William åkte till Tyskland för en BIP-kurs på RWTH Aachen

1. Preparations

Since Germany is in the EU, no visa was necessary and the travels to the host university went smoothly. Weighing cost and travel time, I found the best travel option was flying straight from Gothenburg (GOT) to Frankfurt (FRA) and then taking the Deutsche Bahn (DB) high speed train service, ICE, from Frankfurt to Aachen.

All necessary insurance was handled through Chalmers, just remember to also order a European health insurance card (the blue one) in time before departure if you don’t already have a valid one. As for lodgings, I booked a room at B&B Hotels at their Aachen City-Ost location, at approximately a 20-25 minute walking distance from the main campus buildings. The Erasmus grant covered the hotel and travel expenses almost perfectly, but nothing else, so remember to budget for food and fun.

2. Social activities

The teachers of the BIP course together with the ENHANCE team at RWTH Aachen led a guided city tour of Aachen on the first day to make us acquainted with the city, get to know each other, and to give us some tips about what we could do while there. Half-way through the week, on the Wednesday, they also arranged a pub-crawl in the city to get a taste of student life in the city, as well as provide another opportunity to socialize with the others in the course and relax from the days working on the project.

3. Language

I had no problems getting by using English for my entire stay. Information at the airport and train stations were provided in English, and most signs in the city had English, French, and Dutch equivalents too (in addition to German of course) since the city is so close to the borders of the Netherlands and Belgium. Waiters at restaurants and bars spoke English, and importantly: the teachers and contacts at the university all spoke fluently in English.

4. My opinions

The city felt small despite having around 250 000 inhabitants and it was easy to walk everywhere, which along with the many old buildings made it a pleasant host city.

The teachers at the university were helpful and knowledgeable, and I felt no pressure during the project despite having had little practical experience using the software tools before the BIP course. The online lectures varied a bit in difficulty, but the course is also open to people with many academic backgrounds, so I also understand that it is difficult to get it right for everyone, and what one finds difficult another might find easy.

Overall, I really liked the idea and execution of this course and recommend it to anyone interested in the topic or in doing a short-term exchange.

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