First Week Finished!

I have successfully survived the first week of classes. I only had one class to visit today, Treffpunkt Regelungstechnik. It is a more practical, deeper look into the concepts we discuss in the ordinary controls lecture. Since today was just an introduction, the TA running it decided to have some fun. He demonstrated how, if you mapped the audio from a video of the South African World Cup in 2010 into the frequency domain and removed all sound at, say, 233 Hz, you could remove most of the annoying vuvuzala noise.

In addition to messing around with sound, he decided to demonstrate what would happen if you messed with the controllers in a home-made segway. For this, he needed a volunteer. Not surprisingly, no one was too eager to try it out. He had expected this and upped the stakes by offering a jumbo bag of gummy bears to the guinea pig. How could I refuse? The segway worked just fine. No injuries to body or pride to report. However, when he showed what would have happened if he had used a less ideal controller, the segway had a seizure. (I was safely in my seat by then.)

Right after class, I dropped by the Studentenwerk and filled out the form to set up my automated rent. It took all of a minute. After that, I had nothing pressing until 5. Then, I had Intercultural Training to attend. This was a three hour session where we discuss different cultural models, some descriptive features like direct and indirect or independent and group oriented. All in all, it was nothing new. However, the instructor was pleasant, and having a multicultural class definitely contributed more than I had had in previous experiences. For example, the Chinese students explained that you don't just ask a teacher a question directly. You have to go about it indirectly through other students or tutors. There is a set hierarchy. I know that part of the training's purpose is to show that there is no right and wrong. only different. However, I don't think I would last long in an indirect, hierarchical culture. I would die of frustration first.