Good Morning, My name is Maxwell Hrbek, I am a Bioengineering student within the Swanson School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, and a little-known fact about me is that I am going to Greece this May. Originally from Greensburg, PA, I have always been engrossed in the Pittsburgh culture, so I believe the…
Tag: Pitt Engineering
Day 8: Prime Ports
Today we woke up bright and early and went straight to the ports. We got to visit four companies, all located in the same area of Cyprus. Cyprus is a prime location for importing and exporting goods. The first company we visited was Cyprus Port Authority which is responsible for port facilities. Then we saw…
Day 7: The Path to Paphos
Today was filled with a lot of mythology. We first went to go see Aphrodite’s Rock, where the goddess was born of the sea form hitting the rock. It was a beautiful place filled with stones on the beach and beautiful blue waters of all shades. Then we went to Tomb of the Kings, which…
Day 6: From Dazzling to Deserted. The Reality of Famagusta.
On the drive to Famagusta, I was shocked to hear about how Turkey was bringing Turkish citizens illegally into the northern part of Cyprus. Georgia said that only a under a couple hundred thousands Turkish Cypriots that are legal but the car, water, and electricity records show otherwise. Cyprus asked Turkey to do an official…
Day 5: From Nicosia to Limassol!
Today was mainly a travel day as we left Nicosia and hit the road to Limassol. We have arrived in the port city that has a wonderful sea. As we traveled to Limassol we stopped at Kourion. This ancient sit had a breathtaking view of the sea and the amphitheater was really cool. When you…
Day 3: Kakopetria aka Bad Rock
In the beginning of the day, I got to visit Wargaming, which is a video game company that was founded in 1998. At the gaming company I was very interested in what our presenter Alexander had to say about the financial side of this franchise. In terms of supply chain, practically all of their means…
Day 2: Learning imPORTant Cyprus Info
This morning I got to see the leading trading company in Cyprus, Vassos Eliades Ltd. This company had a huge building and warehouse that staffed around 400 employees. This company is an importing and trading facility that brings their goods in from the port cities of Cyprus. The founder, Vassos Eliades was able to make…
Day 1: Welcome to Cyprus! Φτασαμε! (We have arrived!)
After starting my journey to Cyprus on May 9th, the long travel days lead me to the wonderful city of Nicosia. The beautiful view from my balcony and the scenic drive to the university were the first moments that started my day on the island. On our visit to the University of Nicosia, I was…
Evan Allen in Vietnam
Hello everyone, my name is Evan Allen. I’m a freshman in the Swanson School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh looking to major in Environmental Engineering and minor in Spanish. As a Pittsburgh native I’ve lived in the neighborhood highland park (15 minutes from campus) my entire life where I’ve grown to love playing…
Intro to Plus3 Vietnam: Chloe Acuna
Hello everyone! My name is Chloe Acuna. I am a current first-year student at the Swanson School of Engineering majoring in Electrical Engineering and seeking a concentration in Software and Nuclear Engineering. I am from Blue Bell, Pennsylvania (about an hour outside of Philly) where I played on my high school’s lacrosse, basketball, soccer, and…
Importing, Exporting, and Buying Goods
As sad as I am, this is the last blog post of the trip. Today, we focused on products being moved around, both in transportation and through purchasing. We started our day touring the Cat Lai Terminal. It was interesting to see the logistics of how they ensure everything is organized in a way that…
Floating on History
After talking about it for months, we finally experienced the Mekong Delta River. It was more than I thought it would be. The river and surrounding it was full of culture. Today was the day I felt the most like I was in a different country. The buses left at 8:00 am for the Mekong…
Vietnam: Buddhism and other history
Today, our main focus of the day was on history and religion, specifically Buddhism. We started off our day at the University of Economics and Finance (UEF), watching a lecture about Buddhism and the origins of the religion. Afterwards we visited a Buddhist temple, where we were immersed into the religion/philosophy. While we were touring…
Two Company Visits in One Day?
Instead of attending classes during one part of the day, and a company visit during the other, we did two rounds of company visits today. The first one was Saigon Hi-tech Park, which provides resources to companies that are part of this association, and they can send their employees to this place to create products….
A Weekend of Fun and Sun!
This weekend was filled with lots of fun experiences. We woke up early Saturday morning and headed to Vung Tau beach. Before we arrived there, we took a pitstop at a tall mountain with a huge statue of Jesus at the top. The heat was even more unbearable because most of us had two layers…
Day 3: Sustainability in Vietnam
As an engineering student who plans to go into sustainability, I found today to be a riveting day. In the morning, before our language class, we had a person come in and do a presentation about the role of green transportation. The presentation was good, however, I feel like the presenter was overly explaining the…
Our First Company Visit: TTT Corporation
TTT Corporation is a company that specializes in interior design and manufacturing. One major difference I noticed while touring the factory was the factory culture. The workers were wearing flip-flops and other open-toed shoes while they were cutting wood and gluing pieces together. In the United States, we emphasize the importance of wearing close-toed shoes…
First Day in Vietnam
We started and ended our day in Vietnam today! When I mean started, I mean Monday, May 5th, at around 12 am, we arrived in Vietnam . It was a busy day. We woke up at around eight to get our breakfast, because it ended at 9 am. It was interesting, because breakfast wasn’t the…