We had a very eventful day today! To begin our day, we traveled to the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. This university had a really nice campus, I really enjoyed walking around their campus buildings and getting to observe student life, we even saw a few classes that were in session! When we were speaking with our tour guide, she informed us that this university has about 150 different programs that are offered in English! Another very surprising fact about this university is the cost. For an in-country student, the price is about 3,000 euros but for an out-of-country student, the price is around 15,000 euros. The price difference between an in-country and out-of-country student wasn’t too surprising to me because it is a similar difference at universities in the United States, but the prices themselves are definitely lower than the United States’ universities’ tuitions!

Next, we made our way back to the Schiphol Airport. This is where our trip began when we first arrived here! Except this time, we were returning for a behind-the-scenes look into how the airport and their airplanes function, specifically within KLM’s company. I have to say, this was probably my favorite company visit so far! It was really exciting to get to see the inner workings of an airplane, and to get to see some of their different technical and testing functions. One of the first areas that we visited was the hangar, where KLM had one of their airplanes taken apart. We were able to walk through an empty cabin that was being cleaned and repaired, and we got to see the inside of an engine! I was amazed by how massive and complex each part of the aircraft was, especially inside of the engine. After this, we made our way to the room where they test their engines, and we got to see the behind-the-scenes computer systems that are used to monitor these planes while they’re being tested. The engines are tested for approximately 2 hours, sometimes longer if needed!

I was also really surprised at the amount of money that goes into the aircrafts. Certain upgrades and fixes to the airplanes typically cost millions of dollars, and these can include routine changes! This is part of the reason for why airplane tickets are so expensive, it’s because the materials and the technology of the aircraft are also so expensive! Of course there are many other reasons for the price of the airplane tickets, but this is was an interesting look into how much airplanes truly cost to build and fix, and why. When viewing this through the lens of concept-to-consumer, it was a helpful visual to be able to physically see the inside of an airplane and the massive amounts of work, time, energy, and money that goes into creating the aircraft, and to compare it to the prices that we, the consumers, pay for the use of the airplanes. After our visit to KLM, we headed to a restaurant for dinner, which was very good! We had couscous, salad, and a vegan vegetable stew. Tomorrow we get to visit Utrecht, and I’m looking forward to exploring another new area in The Netherlands!