The First Week

Well I just finished my first week so I thought I'd hop online and share it with you! My classes are all so amazing here. There's such creative ideas here in the Netherlands! My professors are great in fact my Sustainable or "Green" Development and Engineering professor is also an Astronaut with the European Space Agency.

Earlier this week I was able to do some more exploring of the town. Delft is full of lots of history for the Netherlands. Delft is where the founder of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Prince William of Orange lived and was killed in 1584. In fact you can still see the bullet hole in the wall of his home! He was then buried in the Neuwe Kerk (New Church) by the Markt Square in Delft. All the royalty since him have also been buried in that very same church!

This next couple days I'll be finishing up getting everything in order but I'll keep you posted on all of my adventures

My first European blog post

Hey everyone,

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've posted. It's been tough to find internet during my first couple weeks in Europe, and when I have been able to use the internet I've been busy sending emails back home saying that "yes I am ok" and "yes I'm behaving myself".

I've had quite the adventure the last couple weeks between Amsterdam and visiting Caro in Germany. But actually I don't want to tell you about that yet... I'll write about it sometime later. Right now I'd like to write to you about the last couple days while they're fresh in my mind.

Yesterday I got all settled in my new Apartment. It's more than I ever could of asked for. I've been given a studio apartment, which means that I will not have a roommate. In my apartment there's a full kitchen with a fridge, sink, and stovetop as well as a bathroom and an office. There's one catch though... no internet. At least not yet, so till I can get internet set up in my room I am stuck with using the libraries computers.

The main way of traveling for nearly everyone is by bike. Everyone uses bikes unless you're going a far distance in which case you can take a train or bus. I'd like to see more of this in the United States.

Well, on to today! Today was actually my first day of classes. Early this morning I decided to sit in on a Mechanics course. I wanted to take this course but found that it was already half finished, so I'm sitting in on the course just to see what it's all about. This class seemed pretty nice... the class itself is two hours long but they have a 15 minute break half way through.

It was my second course that really got me excited. The course was Aircraft Structures and it happens to pick up right where Professor Rajagopalan left off. Our Professor (Dr. IR. Coen Vermeeren) seemed so excited about what he was doing and preached to us about how as Aerospace Engineers we have to think in a new way! He said we need to move away from the norm of improving new ideas and think outside of the box. He spent the class discussing not just Aerospace but all sorts of structures from the Human body to the Pyramids. Then he talked about how the Romans used 2 million kg stones for some of their structures and they were able to move them long distances. Now the strongest crane in the world (located in Dubai) can only hold 800 thousand kg! Then he discussed new Aerospace ideas like the LR Evacuator design from 2006 that was designed to go on top of tall buildings like the Burj Dubai and serve as an airborne escape route from the roof incase of emergencies. I can tell this is one class I will look forward to going to!

Well, I have to go study, but I'll post again soon and tell you all about my adventures in Amsterdam and Germany.

~Chris