For our last day in the Netherlands, we visited the Hague, the political capital of the Netherlands and home to the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. After the end of the second world war, these courts were created and housed in the Peace Palace located in the Hague to try those…
Tag: Swanson School of Engineering
All SSoE student posts should receive this tag.
Pitt has Joan Gabel, Holland has Roofs Gabled
After visiting the Delta Works yesterday, our group took a tour of the Watersnoodmuseum, a museum dedicated to the victims of the flood and recognizing what survivors faced during this harrowing experience. While here, we not only read accounts from survivors and about those who passed but heard them firsthand through our guide who survived…
South Korea [-1]: The Final Reflection
A brief final reflection based on guidelines in the course syllabus: I had a pretty good idea of what to expect going into the South Korea trip in terms of the organization of cultural and professional visits and the assignments that would be due, and my expectations were correct. For this, I have to commend…
Day 1: Traveling and Tours
Today, day one of our trip was very long. After a 20-hour travel day, we got to Amsterdam and hit the ground running. First was navigating the underground subway in order to get to the canal tour, where we got a good look at the city from a different perspective. Our tour guide talked a…
Bilbao Day 12: On Top of the World
The morning was like every other: a plate of eggs and ham alongside some cornbread and conversations with peers about the days gone by. Saioa held one final educational presentation in which we compared the US to Spain, not just in terms of healthcare. The roads, the foods, and the expectations differed, but I couldn’t…
The Delta Works – A Triumph of Dutch Engineering
Today we visited the Delta works, a network of storm surge barriers meant to protect citizens from flooding and rising sea levels. After a catastrophic flood in 1953, the delta works project was sped up in order to protect the region that is already below sea level from further issues and dangers. Originally, the project…
Moo-ving Across the Rotterdam Harbor
For our first full day in Rotterdam, we visited a floating farm in the Rotterdam harbor and toured the RDM facilities. The floating farm is one of the few prototypes able to break even as they sell the products they produce in their general store, to local buyers, and to businesses in the area. They…
You Can’t Spell Munster without “Must”
On our way to Rotterdam, we took a day trip to the city of Munster in Germany. While here, we had the opportunity to sight-see and visit the many museums the city has to offer such as the Picasso museum, a Greek archeological history museum, and an art museum featuring paintings, sculptures, and writings across…
Sugar, Spice, and Everything Enschede
For our last day in Enschede, we toured the city center and got to experience a Dutch farmers market first hand. Although Enschede is much different than Amsterdam, the city still focuses on sustainability and meeting the needs of its residents in how it is built. Enschede is one of the few parts of the…
:( Last Day in Korea
This whole trip has been so memorable, and I have enjoyed every single moment of it so far. But, today is the last one, which means my last blog of the trip. Are you going to miss me? Our final day started off again with another trip to the Seoul City Hall. But, this time…
Under Seoul City Hall
On the last day of the trip, we went on a tour of the Topis which is both a government operated system and a private company in Seoul that monitored all of the traffic in South Korea. We saw this headquarters that was in the basement of City Hall, and it was amazing. they have…
Steel Mill!!!!
Today, we headed back over to Postech to do a tour of their campus. They have a bunch of students who work with a lot of foreign exchange students and help them out, so we split up into a couple of different groups with different students and got to walk all around campus. My group’s…
Postech
Today was Monday, so officially we have had a full week of our trip! Today we went to visit the campus of one of the universities in Korea, POSTECH. Postech recently partnered with Pitt, so we were kind of acting as ambassadors at Pitt. We listened to a presentation all about Postech, met a grad…
Golgusa Day 2 & Tombs
Today was an early day to wake up! yay. Our wake-up time was 5 am, which might’ve been the earliest time that I’ve ever woken up. We first had morning chanting with the monks, which involved standing up and kneeling down while the monks were saying something in Korean. I found it very interesting that…
Golgusa Temple
Today we had a little more traveling, and this time we are headed out of Seoul and into a new city! We started the day off by getting to the train station, and got on the train to Busan. We weren’t going to Busan, but getting off at an earlier stop at Gyeongju. One thing…
I’m Friends with the Münster Under my Bed
Here on 5/10, we did a little something different today. We said goodbye to Enschede and set out for Rotterdam, but not before taking a day trip to Münster, Germany. In Münster, we took a tour of the city and learned about its history. Münster is a deeply Roman Catholic part of Europe and has…
A Temple a Day Keeps the Wild Boars Away
Admittedly, this was a tough day. We got up early just to immediately bus out an hour to the Seoul KTX (Korean Train Express) Station where we spent another two hours on the train, after which we spent another two hours bussing to Golgulsa Temple. It was rough on all of us, and unfortunately, not…
A Whirlwind Travel Day
Before heading out into the countryside today to visit a windmill farm and historic medieval village, we attended a lecture on how wind turbines work and the math behind their sustainable energy development. During this lecture, we learned some of the formulas required for calculating how much power, lift, and drag is created depending on…
Plus3 South Korea 12: A New Era of Transportation and The End of a Journey
Today was our final day in Korea, which, for a lot of reasons, was super sad, not only because the trip has been such a fun and meaningful experience, but also because I will likely not see some of the friends I made on this trip for a few months. Though, despite it being our…
Plus3 South Korea 11: SMART Factories
Today was the second-to-last day of our trip. We woke up in Pohang, packed our rooms, hopped on a charter bus, and headed to Ulsan, where we would get a tour of the Hyundai plant later in the day. Over the course of the two-hour trip, we got to see a lot more of Korea’s…