Today’s start was a little bit more relaxed than most days. Now that we were done presentations, we were able to sleep in a little, and we taken to a traditional Bavarian breakfast. The meal consisted of pretzels and weisswurst. I am a sausage fan, so I enjoyed that weisswurst a lot. I ended up eating around 4 of them, and I liked every bite of it. One thing that I noticed about the breakfast was the amount of beer consumed. It seemed as if every other person was drinking beer. I guess that’s the alternative when still water isn’t common.

After breakfast, we were taken to Oberammergau, a small touristy village in the alps. The town was pretty cool, with a bunch of small shops where I bought a few souvenirs. However, the main attraction (for me at least) was the view. Although it was cloudy, it was so cool to go up into the alps. The ride up on the gondola was a little nerve raking, but it was so worth it. The view from the gondola was amazing! Also, the ride down on the gondola we sang our hearts out to Sweet Caroline and Don’t Stop Believin’, which was one of the highlights of the day. We were able to see for miles around, and the mountains were beautiful. The top was a little bit cloudy, so it was difficult to see, but it was still very cool to be up there.

We concluded our day with a farewell dinner. This dinner (just like all others) was pretty darn good. The main attraction from this dinner, though, was seeing our German students for the last time. Sadly, only one of our German group members (Benedikt) was able to make it. We made the most of it, and we really got to know Benedikt much better. He even taught us a few tongue twister words in German. When the dinner concluded, we gave him our gifts. To our surprise, he put on the Pittsburgh tee shirt right away. That act really summed up how close the Pitt and Augsburg students were. I am truly glad that we got to work this such a great group of Germans. They really made the trip so much more enjoyable, so as sad as I was to see them go, I’m glad we became friends in the first place!