So it’s officially been a week since we started our travels here! Still so beautiful, as you can see from the cover photo! Plus, this week has been super fun.  And that’s not just because we only 3 classes instead of 5 or anything… wink wink. Surprisingly, I ENJOY class. I never thought I would say that. It’s all extremely discussion based where we talk about the different ethical decisions we will have to make and the different dilemmas we will be presented with as engineers.

Anyways, enough talk about class! We were very fortunate to go on two engineering tours this week. We rode the train from Reutlingen to Stuttgart, and got to see the Bahnprojekt. (On a side note, Professor H pointed out to us that the railroad ties were made out of concrete, not wood like in America! Check it out!)

To continue, the goal of the project is to create a sort of ‘round-a-bout’ to help the trains go in and out of the Stuttgart train station faster. Also, the whole rail system will be moved underground and additional high-speed trains will be added. In total, the project could cost up to 10 billion euros. Such a HUGE project, all to add additional space to the growing city of Stuttgart. There was a model of what the station would look like and it was really quite an amazing project. There was four main tracks within the station, all underground though. There were many entrances to the underground station from a park surrounding the main station building. They hope to have the project completed by December 2021.

                                                     

Outside the station, the construction is already started. There was a path and park around the construction, so we walked along it and could see the site. Unfortunately, Monday was a holiday so there was no work being done. The project is quite a process, as they must have pipes and pumps for the ground water, they must put up steel walls while digging, and they must test the dirt. If the dirt is toxic, then they must add bacteria which will take a few years to cleanse the area, which sets the project back a couple of years. I never realized exactly how much work must go into such a project!

                                                 

After we walked along the paths, we came to some old ruins of an old palace which had been moved to this location. Continuing a little further, we entered a beautiful park. There was a fountain, a pond, and so many flowers! There was a little garden and café. Such a lovely place. This part of the country is so beautiful, I keep going on walks because I can’t get enough of it!

  

Now onto Tuesday, we had class and then we had free time. Of course us girls went shopping (no dad, I didn’t buy anything! OK.. maybe one thing. I’m a girl. It’s what we do!) while the boys went to a knife shop. After, we all met up and ate dinner and then got one euro gelato! It was delicious!

On Mittwoch (Wednesday), our lives were changed forever.

Just kidding.

But our views on faucets certainly changed! We visited the small city of Schiltach, Germany, (about 3,000 inhabitants) for a tour of Hansgrohe. This green company produces beautiful, extremely high quality mixers and faucets for tubs, showers, sinks, and kitchen sinks. The company itself was very sharp; around every corner there was a little drink station so if you needed a coffee, water, or cola you could take a break and have one! We took so many coffee breaks during the tour, I definitely felt pampered.

The company is very family oriented, the chances that the current employees are following in their parents footsteps are very high! The pay here is even better in the cities because the town is so small, the company wants to keep their valuable employees there instead of losing them to the city. Everybody we met that was working was so friendly and happy, they really seemed to love their job.

You’re probably wondering what was so amazing. Well, the faucets were incredible! We went through the show room and we saw one of their new products in the making: a clear faucet which has air in it to create a visual vortex. Simply stunning. Also, they had waterfall faucets and rain shower shower heads. I really wanted to take a shower right then and there. Additionally, they have shower heads where you can click between the different shower head effects. My favorite was the one where the water spun as if to give a massage! How nice, I don’t think I would ever leave the shower. Once we had a presentation, we got to test the different shower heads. Hansgrohe has created a shower head with air to help preserve water. With the air effect, it feels as if you are using more water than you actually are. The cool part was when we turned the lights off and shined a light onto the shower heads. You could see the air in between the drops. It looked awesome!

 

After we spent awhile messing with the different designs of shower heads, we got a walking tour of the actual factory. There was a huge orange robot to help with different stages such as polishing. We have a similar orange robot in our engineering building! Only much smaller.

