May 4, 2019 We didn’t exactly hit the ground running to start our trip. Today consisted entirely of travel. Can’t say it doesn’t make sense. South Korea is about as far as we can get from Pittsburgh. Factor in the couple of hours to Dallas, twelve more to Incheon, and a thirteen-hour time difference and…
Category: Plus3 2019
One Last Goodbye to Korea
After 2 weeks in a completely different culture I was able to learn several things through our cultural visits and company visits. Through discussions with these companies and the lectures, I was able to get a keen insight to my profession. Whatever country you are in, companies will always have ethical issues to deal with….
Well at least now I know four phrases in Chinese.
It’s truly amazing to think back on my time in China. It’s hard to believe it even happened at all now that I’m back on the other side of the world in my tiny town. I know that all of the memories I made, lessons I learned, and friends I met (more like family really)…
May 17th – Car Paradise
Day 13: I apologize in advance for all of the car photos. There were amazing ones that I had to include, and so many more amazing ones that there wasn’t room for. The day started early as Frank and I needed to catch our train to Stuttgart at 7:05am. It was a little stressful trying…
Final Reflection on South Korea
This two-week trip to South Korea was an extraordinary whirlwind. From the beginning we were surrounded by extensive history, exciting technology, and a culture so different from our own. While our scheduled activities were separated into cultural and company visits, the values of the Korean people developed over centuries of trials and resiliency was inevitably…
Somehow, airport security in China is slower than the TSA.
By the time we got to the final day in China, it was weird because on one hand it felt like the days flew by, but on the other, it seemed like forever ago that we left the US. It was bitter-sweet to be leaving (but more bitter really) since I fell in love with…
Final Summary
The past two weeks in China have been an amazing experience for me. I learned even more than I thought I could. We had the chance to study Chinese culture and successful businesses in China, and I even learned a little bit about engineering. I think everything we did from visiting universities to companies allowed…
I finally had cheese!
By day three of Shanghai, pretty much everyone was feeling the fatigue caused by almost two weeks of going nonstop (especially since many of us had had a very long, but very fun, night the previous evening). So we boarded the bus for the two and half hour ride out to the Yang Shan Port…
Blog #4: Our Glorious Chairman Mao
Today was going to be our last day in Beijing. We visited Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and the Temple of Heaven, so it was certainly a packed day. Walking through Tiananmen Square was the weirdest feeling because we all know what happened there, but almost no one in China knows about it. I remember…
Goodbye South Korea
Throughout my time in Korea, my outlook on my future has changed. Before I left, I thought that this trip would merely let me see something new and try different things. However, I’ve discovered that this was just a taste of a future I want to have. I want to go out into the world…
Our Final Day in China
Today was our very last day in China. I’m sad to be leaving China and all the friends I have made but, I am also kind of happy to be going back to normal life at home. The flight however I am not looking forward to. This morning we went to the Yu Garden, which…
Day 11: The Yangshan Port
Today was our second last day before the long flight home we’re all starting to dread. We had a very early start this morning for the long drive to our last company visit. On the bus ride to the port we had guest speaker who was a former student at Pitt who had moved to…
Yeah I don’t know anything about engineering.
Day 2 in Shanghai started off with one of my favorite visits of the whole trip: the American Chamber of Commerce (or AmCham). I really didn’t have the highest hopes going into it because you hear chamber of commerce here and just think of a bunch of people talking about pretty boring stuff. But the…
Reflecting On My Time in China
I’ve been back in the States and started my new job and I still can’t believe I was just in China only two weeks ago. It feels like a completely different life from now. I really went into this trip knowing if I had expectations based on stereotypes of China from the American media I…
Final Summary
As a result of this study abroad experience to South Korea, I have gained not only cultural experience, but also professional experience. We were able to witness different workplace environments and also work with students with different backgrounds. Samsung Biologics was the company that had the most similarities to my profession of bioengineering, so I…
Entry #11 An overview
One of the key parts of this trip was discussing ethical issues for my profession. Being ethical is a huge part of being an engineer because you are creating products that keep people safe and help keep them alive. The key lesson from the trip came from Horiba. They were showing us their sales and…
Day 12: Gardens and Goodbyes
Our final day was spent in the morning at the Yu garden. The Yu garden was built by a son to please his parents and if I were his mom I would be very happy. It is absolutely a gorgeous place. I am just going to have to let the pictures speak for themselves on…
Entry #10 The final day in China
Sadly, today was the last full day in China, which was very sad, but I was a bit homesick after being gone for two weeks. It was sad to leave Lilian, Dora, and Nancy in China and they were sad to see us go. In the morning we learned about how the population in Shanghai…
Entry #9 The edge of the world
Today started off super early at seven AM when we took the bus to a port outside of Shanghai. We met a woman from Pitt who went to China for her job in marketing. She talked about her experience abroad and how hard it is to move countries. She said it’s very hard to see…
Entry #8 Got a look at Chinese business
Today we went to two companies based in Shanghai. The first company we went to was American Chamber of Commerce. They talked to us about the effects that the trade war had on their company. The Chinese companies that they were working with started to pull out because the trust between America and China was…