Today we were specially treated for frühstück (breakfast) with Bavarian favorites, pretzels and weißwurst! It was a beautiful day outside – perfect for eating out in the morning.
Instead of waking up super early, today was a chill day with fun activities in the morning, and then a company visit to Faurecia in the afternoon until evening. We hopped on our charter bus to drive a little 30-minute drive to breakfast, where there were beautiful fields of yellow flowers in the background. Just as promised, the sausage was extremely delicious along with the German’s homemade mustard. As it turns out, the sausage is named “white sausage” due to the color being white and different from traditional darker colored sausages. I learned that the sausages were white because of the different salts used when boiling them, which definitely played a role in their unique savory taste. After breakfast, we took some pictures near the massive field of yellow flowers, not missing a chance at a great blog photo-op.
On the way back to Augsburg, I took the opportunity to nap and take back some much-needed rest. The Faurecia plant we visited was in Augsburg and very local, so we only needed to take the tram from the Königsplatz. When we arrived, we were required to wear safety goggles, lab coats, and foot protection for the factory tour. Although I will say that this wasn’t my favorite company, there were still many cool aspects such as their use of robotics, the many internship programs offered, as well as the big brand name companies that Faurecia supplied automotive parts to. In fact, we learned that one of Faurecia’s biggest customers was BMW, which was really fascinating considering we had seen the BMW production lines the day before. I mainly learned that Faurecia wants to build the “cockpit of the future”, and spends lots of time and money on research and development, for things like car seats, programming, touch screens, and even new investments into hydrogen-powered car technology. I am, by all means, not an engineer, so much of what was presented was a bit confusing and misleading at first. Regardless, I still loved the opportunity to gain some insight into a big global supplier of parts like Faurecia.
To end off the day, many of the boys went to a very nice restaurant nearby, which our great German friend Maxi recommended to us. Vipin and I felt a little risky and decided to try beef tartar for our first time ever. I ordered it with an open mind, but honestly, it just tasted kind of like sushi – I wasn’t really impressed. I got a BBQ burger for dinner because I was curious what the “German” version of the burger would be like, and I was NOT disappointed. 10/10.
I’m excited to finally visit my assigned company tomorrow, GROB-Werke, and finally, see what it has to offer.