It’s hard to believe we only have a few days left in Amsterdam! As we are nearing the end of our trip, it is becoming increasingly important to appreciate and learn from every moment. Today, we got to take a tour of the VU campus. We focused on their Engineering program. We saw a very beautiful school building, and I can see how they attract students through that. Speaking of students, the college has 31,000 students, including 6000 international students. Another way of making the school appealing to potential students is the tuition. It is significantly cheaper than at Pitt. Even though our tour was Engineering focused, the college actually has schools for different studies, or faculties as they call them. I was able to briefly speak to a student that studies Business at VU, and she said that she loved it. She asked us to take a survey for one of her classes, which reminded me of some of the projects I’ve had to do at Pitt so far. It was very neat to see a college that is outside of the U.S. I definitely am planning on studying abroad for a full semester at some point, so I’m glad to be able to start seeing what the schools look like. For lunch, a few of us went to a restaurant near the campus. I had a iced chai latte and a fried egg with ham, and it was very good.

Next, we began our journey to Schiphol Airport for a company visit and tour. On our way there, we faced some mishaps. First, we walked in the wrong direction, but we were quickly able to reroute and move to our stop. However, once we got there, we realized that our public transportation card was not valid for the particular bus we needed to take. To solve this, we were able to get new cards. While it is inconvenient to face challenges, it always makes for a good learning experience. There is always a way to overcome the problems, and it is good to get accustomed to problem solving, especially in a different country. This will definitely come into handy when I study abroad in the future.

The next item on our agenda was visiting Schiphol Airport, specifically the KLM hangars. There, we got to go inside an airplane that was in the renovation process. When they want to improve the airplane, they begin renovating. These renovations aim to please the consumers, so they will have higher demand for the flights. The increase in demand will in turn increase the selling price of tickets, which will drive revenue. When considering the selling point, the airline must find the proper balance between having a super high selling price and a lower selling price. If the price is too high, demand won’t be as high, but if it’s too low, they will be missing out on potential revenue. When selecting a price, their goal should be to maximize revenue and profit. We also got to see and engine up close. If somehow a bald eagle gets in the engine, it can cost between 3 and 4 million dollars to replace the engine. In addition, we got a first hand look at a control room. It was very interesting to see how some of the engineering stuff operates. 

Later, we went for dinner. I had cous cous and a salad. It was very delicious. Following dinner, we attended an event called Sustainable Cities. Let’s just say it was not very informative. That’s as far as I’ll get into that.