Today, I slept in for the first time on this trip. I rolled out of bed, grabbed some delicious hotel breakfast, then worked on catching up on my blog posts. Afterwards, I decided to stroll around Augsburg for about an hour. I am still amazed by how quiet the city is during the day, considering our Pittsburgh campus has less people but is three times noisier. After my walk, I took the train to the University of Augsburg by myself. Although we rode the same tram on Monday, I double-checked with a local that I was headed in the right direction. I had a peaceful and uneventful ride, then attended a lecture by a Bloomberg reporter in class.

This lecture was fascinating because William Wikes, the Bloomberg reporter, had a neutral perspective on the automotive industry. While speakers from BMW and KUKA wanted to uplift their brand and emphasize optimistic goals, William kept things honest. One thing that stood out in his presentation were the graphs of expected plans before 2025 versus the reduced plans post 2025. The automotive industry is being heavily impacted by tariffs, sustainability and environmental restrictions, strong competition coming from China, and an underwhelming demand for fully electric vehicles. This makes studying and reporting on brands like BMW and Audi especially interesting.

After the lecture, we met with our small groups to organize parts for the final presentation. When speaking with the German students, I was shocked to learn that they don’t have any homework for classes. They only have a final exam or final paper that determines their overall grade. I don’t know if I would prefer this kind of grading, but it was cool to hear how their experiences in college were different from mine. Every day I learn a new cultural difference between us and the German students and I can’t wait to learn more!