Thursday, 13 July 2006
Having almost missed my 11:44 train, I arrived in Heidelberg at around 14:45. Though good weather was reported, when the train pulled into the Heidelberg Hbf, the sky looked ominous. Already I saw some other people of roughly the same age of me, speaking English. On the bus, I was greeted by Adele, another RISE intern working near the TUM Garching reactor and thus I knew that I was not lost (or all of us were lost together).
About 20 people got off the bus at the Jugendherberge (Youth Hostel) station. But the directions we received only sent us thus far--finding exactly where the Jugendherberge was was another challenge for the unobserving us who ignored a large triangular sign--and the torrential rain that suddenly fell upon us was not particularly helpful either.
After the arrival into the hostel, a chaotic scene of checking in, picking up different stuff, lining up, getting cake and coffee, etc., ensued. Because there was only one key to one room, and only one of the four of six people of that room had the key, the situation soon arose that many people were locked out of their rooms. In this turmoil, I forgot to get my train tickets refunded, and subsequently had to mail them to the DAAD headquarters--a much more complicated process.
At 15:30, we walked to the Heidelberg University on the north shore. Unlike the really old Heidelberg University (about 620 years old) at the town centre, this part of the university was quite new, mostly for the natural sciences and engineering. In a lecture hall, we were sequentially greeted by a representative from the Heidelberg University, the representatives from Canada and the United States, and people from the DAAD as well as some sponsoring industries. Frankly, about one minute into the speeches, I smelt strongly of propaganda, as the representative from Heidelberg University already hinted that we might be interested in the university for our graduate studies. Likewise, representatives from the industries also spoke frequently about our prospectives working in Germany, as an intern for their companies. But their motivations were understandable, and how can they, being the pillars for this program, be blaimed for a little self-advertisement?
We got back to the hostel by around 19:00, just on time to have dinner. For some reason the hostel today decided to prepare Asian-styled dishes, and that suited me very well (the only thing missing was the chopsticks), though the rice was somewhat strange and undercooked.
At 20:30, we were split off into our subject groups, and each of the groups occupied a room. Basically, people in the same group just introduced themselves and told a funny story that happened to them since they arrived in Germany. A rather painless meeting.
Ozo, one of the DAAD leaders, promised to show us around Heidelberg starting at 22:00. So we set out from the front of the hostel, following the bus route, crossing the bridge into town. After about 45 minutes of walking, nobody seemed to have an inkling where we were, and some of us were pretty tired. Just as we reached the start of the Altstadt (Old Town), Ania and I decided to head back to the hostel and sleep early, given that we needed to wake up quite early tomorrow morning.
Friday, 14 July 2006
We rose early this morning and had a very filling breakfast (graciously provided by the youth hostel). Starting from 8:00, different groups departed from the hostel to different companies for a day of visit; some of these companies included BASF, Daimler-Chrysler, and Merck. To my disappointment, I was not assigned to Daimler-Chrysler; rather, I visited the Heidelberger Druck, a printing press factory.
We took the bus to the train station, and then walked to a fancy-looking glass building, in front of which was an abstract giraffe. We took the elevator to the top, and someone came and spoke to us about the company's profile (that person, Robert M. Crooker Jr., is a Princeton alumnus). Then we were sent our way to the train station, catching the suburban train to Wiesloch, where the main factory plant of the Heidelberger Druck was located. We were given a two-hour tour of the factory. I must admit that the tour, though consisting of a long and tiring walk, was quite an eye-opener. We got to see the details of the production assembly line (which was not automated) of the different printing press parts and cylinders. Each part must fit into one another with a precision tolerance of 1/30 the width of a hair. The assembled printing presses were test-printed before being sent out to the customers. The quality control of the production was done by a computer system that the company had developed. In order to ensure the smooth running of the computer system, the company even had a factory dedicated to producing the required computer hardware parts, instead of buying these parts from commercial avenues.
