Aachen
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Welcome to Aachen!
Contents |
About Aachen
Aachen, or “Aix-la-Chapelle” as it is called in French, is Germany’s most westerly city, with a population of nearly 260,000 citizens. About 40,000 students attend Aachen’s four major universities (Rhineland-Westphalian Technical University [RWTH], University of Applied Science, Catholic University of Applied Science and Academy of Music). Situated where Germany’s, Belgium’s and the Netherlands’ borders meet, Aachen somewhat resembles Europe in a nutshell: people from all three countries live and work together in this exciting city, along with dozens of other nationalities from all over the world.
This cosmopolitan attitude has always been a part of Aachen’s long history. Dating back to Roman times, when the city was known for its hot springs, Aachen became famous for its multi culturality in the 8th century. Back then, the emperor Charlemagne established the first prototype of a multi-national European state.
Therefore Aachen offers its visitors a multi-layered history which is reflected in the many historic buildings and sights that have been influenced by different ages and various cultures. Since Medicine students do usually not receive an education in historical basics, it would go beyond the scope of this site to outline Aachen’s historic facts in detail. Therefore, if you wish to learn more about Aachen’s history please visit http://www.aachen.de.
The must-haves
Given this extraordinary history, there are lots of places of interest to see in and around Aachen. However, presenting all the sights and sounds to you on this website would take far to much space, time and effort for a poor medical student. Hence we just give you a short list of things you ought to see while staying in Aachen and where to find further information.
- The Cathedral of Aachen
- The Town Hall
- The Elisenbrunnen
- The Chicken Market (Hühnermarkt)
- The Three Countries Corner (Dreiländereck)
- ...
Most of the sights you will definitely get to see, as we included visiting them in our social program.
Accommodation
Hospitals
All our Professional Exchanges and most of the Research Projects are placed in our beautifull University Clinic. On it's Homepage it says:
The University Hospital Aachen (UKA) combines in its singularity all mechanisms of supplying the patient, the entire medical faculty and the dentistry under one roof. In this enormous building is a place for the common research of engineers, scientists and physicians. At the moment co-operate 59 professors, 824 scientific assistants and 4347 non-scientific employees in 33 clinical departments, 21 institutes and in the administration of the UKA. The University Hospital has 1.510 beds.
http://www.ukaachen.de/content/folder/1016005/1
Professional Exchange
The Professional Exchange is possible on the following clinical departments
- Department for Anaesthesiology
- Department for Cardiac and Thorax Surgery
- Department for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
- Department for Dental Preservation
- Department for Dermatology
- Department for Gynaecological Endocrinology and Reproductive Medicine
- Department for Gynaecology and Obstetrics
- Department for Neurology
- Department for Neuroradiology
- Department for Neurosurgery
- Department for Nuclear Medicine
- Department for Operative Dentistry and Plastic Facial Surgery
- Department for Ophthalmology
- Department for Orthodontics
- Department for Orthopaedics and Trauma Surgery, main focus on trauma surgery
- Department for Orthopaedics and Trauma Surgery,main focus on orthopaedics
- Department for Otorhinolaryngology and Plastic Head and Neck Surgery
- Department for Paediatric and Adolescent Medicine
- Department for Paediatric Cardiology
- Department for Palliative Medicine
- Department for Phoniatrics, Pedaudiology and Communication Disorders
- Department for Plastic, Hand and Burns Surgery
- Department for Prosthodontics
- Department for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
- Department for Radiological Diagnostics
- Department for Radiotherapy
- Department for Surgery
- Department for Urology
- Department for Vascular Surgery
- Internal Medicine I (Cardiology, Pneumology and Angiology)
- Internal Medicine II (Nephrology and Clinical Immunology)
- Internal Medicine III (Gastroenterology and Metabolic Disorders)
- Internal Medicine III, Section for Endocrinology and Diabetology
- Internal Medicine IV (Haematology and Oncology)
Research Projects
At the momement we only have one Project available for the Research Exchange at the Department of Medical Informatics:
"Formal definition of learning objectives for a training program in evidence based medicine using"
Aim: Definition of a set of operational learning objectives for an EbM-Course; structured & formalrepresentation of the objectives.
