Day Fourteen: Back in the Air with Time to Reflect

It's another day of travel for all of the Americans (or the 17 of us who didn't stay in Europe). The 9 hour plane ride was a lot more tolerable, now that we all knew each other. I sat in the middle seat in the middle row; nice and cozy. I had the pleasure of sitting next to Will (yet again) and Lindsey. There was a baby across the aisle that I spent a good hour straight making faces at and laughing with. Her parents caught on, and when she started being fussy, they would turn her toward me and I'd occupy her for a while. It became a weird unspoken system. I felt like I actually knew what I was doing while making our way through security and stuff, but maybe I'm just good at lying to myself. The same way that I felt like the 9 hour flight "flew" by. Lol. But seriously, I think I enjoyed myself a little too much on the flight.

The last picture in Germany

Cutest baby ever

We landed in Washington, DC, and the flight going to Pittsburgh left about 2 hours after landing. I figured we'd have some time to blow, but the DC airport was crazy unorganized. We followed the transferring flight signs and it gathered everyone into this little area at the bottom of staircases and escalators. It got so crowded that there was literally no more room for anyone to come down the stairs, so as a group, if we saw someone coming, we'd have to yell to them to take the stairs, not the escalator, which was dropping off into the already over crowded pool of people.  It was so frustrating to watch the slowest, most inefficient process ever and not be able to do anything about it. Mark made some comment to me about how my inner industrial engineer must be crying, and I realized that it was bothering me more than most people. So while I hated everything happening, I definitely feel good about picking industrial engineering.

After waiting forever to get back into the airport, some of the Pittsburgh people gathered around our terminal's outlet, sitting on the ground too. There were 7 students going back on this flight, plus Dr. Feick. We boarded the cutest little plane ever! I counted 22 windows on the side, so like, 23 or 24 rows total. I sat next to none other but Will (that poor boy had to sit next to me for all 4 flights), and I had the window seat again! The flight was supposed to be an hour (according to our tickets) but about 3 minutes after we took off our seat belts, they announced to put them back on for landing. I think the ride total was 30ish minutes, and Will and I just chatted the whole time. I was kind of glad it was so short because there was a baby on this one who was not nearly as pleasant as the baby on the other flight. She screamed the entire time, and there was no way for me to see her, which made it worse... So thank goodness for the short ride!

We landed, I called my dad, we made our way through the airport to the baggage claim, and I met my dad outside. But I couldn't leave without hugs to all my friends (at least those left) and of course Dr. Feick.



AND now I guess it's time to reflect.

I've been trying to tie in reflections and opinions throughout every post in this blog, but there's one thing I couldn't find an appropriate place to fit. I thought I would experience more culture shock than I actually did, but I realized it's because I was exposed to college students, like me, speaking English, like me, and doing the same tasks as me. It didn't feel incredibly different to home. However, the main difference I noticed between cultures is that it seems like America keeps people younger for longer. While learning about Germany and their culture, it seemed to me that they push children into adulthood as soon as they can. They pick a school path at the age of 10; they already have to decide their interests (basically deciding what they're going to do with their lives in 5th grade). Because of this, they have more time for life experiences. Most of the kids we worked with have studied, volunteered or lived abroad and plan to travel a lot more. They, in general, are just more experienced than us, even at my age. Conversely, in America, we are just thrown into adulthood as soon as we leave for college, but still with limited freedom. We are expected to live like adults, but not treated like one. Germans have all of their teenage years to learn how to be adults, but we have college, which isn't even entirely adulthood. Ok rant over.

I can't even put into words how grateful I am for such an amazing opportunity. I also cannot describe how amazing this trip was; this blog does it little justice. Which leads to me to probably the only thing I wish was different. Even though we had the formal goodbye dinner on Thursday night, I think it would've been nice to have some sort of a goodbye with the Americans in the airport. It didn't dawn on me that the trip was ending until we were sitting at the Pittsburgh terminal with the 8 of us left, after we had lost more than half the group. There was no way for me to vocalize how great this trip was and how thankful I am to everyone who was there, even the ones who I didn't necessarily become very close with. But regardless, I think I can do the same thing here (if you're reading this, and you went on the trip with me, I'm sending you a virtual hug). Thank you to everyone I met and all the people who worked so hard to make this trip possible. I couldn't imagine it any other way and I'm so honored to say this was my first abroad opportunity.

Hope you had fun reading my blog (I'm sorry for any moments that made you judge my sanity)!!!

Veronica's Struggle of the Day:
This might be Lindsey's struggle... But anytime I had to use the restroom on the plane, I would just climb over her. I felt bad asking her to get up and at this point, we had just spent 2 weeks straight together, so I figured it was easier. Eh, this is a lame struggle of the day, but maybe that's a good thing.

Day Thirteen: FREEDOM

Today was our day off! We have been trying to figure out what to do today since before the trip even started! Some people in the past have apparently tried taking trips to Paris or somewhere, which would be fun for the 5 minutes you'd get to spend there... But we decided to just stay in Augsburg.

