Today was a super interesting day as we started our morning off much differently than we have in the past. Instead of having breakfast at the hotel, we went to a small town outside of Augsburg and had Weißwurstfrühstück which is a traditional Bavarian white sausage. Along with the sausage, we also had huge pretzels and a platter of cheeses. Initially, I was a little hesitant to eath the sausage, but one I started to dig into it I thought it was delicuious. We were told a specific way to eat it by making a long cut through the casing, and then peel the casing off. This made it much easier to eat because the casing would’ve been super tough and chewy. Both the pretzels and cheese were also super delicious.

However, some of us found it super odd how so many people were drinking beer at nine in th morning on a Thursday. It made us wonder if this is something they do every week (because the place is only open on Thursdays), or if this is something they did only once in a while. It was just very weird that most people have work during the day and they are drinking beer for breakfast. Although, overall it was a super fun experience to get to learn about a certain tradition in the Bavarian culture.

After our breakfast, we had some extra time before our company meeting so we headed back to the hotel and got to take a nap. This was a super lucky break because I was exhausted and needed some rest before we headed to Forvia, our third company visit.

When we arrived at Forvia, we were instructed to put on labcoats, goggle, and protected shoe covers. We then went downstairs and did a quick presentation Forvia and what they did as a company. We were told that Forvia is a Tier I spplier to large OEMs and manufacture things such as car exhausts for Porches and parts of the engine for tractors.

Then we headed into the manufacturing plant and were given the opportunity to see a few of their products being made, the first of which was an exhaust for a Porsche car. There were many steps to it but I enjoyed getting to see the man weld together pieces of the exhaust and test whether or not the product was efficient enough. This is so important for companies to test their products multiple times throughout the building process to make sure they are perfect as the finished product. Another really cool thing we got to see were robots welding together a product for Volkswagen. It was so amazing to see how precise these machines are and how they rarely make a mistake. This makes the building process much quicker and less expensive which is something that these companies are always trying to optimize.

Once the tour was complete, we headed upstairs for a couple presentations about sustainability, hydrogen fuel cells, and what it would be like to work for the company. The one presentation that caught my attention the most was the one about hydrogen fuel cells. This was much different that what most companies have been talking about which is electric vehicles, so it was cool to see there were other things in the automotive industry that are being researched and produced. The woman explained how hydrogen cells would mostly be used in large trucks, as they are much bigger and allow for more hydrogen to be held. I thought this was really interesting and could definitely help in the trucking and delivery industry.

Overall, we had an amazing time at Forvia and learned so much about how their company is innovating to keep up with the fast changes in the automotive industry.

To end the night, lots of us went out and got traditional Bavarian food for dinner. I had a huge piece of schnitzel with potato salad and it was delicious. However, I think I need to switch up my food for tomorrow so I don’t get sick of eating Bavarian food.

Tomorrow is our last company visit at Audi and I can’t wait to see what it is like!