It’s been a few days since the trip ended, and I’ve had time to really reflect on the whole experience. When I applied to the Plus Three program, I choose Germany mainly because of the car industry there. I really didn’t know much about the German culture. Ever since I was little and learned about World War two I hadn’t really thought of Germany in the best light even though it’s been a long time since those events took place. I definitely thought that Germans were harsh and strict. I could not have been more wrong. Since the second we got in Germany everyone was so nice to us. I’ve been to France before and the locals there would make you feel bad for not being fluent in French (even though I did know some French, but in Germany no one cares if you don’t know German. They are so kind and most of the Germans would apologize for having bad English even though it was amazing.

I also didn’t realize how beautiful Germany was. I would just stare out the window on the bus rides because the landscape was gorgeous. One of my favorite places that we went to was to town of Oberammergau. The town was beautiful, bit the best part was the Alps sitting right behind it. Going up the gondola to see the view of the alps was incredible. My second favorite place we went to was Regensburg. I had no expectations going into this day, but it might have been one of the days I had the most fun. I love history so the fact that it wasn’t horribly bombed during World War two added to how great of a city it was. I really enjoyed just walking around the city. I also was happy that it was finally sunny for a day. Another one of my favorite places was Salzburg. The fortress had the best views, and I had so much fun exploring it. In all I was surprised by how beautiful the country of Germany (and Austria) was, and I had so much fun exploring it and learning more about its history.

One of my favorite things I learned about German history was in Munich. I honestly didn’t know that the Nazi party started there. On our tour of the city there was a side street that had a golden line on it. Our tour guide explained that this was put in to remember the people that had walked down this street to avoid saluting the nazi flag. I thought that this was a really cool historical fact, but also a nice way to remember the people that stood up to the nazi party.

Another big part of the trip were all the company visits. I actually enjoyed most of them. The beginning part of Hoerbiger was really interesting and the valves had a lot of cool applications. Audi was very cool. Thier factory was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. Besides the company visits I learned at a lot about the German car industry. I knew that Europe was switching to EV’s, but I didn’t realize how quickly they’re shifting. After the company visits, I realized that I want to co-op abroad maybe even in Germany. This trip was amazing and I’m so thankful that I was able to go on it.