Class / Residency Permits

Today in our Game Development - AI class we talked about software testing. It was interesting because not only have I had this lesson taught in multiple different courses at MSU, but I've also taken an entire semester long course on Software Testing and Quality Assurance. In addition to course work in school, I have worked as a Software Engineer Intern at Maverick Software Consulting doing testing for two and a half years before coming to the Netherlands.

They have an interesting perspective on testing here--different then what I have heard or experienced. The message I got from today was that testers are there to tell you what you did wrong--and nobody likes the testers or doing the testing--especially in the "big companies that have people designated to do the testing." The way the teacher described these big companies where there are people for testing made it seem like down in the dungeon they have designated testing trolls that tear apart your work and tell you have bad you did it. I also was surprised at the lack emphasis on the importance of testing as part of the whole development life cycle. Maybe there were some things that were lost or confused in translation of the lesson to English but it was odd compared to my previous experiences.

There were some similarities to classes at home, like making the distinction between verification and validation--as well as mentioning the different phases of testing, but everything seemed like it had a negative view. The teacher also touched on testing for games (which is what we all expected the class would be) but this section of the lesson was minimal.

> > > FAST FORWARD TO AFTER CLASS > > >

Today was the day we were going to get our residency permits so we're allowed to stay legally in Holland longer than three months. The five of us students headed with Job (our boss at buro302) and Jan (human resources at HAN), to some city a little over an hour away of which I have already forgotten the name. We were told ahead of time that we would each have a half an hour interview. This was not the case. Michael was first so his lasted a little longer than the rest of us and I'm not sure how much he had to talk, but I didn't have to say more than three words during my "interview." I said hello, had to sign two documents, sat and watched the lady helping me typed in some stuff into her computer that I couldn't see, I asked her what the sticker was that she was putting in my passport, then I responded with "Oooh cooooool!" to that. Then we shook hands and I went back to the waiting area. Easy enough. We now each have a sweet sticker that is official proof that w have applied for residency in Holland and are allowed to stay here longer than three months! There is still more paperwork that has to be done, but that goes with being guinea-pigs for this exchange program.

The best part of the trip was the ride home when Michael and Job were discussing history. Mostly it was about WWII, but also a bit about Holland's occupation of Indonesia and other such topics. I really enjoy hearing history from other perspectives.

The rest of the night will consist of homework and work work for us.

Insanity Fit Test 2

So, the time has come again in Insanity to do the FIT TEST.

I am proud to announce that I improved on every single move at least a little.

Move	9/17	9/30
Switch Kicks	57	64
Power Jacks	36	49
Power Knees	75	106
Power Jumps	30	32
Globe Jumps	6.5	9
Suicide Jumps	10	19
Push-Up Jacks	15	17
Low Plank Obliques	32	36

I don't have much to say about it I guess. I don't think I will ever like working out. I never feel like I've accomplished anything because I'm always going to be exhausted at the end. I know this doesn't need to be said but the more "fit" you get, the harder you can go during the workouts. I want it to get easier. I can say that I do like working out first thing in the morning though, it sets you up to have a good day (and then you don't have to dread working out later)!

I can talk about our recovery formula we all bought. We found a nice website (http://www.bodyenfitshop.nl/) for protein that you can have delivered the next day--which was something very important to us after like day 5 when our bodies were broken. We all ended up getting something different. I'm not sure what everyone got but I thought I'd try the slimming protein for lean muscles. What a terrible idea that was. I figured--I'm not trying to bulk up, let's give this a shot. LET'S NOT! My mix is really thick and its like drinking a watery cake batter that isn't mixing properly; whereas the protein the boys all got actually dissolves in the water making for a kind of tasty drink. Well, we all got a free sample along with our orders so I decided that today was the day to try my free sample and skip my terrible mix. The sample I had was a sample of what the boys got: Whey Perfection, in Cappuccino flavor. I wasn't expecting much from the flavor and more just looking forward to the smooth consistency of the drink itself.

