Sadly, today was our final full day in the Netherlands, sadly meaning my amazing experience with this trip and trip group is coming to an end. Despite this, today was one of the most rewarding days regarding sustainability topics, with today’s visits to the floating farm and to RDM both producing a litany of interesting…
Author: International Programs Alumni
Day 12: Double Dutch (Company Visits)
Today we had the opportunity to visit not one, but TWO different companies for our last full day in the Netherlands. Our day began with a long shuttle ride to the Floating Farm, which is, you guessed it, a dairy farm that floats on water. The idea behind the business is to minimize the effects…
A Finale of Cattle and Innovation
Today was our last day in the Netherlands. We went to a floating farm, a warehouse of learning and business development, and finally, a nice farewell dinner. After a hotel breakfast and a short water taxi ride there, we toured the Rotterdam floating farm. We first got a short presentation about the farm and its…
A Floating Farm Farewell (5/22)
Day 12, our last day in the Netherlands, was a relaxed ending to our amazing trip. We started our morning with a visit to the Floating Farm. Karel, our guide, explained how the farm was inspired by a floating cities presentation that Minke and Peter, the two founders, went to in New York right around…
Day 11: Romping Around Rotterdam
Today was a short day, but it was still packed with activity. The day began with a walk to the seven-floor office building housing DakAkker, an entirely green, 1,000 square meter rooftop garden. In the lobby, we met with our tour guide, and we turned right around to see the surrounding areas before stepping onto…
Dakakker
5/21/25 Today, we had the pleasure of touring Dakakker, a facility with over 1,000 square meters of green roof space. This space includes a vegetable farm, bee hives, and a chicken coop. This space is extremely sustainable in many ways. To begin, producing local produce and animal product is inherently more sustainable. The roof top…
Day 12: Koeien?!?
Today was our 12th and final day of the trip. We took a long train ride to the Floating Farm in Scheidam, which houses 26 cows in a 25×25 meter perimeter, floating atop the port. We first were given a presentation about the current climate crisis, and how the floating farm addresses some of these…
Ranch & Research
5/22/25 Today, we had the opportunity to tour the floating farm which (as one may guess) is a farm that is floating on the water. As with any farm, the floating farm had to consider a path to make themselves a sustainable place. One stride they make towards sustainability is utilizing food that would otherwise…
See you next time Netherlands! Day 12 in Rotterdam
Today we had our last day in Rotterdam, and more importantly The Netherlands, before leaving tomorrow morning. We started out by visiting a floating farm that was founded in order to find a better solution to feeding the community while combatting climate change. Extreme temperatures and rain events are becoming more common, which makes farming…
Last Day
Today started out like every other day, we woke up and got breakfast before heading out for either a presentation or a tour. Today was not as busy as some of our other days but it was still exciting because it was our last day. We had two presentations in the morning about how to…
Bilbao (sort of) – Day 7
Today was so far my favorite day of the trip. We started off by going to the local flea market and shopping around for a bit. After which, we got some breakfast before we took a quick bus ride to San Sebastián. Here we took a walking tour around the beach and then were set…
Adiós to Abroad: My Last Day in Spain
This morning, I had the hotel breakfast again, and I ate some watermelon and lemon cake. We then got on a bus and went to the Bilbao School of Engineering. We listened to presentations about the design process of the balance machine, and then we listened to a presentation about a design for a ventilator…
Final day in the Basque Country!
It is sad to say this is the last blog we will write on the most amazing trip. We started off with breakfast at the hotel before heading back to the Basque School of Engineering. We heard wonderful presentations that dove deep in to the design process that both engineers and nurses use. It talked…
Bilbao – Day 6
Today was a much simpler and easy day after the previous busy day. Today we got to sleep in and then went to the Bilbao theater. We took a tour of the theater and all the historical aspects it involved. They had tons of costumes from previous plays including the most interesting to me, which…
05/22 – Floating Farm & RDM Rotterdam
Today was a really nice way to wrap up our trip–we toured the Floating Farm, which was the company I presented on during our pre-departure meetings, so I was excited to see it in person, and we also toured RDM Rotterdam. These visits were both very informational and inspiring to see the plethora of ways…
Day 12: Sea the Future of Farming
Our final day started with an exciting visit to the Floating Farm. We first started with a quick presentation that went over the Floating Farms entire premise and promoted its sustainable efforets. Our presentator explained that the Floating Farm is a small farm that is in the water supported by a platform that moves with…
One Last Day (Day 12)
All good things must come to an end, and this stood true on Day 12–our last day in the Netherlands before departing back to Pittsburgh. Today was a day filled with lessons on sustainability, but also a bittersweet goodbye to this experience that I have cherished. In the morning, we visited the Rotterdam Floating Farm,…
When Pigs (Cows) Fly (Float)
It’s so sad that today was the last day in the Netherlands. It’s very unfortunate that this journey has already came to an end. It felt like just yesterday when we landed in Amsterdam on no sleep doing many activities. We started this morning with Floating Farm, a farm created to lower carbon emissions by…
Being a Tourist in London – Day 13
Day 13 was probably the most fun day yet. We had a long day in London alone which was so nice as we had freedom to do as much as we possibly could. We started at the Florence Nightingale museum where we got to learn more about her life and the healthcare system during the…
How to Love Birmingham in 10 Days – Day 10
Today marked one of the most insightful experiences of our time in Birmingham as we visited the Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust. From start to finish, the day offered an eye-opening look into the world of mental health care in the United Kingdom. It was a reminder of how much there is…