World Local: Summer School

Showing posts with label Summer School. Show all posts

13.8.12

A journey to the West of Germany - an adventure, true appreciation for nature, a learning experience!

Neuschwanstein, Rot an der Rot, Lake Constance i.e. Bodensee and short visit to Austria

The fairytale Neuschwanstein Castle - 13.08.2012

Made it on a very sun-shining day to one of my dream travelling destinations: the Neuschwanstein Castle. What should one do when being so overwhelming with joy?

I should add that I have made it to this astonishingly beautiful Castle with bravery, as I have carried all my luggages, i.e. one small suitcase, my backpack and a daily bag as well, with me on a (relatively) long journey from München to Memmingen. Well, not as long as that from Berlin to München, but it still takes time. So the Castle was just an added stop, which is not straight-forward, that I wished to make, even I had less than probably two hours with my luggages to manage the uphill road to this breath-taking spot and back to the train. What else could be more joyful that that particular moment when I was standing on the historical Marienbrücke far high above the ground and breathed in this particular splendid view? It was so worth-trying!

Rot an der Rot - reaching to the clouds!

The reason behind my seem-like just a travelling experience, but it was not, was actually a summer school named "Rot an der Rot 2012" organised by the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes in cooperation with the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD). Rot an der Rot is a town near Memmingen in Baden-Württemberg in Germany, which is located about 116 km from München (Munich). The summer school was not just a travelling journey but also a learning experience to improve my German as well as to get some insights into the world of physics. Being carried out in German language with the majority of participants being German students - the very good ones, the summer school lasted two weeks from 13.08 to 25.08.2012. In the first week, I have worked pretty hard to a high capacity and full concentration in order to deliver a presentation about great-scaled excavations for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) project. If you have not heard about this, I would recommend you to watch the video made by BBC available at LHC - the Big Bang Experiment. I guarantee that you will be surprised by what to see. More about that working topic of mine I will describe in the later part of this entry.

(to be continued)

Brussels - "Capital of Europe"

The Atomium - one of the iconic symbols of Brussels, which is named by CNN "Europe's most bizarre building"!
"Originally constructed for Expo '58, the 1958 Brussels World's Fair, stands 102 m tall. Its nine 18 m diameter stainless steel clad spheres are connected so that the whole forms the shape of a unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times. They enclose escalators and a lift to allow access to the five habitable spheres which contain exhibit halls and other public spaces." (source: wikipedia)

The stunning Grand Place/Grote Markt - actually voted the most beautiful square in 2010 (wikipedia) and one of the most beautiful central squares (probably behind Prague) I have seen so far in several countries that I've visited in Europe! Being formed by magnificent historic buildings all around, it would make one feel like being surrounded by significance!!! Below is a photo of the building on the left:

Historic Town Hall in the Grand Place/Grote Markt - stands 96 m tall and is capped by a 3 m statue of Saint Michael slaying a demon

One of the buildings on the right called guildhall

Brussels with its variety of different sides: historic buildings in combination with modern architecture and a mixture of nationalities, cultures and languagues... Two weeks in Brussels (21.07 - 04.08.2012) and I fall in love with the city. One of the great things is beer, I am happy with a small collection of different types of beer after my trip. Even one of my classmates said: "Brussels - the Belgian people - should get a Nobel prize for beer"!!! Just a brief recommendation on some favourite beers: the "Mort Subite" has a little bit of sweet taste as a mixture of beer and cherries, so that generally well suited for ladies. The "Brugs" tastes substantially good with a slide of lemon: simply stuck the lemon slide inside the bottle and drink the beer fast in the first few seconds, as the beer would rise up instantly (well, you do not need to finish all the bottle in few seconds though). I had fun drinking the Brugs that way, thanks to an awesome friend Olga, she's so great!