We had a very zen morning with a short drive to Sibö Chocolates. This was a very relaxing experience with great history and of course chocolates to taste! I really enjoyed learning about the evolution of coffee and how they used to only drink it instead of eating chocolate. Chocolate harvesting and sales are somewhat…
Tag: Plus3 2025
Birmingham Day 10!
Today was our last full day in Birmingham! Although I have enjoyed my time here in the city, I am excited to explore London. Today was an easy day. Our start time got delayed until 8:45, so I got extra time to eat breakfast and prepare for the day. Today we went to visit the…
Smiles, Stories, and Support
Today we had the opportunity to visit the Juniper Centre at Moseley Hall Hospital, which is part of the Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust. It was a meaningful visit, and it left us thinking about how important thoughtful, person-centered mental health care really is. From the moment we arrived, the centre felt…
DMZ, Dancing, and Dugouts: Day 10
Hey y’all! Today was packed with contrast – history and sport, tension and celebration. We started with a visit to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), a deeply significant place in Korean history and global politics. The bus ride was about an hour long, which gave me a much-needed nap before what turned into a surprisingly uphill…
Strykers, Stairs, and Serenity: Day 9
Hey y’all! Today, we traveled to Camp Casey, a U.S. military base located near the DMZ, where we had the opportunity to tour around with two Pitt alumni currently working in ROTC, Grace and Will. It was fascinating to see how they’ve carried their experiences abroad into such a high-stakes professional setting. One of the…
Day 8 – Dachau
Today we took the short trip from Augsburg to visit the infamous Dachau concentration camp, which ran from 1933-1945. I came into the tour knowing the atmosphere would be incredibly heavy, but it really didn’t hit me until we visited the barracks. Luckily, our tour guide was phenomenal, and his clear explanations, opinions, and insights…
Day 9: Bunches of Bites
Today we traveled back to Sarapiqui to visit family owned banana farm. The plantation was beautiful and our guide Francini was very helpful. We had a quick tour of the plantation learning about the process of how bananas grow along with other fruits and spices. She also showed us her house where we met her…
Birmingham Day 9: Presentation Edition!
Today was the ninth day of our trip. In my opinion, it has flown by! It feels like months ago we all met up in Pittsburgh on that Friday and ate dinner together before staying in the towers. Today was the big day for our group. We had our presentations. But first, we started our…
Brains and Botanical Gardens
Today was a genuinely inspiring and eye-opening day spent in Birmingham. We had the chance to visit Joseph Chamberlain College in the morning, and later, we explored the Birmingham Botanical Gardens and returned to BCU to share our presentations. It was a full day of learning, reflecting, and connecting with people and places in meaningful…
You Can Call Me “Weba”
This morning began with an intro from Ellie who is a wonderful person. Todd, the creator of the two lodges was introduced to Ecuador as a missionary kid who eventually married a Quichua woman and had Ellie. She spoke about how her and her three other siblings grew up back and forth between Arizona and…
Day 7- Bask(qu)ing in the Bay of Biscay
Today we took full advantage of the sunny weather in Spain, visiting a flea market in Bilbao before heading over to San Sebastián for the rest of the day. The journey to San Sebastián was quick,and provided us with amazing views of the Spanish countryside on the ride there. We began our visit with an…
Day 8: Maybe I Do Like Pineapples
Today we went to a pineapple plantation in Sarapiquí. My whole life I have hated Pineapples, the texture, the smell, the taste, everything. When we arrived at the plantation there were piña coladas waiting for us. I came in with an open mind and tried it, IT WAS SO GOOD! As we went through our…
Half Way Through- Black Country Living Museum
I can’t believe that it is already about half way through our trip already! This past week has been so much fun and very educational. Today we spent our afternoon at the Black Country Living Museum and we all had a blast. This weekend was their 60s themed event and they had music and dancing…
Birmingham Day 8: Black Country Edition!
Today was day 8 of our trip. We have officially been here over a week! Today we got to sleep in a little before taking the bus to Black Country Living Museum. When we got off the bus, we had to walk 20 minutes to actually get there because we missed the connecting bus. We…
All Aboard!!!
We awoke to a thunderstorm today. Usually, I would soak in the thunder and lay in this lovely lodge with screen walls, but…we had an early morning and a 6 hour canoe ride ahead of us today. Yikes. Everyone was frantically finding trash bags to wrap around our singular backpacks of luggage and changing into…
Spain Day 6- Exploring History, Eating Pasta
Our weekend kicked off with a tour of the Arriaga theater. My roommate woke up at around 8:30 to get a quick breakfast at Café Arenal, however I stayed in bed to take advantage of our late start. At around 10:30, our group walked over to the theater, excited to know more history about this…
Birmingham Day 7: Oxford Edition!
Today we had an early start to the day. I woke up around 6:45 and got ready to get breakfast before heading to the bus at 7:55. We had a strict time schedule of getting on the bus at 8am, but when he got there, the bus was not there. There was a mix-up with…
Day 7 – The Big City
Today we went south to Munich. It was a sunny Saturday in the biggest tourist city in Germany, so as you can expect there were people everywhere. We took a comprehensive city tour which touched on all capacities of this storied and cultured city. I appreciated the tour guide’s transparency in regards to the rise…
Day 6 – Trucks, Castles, und Mountains
Today we took a trip to the revered Neuschwanstein Castle in the outskirts of the Alps. The drive wasn’t bad at all, and upon our arrival, I realized it was well worth it. It’s hard for my brain to perceive that some of the backdrops I have seen aren’t pictures and are in fact real….
Finally a Mako Mermaid
Today, after breakfast, we were given a close-up demonstration of a man from the lodge making chocolate from the cocoa bean. He had to have burnt all of the feeling off of his hands because he would just pick up those burning seeds and crack them! We would all gasp as he basically stuck his…