I can’t believe it’s already been almost two weeks since I left Germany. I have been catching up on sleep and starting my summer internship with PennDOT back home. Returning to the suburbs of Pennsylvania feels very weird after traveling so far across the ocean to Germany and Austria. As I reflect on this trip,…

For our free day, a bunch of us decided to take a trip to Salzburg, Austria. We got up bright and early to get our Covid-19 tests in order to fly home the next day. Afterwards, I got a coffee at Starbucks to wake me up and got ready to leave for Austria. The ride…

Today we had our final presentations for each of our companies. The Grob group met up at 10 AM to travel to the university of Augsburg and meet up with the German side of our group. We practiced a little but got kicked out of classrooms a lot. By the time all of the students…

Today we visited a castle built for king Ludwig in the 19th century. The rooms in the palace that had completed rooms were usually gilded and filled with bright images of Wagners work on the walls. Everything in the palace was ornately decorated. Much of the furniture had intricate carvings in the gothic style and…

We visited Ulm today and took a tour of the city. We climbed 300 steps to get halfway up the tallest church tower in the world (other half was closed 🙁 ). The stairs followed a very tight spiral and we all realized we were very out of shape by the time we got to…

Today we visited the Dachau Concentration camp. We arrived and walked through the gates with the inscription “work sets you free” on the door. Actually walking through those gates myself made me extremely aware of how many people passed through those gates and never came back out again. As we toured the camp, I felt…

We spent today in Munich touring the city and learning about its history. We visited the new town hall first and got to see the statues at the center of the building move as they played music that rang through the square. We were all amazed that something so old was still functioning so beautifully…

Today we finally got to visit the company that I am doing my presentation on. The tour was fascinating as we got to see all of the different machines that Grob makes for other companies like Tesla and VW. The apprenticeship shop was very cool as it had many training areas and places where the…

We got to get up later today and go to the countryside to try classic Bavarian food. The weisswurst were extremely good after I figured out how to get the casing off of the meat. I also very much liked the sweet mustard on the pretzels. Overall, the food was definitely different from that of…

The first day of Plus3 was very eventful despite only being a travel day. We first got on the plane to Charlotte, NC on which a lady took my seat claiming that she got a text from delta that her seat had been moved, despite the fact that we were flying American Airlines. I got…

Today we visited Webasto first. We started with a presentation about how the company is shifting in direction towards charging solutions. We then walked through their roof testing facilities and learned about all of the ways they test their roofs to ensure that they can function under any weather and vibrational conditions. Everyone at the…

We had to get up super early today, so I was awake by 6AM. I had breakfast at the hotel and they had a waffle maker that made a flower shaped waffle. We departed via bus for the company and drove for a good while through a lot of German countryside. The country was a…

Today we visited the University of Augsburg and created and presented preliminary presentations on our companies with the German students. My company is GROB-Werke, a company that produces products for creating autonomous assembly lines. The Augsburg campus was gorgeous. It had lots and lots of green space and natural plant life. We even saw the…