Category: Germany

Where I had grown up, it was a small town. Not too exciting. Literally nothing ever happened there and (“vfdbggbevfenr” typed by Jeremy) nothing probably ever will. Everything is a 15-30 minute drive away and there is one grocery store. Reallllllly small.
When I moved to Akron for school I thought that was a ‘big’ city. I loved it though because things were within semi walking distance. Want Chinese food? Boom, Panda. Want Mexican? Boom, Chipotle. Want a thin crust pizza to your order? Boom, Pizza Fire. YES! Now I understand that you may be like “but Emily, you only quoted food.” Yeah, I did. Who doesn’t love food and I didn’t get to where I am without it!
Anyway.

When we got to Augsburg I seriously cannot emphasize enough how much I fell in love. It’s like living in a mall with anything you could need. There is a grocery store across the street, food EVERYWHERE and clothing stores just about anywhere you could go. It’s also hard to get lost. I could see myself living here and honestly if it wasn’t for me being a broke college student and my family being so amazing I would probably just… Stay here.
Now, I love America. Don’t be like “AH! SHE HATES THE USA NOW” *Fire and pitchforks* I would never say I wouldn’t BUT let me just list some of the things that I really admire about Germany so far:

1. The Eco-Friendly promotion.
They have bio-fuel farms and solar panels EVERYWHERE. And don’t get me started on recycling.
This is great. Recycling is everywhere and is encouraged; It’s actually super easy to do, too. Whereas in the USA you have to hunt for a recycling bin IF they even have one, and even then you may just get too annoyed and just throw it in the trash. Also you get rewarded for it too! If you have plastic bottles and go to this machine, you scan your bottles and it gives you a ticket of .25Euro per bottle. When you go shopping, the value of the ticket will be taken off your grocery bill. It’s legit.

2. Public Transportation.
America is built for cars. If you don’t have one, you can’t really get anywhere. It’s that simple.
In Germany, You could live your life without having a car and still get anywhere. Everything is within walking distance, and if not they have a train and tram system that is honestly stereotypically punctual and fantastic.
And the trains are fast. Now I know snapchat is not really an accurate way to calculate speed, BUT when traveling to Munich, my snapchat filter said we were going 140 MPH.
Anyway, the public transportation here is on point.

3. Taxes and Tipping
Seriously, the U.S. needs to get its life together. In Germany, you don’t have to tip because waiters and waitresses have a NORMAL WAGE. It’s not uncommon to just round up to the next euro for a tip, but forget about 15-20%.
ALSO.
WHY.
WHY DON’T WE HAVE TAXES JUST INCLUDED IN THE PRICE OF STUFF?
Now I realize how dumb it is to not have the taxes not included in the price of the actual product. Have you ever walked to the store and been like, a nickel short? Story of my life. But here, you don’t have that. The price you see is the price you pay, and that is so nice.

(Just a little fun fact: I did my laundry at 6A and I had to bring my semi dry laundry to class in two grocery bags. Be more prepared than me for the love of God.)

I can sum up my traveling experience in one word:
Cars
If it didn’t have four wheels the family didn’t go and it greatly limited our range of travel. It was no fault of anyone’s except unmatching schedules, expenses, and genetic anxiety, but I digress.
Ever since I was a child I have always wanted to study abroad and it was my dream. And if I would have told myself a year ago that I was doing this, I wouldn’t believe it; but here I am, in Germany, standing out as the American I am and I am LOVING IT.
I should start the journey from the very very beginning, so if you’re not into origins, go ahead and skip to the lil * later on.
So how I found out about the trip in general is the most drive-by thing that has ever happened to me. I literally saw the TVs in the CBA advertising it. I took a picture of the ad and moved on. Thinking that this trip would be popping, I showed up to the information session early and it turned out that I was the only one that showed up. It was like my own personal information session! Regardless, I took the information to my parents and with their blessings and half of my life savings, I was ready for the trip.
So, I’ve never been on a plane. Kind of uncommon for someone who is 20 but, eh, whatever. Thankfully my parents didn’t cry so I didn’t cry, but my brother. Like all siblings, we pretend to not give two flying fadoodles about each other, but when I wake him up he hugs me and says “Be careful Em.” In a if-anything-happened-I-don’t-know-what-I’d-do way; and that, of all things almost made me cry.
*As we got on the plane I psyched myself into it. Thinking “Thousands of people do this daily, you’ll be cool,” and you know what? I thought flying was AWESOME. I was lucky enough that on the flight to Philly I had a window seat and I fell in love. You really realize how small we are and how HUGE the world is. The flight was really bumpy and thank God I had my seat belt on because I would have flown right out of my seat! A lot of people that were traveling with us said that was the worst flight they have ever been on; I didn’t even think it was that bad!
What sucked though is that on the flight from Philly to Munich I could not sleep at all. The nice thing is that I was able to see out of the window of a guy who left his seat (thankfully) and I could see Ireland out the window in the wee hours of the morning.
Also the beautiful thing about traveling on those huge planes is that they’re very gentle. You rarely have turbulence and landing is a cakewalk. It really was nothing.
I won’t keep anyone too long on this one post but, I will tell you about my first days very soon!
Tschuss! (Goodbye!)

Next stop Germany! UA students on the study abroad trip led by Dr. Mahesh Srinivasan, an associate professor of management, are seen here at the airport and ready to begin their four-week adventure of taking classes and learning more about their host country.