildings, but the quality of the cities we’ve stayed in continue to surprise me. Their streets are so clean. They restore old buildings instead of replacing them with large new ones giving the streets history and character. 

Some unique things I’ve noticed here include modes of transportation. People in the city rarely drive if they can help it. I feel like people here are more willing to bike, walk, or share public transportation. My classmates and I are still getting used to paying for water. It seems like such a given, but here, it comes at a rather high price. However, I have appreciated the European’s outlook on meals. I love watching how much they enjoy sitting for hours eating and talking with one another. No one was just sitting staring at their phone or dining and dashing. Meals are when they take time to build relationships and partake in great food.

It’s also been interesting joining church communities where we’ve been staying. We attended a service in Amsterdam and at the cathedral in Reims. I have been raised Baptist so the church services have been unique to me because they’re from different denominations. This does make it hard, however, for me to tell if differences are cultural or different in terms of denomination. One thing I have been continually reminded of by places like the Reims cathedral is their reverence for Christ. Their buildings point high toward our Lord, and they approach the altar with such respect. This is something I often forget with growing up in a more contemporary church. I can forget to not only love my Lord but to also fear Him. 

It’s crazy to think we’re only halfway through our journey. I can’t wait to continue engaging the culture here in the days to come.