Friday, 1/12
Today marked the beginning of our free weekend in Europe! We started our morning in Nuremberg with class at the hotel. We were introduced to the second, and final woman mathematician we will be studying during this course, Sofya Kovalevskaya. The woman mathematician from Russia began paving the way for women in mathematics. Kovalevskaya was the first woman to obtain a doctorate in mathematics, as well as the first woman to work as an editor for a scientific journal and be appointed as a professor in Northern Europe. Kovalevskaya mostly worked on mathematics surrounding real analysis and partial differential equations, which we will get to explore more in the coming days.
After class concluded, everyone said their goodbyes and we all began our journey’s to various destinations. For the free weekend, our class will be anywhere from Germany to Austria, Switzerland, Spain, and the Czech Republic. So make sure to check out the blog this weekend!
Three students are driving to Switzerland!
10 students are headed to Prague by train!
As for me, I headed off to Switzerland with a couple other students with the vision of skiing down the Swiss Alps. Our day consisted of renting a car and traveling through Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, eventually reaching our destination 4 hours later in Flumserberg. The journey started off with many obstacles such as figuring out what kind of gas to put in the car, what was required for us to drive in Switzerland, and what a Premium Location Fee was on our rental car invoice. After multiple calls to the rental car place and much persistence and learning, we were finally able to sit back and enjoy the beautiful frosted trees and towering mountains surrounding us for the last hour of our drive. Upon arrival at our Airbnb, we marveled at the surrounding view of a vast lake and bordering mountains. Shortly after arrival we went out to dinner at Promenade Walenstadt. We’re now all full and tired from a long day of stress and travel so it will be an early bedtime tonight:)
A view from our scenic drive!
The view from our Airbnb balcony upon arrival!
Stay tuned for more blog posts to read about the experiences of the other free weekend trips!
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