Overall, the tour was great. I not only loved seeing the company respect for its employees but I also loved seeing the employees and their families’ loyalty to the company. It’s not something you always see now-a-days. They even gave us a gift for visiting! A towel and flip-flops, so thoughtful.

Since yesterday, we have all been looking at the different types of faucets around the campus. Mostly all of them are Hansgrohe. It’s like a little game, who can find a faucet that is NOT Hansgrohe brand.

It has been a nice relaxing day, reading & writing our papers. Tomorrow is going to be an exciting day! We are going to Munich!!!! I am so excited, but not so excited to wake up at 6 AM. Since high school, I think I forgot how to do that. Oh well, it will well be worth it!

Watch for my next post! Tschüss! (Bye!)

WOW! Has it already been 5 days since we first started our departure from America?!

Even though we have been here in Reutlingen, Germany, for four days, our sleep schedules are still off. We are tired  and then when it is bedtime.. wide awake! Of course we are not as tired as the first day.. staying up for 30+ hours is much trickier than it sounds. We were lucky enough to have Dean Johnson here the first day we arrived. He gave us a tour of campus and of the town. After, we went downtown for dinner. I do not think any of us expected what we saw. As Professor H and Josh (our “tour guide/translator”) were running ahead of us trying to make our dinner reservations, we were all in awe. Stopping, taking pictures, posing. Sometimes even in the middle of the road! The roads are so small here compared to USA that I didn’t even realize we were in the middle of them (oops!). However, we have been much better with being aware of our surroundings since that first day (don’t worry mom and dad!). The city, for lack of a better word, is so cute! There is a long road which no cars are allowed down. Located along this road are many shops and cafes. The buildings are all different colors, and all the roofs are very triangular and pointy. Such a fun town to walk around.

The following day we got a walking tour of the city and downtown. Southern Germany is absolutely beautiful. There are many parks to walk through and within the parks there are darling little cafes to eat at. There is even a golf course at one of the parks but you stand up and play so it’s similar to pool! One of the parks has a life size chess board with pieces; I promise I will play a game of chess on that before I leave. On the walk, we also saw a stunning view of the town. Every building has a red roof, and in the distance we could see Marienkurche (St. Mary’s Church downtown). The church’s oldest parts date back to the 12th century, but unfortunately the interior was destroyed in a fire and has since then been restored. While on our walk through downtown Reutlingen, we got to walk down the narrowest Straße (street) in the world! The street is in the Guiness book of world records, how neat for us to see!

While on our walk, we got our first “engineering” tour. We walked by an old mill, and an extremely friendly old man generously welcomed us into his shop and showed us around. It was an old water powered mill from the 1700s, still working today! I really love how the town supports local shops like this one. The man’s English was nearly perfect too, so we really got a good grasp on what was happening and how everything worked. Everybody really enjoyed the little detour.

On Sonntag (Sunday), nothing is open except some places to eat. All the grocery stores and clothing stores are closed. Quite different than America. The eight of us went to Penny Mart on Samstag (Saturday) to get food so we could cook dinner Sonntag. When Keith offered to cook us stir fry, we were all quite nervous. The dinner turned out DELICIOUS, much to our surprise. Ha ha, just kidding, we all knew you’d do a great job, Keith! Thank you! It was really a fun time for all of us to gather in the same dorm and eat together. It’s really been a fun few days of bonding and getting to know everyone. I can tell the next few weeks are going to be a blast!

On a side note, all the natives here have been extremely patient and friendly with us. Some speak English, some do not! It is always a fun interaction with everyone because they keep speaking German with us and we keep speaking English with them. Some ask where we are from, and when we say Chicago they get excited. They are all so patient with us too, especially since there are 9 of us who do not speak the language. We all travel in a heard. The ladies in the bakery are especially fun to speak with. We point to what we would like and they get it for us. They laugh, we laugh. We don’t know what we are saying to each other. One thing I’ve learned is that laughter is the same in all languages.

What a beautiful time we are having here.