Techniques: Modeling of medical terminology within a restricted domain; application of OWL (ontology web language); use of the Protègè Knowledge Acquisition Toolset
further information: Knoblauch H, Dameron C, Musen MA; Weaving The Biomedical Semantic Web With The Protègè OWL Plugin._First Int. Workshop On Formal Biomedical knowledge Representation, 2004, Whistler, BC, Canada. (Available from Protègè.Standford.edu)
Teaching: approx. 4h structured individual orientation, 6h online tutorial
role of student: The student will compare existing EbM-Curricula and will identify relevant concepts. He/She will then reformulate learning objectives and enter them in a Protègè Knowledge Base.
Outcome: Final Report (10 – 15 p.)
skills to acquire: Systematic literature retrieval / research; basics in formal knowledge Representation & Semantic Web Technology. approx. 8 hours of work per day.
Survival kit or How to stay alive
Living in Aachen requires the unique skill to know were, when and how to find the cheapest and best quality goods.
You might not have expected this, but yes, Germany does have supermarkets, food stores and shopping malls. We don’t have to go into the woods in order to survive - not any more.
Throughout the week, except on Sundays, it is possible to fetch all the things needed for a living. Luckily we are so close to the border of the Netherlands, were shops are open even on Sundays. There you can also shop on most holidays. Opening hours in Aachen usually are from 8 am till 8 pm. Some shops even sell merchandise up to 10 pm
Aldi, Lidl and Plus are the stores of choice for poor students like us ;) There you can buy good quality groceries for fairly cheap prices.
If you incidentally need something to eat on Sundays, go to the C1000 store in Vaals (Netherlands). This mall is situated next to the border and is just 15 minutes away from the Uniklinik on foot. Additionally, it is worth buying vegetables and fruits in the Netherlands as it is by far cheaper.
Another possibility to get the things you need to survive is the HIT supermarket quite close to the Uniklinik (and the Kullenhof-hostel, where you will probably be accommodated). It is within walking distance (5 min on foot). However, groceries are rather expensive there.
Fresh goods can also be purchased on Wednesdays and Saturdays at the Aachen market place next to the cathedral.
As buying food requires you to go out and be seen, you should definitely be dressed in the latest fashion. Therefore take some time and do „real shopping“ (-;).
Aachen’s city offers a small but nice selection of shopping centers. The main shopping streets are the Adalbertstraße and the Groß-Köln-Straße. There you can find shops like H&M, Sinn Leffers, Lust for Life and C&A as well as boutiques of virtually any international brand. If you want to experience big city life, however, you should visit Köln or Düsseldorf. These cities are easily accessible within an hour by train. They offer an even greater variety of malls, shopping centers and fashion stores.
You might find this incredible, but in Germany you need money to purchase your wares. As we belong to the European Union, the currency here is the euro. While you stay in Aachen, make sure that you always take along enough cash. Due to the delay involved in the settlement of bills, most of the stores do not accept credit cards. So be sure that you don't run out of cash. Traveler’s checks can be cashed at any bank, and there are plenty of cash dispensers (ATMs) where you can withdraw money using a cash card (ATM card) or a credit card with a PIN code.
Getting around
The easiest way to get from A to B in Aachen is going by bus. There are several bus lines that take you from the Uniklinik to the city center, the main station and all the other places you want to go. As we do not expect you to conduct a research on Aachen´s public transportation system we will provide all the bus schedules and time tables you need once you are here.
If, however, you want to make a trip out of Aachen the best way is by train. Trains to Düsseldorf and Cologne depart from the main station (Hauptbahnhof) at regular intervals.
