This morning, we officially got to meet the students from the University of Augsburg! We arrived on campus by streetcar and walked through to the business building. The university was a lot different than I expected. From the pictures we saw before departure, it seemed very spread out and located in the countryside. However, it was only about 15 minutes from the city and felt much more compact in person. The buildings were all connected and looked very similar to one another. At Pitt, every building feels designed specifically for the students within it, but this campus felt much more unified overall.
The classroom in the business school was laid out similarly to ours because it was set up more like a meeting room, although it was smaller than what I am used to. After our discussion with an employee from Audi and presentations with our groups, we headed over to the Mensa, or dining hall. It was lunchtime, so it was packed, but it was laid out similarly to the Eatery at Pitt, which made it easy to navigate. The students were also very welcoming and wanted to learn about our university system, just as we wanted to learn about theirs. The thing that shocked me the most was learning that there is no tuition, and students only pay a €100 fee each semester. I could not imagine how different universities in the United States would be if that were the case.
We then walked around campus, which was beautiful and full of nature trails. One of the German students brought us up to the upper campus area where the business, science, and engineering buildings are located. He mentioned that students call it “Gucci Hill” because the social sciences and arts buildings are below. I thought that was funny because we also have an upper and lower campus at Pitt, but their “hill” was nothing compared to Cardiac Hill.
After visiting the university, the German master’s students organized a scavenger hunt for us around the city of Augsburg. Everything was going well until it started to downpour halfway through the game. We still managed to take some pictures in the rain for the scavenger hunt before ending at a brewery. There, we got to try some fun nonalcoholic beers and drinks before heading to a group dinner. We went to an Italian restaurant where I had a Margherita pizza. It was super tasty and very similar to the pizza I am used to at home.
After a long day, I was definitely ready for bed and excited to get ready for our tour of the BMW factory and museum tomorrow. See you then!
