Jonathan Schaefer
TU Darmstadt, Germany
Fall 2005
The Beginning of a Friendship
The fruitful relationship between the departments of Materials Engineering at the Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana and the TU Darmstadt in Darmstadt, Germany, especially between Prof. K. Bowman (Purdue) and Prof. J. Roedel (TUD), brought up one more exchange student, who will forever keep the Purdue University in a good memory and can be caught smiling whenever he hears those magic words… “Boilers up”
The Itch to Travel Abroad
Like my forerunners, I had an itch to get abroad and I was driven by the same curiosity and force to gain experience that one cannot receive by remaining in the home country. This desire brought me to Professor Roedel who initialized the contact, with the necessary paperwork to soon follow. However, on the other side of the ocean, I found committed helpers like Donna Bystrom, who guided me through all those difficulties and helped me with whatever the American consulate wanted to see.My Arrival at Purdue
Once in Purdue, I was overwhelmed by the huge campus and almost certain that I would get lost. But the folks in Materials Engineering took very good care of me. They tactfully let me have some space which gave me the opportunity to discover things on my own without reaching a state of complete confusion.
The Project Begins
After I had settled down, I could focus on the project that Prof Bowman gave me and on the classes I was taking. My project entitled, "characterization of the reasonable employment of analytic profile fitting for X-Ray diffraction data," was the first project I had to do on my own. This was an important experience and it also forced me to have a couple of interesting discussions with members of the international group of graduate students that Prof Bowman was advising, wherefore I am still thankful. The members of this work group were always helpful and became more than colleagues. I am really glad, that I had the opportunity to get to know Wonyoung, Hsin-Yu, Ben, Tom and Junquin and I enjoy remembering the good times that we spent on as well as off campus.
There's More Than Work When You Study Abroad
The leisure facilities and the numerous activities for international students at Purdue are what kept me busy during the time I was not able to inhale any more of the rich syllabus. I took part in a soccer tournament, enjoyed the training possibilities, attended the ISS perspectives meetings, got an American host family and went on ISS trips…Of course, I also made contacts on my own: I got to know Marty, who flew with me to Washington D.C., I rode Greyhound to Chicago, where I explored the city with international students, who stayed in the same youth hostel as I did. I met a lot of people on campus who took me to the breakfast club, sport events, showed me the bars and clubs but also offered me rides to church and invited me to the theatre or just a cup of coffee. I could speak for hours about all the nice people and the hospitality that I experienced, the nice places and homes I visited, but even then I could not possibly described what my stay at Purdue meant. It's a time I'll cherish forever.