This month was a little more hectic than the last few ones. I did a summer school program through Hohenheim, which counted as a class, but it was quite the load. In a good way. This month was also exam period, so I had a few things going on. I was on campus for most of July!
This summer program was really great though. We had lectures every morning, and depending on the schedule we either had another lecture in the afternoon or we got to tour some firm in the Stuttgart area. This was such an awesome opportunity to see first hand how?german businesses work. We visited a few start up firms, the porsche factory, the Stuttgart Stock Exchange, the European Patent Office, and the biotech industry in Heidelberg.?My favorite places were the stock exchange, the patent office, and the Porsche factory. We got to do a simulation at the stock exchange, which I thought was great. We traded stocks as if we were the market leaders-it actually helped me understand how that type of stuff works now! Or at least a better feel for it. These are just things that I would never be able to do if it weren’t for this program. Our lecturers were also great and extremely knowledgeable; this year was focused on innovation and start ups, so it was nice to learn about something totally new. I’m not very interested in that kind of stuff, but it’s nice now to have some background now in those topics.
While in Munich, we visited the Nymphenburg Palace and Dachau. Dachau was unbelievable. I got this weird feeling-it’s absolutely morbid but you’re just sort of amazaed/shocked at the same time. It’s chilling being in the exact same place where such horrific things happened. We also went to Tuebingen one day. This town is also so cute! Very similar to Esslingen in my opinion. Very traditional-cute old houses, cobble stone streets, wood everywhere. The river also runs through the town! They also have markets on Saturdays with fresh foods-it’s delicious! ?Our last day we celebrated with a wine tour in a vineyard nearby in Fellbach! It was so cute. We visited a little wine cellar, and the owner took us through the vineyard and gave a few of the local wines. I couldn’t really understand what they said, but all the wines were delicious! It was a nice way to end the semester and exams.
Besides the summer program, I still had to study for my exams. It was the same old same old, but it was kind of cool studying in a palace. The library was beautiful actually-but no AC. I still don’t get that! It gets miserable and stuffy very quick when there is no AC. Another thing I will never get use to!
