Day 12 24.10.2019

Day 12: Oklahoma University Day and National Weather Center 

On our 12th day, we went to the University of Oklahoma and the nearby Weather Center. The day started, for me and for a few other students as well, at Zero Hour at Norman North. After that, the German GAPP students met in front of the German Room at 9 am, ready for departure. Today was the coldest and rainiest day in Norman so far. 

Our tour on OU Campus had started with a short presentation about the University. With its over 30000 students (22000 undergraduate students) OU is the biggest and oldest university (even older than the State itself) in Oklahoma. OU is classified as a university with very high research activity and is especially known for their teaching in geology, native American studies, architecture, and dance. The nice thing about the campus is that all the buildings are built with bricks so you can see that they are connected.

After the presentation we began walking around campus, where we went past the Library and the famous Clock Tower, about which a funny legend exists: whoever walks under the tower and looks up won’t graduate on time. Some students make fun of it and put things, for example, a hammock under it so it stays there for a couple of days or even weeks. From the Clock Tower we moved on and our guides, Steven and Carson, showed us 'The Blender' (that is the nickname of a building) and the Pe-Et Elm stump before we headed to the next building, Gaylord Hall, the College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

After walking past the buildings for Biology, Sciences, and Physics we went for lunch at OK Memorial Union, where our guided tour ended. Some of us ate the food from home, others ate at one of the several restaurants that are in the building. We met again at noon and took the bus over to the National Weather Center, where our tour started at 1 pm. To start our tour, our guide showed us how tornadoes develop and how this research center can predict a tornado just from looking at the chemicals elements that are in the air. Therefore the Oklahoma Weather Center is also a hub for a geostationary satellite, a satellite that always stays above the same point on Earth, so that reserachers can receive large amounts of data every second.

We first took the elevators to the top floor, where our guide showed us the (usually) great view and an outdoor classroom. The Weather Center is the only center in the United States that makes predictions for the whole country, which is why they got a huge amount of cables hidden in the building's walls (230 miles). Because of the great importance of the building the State built it tornado-proof so that it wouldn’t be destroyed in the case of a tornado. 

We moved on and had a look at the Storm Prediction Center and the OKC/Norman Forecast Office, where we saw a firestorm map, some hand-drawn weather maps, and radar screens. On our way to the last point of interest we met a German woman from Baden who has been working in the Center for about 22 years. In a working garage, someone told us about many of the measuring instruments, especially the 

ones that that person had built himself to get his doctorate degree. He also talked to us about a project during a field trip in which they had tried to understand tornadoes a little better. To observe weather events, they had screwed a weather radar on the top of a truck, so that they could follow those interesting weather events through out the US. Listening to those stories was very interesting, especially the ones where he showed us some weather balloons that had gotten hit by something, for example a lightning strike. 

In the evening a group of about 8 people met to try virtual reality and pumpkin carving. We went to the ‘VR Workshop’ where you could choose between an archery or a zombie game. Although not everything worked as well as we had imagined this new experience was quite cool. After that we met at Leyton’s (Amelie's GAPP student), where we ate pizza that we hadn’t tried yet (BBQ Chicken and Meat Eater) and waited for the others, who had stayed a bit longer at the VR place. While doing that we played football and commented on a few differences between the German and the American version. The main differences are that there are three goalies in the American version. In the German version, as well as everywhere else, spinning is forbidden, whereas in America it is permitted. After everybody had arrived we began to hollow out the pumpkins and started carving (more or less) creepy faces in the pumpkin. The whole evening was a lot of fun and it was very interesting to try VR.