I started the day by eating breakfast at the hotel’s dining room. It was one of the best breakfasts I have ever had at a hotel. They had a wide variety of cut meats, cereal, juices, breads, and yogurts, and every one of these items tasted delicious (I ate a lot). We then hopped on the local tram and made our way to the University of Augsburg. We took a small tour of the university before meeting our fellow German peers and creating an introductory presentation on the companies that we will be visiting later this week. This is when I noticed something very interesting. While working on the presentation I used one of my German colleague’s computer and saw that the keyboard on it was wildly different from American keyboards. They did not have a “J” key but had “Ü”, “Ä”, and “Ö” keys (along with the regular “U”, “A”, and “O” keys). They even had a special character option for each key that could be reached by holding the “option” key and pressing the desired button.

We then got to eat lunch at the university’s food court. It reminded me of the Eatery at Pitt, since there were different stations that served different types of food entrees and side dishes. I was very hungry and got myself two main dishes and some fries on the side. All of this only cost me eight euros, which really surprised me since it was a decently quantity of food that ended up being delicious. I realized how American college food is much more expensive, even though it tastes even worse than the German food.

We then toured the rest of campus and got the see the incredible innovation that surrounded the university. There was a system of bins (which can be seen in the picture below) in the library that moved throughout the building, bringing in books that were no longer being used to the front desk to be sorted and shelved. The empty bins then headed back to their locations to pick up more books that were discarded in the library. We also got to see their system of blinds in use. Unlike in the United States, the blinds at the university were on the outside of the windows and automatically closed once certain conditions were met. They even had a pond full of coy fish in the middle of campus.

After finishing our tour of the university we headed back to the city to do a scavenger hunt around Augsburg. The hunt took us throughout the city and made us learn about it and experience all the sights it had to offer. We toured both of the massive churches in Augsburg. I got to see the burial place of Jakob Fugger and other incredibly detailed sculptures throughout the churches. I was able to see some of the oldest stained glass windows in the world in these churches and came to recognize the importance of the protestant religion in the history of the city. This density of beautifully ornate cathedrals truly can not be found anywhere in Pittsburgh and sets this city apart from anything I have ever seen. We ended the day with dinner and some pool, and I am super excited for my first company meeting tomorrow!