For breakfast today, I tried tomatoes with cheese on top, and it was delicious. Then, we went as a group to Sun Village. It felt a bit weird for me that we were just walking through it watching them – it felt a bit like inaction, but it was educational to see. From the…
Tag: Summer 2018
Day 3: SGL and BMW!
Throughout the trip, I’ve thought that our initial travel day would be the longest and most tiring; however, today may have proved me wrong. We left for our start at 8:15am and did not return to Augsburg until 10pm. Today was jam packed with travel to two different companies and factory tours, meaning we spent…
Day 6: Xi’an Markets
Today started out on a lower note, as some members of our group got sick and have to stay in Beijing for a couple more days to recover. The rest of us travelled to the train station for our first experience with the famous bullet trains. I’ve ridden the Amtrak before, so I expected the…
Day 5: How the Chinese Do It
Today we went to Tiananmen Square, which I found to feel very similar to Washington, D.C. It was spread out and there were many landmark buildings with tourists crowded around them. It was also interesting to see that most of the tourists there were Chinese, which made sense as I thought about the fact…
Day 4: Company Culture
Today we visited Sunshine Insurance Group, and they were nothing like the tall skyscraper-based businesses I had expected from Beijing. In fact, the campus was based on the architectural style of a European university. This was the first thing I’ve seen that’s in a western model, as the streets of Beijing mainly feature elaborately…
Ocean East International Logistics
It was an early morning rise for everyone to take our trip to Ocean East International Logistics. This is an intermediate shipping company that helps companies get their goods to their customers. We discussed the work force problem, and how the younger population of China is much smaller than the older population. This creates a…
Day 12: Delphi Technologies & AmCham
Today we had our usual routine as always. Wake up early, get breakfast, go to the bus. This time was a little bit different though. Today we were making our first engineering site visit to Delphi Technologies so I was both happy and excited for the engineering students who had been only sitting through business…
Day 12: The Beginning of the End
So our last day of planned activities…wow. This trip flew by. Today was a pretty early day because we were going to get a traditional Bavarian breakfast. Traditional Bavarian breakfast consists of Weißwurst (white sausage), pretzels and wheat beer. Obviously we didn’t have the beer but we tried everything else. It was really funny because…
Day 11: The Presentations
Welp. Today’s the day. The last academic activity of the trip. The company presentations. This is what we’ve been working towards all week, but we weren’t done yet. We had all of today free, besides the presentations, so my group decided to use our time before the presentation to perfect our PowerPoint. However, the German…
East China University of Science and Technology
After a nice 5 star continental breakfast the group headed out to our destination for the day the East China University of Science and Technology. I was especially excited to finally visit a science university after hearing all this business stuff. But to my dismay, when we sat down to hear our lecture it was…
A Trip Down Memory Lane (Day 13)
Today was bittersweet. It was our last full day in Germany, but it was also the day I was going to meet family members I had never met before. My aunt (my father’s sister) moved to Germany with my father when she was in her early 20’s. Although my father moved back to Bosnia, my…
Day Eight: Shanghello
Today was a late morning and we departed for the train station by noon. We arrived a the bullet train station only an hour and a half before our train departed, so we didn’t have to wait long before boarding. Like many other public spaces in China, I was impressed not only by the size…
Day Six & Seven: Sick Boi Chronicles
Late day five, seven of us started feeling very sick, and one guy ended up in the hospital. By midnight, our tour guides thought it would be a good idea to bring the rest of us to the hospitals, just to make sure that it wasn’t anything serious. Lilliana calls us a taxi and gets…
Day 11: Ocean East International Logistics & Yang Shan Port
Once again we had to wake up early, which comes as no surprise at this point. However, at least I have an excellent breakfast to look forward to each morning for the remainder of our trip. Following breakfast, we headed outside to the bus. We met our tour guide for the day, Mac. Mac works…
Rude Awakening
As most people may know already, when Americans travel to foreign countries, we must be wary of the food and water we consume because not everywhere puts as much chemicals into their water as we do. Unfortunately, something we ate gave 7 of us food poisoning. I ended up at the hospital around 1 am,…
Day 10: The Top of the World
Our third and final hotel breakfast is truly top tier. They have a massive buffet with all kinds of hot food, cold food, and pastries. This morning I had dumplings and actual egg rolls, as in wraps filled with scrambled eggs. Very tasty. After breakfast we got on the bus and headed to the East…
Forbidden Heaven
Finally, a tourist site. Not only one, but two. First up, the forbidden city. Boarding the bus for the trip to the city, we were greeted by our good old friend Uncle Joe once more. Again the entire bus ride, he graced us with his wit and chenglish. Among his comedic monologue he mentioned that…
Day 10: East China University of Science & Technology
We got to wake up a little later than usual today before heading to the East China University of Science and Technology so I made sure I got down to the hotel’s continental breakfast before we left. It was the best breakfast of all 3 hotels we’ve stayed in by far. After breakfast, we went…
Day 9: The One Where the Gang Gets Back Together
We had to wake up very early to make our train, but I was glad we were at least able to snag breakfast before we left the hotel. For some reason, the city decided to build the train station 45 minutes away from the city center. While western train stations may be smaller, older, and…