Tuesday, May 15, 2012

So far the abroad experience in Innsbruck, Austria, is most definitely living up to its expectations. The Alps are the most gorgeous mountains I have ever seen!

Our group has not actually gotten to go up on top of any of the mountains yet, but we plan to go see the Zugspitze at some point, which is the tallest mountain in the country of Germany. The people here are extremely friendly and most all of them speak perfect English, which is a relief. Some of them even know French and Italian too, because French is a common language and we are not so far from the Italian border. Our hotel is a very old building that was built sometime in the 1400s, I believe, and everything is antiqued but really cool.

Yesterday we had our first official class. We were introduced to the research/field work that we are going to be doing on glaciers and tree rings. Also, we went over the general concept of hydrology in relation to climate and water resources. We were assigned a homework due Friday that involves statistical analysis of climate data and volumetric quantities in relation to runoff.

We plan on making a couple road trips to the University of Innsbruck for a lecture and trips to see a glacier/collect tree ring data, which we are very excited about.

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Monday, May 21, 2012

So we are halfway through our trip and are still having a wonderful time! Yesterday, we went to the Zugspitze, which is the highest point of Germany, and also went to Linderhof, which was King Ludwig’s summer palace. At the Zugspitze, a few people climbed out to the actual highest point in Germany, we will send that picture soon. However, Ben from the University of Innsbruck took us to the Zugspitze and talked to us about the glacier and its history and the impact it has on the water supply for the area. Glacier research is very popular in this area because the mountains are so close and also because glacier melting has such an impact on the water sources of the area.

Today we also spent the day with Ben from the University of Innsbruck. We actually went to the University and had a lecture in one of their classrooms. Universities here are very similar to American universities except of course most of the courses are taught in German. However, we were told that if only one person requests to have the class taught in English they will, making it very easy for Americans to study abroad!

Tomorrow we are going to a small northern Italian city to see the scenery, so we will let you know how it goes!

Friday, June 1, 2012

Over the course of the last week and a half, we have completed the course, seen a couple more awesome sites, and made it home safely for the summer. It’s sad that the trip is over with, but it is great to be back in the US.

During the week of the 21st, our class finished up our last tree-ring lab and was assigned our final project. Our final project was to determine the percentage of glacier mass contributing to July-August-September streamflow in two glaciated watersheds in the Wind River Range (of Wyoming) and was due at the end of the course.

On the weekend of the 25th-28th, we saw several different highlights in Eastern Austria. Six of us from the group, including us two, decided to head out to the Mauthausen Memorial early that Saturday morning in order to see what used to be a concentration camp. This was truly a humbling experience and was much different than all of the other trips we made away from Innsbruck. Afterwards, we stayed the night in Linz, Austria, and got to see a local music festival in the city, which was apparently for the upcoming holiday they were having on Monday.

The following Sunday morning, the separated six students regrouped with everyone else in Salzburg, Austria. We saw where Mozart’s family lived, saw the entire city from atop a castle, and went on an informational boat ride up the Salzach River. It was on overall very long and tiring day, but was worth it!

The following morning, we took the early train to Werfen, which is where the Ice Caves are located. The trip entailed a twenty-minute hike up, then a tram ride up another portion, and finally another twenty-minute hike to the cave entrance. The Ice Caves were yet another amazing site to see in the region. After that was all said and done, our group headed back to Innsbruck that night and settled back in for our last remaining full day on Tuesday.

At the end of our last day in Innsbruck, we had our farewell dinner and turned in the final projects. On Wednesday, most all of us made the long journey back to the United States and went our separate ways.

The both of us had high expectations coming into this trip, and those expectations were definitely fulfilled. We would like to highly recommend any engineer who is interested in studying abroad to please do so as it will be an experience of a lifetime!