Author Archives: jln232

Homeward Bound

I’m back! A group of people and I flew from Frankfurt to JFK last weekend. I would like to take a moment and thank all of the young men in the group who hoisted the girls’ incredibly heavy luggage on and off trains on the way to Frankfurt. Anyway, we spent the night in the airport, and we were the first to check our luggage for our 8:30 AM flight the next morning. We had to wait for security to open, but we met some guys from Virginia Tech in line. Like us, they had a wonderful trip, but they were ready to go home. We all agreed that we missed air conditioning and ice in our drinks as well as cheap and free water. 

    Of course, I got all ruffled going through security and stuff, and when I boarded the plane, I couldn’t find my boarding pass. Fortunately, I knew my seat. It was still a bit of a painful struggle to get there because my backpack and my new huge Berlin purse were so stuffed with delicate souvenirs that I couldn’t fit in my suitcase. The flight was long and painful, and I couldn’t figure out how to work the remote so that I could watch movies. Luckily for me though, a few very nice gentlemen helped me stow my backpack in the luggage compartments and get it down.
    Since we were the first to check our luggage, we were the last to get it back, so we waited about 45 minutes for that. However, customs was quick, and I walked straight into my waiting father’s arms, although my hands were holding things so I couldn’t return the hug. There wasn’t even too much traffic, and I fell asleep fairly quickly in the car (I hadn’t slept in the airport). Soon, I was hugging my mother, unpacking, and handing out presents. It felt so good to be home.

Location: Frankfurt, JFK, and Scranton, PA

The Best Place to Live

What’s up? So the best place to live was actually recently voted to be Vienna, which I did not visit. However, before Vienna, it was Zurich, and I spent two and a half days there. I went with friends and we must have been staying in the Italian section because most people spoke Italian, and they had really nice Italian restaurants. We did tour the city though, which was amazing. They even showed us Tina Turner’s former house and this amazing (and expensive) castle of a hotel that overlooks the city with its own golf course. Lake Zurich was also pretty beautiful (and cold), but there were families of swans swimming along that just made it look so elegant and peaceful. It was wonderful, but the city is expensive. Like Germany, stores also close on Sundays, which is very inconvenient. The most interesting thing I noted was how discreet the people are. I guess that is why Switzerland’s banking system is so successful. 

    The last week of our visit, we went to Berlin. Berlin had amazing shopping and an incredible history. You could see the bunker where Hitler spent his last days, the Holocaust memorial, and the Berlin Wall. We visited Checkpoint Charlie (the gate b/t Eastern and Western Berlin) and its museum. You can find books with the names of people arrested by the Soviets (everyone with German heritage looked for their family’s name) and read the stories of incredibly heroic escapes from East Germany. Some of the stories are so heartwrenching that I almost cried. Parts of the Berlin Wall are still standing, and you can observe the difference between West and East Berlin with the lack of construction and maintenance spent on buildings in East Berlin. 
    We also took a train a little while out of Berlin to visit the city of Potsdam. In this city, Churchill, Truman, and Stalin divided Germany and Europe. There are different sections of the city with architecture from different countries (Dutch, French, etc.) which stem from periods of immigration (often due to religious persecution). There are also grand, colorful, and beautiful castles left from monarchs of the past. You can even see the  place where Churchill, Truman, and Stalin met (it has beautiful gardens- including a red Soviet star where Churchill had to walk every day- Stalin arranged that) and the former KGB prison. The entire visit was unforgettable. 

Location: Berlin and Potsdam

Castles, Spas, and the European Parliament

Hi! We’ve been so busy. We visited the town of Heidelberg and the castle that overlooks it! It’s beautiful. It looks a lot different from Neuschwanstein, but if you ever picture a haunted, crumbling, European castle with a moat, you picture Heidelberg. We took a trolley up the castle and wandered around the incredible architecture, the intricate carving, and the literally collapsing towers. The view of the town with the river running through it was really lovely too. I ran into another PSU alum who recognized my PSU purse too. He was working in Hungary and vacationing in Germany with his wife. We had a nice little chat. You really can find us anywhere. We also found an organic food shop with this amazing garlic mix to put on bread in the small picturesque town (Father’s Day present for my Italian bread-loving father). 

    Perhaps my favorite field trip of the program was our stop in Baden Baden (literally “bath bath”). The town is the home to ancient spas which the Romans thought had magical healing powers. We spent a few hours relaxing in the warm water and getting pampered. Some of the boys opted to do the naked spa, which had 17 steps to total relaxation and rejuvenation. Normally, they don’t separate the sexes, but they do every Thursday (the day we visited). One major difference between the U.S. and Europe: public modesty. The town also hosted a casino (really really nice), which has hosted international state events, attended by Pres. Obama and Angela Merkel (the German chancellor). 
    We also visited the French town of Strasbourg (it actually has a long history of swapping countries, especially between Germany and France, and is the perfect mix of German and French culture, which is why it was chosen as the site of the Parliament), which is home to the European Parliament. Unfortunately, during our tour, there was a fire drill, so we met with a member of Parliament outside while we waited for the building to be cleared (it felt a little like when the fire alarm went off in my dorm the morning after Thon in the snow)…
    In the afternoon, we took a boat tour of the town, which is really lush and beautiful. It seems like such a peaceful place. If I ever move to Europe, I’m getting a house in Strasbourg. Anyway, as the French say, Au revoir!

