Through this 5 week study abroad experience, I have grown as an individual. I learned about cultures other than my own, met new people, and learned I can deal with new challenges on my own. In many of the classes I have taken at TAMU, I have learned about different cultures and how important it is to understand and respect them; this trip has allowed me to apply this knowledge and become more diverse in my understanding. One aspect of our trip was going to different businesses in Germany. Germans are punctual, yet casual, in their businesses. Most of the time we showed up in business slacks and a nice shirt, while the CEO of a company showed up in jeans. That was a change because business CEOs would typically show up in a suit back in the US. Germany has lots of business successes and it was nice to see that even the start-up company visits were doing well. It shows that it is possible to start from nothing to become successful.
Germany is very diverse even in its own country. We went to Munich and Berlin and both were different experiences. Munich was more traditional looking down to the people and the buildings, while Berlin was more modernized and the people were diverse. Out of the two cities I preferred Munich because there was less going on and more peaceful. Berlin was more of a city like Austin as there were people everywhere and tall buildings. I did however like the graffiti in the city of Berlin. It was a sign of expression of the people. In the US that would be considered vandalizing the walls. Berlin has a hard history of loss and they are still trying to rebuild and become the city it once was before the Soviet Union. The tragedy is still seen across Berlin. There are nice parts of the city and the east side has not caught up to what it once was. There are even differences in the train stations. Traveling through cities was challenging but after a few wrong train stops, we got the hang of it.
Overall the experience was amazing. I got to meet new people on my trip who I have definitely gotten close to. I was originally anxious to go on this trip because I did not know how I was going to adapt to a new country I have never been to before. The anxiousness faded away as I got to understand the cultures and live like a German for 5 weeks.