I WAS BLOWN AWAY BY BOTH!!

If I all of the sudden fall in love with working out (unlikely) I'm getting this cappuccino flavored protein! I can't imagine anything better after a morning workout. It tasted delicious, it gives you that illusion that you've had a cup of coffee, it replenishes your muscles..ugh..its glorious.

For those you want to see the results thus far, below is me after the workout tonight (I will only show the before and after pictures at the end so they can be compared, but this will give you a sneak peak as to my progress):

(I've also been tanning? Or painting myself that funny color..)

Köln, Deutschland

This past weekend, Sarah and I took a quick trip to Cologne, Germany.

DISCLAIMER: I get a little long-winded. Please note the headings of the seconds so you can skip around to the things you might actually care about.

Traveling
Saturday morning we biked from our house in Velp to Arnhem (represented by the yellow star on the map) and took a train to Cologne, Germany. It took about an hour and forty minutes to get there and since we left early in the morning, I slept on the train so it went fairly quickly. The train announcements were in Dutch, German, and English--so that was awesome and helpful. I'm so thankful every time I hear English from people that aren't native English speakers. 

(Side note: you think like Math and numbers and all that are universal--but they use commas here for their decimal point. I don't know what's up with that but I'm confused for the slightest moment every time I see it.)

Anywho, we arrive in Cologne (or Köln, as all the signs that we can't read--they are in German--say) and now we need to find the place we are staying. Sarah, who planned the whole trip, has all kinds of maps printed out but we aren't exactly sure where we are and where we need to be in order to start on the trail the maps say. We begin to really miss the Dutch signs (that we still can't read) because at least some spelling of those words are familiar. We eventually decided we needed to hop on another train to Köln-West. We get off that train, walk under a bridge and to our first intersection and we still can't decide where we are and where we need to head. We were doing the thing where you turn your map in your hands sideways and your entire body to match how you think the streets are laid out--CLEARLY TOURISTS--and a nice man comes to our rescue and offers help. He didn't speak much English but pointed us in the right direct according to the maps.

Arrival and Lunch
We finally located our lovely home for the next 30 some hours and dropped our stuff off and headed out on our way. Our plans were as follows: shop, Chocolate Museum, Fragrance Museum, and check out some of the massive Cathedrals because you can see "the big one" from all over and it looks awesome, and lastly, the cable car over the river.

We started off in the direction we thought the major shopping was but we started getting very hungry so we stopped at a restaurant called Borsalino which was an incredibly delicious Italian Restaurant. I ordered a meal by pointing at something on the menu and Sarah followed suit. We used a lot of hand and arm gestures between the waitress and us to communicate. We split both meals and had way too much food between the two of us but it was so good and actually really cheap compared to the menus we had checked out before stopping at this place. We got both meals and two drinks and bread before the meals for just over €16 (~$20.68).


Getting Lost, Asking for Directions
So then we were back on our way. Long-story-short, we got extremely lost, and when we could locate a street sign (which is actually quite difficult in some areas), that street would not appear anywhere on our map.  Below I will describe our attempts at asking for directions:

• Stopped in a convenient store to ask the lady if she could point about where we were on the map. She had NO IDEA what on earth we were asking so we left. 
• Stopped at a bar where the bartender and one of the patrons did there very best to tell us how to get to the Chocolate Museum. There were lots of yelling, a mix between German, English, and weird grunting noises and laughing. Oh, and more hand gestures. The bartender was drawing me a "map" that connected a bunch of lines.. all straight.. all going in the same direction while the man was yelling to Sarah, "You go out....there, always straight, always straight. Then you see (something in German I didn't understand) and go always straight." I couldn't stop laughing. So we left and just walked straight.
• Spotted a Travel Agency and a lady gave us a quick look at where we were on a google map and a way to head towards the train.
• Stopped at a corner to see if we could now locate ourselves on our map. A nice old man (pictured to the right) came up to us and I'm assuming asked us, in German, if we needed help. We told him we wanted to go to the chocolate factory and asked the most simple way to get there. He explained one way to walk and one way to get to a train and take that. When he abruptly decided he was done giving us directions he pointed to the sky and said, "The weather is nice. Now, you go away," and did a little "shoo away" gesture then he turned and started walking away. He was also quite funny.
• A couple who spoke English well helped us at a large map (shown below left) near the train station.

