Today was our last full day in the Netherlands. I can’t believe it’s finally over! We started off by heading to the floating farm in Rotterdam that contains cows and some plants. When we arrived, we got an explanation of how the farm works and what its purpose is. The employee explained that the owners…

At 9:15 this morning, we took the tram to Inholland University at their Rotterdam campus. This campus offers undergraduate degrees in business and law. When we got to the university, we went on a tour of the surrounding area, which mainly focused on the architecture. Because Rotterdam was bombed after World War II and 85%…

Our day mostly consisted of visiting Delta Works. This morning we took a bus to the site, and got to see the barriers put in place to prevent flooding of the mostly below-sea-level Zeeland, a province of the Netherlands. We first watched a movie on how the storm surge barriers were constructed. After the flood…

Today we took a ten-minute train ride to Delft where we visited Inholland, a university of applied sciences, at their campus there. This campus focuses on aeronautical engineering specifically, and seeing this focus at an entire university campus showed some of the major differences between American universities and Dutch ones. We first were lectured on…

We had a later start to the day today. I got up around 9:30 to have a small breakfast at the hotel, and then I went back to my room and relaxed for about 2 hours. Then a few of us went to a nearby cafe and I had some delicious avocado toast there. At…

We had a pretty early start to our first day in Rotterdam. We got breakfast at the hotel and then headed to Zuiderzeemuseum, which was kind of similar to Zaanse Schans because it was a village in which the buildings were all relocated there. It is a museum dedicated to preserving the maritime and cultural…

Today I woke up at 8:30, ate breakfast, and packed up. We left our hotel in Amsterdam at 10 am and then took a bus to Zaanse Schans, which is a quaint neighborhood in a town just outside of Amsterdam. This is a typical 19th-century Dutch neighborhood along the water that had all of its…

Today was an informative, museum-filled day. We first headed for a museum called Our Lord in the Attic, which used to be a hidden Catholic church in a time when Catholicism was outlawed in the Netherlands. During the 17th century, a Catholic man, from what is now Germany, purchased three homes along the canal in…

Today we took an hour and a half bus ride to visit an international company called Nouryon. We went to their research and development site in Deventer to get some information about how this chemicals company operates. Nouryon creates chemicals that are used in a myriad of products, from household products, like paint or laundry…

Today had an early start with us leaving on a bus at 6 am to head to Royal Flora Holland, the largest trading platform for plants and flowers in the world. This is a cooperative company of florists, whose purpose is to ensure that everyone involved in the flower making process is able to make…

Today started of well with a good night’s sleep after a long day yesterday. The day started at 8am with a delicious breakfast at the hotel. This breakfast included meats, cheese, breads, pastries, pancakes, and more. I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of options because hotels that I have been to previously in Europe…

This morning, around 5:30 local time, or 11:30pm back home, we landed the Schiphol airport in Amsterdam. Most of the group (including me) didn’t sleep much on the plane so we were all very tired on arrival, which led to me not taking in my surroundings as readily. Despite this, I did notice differences in…

About Me Hello everybody, my name is Patrick Ciccarelli and I am a freshman at the University of Pittsburgh. I am in the Swanson School of Engineering and majoring in bioengineering. I chose this major because I believe it is the best way to use my love of biology for a widespread positive impact on…