Pre-departure Questions

My international experience to date is:
After my freshman year in high school (late June to early July 2004) I traveled with the German department to Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (with a quick stop through Lichtenstein). The trip was through EF Tours and was a site seeing trip. We flew into Frankfurt, and from there visited numerous cities, including Munich, Vienna, Salzburg, Bern, Innsbruck, and my personal favorite, Lucherne (my family helped to found the city around 800 A.D., I'm told).

I want to go to Germany because:
I want to go to Germany for a few reasons. First, I like to travel, and Germany is a great place to see, again and again. Second, and probably most importantly, I've studied German since 7th grade, so I feel pretty connected with Germany. I've only been there once before, and at that point my German was not good at all (though I can't say it's overly good now.) Regardless, I want to go to Germany and at least get a little bit of real practice. Third, I'm a little bit in love with BMWs, and over the course of these two weeks, I'm going to see more BMWs than I ever have before.

I think I will see the following:
While I'm in Germany, I think I will see a few things. First, we will be doing a lot of site seeing, which is always fascinating. Though I've seen a lot of German sites (Neuschwanstein, Dachau), it will still be really interesting and rewarding to see them again. Second, on the site visits, I think I will see modern, economical businesses that really exemplify the coming together of business and engineering. Third, in my down time I think I will see a part of Germany that I have never seen before, which is the day to day life of Germans, which our German counterparts will be sure to show us.

I think the main differences I will see will be:
I think the main differences I will see will be in the culture of Germans versus Americans. During the site visits we will get to see how Germans run businesses, which will be different from how Americans run businesses and business meetings. I will also get to see how the Germans have mass transit set up, which will be an interesting and different experience. Before coming to Pitt, I was never around public transportation, so even the Port Authority system fascinates me, but the Germans seem to set up mass transportation on a much larger scale. I will also see a difference in food. The German cuisine we eat will probably be very meat and potato heavy, which is very different from some of the standard dinners we have here in America.

I think the students I meet in my country will be:
I think that the students who I meet in Germany will be very friendly and down to earth people. From what I have heard from groups in the past, the German students are friendly and enjoy showing us around the city, which is always a good thing. I'm hoping that they will like sports and that we can set up a pick up game of soccer between us and them, but that's just a hope.

I predict I will be surprised to find:
While I cannot predict what I will be surprised about (The statement is kind of an oxymoron because then I wouldn't be surprised if I knew it was coming), I might be able to come up with a thing or two. I know from my previous trip to Germany, I was very surprised to find that everyone spoke English, and they spoke it well. Therefore, it would be surprising, but totally realistic, for them to know about American current events (i.e. the election), and want to talk to us Americans about these events.

I think the major differences in living conditions will be:
While even the most basic hotels in America have TVs, bathrooms, and coffee makers, I have heard that the hotel we are staying in is very basic, so I doubt there will be anything extravagant like TVs or coffee makers.

Anything else you want to say:
I am really looking forward to heading over to Germany for the second time, though I am positive not the last. I'm looking forward to seeing the businesses and getting to take site tours, and I am really hoping we can get a soccer game going with the Germans.