Tony Robol, Business, Technology and Engineering: the German Way Summer 2023
I’d say the greatest challenge I faced on the German Way program was just quelling all of my concerns and adapting to the new environment upon arriving in Germany. First off, it was by far the longest flight I have ever been on (about ten hours in total), and with a six-hour time zone difference to boot. For reference, the greatest time difference from Pittsburgh I had been in beforehand was one hour, in Chicago. Thus, I had very little sleep to go off of upon arriving in my new environment.
Once I had arrived, I quickly became aware of some things that I had forgotten to account for in preparation for the trip. The first of these things was the outlets in Germany. They were shaped much differently than the ones in the US and required a special adapter to work on US plugs. I had forgotten to buy said adapter, so I used others’ adapters for the first few days to charge my appliances before I was able to make a trip out to the electronics store to buy my own.
The second concern was how I was going to obtain drinking water throughout the trip. I did not bring a water bottle, and I was apprehensive about drinking tap water, as I do not usually do that in the US. However, I was informed by one of the German buddies that tap water is very clean in Germany, so I just used one of the glasses in the hotel and drank tap water throughout the trip. We also were provided some bottled water by the school periodically throughout the trip.
The third problem was how I was going to pay for certain things in Germany. I had obtained a credit card that worked in Germany before the trip, but I found that a lot of places in Germany only accepted cash. It was more of a pro-cash environment than the US, which is seeing predominantly card-based payment. So, I had to head to an ATM to obtain Euros, as I had not brought any along with me. I took out 100 in Euros, which turned out to be about 110 USD. Luckily, I managed that money perfectly from there, as I was left with mere cents at the conclusion of the trip. The final major challenge I faced was figuring out the transportation system. We utilized public transportation throughout the trip (and it was very good by the way), and I was often fine when I was with the other students. However, when I went to the electronics store to buy that adapter, I almost got lost on the trolley system! I was looking around for the right train for around twenty minutes, but I eventually found one and made it back to the hotel in time. After that point, I came to understand the system fairly well throughout the rest of the trip, and it was smooth sailing. Overall, the first few days of the trip were fairly stressful due to all of these concerns that were swirling around in my mind. However, the trip was extremely fun at the end of the day, and I would do it all again in a heartbeat.
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