We’re on the bus on our way to the airport to say our farewells to Cyprus. The last two week here has felt like paradise, getting to meet two dozen other students who I hadn’t know before, and gaining invaluable experience both culturally and professionally. Getting to deepen my understanding on how the supply chain works and how all business around the world depends of the shipping companies, many of which we were able to meet here in Cyprus, showed me how important a lot of these jobs are. 

I have to leave the group once we get to the airport because I am taking a separate flight in Europe, and as I leave I am able to reflect on many of my favorite experiences of the trip. I am so glad to have made some invaluable friendships with many of the other students. I remember one night when about a dozen of us rented bikes to go down the marina, and we were all laughing at how crazy it looked having such a large group biking around in the late afternoon. It felt as though I had known these people for years, but I had met them not even a week prior. 

I loved many of the company visit, and enjoyed seeing how they treat work-life balance differently here in Cyprus commuted to back at home. I though the way Wargaming had a full gym and sauna in the basement of their headquarters was super innovative to allow their employees to take care of their physical health without having to go out of their way to go to a separate gym. They called it a “work-life harmony,” which is something I think a lot of US companies can and should implement. I also really liked initiative Medochemie was with their inventory and how they changed production of certain drugs seasonally or based on trends to meet consumer demand. 

One final take away from this entire experience is how the Cypriots valued their time free time. Whenever we would go to a restaurant, we had plenty of time to sit down with each other and have a conversation. The meals never felt rushed and the waiters were in no rush to get people cycled through the restaurant. In the US it seems like a lot a restaurants are trying to maximize the amount of customers they have in a night, which makes sense but takes away from the experience of sitting down with other people. I think this model of being able to have quality time with people over a meal was a great way to connect with the peer in our group. I’ll definitely miss Cyprus and I am sure I will be on the lookout for more opportunities like this at Pitt in the future!