In our defense, these streets are not laid out in a grid-formation, its like a spiderweb. One second you know kind of where you are, the next you are completely lost. It was quite the experience.

Okay, now on to the good stuff!

The Chocolate Museum
Right before entering the Chocolate Museum, we asked a girl to take our picture in front of it, and then we returned the favor. When we were buying our tickets at the entrance, the girl showed up again. We invited her to join us. Her [English] name is Janus and she is a student from South Korea that is doing an exchange program in Amsterdam which was really cool. Her English was great too which was a plus for us. The Museum was cool, a lot of information on chocolate, where it comes from, how its made, etc. It was really nice that the information was both in German and in English.
Some fun facts:

• The number of cocoa farmers worldwide is estimated at between five and six million. Approximately 75% of cocoa farmers and their families have never tried a piece of chocolate. (Shocking, terrible, appalling?--I KNOW)
• Consuming chocolate can stimulate the formation of serotonin and endorphins in the brain. Both substances have a great impact on a person's well-being and mood.
• The theobromine and caffeine contained in chocolate expand the blood vessels and bronchial tubes. This makes the transportation of blood and oxygen easier. According to a scientific study, theobromine can alleviate coughing attacks. This can also lower blood pressure, reduce aggressive metabolites, and prevent heart attacks.
• In a test case, Germany's highest court, the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe, rules in 2004 that also in future, the colour lilac for chocolate product wrappers may only be used for Milka (my favorite!) products.

There were some machinery for producing chocolate that we could view as well as some actually running and making chocolate. They also had a green-house where they grew cocoa plants and other warm weather fruits. You could have custom chocolate bars made with add-ins of your choice. I did this for myself and to take back to Michael. At the gift shop I spent a good amount of time (and money). It was fun--and yummy. There was this golden cocoa plant that was a chocolate fountain (above) that they dipped waffers in and let us sample.

The Farina Fragrance Museum 
After the chocolate Museum, Janus helped us find the Farina Fragrance Museum. She had already been there and let us know that everything is in German, and in order to go in the Museum you had to take a guided tour. We decided that a guided tour in German didn't necessarily interest us so we went to the official gift shop and looked around. Janus, who happens to collect and know quite a bit about perfume gave us some background:

Johann Maria Farina created a perfume and named it Eau de Cologne after his town. Apparently the U.S. is one of few places that makes a distinction between men's and women's perfumes so both Farina's Eau de Cologne is for everyone. Many famous people have worn this scent including Princess Diana and Bill Clinton. Farina's claims to be the original Eau de Cologne.

No. 4711

Next we went to check out the No. 4711 House which is a competing perfume. Also trying to be considered  the original Eau de Cologne. I preferred this scent over the other but they were both very nice. When you walk into the No. 4711 House, they have a sink constantly running with the perfume's scent. It was really cool. There were also little signs you could read in English to give a brief history of the fragrance. Sarah and I bought quite a few souvenirs here.

This perfume is also quite famous in the world. Janus knew all about it, Sarah and I were just introduced to it.

Apparently the creator of this fragrance Wilhelm Muelhens, found a man with the last name Farina and bought the rights to the name and sold the license to countless others to compete against the Farina Eau de Cologne. The whole story actually sounded pretty interesting.

