Author: Joshua Rand

Tuesday in Paderborn

Fortunately, this morning I was able to wake up early enough to eat a decent breakfast served in the hotel… unlike yesterday. We started the day with a tour of the Heinz Nixdorf Museum to see computer-related exhibits.

One way to visualize counting in binary. Drop a ball at the top, if there is already a ball in the slot next to the ramp, it will flip a switch, dropping the existing ball, and letting the new ball roll down to the next slot.
Visual representation of how computing efficiency grows exponentially. After every 1 1/2 years, computers can perform twice the amount of operations with 1/2 the volume of space (If I remember correctly).

One of my highlights during my visit at the museum was when I took a stroll by a facial recognition screen.

Apparently I look much older with my glasses, 31 years old…
…and much younger without my glasses, 19 years old. Not too far off, though, 24 is roughly in the middle.

Later that night, we went back to the University of Paderborn to hang out with and play board games with the students. Some games we played were a German version of the card game Fluxx, where the rules constantly change depending on how the player play, as well as Jackbox party games.

Monday in Paderborn

After getting settled in the In Via hotel, and trying to recover a little from get lag, we toured the University of Paderborn campus, as well as toured the city of Paderborn.

Some examples of the architecture

We also had lunch at a nice cafe in Paderborn with the German students. We talked a little more about differences from the USA. For example, most Bachelor’s degree programs require a minimum of 3 years, contrary to 4 years in the USA. I also found it interesting how in some shops, hot drinks can be served in glass cups.

Later in the day when we visited the University of Paderborn, we were also fortunate enough to see a game that the students were working on; A 2D puzzle game called Q.

Steam page

The German students were kind enough to let me and a couple other students play their game for a while. We found it to be a lot of fun, and we even discussed some ways they could go forward with the game.

Traveling to Frankfurt

I started my “journey” with a very nice 6.5 hour flight from Boston, MA to Frankfurt. After a rather awkward conversation with customs, because I’m not awkward at all, I was fortunate enough to meet up with my fellow traveler classmate Penny, who has much more experience with international travel than I do. I’m afraid that if by myself, I would have either gotten lost, or missed trains. From there, we boarded 3 consecutive metros to Paderborn, then arrived at the In Via hotel safe and sound. In the afternoon, we met up with and had dinner with the German students, and discussed some cultural differences between Germany and the USA. For instance, in America you would never see anyone drinking in public, and in restaurants, tips make up part of a waiter’s/waitress’s salary, whereas in Germany they’re fully compensated, but tips are greatly appreciated. One thing I thought was funny, was that people seem to think that pineapple on pizza is a sin in America. While it is not, necessarily, Americans tend to blow things out of proportion so it seems that way.

I also discovered that although my adapter/converter will work to charge my phone, it will not charge my laptop……. Thanks, Best Buy.