At the end of our tour, a formidable lunch awaited. After that, we sat down in a room and listened to a presentation from another American who is working for the Heidelberger Druck. He compared and contrasted many aspects of German and American corporates. The general impression that I had from his talk was that the German workplace is more conservative--in other words, there are more regulations concerning the welfare of workers (i.e. the company cannot just overnight cut back a quarter of the employees). While the American workplace has a greater potential for rise in wealth and position if one has the right ability, the German workplace appears to be safer--while the workers lead more steady and slower advancements in a company's hierarchy, there are more "safety nets" in place to prevent cut-throat situations such as being suddenly fired at the age of 45.
We headed back to the youth hostel, and after a brief respite, at 18:00, I went with a group to Bismarckplatz, where Ozo agreed to meet us and walk us through the Old Town to the place where we would have dinner.
It was a pleasant afternoon walk on a cobbled street full of people, though walking to the Heidelberg Cultural Brewery took a good 30 minutes from Bismarckplatz. Once there, we sat down, and salad was soon served. Probably because of our size (about 200 people), the main course did not come until about 1.5 hours later. But it was a fine meal--with strawberry and ice cream afterwards.
At about 21:30, we were dismissed from the brewery. A group of us wanted to see the nearby castle, so we climbed up the ancient walls in the twilight. The castle itself was gently lit at night, and the lighting created quite some atmosphere. Looking down, the lights of Heidelberg looked back at us, with the peaceful Nektar River flowing in the midst. Across the river, some mountains loomed.
We went into the courtyard of the castle, and found that the place was filled with people. Rounding to the back, we glimpsed the ruined walls and towers. Once again, illuminated, these acquired an almost magical air.
Coming down, we headed towards the old bridge, and here the group became confused and somewhat broken up. The four of us strolled in the old town for a while, before coming to Bismarckplatz and took the bus back to the youth hostel. I finally went to bed at 1:00 in the morning.
Saturday, 15 July 2006
Some people in my room obviously had quite a bit of fun the previous night and came back around 4:00. Though I slept fairly well otherwise, I woke up with red eyes.
After breakfast, the people who opted not to stay for an extra night started packing up and checking out. At 9:45, the organisers of the RISE program gave some concluding remarks, including, once again, the need for us to publicise the program when we get back to North America. Then we took the bus to the old town, and split into smaller groups for a guided tour of Heidelberg.
The guide of our group always held a yellow flower for the ease of recognition. She spoke in some German accent that was quite comprehensible. Through her, we learnt a great deal not only about the history of Heidelberg, but some German traditions. For example, the stripes of the German flag came from the stripes on the students fighting for a German parliament in the nineteenth century. When we passed through parts of the old Heidelberg University, we also learnt that the university used to have its own court and prison (second floor barred windows) for students. Because in the Renaissance times, the students usually came from well-to-do families, the police usually had to ask when it would be convenient for the student to serve his sentence (usually a few weeks; expulsion was then considered a much more serious punishment).
Having visited the Church of the Holy Spirit, we climbed up a flight of about 310 steps to the castle once again. In the daylight, and teemed with tourists, the castle looked very different. First off, the red roofs of Heidelberg were now visible. The damages, including a leaning tower, appeared much more dramatic. In fact, most of the damages, according to our guide, came from the seventeenth century during the Thirty Year's War or thereabouts, when the entire Heidelberg sustained great destruction. We entered the courtyard and visited the largest wine barrel in the world--that could hold more than 200000 litres. Indeed, it is said that the castle, when it was peopled, used to consume about 2000 litres of alcoholics per day. That works out to about at least three litres per person.
Upon the conclusion of the tour, we gathered at the Old Bridge and took a group photo, blocking the traffic (no cars) for about 3 minutes. At this point, the conference was officially adjourned, and some of us tried to find our own way to the hostel to pick up our baggage, and thence to the train station for departure.