Kölner Dom
I don't know much about the Dom Cathedral except for that it is HUGE and AWESOME LOOKING. We saw it on Saturday evening and then again Sunday morning before we left. We were able to go inside while they were having mass Sunday morning and the sights and sounds were incredible. (The picture on the top right of the images below was not taken by me, my interior photos were pretty blurry)

The Bridge of Love

The Rhine River flows through Cologne. One  bridge that can take you from one side of Cologne to the other is the Hohenzollern Bridge, the Bridge of Love. This bridge was an important bridge in Germany during WWII and stood strong after many airstrikes. Many who cross the bridge with their sweetheart will attach a lock to it with their names on it to symbolize their never-ending love.

Shopping
There are shops here and there throughout Cologne, but then there are also "shopping streets" in Cologne. These are areas where cars cannot enter and the streets are lined with shop after shop--it was so beautiful. Sarah and I spent a good amount of our evening Saturday night after all our sight seeing shopping. We both left with purchases! I got shoes, a shirt, eyeliner, and nail polish during this shopping trip. All of this came to under €30 (~$38.62) which I was quite pleased with. Sarah left with leggings and new socks. The rest of our money went to souvenirs from the Chocolate and Fragrance Museums.

Souvenirs
Dear Family--if I can make it to the post office sometime soon you may see some of this show up in America  :). Or I already ate it. Not pictured: shirt, shoes, customized chocolate bars. Oh, and that little piggy you see was my first purchase in Germany.. it's a finger puppet, I liked it, the store owner was really nice...I don't really know what I was thinking..

Bicycles / Insanity Day 2

Bicycles

To anyone thinking of studying abroad at HAN, YOU WILL NEED A BICYCLE. It's the main mode of transportation because you won't have a car and public transportation (buses, trains) is quite expensive to international students. Because they pay such high taxes here, the Dutch students are able to ride for free--but the rest of us will pay at least €3.00 (~$3.94) if not more for one trip. If it takes you more than one bus to get to your destination, you can start doubling and tripling your costs, and that doesn't even count getting back home.

When you ask any of the locals where a good place to get a cheap bike is, you will get some version of, "The train station at night." I am not kidding, every single person we asked said that from some of the faculty at school to the students to just some people out and about. Stealing bikes in the Netherlands is very common.

Some advice I have for someone looking to get a bike here: DO NOT SKIMP ON YOUR BIKE. "But I will only need it for 6 months!"---You will save money spending more on a decent bike in the long run.

We had one of the Dutch students from buro302, where we work, to take us to a second-hand shop. He helped translate and negotiate prices. It was only Matt, Michael, and I the first trip here. I found my bike, Little Red, right away. It was a mountain bike like the one I had as a child, looked like it was in decent shape compared to some of the bikes at the shop, it was fun-sized--just like me :). I gave it a little test-ride. It was actually rather terrifying to be on a bike again for the first time in years. But it seemed like a pretty okay bike. The man said €50 (~$65.74) and I was sold. 

Then Matt and Michael found their bikes and the man said he'd give us the three for €200 (~$262.96) to which the boys said, "Perfect, €66 each!" Some simple math tells me that this deal is not a win for me, but I didn't want to make an issue of it so I forked over the €66 (~$86.78) ....and then later got even by making the boys (probably just Michael) buy my bike lock.

On the way home, Michael's bike would only ride in 1st Gear so he was pedaling twice as fast and going no-where. Matt's brakes didn't work. My bike was looking pretty good. The next day Michael and Matt went with Sav and Sarah to exchange their bikes and get the other two new bikes. This trip was more successful except Michael now has a bike where the handlebars are loose and sometimes don't turn the front tire when they are supposed to. Both Michael and Sav's bikes have been spray-painted making it clear they were at one point stolen bikes. Since then: 

• Sarah has had two flat tires
• Sav's lost a pedal
• Matt's chain has fallen off
• Little Red is the worst of them all:
• The chain fell off at least twice on every trip that I made until getting the chain tightened
• Switches gears on it's own while I'm riding it usually finding it's own happy place in 1st Gear
• One flat tire
• Just all-around exhausting to ride

Today when I came home from class, L.B., a student from Latvia brought a few bikes back from Amsterdam (how he came across these bikes is a mystery to me). And he brought one special that is small enough for a tiny-human. He fixed it up for me outside at let me test-ride it. It's so beautiful. Another €100 (~$131.48) later, I have a new bike that works like a charm. This one I will actually be able to sell back when I leave. I will try to find a home for Little Red but I feel bad putting that disaster on anyone else--the shop it came from didn't even want to exchange the bike for money.

