4:44 AM

It is
4:44 AM
and I am locked in my group room. Don't fret. I locked the door from the inside. I have the option to get out. However, I will not release myself because the project is not done.

The Project

is a collaboration between four students. My colleagues include Jurgita from Lithuania, Jan from Poland and Honza from Czech. We are trying to solve a problem. The problem is stubborn. We are stubborn. Couldn't say who will concede first, but we're looking like the weaker party. We have...four days (?) left...I'm not exactly sure what day it is right now...

The last two weeks, give or take a few days, have been a blur. I was in four countries. Five counting Denmark. I don't count it because I live here. Five counting Germany. That was in the dark. The only part of Germany my eyes focused on was a train station in Hamburg. Again, doesn't count. Four countries then. Belgium. The Netherlands. Sweden (again). Finland. It would probably be more accurate to say four cities: Brussels, Amsterdam, Stockholm and Helsinki. One city in each country was enough to get the flavor of the culture - or at least a tantalizing taste. I am helpless but to wonder what was left unexplored and how I will return some day...

For now, however, my mind is occupied, mostly, by the project. (Can I, perhaps, if I try a bit harder, write a sentence with more commas?) It has consumed our (the group's) attention for the better part of the past month, if not the past two. I have previously mentioned the pedagogical methods at AAU to some extent but will elaborate here. In the Master's program we have a set course schedule. The courses consist of a series of lectures, often given by three or four different lecturers, over the course of the first 1/2 to 2/3 of the semester. As the lecture schedule winds down, the expected committment to the project increases. While the beginning of the semester demands somewhere from four to six hours of the student's time for lectures each day, the end requires full days, lots of caffeine, some luck, nights in the group room (tent optional but recommended), a good sense of humor, patience...

I exaggerate slightly. Luck is not compulsory.

Each project centers around a problem. The problem that haunts my project group (a.k.a. our research question) is the following:
What is the optimal energy storage system for wind energy in Frederikshavn, Denmark? I would be happy to provide details to anyone interested. I will spare the rest of you.

This process is termed PBL (problem-based learning). Each group is presented with/chooses a problem and then works to solve it using the tools provided through lectures. Ideally. Needless to say, 5 AM a few days before the new year is not quite ideal, but could have probably been prevented...
Could have, should have, would have...yeah, yeah, yeah...The type is beginning to blur. For now, here are a few pictures to replace words. Nope, not of the four countries I visited. Closer to home.

The group room decked with my attempts at coziness. Thanks for the Christmas tree mom. Yep, that's a tent in another group room...





The caffeine IV is running low. Got to go. Pics of travels to come...