After a long nap, I woke up right next to the Alps at Neuschwanstein Castle. This impressive castle was commissioned by King Ludwig II of Bavaria in the 19th century, although it appears much older because of its architecture. This retreat from the industrial world felt like something out of a fairytale or a movie….
Tag: Summer 2025
South Korea 06-07 Part 2: Is it authentic and should I care?
I already wrote about the itinerary for days 6 and 7 in the previous blog post, I won’t repeat them here. What I want to talk about is the idea of authenticity. So at the Golgulsa temple, there are a number of stone statues and structures all around the temple grounds. The most famous of…
South Korea 06-07 Part 1: Golgulsa Temple and My Take on Buddhism
So I’m writing days six and seven of this trip in two parts because half of each of them was our temple stay, which sort of deserves a post of its own, but I have a few things that I want to talk about regarding that, and some of the stuff we saw even after…
South Korea 05: Korean Christianity and the DMZ
Normally I blaze past the events of the day, but my morning activity today was one that I specifically chose to do independently. From the roof of the hotel, we get a pretty good view of the Myeong-Dong area, which is mostly high-rise hotels, shopping centers, and office buildings, and low-rise apartment buildings. However, in…
South Korea 04: Ancient Architecture
Today started with a visit to the Suwon Fortress, an 18th century fortress built in what is now a satellite city of Seoul. We did an archery activity, then took a walk around in another part of the fortress, where there is a palace. We then ate at a restaurant that sold exactly three items:…
South Korea 03: Water Infrastructure
Today started a bit more normally, i.e. without a scavenger hunt for our professor. We first visited the new Seoul City Hall, a flowing 12-floor glass building that houses the metropolitan government. I did a bit of sketching of the building from a few angles, and my sketches were pretty poor, but sketching is about…
Spain, Loading…
Hi! My name is Aditya Mukherjee, and I’m from Cary, North Carolina. In high school, I was drawn to chemistry and physics because they helped explain the underlying mechanisms behind how the world works. That curiosity led me to major in bioengineering, where I could combine those interests in a meaningful way. Since coming to…
Plus 3 Greece and Me
Hello everyone! My name is Brendan Porter, and I am from West Chester, Pa. I am a freshman year Industrial Engineering student at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering. I am more than excited to be a part of the Plus 3 Greece program. I am eager to go abroad and see what…
From Pitt to Augsburg – Pre Departure Intro
Hi everyone! My name is Nick D’Esposito, and I’m a Sophomore at the University of Pittsburgh majoring in Finance and Business Analytics. On campus, I’m actively involved in my fraternity, where I’ve taken on leadership responsibilities and worked on organizing events and recruitment. I’m also very interested in financial markets and spend time learning about…
Guernica – Day 3 (Final)
Today we returned to the Bilbao School of Engineering for a couple presentations. The first was about the process of designing medical devices and all that goes into the development of them. This was very interesting from an engineering standpoint because it showed how there are much different engineering proceedings depending on the product being…
Guernica – Day 2 (10)
Today we went on two amazing hikes and saw some beautiful nature. The first hike we took a bus to with our tour guide for the day. We went to San Juan de Gaztelugatxe. This was the most spectacular view I had ever seen. The hike was difficult due to the incline of the mountain…
The Final Chapter of Ecuador
Day 11 After another amazing breakfast from the people of the lodge, we went to paint our pots that we sculpted earlier in the trip. They were finally done firing. we needed someone’s hair for our brushes, so our group chose Sherly for the hair person. With Sherly’s hair, we proceeded to wrap it around…
Day 13 – Sleepless Flights and Lasting Memories
We started our final day in Germany bright and early with a 5:45 AM departure from the hotel. Everyone was tired and honestly a little sick too including me but we pushed through to get on the road one last time. The first flight was long but I was lucky enough to sleep through most…
Day 12 – Pizza Palaces and Parks
Today was our free day and I decided to spend it in Munich with a close friend of mine. We took the train in the morning which was about an hour long and met up with one of his friends who joined us for the day. They gave me a personal tour of the city…
Day 11 – Presentations and Parting Ways
Today was our last full day together as a group and it was time to present everything we had worked on. I started the morning by getting ready and going over my notes one last time. My group had GROB for our final project and I was excited to share what we had learned. Before…
Final Day in Bilbao :(
On our final day, we returned to what felt like the heart of our trip, the Bilbao School of Engineering. We started the day with a fascinating presentation from Mikel about the process of designing a medical device. It was especially interesting to see how closely engineering overlaps with what we do in nursing, especially…
Day 13-Flight Home
My flight home was uneventful, I took one last final picture of the coach bus that was our home for the last two weeks in the sunrise, and got ready to leave. I had an amazing time on this trip, and will remember it forever. I really look forward to seeing everyone in the group…
Day 11-Presentations and Dinner at the Ratskellar
Once again, not a ton to report about this day. our group presentation went great and our one german group member who we didnt have contact with beforehand actually showed up and was super professional and helpful for the project. Her name is Alija and was actually really fun to work with. Our other member,…
Day 10-GROB
Today we visited Grob, and then worked on our projects. Not a ton to report, although the tour of Grob was fascinating. they specialize in extremely finely-tuned metal machining, and have a humongous facility in Mindelheim, Germany, where they build all kinds of industrial machines for other companies and precisely manufactured metal works of art….