When I first heard about Plus3, I was interested, but a little hesitant because I wasn’t sure how much I would be able to get out of a program that was only two weeks long. I decided to go for it anyways, since it might give me insight into what it might be like to…

May 17th I was excited but also sad that it was finally Friday. It meant the free day was here, but also that my time in Germany was almost up. I got up relatively early so I could get on a train to Munich with Justin. We just sat down when heard a bunch of…

May 16th This morning I had a light breakfast, to save room for our traditional Bavarian breakfast we were having later. We hopped on the bus and got off at what seemed like a barn in a little village. We had traditional weißwurst with pretzels and mustard. Luckily, I already knew how to eat weißwurst…

May 13th Finally, the day for my company tour! I had a few questions prepped and written down on my new Continental notepad, some coffee and a croissant, and I was ready to go. Luckily the bus ride wasn’t too long, and when we arrived we were able to look around the show room before…

May 15th The most important day has finally come! Today we presented our company analyses to Dr. Feick, Arielle, Sonja, and the rest of the students. We had breakfast at the hotel, and after a bit of a delay, the SGL group was finally on the tram to the university. The German students in our…

May 14th The train ride to Ulm in the morning was pretty quick, and we went straight to the church. I don’t know what I expected knowing it’s 768 steps up, but it seemed like way more than that! By the time we got to the halfway point it was hard to tell if we…

May 12th After getting to slightly sleep in today, we left for Dachau, the first concentration camp in Nazi Germany. On the way the weather turned worse, but it seemed to set the appropriate mood for the tour. We had a nice tour guide who was very transparent about everything that happened at the camp….

May 10th This morning we took a short tram ride from the Königsplatz to Faurecia for the penultimate company tour of the trip. We began with a tour of the facilities, but first we had to put on thin lab coats, steel toes, and safety glasses. If I had known I would have brought my…

May 9th We had an early wake up call for the drive to Ingolstadt, meaning most of us slept on the drive to Audi. When we arrived, there was an introductory presentation with general facts about the company Audi by our tour guide. She told us that the headquarters and an assembly facility were located…

May 8th Today I woke up early and had a breakfast of coffee, eggs, bread, and fruit. I don’t know why it took me this long to realize that Germans don’t toast their bread for breakfast like we do. On the long bus ride to Regensburg almost everyone fell asleep, and the quiet ride was…

May 7th Today, after I poured too much batter in the waffle press to make a waffle that tasted like a stroopwafel, we boarded the bus to Denklingen where the Hirschvogel headquarters are, with the German students in the Hirschvogel group. We passed lots of solar panels and yellow fields on the bus ride, and…

May 6th Monday morning, I woke up early for breakfast at the hotel, and I tried some eggs, jam on bread and a pretzel, fruit and coffee. Luckily it was a quick walk to the tram stop, because it was pretty cold out, and we were all glad to make it inside a building at…

May 5th After a long commute from Richmond to Pittsburgh (via car, train, metro, and another car), a night in Nordenburg, a bus ride to the airport, a plane to Chicago, and a long (nearly 9 hour) flight, I finally made it to Germany! One of the first stops we made was to the bathroom,…

Hallo! I’m Maya Roman, a first-year student at the Swanson School of Engineering, majoring in mechanical engineering. I’m from Richmond, Virginia, but I have come to  love Pittsburgh in my time here, and I can’t wait to visit Augsburg, Germany with the Plus 3 Study Abroad Program! In Richmond I graduated from Maggie L Walker…