We met up with a bunch of the German students in the morning for a classic white sausage breakfast. We went to the same beer garden that we had gone to during the scavenger hunt, Riegele. It was my favorite sausage yet (which is really saying something because of the number of sausages I've tried)! They were really weird to eat at first, though, because you had to peel the outer layer off... I felt I was helping a snake shed its skin... Or it was like peeling a banana. It was just a very weird experience. But it tasted delicious! AND even though I said earlier that condiments aren't very common, the sweet mustard that came with these was bomb. The weirdest part of this whole breakfast, I think, is that it came with beer. I get that Germans are known for drinking beer a lot, but first thing in the morning? Really? I did it, but I struggled with it; my stomach was not ready.

 After breakfast was our first goodbye. Lucie was taking a train to visit her sister so we had to say bye to her then, which was really hard. I didn't expect to get as close with the Pitt students who I had never met and the German students as I did, but I'm so happy I made such great friends for such a wonderful adventure.

In Bavaria, every shop, closes at 8:00 pm. Since most of our program has ended past 8:00, we haven't had a lot of time to shop in Augsburg, so we spent some time shopping. That 8:00 thing was really inconvenient. Except for restaurants, everything closed at 8:00, including grocery stores! It made it hard to do late night snacking... The only other time we had any time to shop was on Sunday, but everything is closed on Sundays! They really make it hard to shop around here... So today was a very shop-y day.

There were a lot more department stores than I thought there would be. Big chains. I expected it to be filled with little boutiques, but we didn't find any of those in mid Augsburg. Fun fact: TJ Maxx in Germany is TK Maxx. Basically all the same kind of stuff, though. We also got gelato, but don't worry it was only the first time today; there's more.

It wasn't until Alex, Sophia and I went to visit Sophia's flat that we saw he little boutiques we had been looking for. There was an adorable chocolatier that was decorated like Minnie Mouse's house. They sold every type of chocolate in every form you could imagine. Sophia lives in the back streets of Augsburg that truly felt like a movie set. Everything was covered in ivy and the streets were perfectly laid bricks.

Is this not the cutest thing ever?

The view from the bench with pink pillows

We went back to the hotel for a few hours to nap and pack, then everyone met back up at the park across the street from the hotel. At first, we got lost going there. It was easy to find the park, but once inside the park, everything seemed like a maze. Eventually, Dennis had to come save us on his bike and bring us to the spot that everyone was meeting.

One of the girls brought her grill, and everyone pitched in with meat, fruit, bread, and help. Once the fire got going, everyone put their meats on the grill, most of which were sausages, as if we didn't have enough already these past 2 weeks.  Someone brought speakers, so we had great music and even better company! Funniest part of the whole barbecue: Christian and Patrick had a tree climbing competition and there was a very clear winner. OH! And the butter! Sophia brought this herb butter to dip the bread in, and it was so so good. I started dipping everything in it--carrots, cucumbers, strawberries (the last one was a bad idea).

Someone brought dough that you would put on a stick and hold over a fire to make it bread; almost like Pillsbury but most of them ended up getting burned...

We covered a whole bench with food

All the meats

Lindsey did a "one bite" challenge with these... It's marshmallow fluff covered in hard chocolate with a wafer cookie at the bottom. It's about the size of my fist, so eating it in one bite is an impressive thing. She couldn't do it...

Way in the distance, there was a swing set, which some of us went and hung out on for a little bit. Sydney hadn't worked out at all in the last two weeks, and she's a thrower on the Pitt track team, so she wanted to get a bit of a work out. This meant a piggy back ride for me, to and from the swing set! It was a work out for me too, which I did not want... but I accepted it. I thought that the barbecue was the perfect way to wrap up a truly amazing two weeks.

Christian in a tree

If you look very closely, you can see Patrick in the tree, almost at the top. He was surprisingly swift at climbing up and back

Then Sydney and I had to get our last gelato, so Sophia drove Syd, Alex, Katie and me to the gelato place. I had to go big for my last one, so I got 3 scoops; delicious. After hanging out for a little, Sophia drove us back to the hotel to say our goodbyes. She was going to her friend's house that night, so we had to say goodbye to her early... It was just as hard as saying goodbye to Lucie.

Stracciatella, Nutella, and Mint chocolate chip

Tried to get a photo with the case but my best friend bombed it-- SEE "VERONICA'S STRUGGLE OF THE DAY"

We went to the same roof restaurant/bar that we went to a few nights ago. We just sat around and talked, pretending that we wouldn't have to really say goodbye in an hour. The German students who were left walked us all back to the hotel, where we stood in front saying goodbye for a really long time. It was just an emotional day of goodbyes...

Veronica's Struggle of the Day:
The woman working at the gelato place was quite rude, despite us giving her very good business. Something happened that I don't really know how to explain... While we were eating our gelato in front of the shop, she looked straight at me and said something odd, and I replied saying "huh?". She then grunted back at me, and I was very confused, so I just said "huh?" again. This went back and forth for about 20 seconds. There's no other way to describe this exchange than to say that we spent 20 seconds making noises at eat other. Very weird experience. Funny. But weird.

Day Twelve: We Climbed HOW Many Stairs?