Also, if any of you are still reading: I need a name for my new bike, its real solid, a nice black matte frame, with a touch of orange with little thumbs up on it. Any suggestions for a name would be appreciated.

__________________________________________

Insanity Day 2 - Plyometrics

I can sum this up in one word: DEATH.

Sarah joined today also. It was hard work and I think I turned a pretty lovely shade of purple. Tomorrow I will try to hydrate more throughout the day to prepare for Day 3. Oh, and being extremely sore from the Fit Test yesterday did not help. 

One of the other international students living in our house walked in the room to see the five Americans following a workout video and he pulled out his phone and started recording...and critiquing my form. Next time I'm going to come after him while were doing our uppercuts.

Insanity

DAY 1

Michael purchased Insanity, an intense 60-Day workout program that comes on DVDs.

Today, September 16 was our first day. Michael, Matt, Sav, and I took "before" pictures and then cleaned out the living room in our house to make space for the four of us to do Day 1 - Fit Test.

Back in America, I was not as active as I would have liked to be, or even half as active as I would have liked to be for that matter. Coming to the Netherlands has already done a number on getting me into better shape because I don't have my car to take me places or a TV to watch (not that I did much of that anyway). All the biking around Arnhem and Velp and going up the stairs-of-death to our top floor rooms has done a number on me. That and taking into account I'm eating Dutch-sized portions compared to our super-sized American meal portions so I was already on my way to a healthier me before even starting Insanity.

Besides getting in all-around better shape, what's really going to keep me motivated to continue Insantiy is the free t-shirt if you send in your "before" and "after" pics! Woo! Just kidding. (But seriously, no I am not..)

Anyway, today Shaun T., our Insanity trainer (the man on the DVD), "put our bodies to the test to see what we're made of." It was a 30 minute Fit Test where you would do different exercises for a minute and keep track of how many you did. The purpose of the Fit Test is so that you can see your progress along the program as you do it five times throughout the course of Insanity workout. It was really pretty exhausting. I am already predicting I am going to get the award for The Most Improved by the end of this.

Below are my numbers for the first Fit Test. I'm a little embarrassed, but in my defense, the floor was really dusty so I spent a lot of time wiping my shoes during the exercises ;).....or I'm just in bad shape.

Move	#
Switch Kicks	57
Power Jacks	36
Power Knees	75
Power Jumps	30
Globe Jumps	6.5
Suicide Jumps	10
Push-Up Jacks	15
Low Plank Obliques	32

UDK Class

In the GAME Semester, one of the classes we attend is lessons on developing game levels with Unreal Development Kit.

Every week we get an in-class tutorial on different features. The first week we went over different ways to add and remove 3D objects from your level. Doing this, you are able to create structures with hallways and rooms that you can add different materials to make the structures look more realistic. We also learned a little bit about lighting and how to trigger the light to turn on when you enter a room. It's a simple idea but I think it's really cool to actually create it.

Thursday in class we built on our existing knowledge by learning to build a pool!

There are quite a few things that go into making a pool:

• The physical space for your pool 
• "Water Volume" in that area so when you are playing the level, your little video game character will realize he (or she) needs to swim when he enters the area 
• Add a surface that looks like water 
• Change the settings on the surface so when the character goes under water, vision may be a bit blurry or have a blue tint to it, or when he looks up, you can see the waters surface, etc.

It is a lot of fun to customize this to fit what you imagine being under water in your little world would be like.

Level Design is one of the options that the information technology students can choose as their role in the actual implementation the second half of the semester. As of now, I'm definitely leaning towards doing this.

Create a Game Introduction

On the Wednesday before classes officially started we had the introduction to our semester: Create a Game.

