Pitt Plus3 Program

Day Elf (Eleven) – It’s the Final Presentation Day, and Birthday

Today was the only day we did not have to wake up early, and to me, this is the best birthday gift from Plus3. Today is the most important day of this trip because in the afternoon we have our final presentation. After brushing up and replying to all the birthday texts, I and my…

Two Weeks Have Never (Sai)Gone by so Fast

Being back at home has made the Vietnam experience feel like a distant dream even though it’s only been a few days. But every time I look at my wrist and see the handcrafted bracelets it reminds me how very real it was. Further than that, the great change it’s made on me has already…

Drive for the Future

Today was one of the hottest days of our visit that we needed to spend dressed in business casual attire. We had two site visits, one to Delphi Technologies and the other to the American Chamber of Commerce. Our first site visit to Delphi was interesting, but definitely more geared to the engineers in the…

Day 7: Sun Village

I was really excited this morning because I knew today we would be going to the children’s village and I absolutely love children. This morning we left the hotel at around 8am to travel to Sun village. It was a long bus ride away from the hotel but when we got there I was ready…

Day 10: Horauf and Kohler

Day 10 included our fifth and final company visit to Horauf and Kohler, which is a plastics company. H&K mainly specializes in plastic parts for the interior of cars such as the dashboard, parts for the glove box, dials, etc. We also learned that a majority of their business comes from BMW and that their…

Day 3: Carbon and Cars

I started this morning by falling asleep during the bus ride to our first company visit. I woke up shortly before arriving at SGL. SGL is a company that works with carbon and manufactures carbon fiber. I thoroughly enjoyed the presentation given by one of the employees because it focused on the engineering aspects of…

At Least Regensburg Doesn’t End in a ‘Y’!

At Least Regensburg Doesn’t End With a “Y” From Pittsburgh to Harrisburg to Geneva to Allentown to Nuremburg . . . I think you get the gist. No, we did not go on another excursion outside of Germany and across the world. Today was our longest bus ride to visit Continental, an automotive manufacturing…

Day 2: The University

This morning we got up and set out to the University of Augsburg. The university is only a streetcar ride away from Königsplatz, making it easily accessible from our hotel. Right after we hurriedly got on, we saw the Augsburg director running franticly across the intersection in order to catch our same street car (don’t…

Sad to Be (Sai)Gone

Wow! I never though two weeks could go by so fast. I’m so thankful I was able to experience such an eye-opening, rewarding trip. As I reflect on my time in Vietnam, I realize that I’ve gained a new perspective, many new friends, and several transferable skills. Since this was my first time traveling to…

A Hard Goodbye? More like a “See You Later”

Leaving Vietnam was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do. When people say they fall in love with countries, I always sloughed them off, believing it to be only a temporary thing stemmed from the excitement in traveling. Man, was I wrong. I can tell you this, I fell in love with Vietnam….

Day 6: Bullet to Xi’an

I woke up early today at around 5 am because we had an early start to catch our train to Xi’an. I was a little sad to say goodbye to Beijing, but I was way more excited about seeing another part of China. I was also really excited to ride the great bullet train that…

Final Blog Post

The Plus3 Vietnam program was a truly amazing time. Going into the program I hoped to broaden my view of the world and learn about a culture that was completely foreign to me. I was not sure if I would like it or not, but I thought it would be a great opportunity to learn,…

Day 5: Goodbye Beijing

Today we visited Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. We took the bus to Tiananmen Square which surprisingly wasn’t far at all from the hotel. When we got there, it was super crowded. There were people everywhere and it kind of reminded me of going downtown in DC at the national mall and seeing all…

Day 4: Business and more Business

Today was a very professional day. We had two company visits. The first was the Sunshine Insurance Group. When we first got to the site, we were led into a huge room that resembled a lecture hall where we were introduced to the company. The first lady that spoke with us had lived in America…

Day 2: Scavenger Hunt Shenanigans

I woke up still jetlagged from traveling, but significantly less tired than yesterday. The hotel has complimentary breakfast, so I woke up early to eat something before leaving for the day. Since neither of us had a roommate while in Germany, Josh and I decided to be each other’s “roommate” for the trip and went…

Day 3: Universities and the Olympics

I woke up today feeling well-rested, to my surprise. I didn’t think I would be able to adjust to the time difference this quickly. After I got ready, and met with the other students, we were taken to the Central University of Finance and Economics. The bus ride was pretty long, and I ended up…

Day 7- Missing Trains & a Change of Pace

Today was once again a day that was dedicated to exploring Germany, rather than going on a company visit. With our destination set as the city of Munich, we made our way back to Haunstetterstrasse train station at around 9:30 this morning. We boarded the train, and everything was going smoothly, though the train car…

Day 6- Münster Mission

I started my morning today by riding a train for the very first time! It was a pretty exciting experience, especially since my engineering friend, Josh, has been talking about riding the train since the minute we touched down in Germany. The train was impressive and got us to the city of Ulm in a…

I’m Sorry this is Late

Ireland, it’s been real. Though I have not left yet, I am heartbroken every day just thinking about it. I want to find every reason in the world to spend more time here this summer. I have never fallen in love with a place so quickly and so fully as I have during this trip. At…

Day 1 – Orientation/Exhaustion

My first impression of Milan was that it looked like any small American city in many ways. The main difference that I noticed first was the constant presence of scooters and bikes, which are not as common in the US. As we were told before we arrived, Italians also dress notably better than Americans on…