Tag Zwolf (und mehr) – Stuttgart

Hallo wieder! Yesterday was my last day with the group, as today I’m leaving to stay with my friend, Rebecca, in Stuttgart. Stuttgart is in Baden-Wurttemberg, which is a state that neighbors Bavaria. I had to wake up early as my train, called an ICE, departed at 10:01 on the dot, as trains in Germany…

Tag Elf – The Final Company Presentations

Guten Tag! Leider, I’m feeling worse than yesterday, and of course it happens on the most important day of the trip: the day of the final company presentations. At around 2 pm today, I, along with the rest of my group, will be discussing Hoerbiger, its expected challenges, and how it’s adapting to the auto…

Tag Zehn – Schloss Neuschwanstein and Wieskirche

Tag! Today is my tenth day of the Plus3 program, and it is one of my anticipated ones, as today we’re visiting Neuschwanstein, one of, if not, Germany’s most iconic castles. While I had visited Neuschwanstein before, I was excited to revisit the castle, as parts of it are always under renovation, making each tour…

Tag Neun – Regensburg and Walhalla

Wilkommen zurück! Today was another busy day, as we spent most of the day in the Regensburg area, one of the few remaining Medieval cities in Germany, as most were destroyed during World War II. Miraculously, around 90% of Regensburg was undamaged during the bombing, as the city opted not to defend itself, sparing it…

A Trip To Remember – Personal Reflection Blog

For my final blog, I will be reflecting on this amazing trip. I initially felt two weeks was the perfect amount of time to be away from home in beautiful Germany, but now that I’ve been home for a couple weeks, I am ready to go back. As this program was my first ever experience…

Tag Acht – Dachau

Hallo Alle! Today is another day of visiting cultural/historical sites in Bavaria, though not super cheerful. Today, we’re visiting Dachau, a labor camp set up during the Nazi Regime. It is essential to say that Dachau was NOT a death camp for Jews or other “undesirables”, but a labor camp mostly for political dissidents. Because…

Lowkey Better Than the Jersey Shore…

Hi again friends! Here I am writing one of my final blogs. How will you survive without me? I’m not really sure, but maybe you can get by. This trip has been so unbelievable, and this last leg further emphasizes that. We started by driving to the Quito airport, making a stop at a nature…

Reflection – Augsburg, Germany

Before I began the reflection, I want to type out my gratitude. First I want to thank Dr. Feick and Mrs. Dawkins for conducting the trip. Next, I want to thank every company during the trip that allowed us to tour their factory and help give us necessary information that was needed for our analysis…

All Monkey Business

After returning to Iyarina on Saturday night, we needed some time to recover from our long days of travel up and down the river. We spent our Sunday working on our final presentations in our groups! John, Riya, George, Olivia, and I chose to focus on cacao for our presentation. We created Wao Ice Cream,…

Post-trip Reflection

Our trip back started at 5:30 am on Friday, and after about 18 hours of traveling, I made it home. After thinking about the trip for a little, I’m going to make my reflection post. The first week of the trip consisted of the company visits as well as getting to know the people in…

Wao, What an Adventure!

Hi friends! After a surprisingly quick 8 hours of travel, we arrived at the place we would be staying in Waorani territory. Unlike last year, we would not be staying directly where the people in the community lived, but instead a 2 minute canoe ride downstream. It was nice because our canoe was the last…

Thousand Thank You’s

I’ve been home for about 2 days now, and I’m so grateful for this trip! It’s still surreal that it’s over. I keep on recounting different stories to my family and looking back we did so much within those 2 weeks.  We flew home on Friday and that was a story within its self. We…

Into the Woods (Jungle, Actually)

Ok friends, this was a BIG day. We visited the Waorani Nation, particularly one community within said nation that lives about a 6 hour canoe ride through the Amazon Rainforest. As per usual, breakfast was bright and early, nothing to see here except the amazing views from the lodge that I have gotten quite accustomed…

24 Hours, 3 Flights

After our packed Thursday, we did not have much of a turnaround before the start of our travel day. Not even an hour after getting back from dinner, we had to be fully packed and ready to hit the road on the way to the Larnaca airport, where we had arrived just 12 days prior….

My Cyprus Story

The past two weeks in Cyprus have been unforgettable. I’ve been able to achieve so many things professionally, academically, and personally. When it comes to professional and academic development I’ve been able to speak with executives of companies and hear straight from the source on certain aspects of business I’m interested in. Also, we had…

Life off the grid!

We began our morning bright and early so that we could get to the Waorani nation before dark! It was a long day of travel, starting with an 8am bus ride into the Amazon rainforest. Then, we got onto gas powered canoes that would take us on the river into Waorani territory. Maddie, George, Riya,…

The Lodging Lifestyle

What’s good friends?!! Our first night at the Iyarina lodge was definitely an adjustment. We went from the comforts of a Quito hotel to an environment that was per se… more connected to nature. Said nature, however, completely made up for the lack of the comforts that I am used to in my day-to-day life….

Long Way to Home!

This is my last blog of the trip, and unfortunately, it was not a very fun day! Today was entirely spent flying home from Cyprus, which for me was a journey that lasted about 22 hours! At 12:00 a.m. on Friday, we promptly departed from our hotel and went to the airport. Our flight was…

Last Day in Cyprus!

Today is our last day in Cyprus, and I’m a little heartbroken, to be honest. I’ve made memories on this trip that will last a lifetime, and I’ve learned so much about a nation that I truly knew almost nothing about before coming here. I know one day I will return here, but until then,…

Cement & More Boats

The first part of today, our second-to-last day in Cyprus, was spent at Vassiliko Cement Works. What stood out immediately upon entering the plant was the sheer size of the operation, both in terms of physical size and the sheer amount of concrete produced. After entering the plant, we were quickly ushered into the main…