Sunday, May 13 This morning we visited the memorial site of the Dachau concentration camp. This was the first of the Nazi concentration camps to be established. Although it was not intended to be used to carry out systematic mass executions, it served as a model for future camps that were constructed in other parts…
Tag: Summer 2018
Day 7: Schwarzgefahren!
Saturday, May 12 Today we spent the entire day in München, but the story of how we got there could almost be this entire blog post. So today there was a soccer game in Munich, and as a result the train was extremely crowded with fans going to watch. When our group got on, we…
Day 6: Towers and Tribulation
Friday, May 11 This morning we walked as a group to the Augsburg Hauptbahnhof and took a train to a town called Ulm. Running on 3.75 hours of actual sleep from the previous night, I was not thrilled to find out that our first destination was the tallest church tower in the world. And it…
Day 5: Castles, Churches, and Doughnuts
Thursday, May 10 After a late night last night, getting up early this morning to leave at 7:30 was a little more difficult than usual. But it was worth it, because we were visiting the castle Neuschwanstein (directly translated to “new swan stone”), which was one of three palaces built by König Ludwig der Zweite,…
Day 4: Okay, This is the Hat Game of Cosmic Numbers, and it Will Not Fit Through the Green Glass Door
Wednesday, May 9 Today, we visited Continental, which is a company that is best known for its rubber and tires, although we would soon find out that there is much more to the company than that! We were warmly welcomed by the company and led into a conference room that contained gift bags at every…
Day 3: SGL & BMW
Tuesday, May 8 Today was a very long day! At around 8:15 we took the bus to visit SGL, a company that specializes in manufacturing carbon fiber for auto parts, making it a Tier 2 supplier to the auto industry. We first listened to a company representative give a presentation about the science behind their…
Thomas Angelo Honor Scholarship
Firstly, I would like to thank Dean Arjang Assad, the Office of the Dean in the College of Business Administration, and the Thomas Angelo Honors Scholarships for this great honor. I feel very fortunate and blessed to have received the Plus3 Study Abroad Scholarship during my Plus3 trip to Germany. Plus3 was the single greatest…
Day 2: Racing the Clock… and Each Other
Monday, May 7 Today we went to the University of Augsburg and met the German students who would be working with us in our company groups. Our first task was to create an initial presentation to introduce the rest of the students to our company. From that point, we had 90 minutes to prepare something!…
Day 1: The 35-Hour Day
Sunday, May 6 Wir sind endlich in Deutschland angekommen! After a long night flight and a six-hour time jump, we hit the ground running. Our rooms were not yet ready, as we expected with our morning arrival, so we used an office room on the first floor of the hotel to stow our luggage while…
Reflections on Seeing Beauty Within, Embracing the Unexpected and Gratitude
Nestled back into my daily routine at home, I’m in utter disbelief that the physical aspect of this long-awaited German adventure has come and gone already. Somehow it seems like just ‘yesterday’ when we were all sitting at those big long tables at the noodle place in Pittsburgh, anxious for our big adventure to begin….
Final Thoughts and Reflection
My time abroad in Germany through the Plus 3 program has been absolutely amazing. Whenever anybody asks me how my trip was, I simply respond with “It was one of the best experiences of my life.” I say that with the truest sincerity. While I have traveled extensively, I had never been to Germany and…
An Adventure in Salzburg (May 18)
The final day of our grand adventure has arrived and I’m intending to savor every minute. My head spins thinking about how fast our time in Germany has gone! With earlier encouragement from Marius, a group of us decided to go to Salzburg, Austria for the day – Marius’ home town! With some help from…
Marveling at Everyday Beauty (May 17)
I’m now spoiled and want to kick off every morning with a meal of weisswurst, German pretzels and delicious Bavarian mustard! We traveled by bus to a small town called Baindlkirch and were treated to a traditional German breakfast. I had something very similar when we stopped at the Hofbrauhaus in Munich so I was…
Final Post: Can we go back now?
The two weeks spent in Vietnam were definitely two of the best weeks of my life. I met amazing people, had amazing food, and saw amazing sights, so, you could say the trip was in a word, amazing. As I have gotten home, and more people have been asking me how it was, I find…
Scholarship Reflection: Plus3 Italy
I first off want to say how grateful I am to have received the Thomas Angelo Honors Scholarship to put towards my first study abroad opportunity at Pitt. With the help of the scholarship, it gave my family more peace of mind when deciding whether to or not to have me participate in the Plus3…
Thomas Angelo Honors Scholarship Reflection
To start, receiving this scholarship for my trip to Costa Rica not only helped me financially, but allowed to really engage myself in my studies while abroad (without having to worry about any financial aspects). Traveling somewhere new directly after my first year of college was an incredible opportunity, one in which I feel was…
Day 2: Scavenger Hunt (Best Team Photo)
After probably one of the best night’s sleep of my life we woke up bright and early on the second day of the trip to head to the University of Augsburg to start off our day. To get to the University we headed to Königsplatz where we prepared to take the tram to the University….
Day 1: Arrival Survival
After a very long flight, that I sadly could not fall asleep on, we finally arrived to Germany bright and early at roughly 6 a.m. in Germany (which is midnight in Pittsburgh). This definitely messed with my body as I was fully prepared to go to bed but we had a whole day of fun…
Day 13: The Festival in Erlangen
Today was our free day. AJ, Bob, and I were invited by some of the German students to go to a festival in Erlangen, a small city North-West of Nuremberg. The plan was to drive there around 2:30 with Melanie and Stefanie and then take the train back. We had heard that many people at…
Day 13: Full Circle
Since today is our free day, a bunch of us decided to travel to Salzburg, Austria. All 14 of us met up in the morning to walk to the train station. We were able to get day passes for the train since we would have to travel to Munich and switch trains to get to…