I had an amazing time traveling around Europe for 10 days learning about business, trying new foods, and making memories with my new friends! This trip truly allowed me to see how the business culture and local lifestyle differs so greatly from what it is in the United States. I had envisioned this to be a relaxing and enlightening trip, but once I got there I realized how fast-paced everything was. I was surprised by how the work culture seemed more laid back but on the streets, locals were always rushing to get to places. We were brought into the tempo of speed walking everywhere and getting on and off the metro as quickly as possible. I believe seeing this showed me how the Europeans enjoy a high standard of living just by leading more eventful days. At least on a personal level, I spend most of my days inactive inside, and having public transportation makes me constantly moving and also gives us the option to easily visit places. Specifically in Paris, my group was able to visit the Catacombs, Sainte Chapelle, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Louvre, Tuileries Garden, and more in just one day! I thought it was incredible how simple it was to hop on a train and within minutes, we were at our next destination. Aside from transportation, I was also surprised by how diverse the countries we went to actually are, and as a bilingual, I realized the actual importance of being able to speak in multiple languages. I have always been told that knowing Chinese as a business student was advantageous, but I never truly understood the scope of it until this trip. I honestly just expected to see Caucasians, and I was astonished that we were greeted by two Asians at our first company visit. I got to speak to our tour guide for a bit and we were able to connect right away since we were both far away from home but had our language to connect us to each other. Even in the subway or train station, some people from China would also approach me to ask questions. English is already pretty universal, and we saw that we could basically get through the whole trip without knowing much French or German at all; however, it was interesting to see I could interact with others on another level due to my language skills.
