Today was our last day in Amsterdam; we leave for the airport bright and early tomorrow morning, which I’m sure will be just delightful. It was a wonderful two weeks spent with some really great people that I wouldn’t have met if not for this program. But of course, all good things must come to…
Tag: Kayla Pak
Day 11: Cruising Through Amsterdam
This morning we visited the Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA) Business Campus. The campus itself had a very different feel to Pitt and even felt different from the VU campus we saw the other day. It’s a very old school, some 400 years old, but the campus has gotten a facelift over the years. Now, there’s…
Day 10: An Utrechtive City
Today we trekked to Utrecht where we visited a company called Aurea Imaging, which is a small tech startup that provides intelligence specialty for fruit farmers to more efficiently grow their fruits, including things like blossom maps for Precision Orchard Management, which was a concept I had never heard of before. They use drone technology…
Day 9: Hanging With The Flying Dutchman
We started the day by visiting the Vrije Universiteit (VU) campus in Amsterdam. We were given a tour by current VU students and I was really surprised by how similar it felt to the Pitt campus. First of all, the main building already gave major Posvar vibes with its concrete structure, similar interior design, and…
Day 8: Flea Market(ing)
Today was a pretty chill Sunday as it was an “organized free day.” This morning, we traveled as a group to the largest flea market in Europe called IJ-Hallen, which boasted a plethora of clothes, shoes, accessories, trinkets, and furniture. The weather was beautiful and this mixed with the bustling crowd and vivid colors throughout…
Day 7: A Flood of New Information
This morning we departed Rotterdam to head to Watersnoodmuseum in Ouwerkerk. As soon as I stepped off the bus, I was hit with the chill of the Pittsburgh type winds. It was a shame that I fell asleep on the bus ride to the museum because I heard the views were beautiful, but I didn’t…
Day 6: A TransFARMative Day in Rotterdam
Today we had yet another early morning. We got up to ride the train to Rotterdam, but as usual, things didn’t go as planned. This must’ve happened so that this blog post will have a more interesting plot. My 8am cranky self, however, did NOT agree that this was the case. We got on the…
Day 5: A Multidimensional Day
We started the day a bit later than usual and had the morning to ourselves, which was nice because my roommates and I were able to experience a casual Amsterdam morning by going on a walk to get breakfast at a cafe amongst locals and looking less obviously like tourists as we do when we…
Day 4: Amstagram Girls in Tulip Fields
We started the day extremely early with a 6am departure to Royal FloraHolland, the famous flower auction site. If I’ve learned anything about the Dutch the last few days, it’s that they take great pride in their tulips. Tulips can be seen everywhere throughout Amsterdam, whether that be in the landscaping or in countless souvenir…
Day 3: Cloggy and Soggy
We were lucky enough to have the weather hold out for us the first two days of our visit. Today, that luck finally ran out as we traveled to Zaanse Schans to explore the famously Dutch windmills as well as to learn about the craftsmanship of clogs and the process for making Dutch cheese. We…
Day 2: Going Dutch
We started the day off with a lecture by Karel Bockstael, the former VP of Sustainability at KLM, a major Dutch airline. Though this lecture primarily focused on the engineering side of aviation with methods to fly in a more sustainable manner, including battery operated aircraft and bio fuels rather than fossil fuels, I saw…
Day 1: Jet Lagged Intro to Amsterdam
We arrived at the Schiphol Airport at around 8am local time, but it was 2am Eastern Standard Time, so the majority of our group was jet lagged; this, of course, included myself. This exhaustion definitely caused me to be less attentive and in awe of the new environment I had just thrown myself into, but…
Kayla in Amsterdam
Hello! My name is Kayla Pak and I’m a first year student at Pitt Business intending to major in Finance and Business Information Systems. I’m also looking to pursue a certificate in Innovation and Entrepreneurship. I would consider myself pretty extroverted for the most part (I love meeting new people!), but I definitely am the…