I am blessed beyond belief to have been a part of Plus3 Germany 2017. The day we flew home, I was talking with friends and realized how great the trip was. In only fourteen days, I made some great friends, ate some great food, learned about some great companies, and appreciated a great country. I…

Today we had a free day so my friend group bought bus tickets which were surprisingly cheap and went to Munich. Mattias, a German student came with us which ended up being the best thing that could happen. He basically became our tour guide and for it we are so thankful. Mattias knew exactly where…

Today we took the train to Ulm. Once we arrived, we climbed the Ulmer Münster, which our tour guide later told us was the tallest Christian chapel in the world. It was a good thing that we were there so early in the morning (9am) because there were not many people coming down when we…

Today was a low key day. My group (Me, Dan, Dalind, Krishna, Katarina, Elena, Kathrine) worked on our Hirschvogel presentation all day. Krishna and I were first to meet up with the German students… we met at the University at nine o’clock. Dan and Dalind joined soon after. Then we worked on the presentation until…

We drove back to the Alps today which made me really happy because they are so cool. We visited Neuschwanstein, one of the many castles that King Ludwig II of Bavaria built. I wasn’t expecting a 30-minute uphill walk but it was good since we have eaten nothing but carbs since we’ve been here. Once…

Today we went back to Munich and toured the BMW production plant. It was overwhelming. There was so much detail in everything: the way the metal is cut, the way the engines are put together, the way robots weld everything together. There is so much going on all at the same time. I can’t imagine…

Today was a heavy day, not necessarily in terms of the number of things we did today, but in terms of the day’s content. Today, we visited Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp in Germany. The trip was moving. We had a tour guide who was really knowledgeable about history and he really helped us…

It is so weird and sad to think that this trip is halfway done. It has been flying by. Today, we took a train ride into Munich, the third largest city in all of Germany, behind Berlin and Frankfurt. Munich was a cool city. First, we took a two-hour guided tour of Munich, and then…

Today we went to SGL, and I learned that carbon is pretty dope. SGL uses synthetic graphite, natural graphite, and carbon fibers to make anodes, cathodes, batteries, the bodies of cars, and other auto parts. I really enjoyed learning more about graphite and carbon fibers. I am a chemical engineering major so this company was…

Today we got to sleep in. We left by bus at 9:30 and drove to the countryside for brunch. We got a traditional Bavarian brunch meal: wieswurst, mustard, pretzels, and sparkling water. Sparkling water is gross for the record. When we get bottles of sparkling water we always shake it and try to make it…

Today we took a coach bus an hour south and visited the company that I was assigned: Hirschvogel. It was cooler than I expected it to be. Hirschvogel forges steel parts for cars (forging manipulates molten steel to reshape it) and we got to tour the plant and watch the workers forge the parts. After…

After about five hours of sleep, we woke up bright and early (at 6:30am) and boarded the Tram to go to Faurecia. To be honest I wasn’t expecting the visit to be as cool as it was. Faurecia is a company that focuses on clean mobility and the plant we visited produced exhaust pipes. The…

Today included a lot of walking, a lot of raining, and a lot of talking to the locals… or maybe I should say trying to talk to the locals. We left the hotel at 8:30am and took the tram to the University of Augsburg. There we met German students with whom we will be working…

I have gotten four hours of sleep in the past two days combined but regardless, it has been a good few days. We are all exhausted but happy to finally be here in Germany after about twenty-four hours of traveling. We left Pitt’s campus at 3am on Saturday and our flight from Pittsburgh to Newark,…