Monday, May 8th we woke up to rain. After a short breakfast at the B&B, we traveled by tram to the University of Augsburg, located in the opposite direction of downtown.

My first impressions of the University were overwhelmingly positive, as it was both very clean and very modern. Despite having a student population comparable to that of Pitt, the University felt much smaller, possibly because in Germany there is no on campus student housing.

Once at the University, we got right to work. We met the German students that formed the other half of our group presentation teams. My team prepared and presented our introduction presentation on Hirschvogel, a forging and machining company we would visit later in the week. Other presentations covered Faurecia, BMW, SGL, and KUKA.

After our presentations, we visited Mensa, the University’s version of Market Central, that featured actual edible food — a far cry from its Pittsburgh counterpart. After lunch, we were led on a short campus tour that transitioned into a scavenger hunt around the city.

The scavenger hunt was a fantastic opportunity to test our knowledge of Augsburg from the previous day, interact with locals, and better acquaint ourselves with the city’s streets. Motivated by the fearless guidance of Brad Miner, my scavenger hunt group was able to pull ahead early and eventually win the competition. Our prize: some candy and first dibs on seats at the final location, Riegele Brauhaus. After a short break there with the German students, we went to an Italian restaurant called Dragone for dinner.

After dinner, we returned to the hotel and the program concluded for the day.