Today we toured the city of Ulm!!! It was beautiful! Well... the city was. The weather, not so much... It was pouring down rain almost the whole morning. POURING. Thank goodness I had a solid raincoat!

We took a city tour as soon as we got there, which I thought was a bit excessive. The tour guide was telling us all sorts of information we didn't really need to know or care too much about.  The first place we went was Ulm Minster (Ulmer Münster), which is a Lutheran church in the middle of Ulm.  When we went inside the church, I was bothered by how the decorations weren't symmetrical. I noticed that there were statues on one side but not the other; the layout seemed symmetrical so it particularly bothered me the the decorations did not follow the same patter. However, the tour guide pointed out that the entire structure is leaning. There is one side that the wall is probably an 80 degree angle, rather than the proper 90 degree. This was not our last time visiting this church... stay tuned for the wrath of the Minster.

Holes in ceiling to make construction easier

The huge organ in the church 

We continued on the rest of the tour, visiting some places that I thought looked like classic German structure and architecture.

 One of the coolest parts of the tour, I thought, was the "Schiefes Haus," which holds a record for the world's most crooked hotel. Part of it was in a lakeish thing and it appeared to be almost sinking. It was very cool to look at!

The rain........

After the world's longest tour, we went to lunch at a pancake house that served giant pancakes. When I say pancakes, I don't mean like Pamela's Diner hotcakes, but meal pancakes. They came with all sorts of meats and toppings and spinach, but the also served the classic dessert pancakes! I ordered a Hawaiian pancake, which is like a Hawaiian pizza... but on a pancake. My table got served really early, leaving us time to order a dessert pancake to split among the table (!!!). I don't think I've ever been full off of one pancake before...

Hand in picture for size comparison

Our dessert pancake yummm

We had a little bit of free time around Ulm, when a group of us explored and went souvenir shopping.
After, we did what we were all dreading all day. We climbed. To the top of the Ulm Minster. 768 stairs to be exact. We were given an hour to get up and down and meet at the bottom, so we had lots lof time to hang out at the top.  I found it not to be a challenge of physical strength or indurance but of emotional stability. People with claustrophobia were freaking out all over the place, but for me, it was more the repetitive winding uphill climb.  There were 3 tiers that were kind of like a break (my climbing buddies and I accidentally skipped the first one sooo I only had 2). So the first 3rd was the toughest part for me. Not even ashamed to say I crawled. Hands on floor. But quickly! I kept up the pace until the 1st break, which we didn't realize so we kept on going (oops).. After that, there were little windows with metal crosses in them to change it up until the next tier. I used those as sort of a railing, pulling myself up with every window.

The little windows; my saviors

Borderline tears on the way to the top

The 2nd tier was a crammed little area that you could only walk around the circle behind a fence to get any sort of break. We continued to climb until the 3rd break, right before the big ending.  It was this big flatish area where there was room to lay out and take a break. So we took a few minute breather before the final stretch. The last staircase was the smallest yet, but it had a lot of windows looking out. It was very squished, and we had to stop about halfway up to wait in line to get to the top level. Once we finally got to the top, there was a single file line going around the circle very slowly, mostly made up of Pitt students. Here are some photos from the top of the 768 stairs!

The way down the upper most staircase 

View of the final stair case from the landing area

Once we got up and back down the small little staircase (which was super inconvenient because there were people going down the same tiny staircase as the one we were going up), we hung out on the landing for a while. Since we had a full half hour left, we thought it would be a nice way to relax after all the stairs:

We climbed that thing

OK so the walk down... There was an elderly man in front of us as soon as we started, who eventually let us pass because we were "too noisy..." sorry...  Then we came across a woman who was walking so slowly. She was taking one stair at a time, stopping for a full second on every stair and did not acknowledge the line of people behind her even once. So the walk down took a lot of patience, but I didn't want to startle her because it was clear that she was panicked. Sure enough, we were the last of the group to get to the bottom, but we also spent the longest at the top :)

We had a goodbye dinner in a restaurant underneath town hall that night with the whole group. First, half the group wanted to stop at the hotel, so we ran.  Still made time for these pictures though:

As soon as the tram stopped at the hotel, we had 7 minutes to run inside, do what we needed, then run back to the tram station. We missed it. SO 14 minutes later, we got on the tram and got to the restaurant. I sat with a table of all Americans, but it's ok because 1) more bonding and 2) I get to spend all of tomorrow with the German students! We did a gift exchange between the group members of each company group. Most of the Pitt students got their German counterparts Pitt t-shirts (which they all put on during dinner and it was the cutest thing ever). Our PPG group made frames with the group picture in it that said "PPG BEST GROUP EVER". Ok now the best part. All week, we had been referring to our PPG group as "squad," like the slang term that's a thing right now for whatever reason. Turns out, the entire time, the German students thought we were saying "squat" so on the back of the frames, it says "SQUAT"... I think it's the funniest thing ever. The goodbye dinner would have been a lot more emotional if I didn't know I was already seeing them all tomorrow, so I just ate my weird mac n cheese with my frame in peace.

Veronica's Struggle of the Day:
Literally crawling up the stairs was probably one struggle... Wow, I think this bad luck is wearing off.