The breakfast at the hotel this morning was amazing for a “two star” hotel, which undoubtedly put the American continental breakfast to shame. I walked in and was greeted by an assortment of meats, cheeses, a beautiful waffle maker that made a flower-shaped waffle, and various other foods I couldn’t identify because the packaging was written in German. 

After breakfast, we met up with our University of Augsburg counterparts to work on a brief introduction presentation about our company, Faurecia.

The Americans in my group are myself, Oday, and Sydney. The German students are Mona, Clara, and Elena. The six of us had about an hour to make an 8 minute presentation, and that hour was honestly way more stressful than it had to be. Our group never got to practice beforehand, and Oday and I had to add in a sources and conclusion slide while other groups were presenting, but the presentation went much better than I expected.

We next had lunch at the University of Augsburg campus cafeteria. I ate some decent food, most of which I had never seen before. Everyone got pretty annoyed at the water with bubbles (wasser mit gas), as it was tough to tell the difference between bubble water and still water on the bottles. Although I live in a seltzer household, the flavorless water with bubbles still tastes kind of off to me.

After the cafeteria lunch, we had a quick campus tour of the University of Augsburg. I really liked the overgrown plant look of the University, and how there were so many places on campus were to just sit around and hang out. The University of Augsburg has much more of an isolated campus feel than the Pitt’s urban environment. The buildings were also had a very modern feel, as the campus was only build in 1970.

Next, we were split into three teams to complete a scavenger hunt. We were given a few sheets of paper and had to go to various places around the city of Augsburg, and answer trivia questions about these places. If we couldn’t find the answer to a trivia question at a location, we had to ask a stranger.

  The rules at first were pretty vague, as we first thought the winner of the scavenger hunt was based off of accuracy of the trivia answers, the speed at  which each group completed the scavenger hunt, and the creativity of the pictures each group took. But it turned out that speed that the scavenger hunt was completed in was insignificant.

 My group (really just myself) tried to find various loopholes to the scavenger hunt, as the rules were never concretely established. We first tried looking up some answers, but were told off by the German graduate students at the University of Augsburg who were helping us getting around and ensuring we didn’t cheat.

 I was a part of group drei (three), which we renamed spezi (pronounced shpetsee) after the fanta/coke beverage that is popular in Germany. We first took the street car with our group back to the city of Augsburg, thus commencing the hunt.

During the scavenger hunt, my group visited two church crypts, two churches, saw the town center, multiple fountains, posed for some statues, and ended up at a brewery.

Throughout our scavenger hunt, I got to really discover Augsburg for the first time. I realized that Germany has had a different feel than any other country I’ve ever been to. I was amazed by the difference in architecture from Augsburg to American cities. There are additionally a lot of minor changes in the city layout, whether it be the street cars in the middle of every road or the various winding streets with roads made of rocks. It has been a very distinct experience so far, where I’m always aware that I’m in a country thats so vastly different from my own.

The final question asked where the indoor tree in the brewery was, and it hinted that only half of us would be able to find it. My group effortlessly solved the riddle that it had to be in one of the bathrooms ( I take no credit for this), and I soon discovered the glorious pee tree.

After trying three mediocre-tasting, non-alcoholic samplers of beer, the winner of the scavenger was announced. My spezi team and I received third place! Out of three teams. In the end, I think all of the odds were against us. I refuse to accept the fact that my team wasn’t deserving of first place. We received a tote bag and haribo gummies for our participation, which made our brutal loss feel just a little less painful. The winning team was given a mug, which isn’t very cool in my opinion. 

After the Spezi team’s defeat, we walked to dinner, an Italian restaurant called “Dragone.” As we walked into the restaurant, I noticed a cool-looking dragon and knew I was in for a treat. I was actually not. I have nothing nice to say about this restaurant. 

When we got there, a German grad student named Simon who also accompanied me on my scavenger hunt helped me and Peter decode the German menu. I searched for my go-to italian dish, eggplant parmesan, but it was nowhere in sight. I didn’t want to order pasta or pizza, so I decided to go with the steak. Big mistake. Huge. 

The steak came out about 40 minutes later and it was a little rubbery to the touch. After I opened up my speak for a cross-section, the blood just poured out, staining the olive oil that lined the bottom of my plate. As Vipin put it, “that cow was still mooing.”

I had Simon ask the waitress to cook the steak some more, and instead of cooking up  a new slice of meat, each piece of steak was cooked for the same amount of time, even though the pieces were vastly different sizes, resulting in an unpleasant steak with various different rarities. The vegetables were actually pretty tasty. I guess its really my own fault for ordering steak at an Italian restaurant. I’d also like to add that the pizza, although I didn’t order it, was still doughy and not cut up into slices. Maybe they should invest in a pizza slicer. 

It’s been an exhausting but exciting day today, despite a loss and an ordering mishap. Bis Morgen!