Day 2
Today began our first official day in Augsburg! We woke up, got ready and had breakfast in the hotel lobby. Usually in America you wake up to eggs, sausages, bacon, waffles, pancakes. Here breakfast mostly consist of yogurt, different sandwich meats, rolls, granola bars and some fruit. I never had been a huge breakfast person and really enjoyed this breakfast style. After breakfast we headed to The University of Augsburg which is about a 5-minute tram ride from our hotel. Once we arrived I was really impressed by the school, it has more of a campus feel then Pitt with a lot of beautiful scenery where a lot of students were hanging outside. We then met up with the German students in their classroom and worked on a brief introduction in our groups of our companies. I worked with my group in the computer lab, and it was mind opening to see how similar it was to our schools but also at the same time really interesting to see a different culture in the aspect of schooling. When you go on most vacations abroad you never really get to experience universities, but since schooling is such a big part of our lives it is very interesting to see. After giving our brief presentations we ate lunch at the Mensa, which is their school cafeteria. First things first, it was so much better then Market. The cafeteria was very big, with a lot of natural lighting coming in, and all the stations where food was served were pristine. I have a tad bit of OCD, if you asked my family they may say an extreme case, so Ii just can’t get over how clean everything around me is! A few things that are really interesting about schooling in Germany is that they don’t pay for their education, they don’t have on campus housing, and they have a child care center right on the edge of their campus!
Towards the end of the tour we got into groups and were given a packet to take place in a scavenger hunt around downtown Augsburg. We had a very nice German student, Melissa who was helping us and she is actually 25 years old and also studying at Pitt Graduate School soon! During the scavenger hunt we went to Augsburg Town Hall where there was a very cool room that was all gold, called the Golden Chamber. Also we climbed over 200 steps to get to the top of tower in the center of the city which had an amazing view. (Pictures of both are below.) We ended the scavenger hunt at a beautiful beer garden, which was one of my favorite places to relax. It was set up with numerous picnic tables and a bunch of trees in the surrounding area. I loved the social and calm environment.
After hanging around at the beer garden for a while, we continued to Dragone which was an Italian style restaurant. I had a Hawaiian pizza and salad which were both delicious. Even though it is a little challenging to order off some of the menus in German, I also really appreciate it because it gives me a good sense of their culture and to learn basic some basic German phrases and words. So far I have been enjoying experiencing another culture and getting accustomed to their lifestyle. Having the German students around with us the majority of the time is extremely comforting and exciting, and they constantly address how much they enjoy having us here! Day 2 is over and my feet and back hurt from walking a ton, but I wouldn’t trade my memories and experiences for anything.
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