Background

A little background on this next adventure of mine. In ten days I am leaving for Germany. I'm going to be in Paderborn until July 15. The next week I will be hanging with my former and future roommate Becky in Bamberg, where she has been for a couple months already. Then I will be going to Heidelberg for two days for a conference, more on that in a bit. I leave Germany on the 26th and come home for the remainder of my summer vacation. Sound like a plan? Gosh I hope so.

So by now you're saying, Jackie that sounds delightful! But what are you doing over there for all that time? Are you doing study abroad?

Well, sort of. I'm doing a research internship through the RISE program of the DAAD (website here). It's a great  program that accepts undergrads from the US, the UK, and Canada and pairs them up with PhD students in Germany. Basically how it works is they have German PhD students submit project proposals. The undergrads then apply and pick out their three favorite projects. The DAAD people then match up undergrads and projects, starting with the best students and the most popular projects. They say most everybody ends up with their first or second choice. Then they award the scholarships. The internships are different lengths so the amount you get varies, but it's a fairly ample amount. Thank you government funding! The wonderful thing is that the system is very flexible. You and your PhD student work out the dates you're going to be there (provided it's after a certain start date) and the DAAD gets the work permit taken care of for you. I'm going to be at the University of Paderborn doing research on inorganic nanoporous materials.

Another cool part of the internship is that they get all the undergrads together in Heidelberg for a couple days of conference. There are two other RISE students from USC so I think a picture in Heidelberg is definitely in order.

Oh, and no, I don't speak German. I've taken a semester, but I didn't learn much. Just the basics, but it's enough to get around. The working language will be English. I've already been in contact with my PhD student, Steffi, and her English is great. I've also gotten in touch with another RISE student who will be in the chem dept at Paderborn and he seems nice. His German is worse than mine so it should be interesting.

Hm let's see...what else...oh yeah! Accommodations. Where will I be living? Well, the University of Paderborn has dorms like most universities, but they're slightly overpriced (like most universities) and booked. So Steffi found an apartment place for me to live. It's literally across the street from the university and from what I can tell is part of the hospital grounds. A picture from Google Earth says it's the dorm for student nurses. Anyway it's a great situation. I'm pretty sure that's all for now...I'll keep you posted.