Today we woke up bright and early after our first night in Germany to go to the University of Augsburg. We took our first ride on the Straßenbahn (street car) to the university. I was surprised by how frequently the cars came (about every five minutes) and how efficient the system was. After getting there, we met the students who would be in our groups for the presentation next week. We learned a little bit more about the program itself and then gave a short presentation to the class on the company that we were assigned. I found it interesting that there is no AC in the buildings and they just open all the windows in the room instead, so there was background noise of birds chirping and other outdoor noises.

After presenting, we were given time for lunch at the university cafeteria. Unsurprisingly, the food was drastically better than at Pitt, and it was insanely cheap too! We were unsure of how much we could get with our guest passes, but some students got two entire entrees with a side and drink which came out to under nine euros! We thought that this could be partially made cheaper by the school, as the students already do not pay to go to college.

Following lunch, we split into two groups to get a tour of the campus. The students giving us the tour will be coming to Pittsburgh for a semester in the fall! We learned a lot about the university, and also asked a lot of questions about German and European culture. The people giving us the tour were surprised at the expense of our education and lots of other cultural things. The university itself was very interesting and I noticed many unique things about it. Like I mentioned in my last post, the greenery is a lot less pruned, which at some parts of the campus reminded me of what a university would look like in an apocalypse movie.

That being said, the greenery gave the campus a beautiful look, and made it very nice to spend time walking outside. I also liked how a lot of the buildings were connected with these sky bridges.

After touring the university, we embarked on a scavenger hunt around the city. We took the street car back to the main part of the city and began by walking down the Maximillianstraße, which is one of the main streets of the city. The first very exciting stop was at a large catholic church, which had a beautiful interior. We spent a lot of time here just looking at the architecture and artwork inside. There was also a cool view of the entire street from this location, as the church was at the very end of it.

We worked our way back down the street to the Rathausplatz, and then even further to the next big church on the opposite end of the city. It was awesome to see more of the city, and I feel like I have a good understanding of the layout. After we finished the scavenger hunt, we had some extra time and asked the German students to take us to a supermarket. We were all surprised by how cheap certain things were, such as bottled drinks and packaged snacks, and even bottles of wine under 3 euros! After the supermarket, we made our way to our second to last stop of the day, which was a brewery in Augsburg. We hung out there for about two hours and talked more to the German students. We even made plans to hang out when they get to Pittsburgh in the fall! I also got to practice speaking some German to them and other people in the city.

Next, we went to dinner at an Italian restaurant, where I got a salad and shared a pizza with Fox. Somehow, I forgot to get a picture of it, but it was very good. By the time we got back to the hotel, it was already almost 9pm, but I still wanted to get a workout in for today. I found a gym nearby that was open until midnight and gave them a call. I tried to ask about their membership option in German, but only made it halfway into the phone call before I had to ask if the worker knew English. I walked to the gym, and spent about five minutes walking around the mall before I asked a security guard (in German again) where to find it. Once I got there, I made it halfway through the application when the worker and I found out that apparently our credit cards are different than German ones, and I couldn’t complete the payment digitally. Luckily, she was super nice and let me work out for free, on the condition that I come back in the next few days at an earlier time when a manager is still working. Unfortunately, our program goes pretty late most days, so I guess I’ll take my free workout and find a new gym for tomorrow. The gym itself was amazing, so I’m sad that I probably won’t be able to go back.

Overall, it was another great day in Augsburg, and I can’t wait for our first company visit and hike tomorrow! Guten Nacht!