And all this, bus transportation within Aachen plus train connections to cities within the Aachen region, you can have for only 45€ a month. The monthly ticket can be purchased at the main bus terminal (Bushof) in Aachen. The monthly pass assures a high level of mobility as you can use all buses and trains (except ICE, IC) in Aachen's public transport area (AVV).
In addition to travelling in and around Aachen, you might also want to take a bus to Maastricht or Brussels. These buses also leave regularly from the main station and the main bus terminal (Bushof).
Nightlife
Now we get to the really interesting stuff. After a long day in the Uniklinik, having spent most of your time on irritating, non-compliant patients, you definitely need some stress-relieve. But where, when, and what?
As Aachen’s culture is greatly influenced by students, going out and having fun is a rather easy task. There are many bars, clubs, lounges, and parties that lure you with special students’ offers almost every day of the week. In order to get an idea of what’s happening around you, visit www.campus-life.de. There you will find an event-calendar showing all of the week’s events as well as information about the location, the time, the type of music being played and the cost. The current Theatre Program is displayed there as well.
If you are undecided, however, and if you just want to stroll around and chance upon bypassing party-opportunities you should visit Pontstraße. It’s the student’s main party area. Here you will find nice bars and chilling lounges next to dance-clubs and a great variety of fast-food-restaurants. In actual fact most of Aachen’s night-life activities take place in Pontstraße.
As there are various activities to spend the night on and as naming them all would be too confusing anyway, we just want to mention a few “must-haves” here:
Places for pumping legs and flailing arms
- Nightlife
- Apollo
- Aoxomoxoa
- Tanzpalast
- B9
- Abendrot
- Bar Museo
- ...
Chill-out Locations
- Labyrith
- Milchbar
- Sowiso
- Lousiana
- Pontgarten
- ...
We know that there is a lot to see and not that much time but be assured that visiting most of these locations is included in our social program.
Eating out
If the workday was too exhausting for you to go out partying there is always the possibility to just have a nice and quiet dinner in one of Aachen’s many restaurants. As in most cities the size of Aachen, there are many locations where you can enjoy dishes from almost every country in the world. If you care for traditional German cuisine you should visit the Haxenhaus. It’s famous for its regional German dishes.
Eating out in Aachen does not require any special knowledge about customs or manners. Just make sure you know how to use knife and fork but if that doesn’t work using your hands is commonly accepted as well ;-) There is one thing, however, you should keep in mind. In Germany it is customary to give a tip. Tips officially range between 8% and 10% of the bill’s value. But no waiter will kill a poor student for only giving 5% or less.
If you don’t fancy eating out you could also go to the Aachen Theatre. It is situated next to the Elisenbrunnen and therefore easily accessible by bus. The program changes constantly, so look up what’s on here: http://www.theater-aachen.de/ There are always special offers for students for about 10 € p.p. It’s worth it!
What else to say?
You can imagine that the activities we mention here are but a few compared to what really awaits you in Aachen. So, if there is anything you want to do while staying here that we have not yet mentioned, do not hesitate to ask us about it.
Now then, there is not very much left for us to say but to wish you a safe journey. Do bring along a lot of high spirits and you will enjoy your stay with us for sure.
We look forward to meeting you soon. Your bvmd-exchange team Aachen
Local Exchange Team
Contact
Fachschaft Medizin der RWTH Aachen
BVMD-Austausch-Büro (Flur 43)
Pauwelsstr. 30
52074 Aachen
Germany
Phone: +49 241 / 8 08 99 22
Email: austausch_aachen@bvmd.de
German cities offered for exchange
Aachen, Berlin, Bochum, Bonn, Cologne (Köln), Dresden, Düsseldorf, Erlangen, Essen, Frankfurt, Freiburg, Gießen, Göttingen, Greifswald, Halle, Hamburg, Hannover, Heidelberg, Homburg, Jena, Kiel, Leipzig, Lübeck, Magdeburg, Mainz, Mannheim, Marburg, Munich LMU (München), Munich TU (München), Münster, Regensburg, Rostock, Tübingen, Ulm, Witten-Herdecke, Würzburg