This semester program counts as a minor for the students at HAN. Students here are mainly split it to two groups: the communication students and the information technology students. Both can take this minor.

The first half of the semester is set up for lecture. Students have to choose two of three courses to attend. The last half of the semester is actual implementation of the techniques learned during the first few weeks in the courses. All students will have to create a concept for a game and in the end, two will be chosen and implemented.The three main courses for Create a Game are as follows. You must attend two of the three.

1. Game Art - This course is for the communication students only.
The subject Game Art focuses on the visual design of 3D worlds and objects with the help of 3D Studio Max. You will get a broad introduction to this very wide and complex area. Another important topic you will learn about is the story within a game (interactive storytelling). You may choose to specialise in the area of sound in games or the design and creation of animated characters.
Description from the Create a Game website.


2. Game Play - This course is for both communication students and information technology students.
The subject Game Play teaches you the principles of both game play and level design. Game play deals with game concepts like game rules and game experience, which includes cognitive and psychological aspects. It also covers play modes and the use of film techniques, sound and music.Level design deals with the representation of space, terrains and various actors. Some of the themes covered are triggers, movers, lighting and teleports. You will use a current Triple A game engine with a level editor. During this subject you will analyse existing games, design your own game and help to create a game.
Description from the Create a Game website.


3. Game Development - This course is for information technology students only.
   The subject Game Development deals with game development techniques, such as the use of game engines. You will also be trained in basic mathematical and physical principles underlying realistic games, for example the motion of falling or colliding objects. You will also learn about artificial intelligence in games.
   Description from the Create a Game website.

After the first half, all of the students (both communication and information technology students combine) will be split up into two groups to work on a game concept duringGame Project. Description from the Create a Game website:

During the Game Project you will cooperate with a large team of students from mixed nationalities and backgrounds on one large game product. You will start with brainstorming sessions to determine what kind of game you want to develop. You will then work in smaller multidisciplinary teams on one of the game parts or aspects.Some of the teams will work on a specific game level, other teams work on level independent aspects such as the game story or the graphical user interface.As well as the development teams, there will be a management team and an integration team, both consisting of representatives from the development teams. Within about 8 weeks, you will experience a complete development process from the initial concept to the final test product.
Description from the Create a Game website.

-----------------------------------------

Personal note about my experience during the introduction to the semester:

The teachers first pointed out that there were international students from America and Finland so now we stick out like a sore thumb. Then they showed a video of a past semester with students talking about their experience and clips of the game they created and different areas of development. It was very impressive and started the intro off really well.

Next came presentations from the teachers on what we could expect in the different courses. During the teachers presentations, nearly the entire room of students were having their own conversations which made hearing the teachers very difficult. It was really odd to see such a lack of respect and acknowledgment for the person presenting. I was surprise and quite frustrated at the same time. I remembering thinking I was going to be in BIG trouble if this is how the classes were going to go.

Another frustration for me was being an international student who doesn't know the country's official language: I couldn't understand many of the questions being asked by the students or the answers they received as that was all in Dutch.

They did one part in Dutch that we were told was only relevant to the Dutch students that were attending HAN for four years. At the time I really wanted to know what was being said even though it wasn't supposed to apply to me. We found out the following Monday that they did forget to mention some key information in English when we attended our scheduled afternoon course. We walked in joking about how the class we were headed to was "probably going to be in Dutch." When we sat down and looked at the PowerPoint at the front of the class, the title slide was in Dutch. Then the teacher started speaking and that was also in Dutch. After an embarrassing moment when the teacher asked me a question and I told him I didn't understand a word he was saying, we found out that during the part that was in Dutch in the intro, they had stated that only Dutch students would need to attend this class because it is specific to requirements they have for their 4-year program. So then we were excused to leave.

But other than that, the introduction, or at least the parts that I could hear, was really cool.

Create a Game website: http://www.han.nl/opleidingen/exchange-courses/create-a-game/