This May I had the opportunity to travel to Germany with the business school. I was very nervous to go because I did not know anyone else on the trip. I had previously done a study abroad at my community college and has a wonderful time, but I was still nervous again! I met two people from my class at the airport and we got along really well. I am still friends with the people I met in my previous study abroad as well as the ones I met in Germany. Once I had a couple friends, my anxieties went away and I decided it was time to have a good trip.
The class I took was called International Business Experience: Germany. This study abroad was geared towards my future career as well as my current major. I want to work internationally and this was the perfect opportunity to learn about a different countries’ business operations. We visited many businesses where they told us how they do business as well as the differences between a German company and an American one. It was interesting to learn a little about the German car business because German cars are usually known as luxurious and high quality. I am not sure if I personally would want to live there and work there but it is definitely an option. Through this experience I learned about international business practices as well as made some business connections with the businesses and with other students.
We first went to Berlin which was probably my least favorite location. I enjoyed it but we went to other places that I liked better. Berlin was very similar to America in my opinion, I felt as if I was in a city in America. We took a day trip while in Berlin to Potsdam, that was my favorite location of the trip. It was a quaint little town that had lots of beautiful nature. They had a sort of custom where they would lay out by the lake naked! It was a bit of a shock to me and my classmates. A couple classmates and I tried Flammkuchen which is sort of like pizza. It was delicious and probably my favorite meal of the entire trip. There are a lot of cathedrals in Germany so we visited at least one in every place we visited.
Wolfsburg was also a great place. It is the city that Volkswagen is headquartered. We went to a fair there where we rode the ferris wheel. After Wolfsburg we went to Cologne. It was a beautiful city with an amazing cathedral. Cologne was my second favorite location we visited. While visiting Cologne I really felt like we were in Germany and I loved the atmosphere. The cathedral tours were very interesting and the tour guides were very detailed in their explanations.
Throughout this trip, I met new friends as well as learned about business. I am glad I mustered up the courage to go on another study abroad trip and got to experience all of these things with other students at my university.
Lexi Sigmon (BS Marketing) spent spent part of May 2023 participating in a faculty-led trip to Germany through the Rollins College of Business. Lexi had the following to say about studying abroad, “Study abroad is the perfect opportunity to learn as well as meet new friends with similar interests.“
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