May 6th, 2019
Woke up this morning even earlier than Saturday, bright and early at 6:45. Today was going to be a busy day but fun!
Starting the morning with the breakfast provided by the hotel, is a great way to sTart the day. Croissants, hard boiled eggs, fruit, Brie cheese, and jam.
The whole group left for the tram at 8:15 and left to go to the University. When we arrived we met professor Michael Paul, who teaches marketing at Augsburg and then all the students from the university. All of them around one or two years older than us, and in their second year studying global management. Each of us got put in a group with 3 German students and have a company of focus for our site visits. My group is focused on Continental, a company largely focused on tire production. We will be visiting Continental on Wednesday as a group. For our first task together we did basic introductions to our company’s for all the other students and professors. After this the students took us to the Mensa, their form of a dining hall. It was nothing compared to anything at colleges here in America. There were vegetarian, Italian, classic foods, and beer (for those who are allowed to drink it)! I ate white asparagus and potatoes with some kind of sauce, traditional dish, but nothing I’d expect to see in the colleges dining hall.
Next on the agenda, we said goodbye to the German students. And met some of University of Augsburg’s masters students. These four students, also studying business, will visit Pitt in the fall. They gave us a tour of the campus. Covered in green space, a river flowing through the middle, and some unique looking buildings. The university is much more spread out than Pitt, but there are a similar amount of students. There aren’t really residence halls at the university, instead the students purchase apartments with other students in similar programs. Also, class is much more optional than at Pitt. The students told us most classes aren’t attended if they are lectures, but seminars are required. As another fun activity and a change to show us more of Augsburg, they organized a scavenger hunt through campus and the city.
My groups didn’t win, but it was still fun to travel all over the city and see some more of the city I didn’t see Day 1! To finish the tour with the masters students we went to Brauhaus Riegele ( Riegele Brewhouse ) where we sampled NON ALCOHOLIC beer and ate classic German pretzels!
For dinner today we went to Dragone in Augsburg. I wasn’t expecting to get such great Italian food in Germany, but I did! After a little confusion between my table and the waiter, I ended up with a tortellini entree and it was delicious!
Tomorrow: We are headed to our first site visit at Hirschvogel and doing some hiking as well!