Life in Darmstadt

So last time I told you about the fun getting here but I didn't provide much in the way of descriptions of the place except a few pictures. Hopefully today will remedy that.

I'm living in a flat with 4 other guys: Max, Jens, Daniel and Zim. They're all German except Daniel who is actually an exchange student this semester from Luxembourg. They all have pretty good English skills (especially Max who has family in the US and has visited many times). They've been quite friendly, I've gotten to hangout and talk with all of them in our lounge. And they helped me to learn where the stores are and how to work the laundry machines.

Max is a funny outgoing guy; he seems to have limitless energy. He's studying materials science, which he described as 7 semesters of thermodynamics; doesn't sound fun to me, but he's enjoying it.

Jens is a quieter guy so I haven't gotten to know him as much; he was studying mechanical engineering, but he's switched to medicine recently. Apparently, the majority of students start their studies in science or engineering here because that's where there are the most jobs, but of course amny decide that they'd rather be doing something else after a year or two. (Germany has ~18% unemployment, but there is high demand for scientists and engineers.)

Daniel is from Luxembourg, as I mentioned earlier; he's here on exchange for the semester.(There are some pretty good programs for exchange across Europe it seems.) Daniel speaks the least English, but he has been one of the most considerate and helpful to me (perhaps because he knows what it is like to be new here).

Zim is not studying at the University like the others, but is studying Computer Science at the Fachschule, which is a private institution which focuses on more practical training. He also works part time as a programmer (he says he enjoys being a "code monkey").

I keep a bit earlier hours than most of my flatmates since I have to go to work at 7:45 everyday and like to keep a somewhat consistent schedule on the weekends too. I can walk to work in about 20-25min and I can bike there in about 15 - it's not as close as living on campus, but it's hard to complain about the commute! I took a couple pictures the other day along the streets I walk to work:

This is a better sample of the architecture in town.

This is the bike shop where I bought my bike, it's on the way to work. Unfortunatly, I already got a flat tire :( Those who know German will recognize the name of the shop is a bit of a play on words: "Fahrad"=Bicycle often shortened to "Rad", "Spar"=thrifty

A butcher shop I pass with "everything for breakfast":

I've visited many different grocery stores (The stores are generally smaller, but more numerous here); this one is run by a Turkish family I think:

I didn't take any pictures of the building I work in, but it's really not all that noteworthy. I'm working in moderately sized office with Matthias, my adviser and one other guy. I'm currently sitting where one of their colleges who's on vacation now sits. So far we've discussed ideas for the project a bit and I've been doing a literature search to find out about what's been done, but I haven't gotten down to the nuts and bolts of the project yet.

At lunch we usually go to "die Mensa", aka the student dining hall:


The dining hall is a rather different experience from HMC because there are actually 4 or so different cafeterias with different menus in the same building! They also price based on the food you take rather than buffet style, since students here aren't on any sort of meal plan, but just put money on their "uni card" for the mensa and the laundry room. The mensa is run by the "Studentenwerk" which also administers all the housing owned by the university, like Karlshof where I am.

Well, I've got a lot more I can share, but I think there's some sort of festival in the rose garden nearby so I'm going to check that out this evening. Epect pictures form me later.