Location: Heidelberg, Baden-Baden, and Strasbourg

Colors and Crowns

Hey! So last weekend was a German holiday, so we had a four day break. While some people went to Barcelona, I visited Prague in the Czech Republic with seven or eight of the guys. It was about a seven hour train and bus trip, and we got there at night. When we arrived, I was surprised to discover that the Czech Republic doesn’t use the euro. They have their own currency, the crown (17 crowns to 1 dollar). You can imagine how excited we all were to withdraw 1,000 or 2,000 crowns from the ATM in the train station. 

    Anyway, we were staying the the Mosaic House, a really nice hostel right in the middle of the city. When we got there, we were greeted by one of the boy’s older sister who came to visit him for the weekend (so cute!). Anyway, we spent two days in the city. Each morning I got up early to wander the streets and find food and shopping. The city was so amazing! The architecture was similar but the buildings were so much more colorful! There were also fewer tourists than in places like Paris. There were people from all over too! I met people from Macedonia, Russia, and Germany. In my hostel room alone, there was a girl from Belarus, a girl from Nevada, two girls from Australia, and three guys from Austria. The whole city was so fantastic, from the landscape to the history of WWII and Soviet occupation. If I ever get the chance to return to one place that I’ve visited in Europe, it’s going to be here!

Location: the Czech Republic

Disney and PSU alum

Munich was amazing! The thing I love the most about Europe is the architecture. Even the most simple, modern building has a beautiful, old-fashioned outline. However, the architecture may be different, but the so much is the same. They even have H and M and even McDonalds, and we ran into a PSU alum who identified us by our PSU garb on the streets of Munich. There is so much to do and see between all of the stores and restaurants and activities. We visited the Olympic Stadium, and you can zip-line across the field. On a more sober note, we saw the hotel and memorial for the Israeli athletes who were taken prisoner there during the 1972 Olympics.

On our way home from Munich, we stopped at Neuschwanstein, the castle that inspired the famous Disney castle. There are actually two castles there; one built in the mountains on either side of this small, mountain valley town. It was quite a hike up to the castle, but the views were amazing. You could go past the castle and take a picture on the bridge over the canyon next to the castle, or hike down to the river at the bottom of the canyon. The pictures don’t even look real; that’s how beautiful the backgrounds are. 
The day after we returned, Sunday, there was a hike planned in the Black Forest. However, due to weather concerns, the plan was changed to a visit to Ludwigsburg. The castle in this town wasn’t nearly as grand as Neuschwanstein, but the gardens were beautiful. We went with other international students too from all over the world. I met people from France, Bulgaria, Mexico, Lithuania, Poland, and Iran. They all spoke to each other in English (the universal language they said), and they were so nice. It’s really cool getting to know people from all over. We have a lot in common: same movies, clothes, and books and they all shake your hand so that you don’t even notice some differences (like the French kiss one another as a greeting) or the way everyone stands a little closer when they talk. It was a lot of fun. Anyway, ciao for now (not German but people use it in the south of Germany close to Italy)!

Location: Pforzheim, Munich, and Neuschwanstein

Pforzheim, Germany

Hi! My name is Julia Neyhart, and I just wrapped up my freshman year at Penn State University Park. I’m double majoring in finance and economics, and I want to minor in international business and Spanish. I was born and raised in Clarks Summit, a small town outside the city of Scranton, Pennsylvania (does anyone watch The Office?). I have one older sister who studies chemcial engineering at the University of Michigan (I still love her) and two dogs, Corky and Honey, who I love to distraction. 

I’ve always known that I want to travel as much as possible during college (you have to do your traveling while your parents are still paying). Over spring break, I went to the San Blas Islands off the coast of Panama with the Global Business Brigades, and this summer, I am going to study business for six weeks at Pforzheim University in Pforzheim, Germany, a small town in southwestern Germany with about 120,000 people. I don’t know any of the 19 other Penn Staters going on the trip although we have chatted a little on Facebook. Everyone I’ve talked to about this program says that it is a great experience to have fun, travel, and learn a lot about business and economics in the EU. With all of the controversy happening right now in Greece, Ireland, and Portugal (and Spain?), I think studying European economics in the EU will be a once in a lifetime experience! Tschuss!

Location: Scranton, Pennsylvania

Paris and Doors

Hi! So I went to Paris last weekend with three of the other girls on the program. It was so beautiful, and it was only three hours by train. We left really early on Saturday morning, but we had to come back Sunday afternoon so we only had about a day. Paris is so amazing though. Our hotel room was on the 24th floor and our windows looked directly out at the Eiffel Tower. It was incredible, especially when the Tower lit up at night. We also did a sightseeing tour on the Seine River. We saw the Louvre, Notre Dame, and Champs d’Elysees, but we didn’t have time to explore anything, which was a little frustrating. However, I’m so glad that we went.
Anyway, back to daily life here in Pforzheim. Every morning we wake up, get ready, and go to class. There are little clothing stores, pharmacies, and bakeries everywhere, so we normally get breakfast from a bakery and eat it while waiting for the bus. The bus is free for students (or its built into our tuition, I’m not sure which). Then we go to class for most of the day and come back to the hostel and sleep, shower, shop, run errands, or study.
For the most part, university life here is very similar to Penn State. The differences that I notice are small. For instance, the doors are strange. While in the U.S. doors that you push to open have a bar or something, here everything has a handle. I’ve looked like an idiot a few times pulling on doors that you have to push. However, most push doors have signs that say push. In German (drucken in case you were wondering). It takes a little while to figure that out. The locks are also different. For many of them, you open the door by turning the key to a certain point and holding it there, not by pushing it all the way around until it clicks. I don’t understand it either.
Germans are also a lot more green than Americans. You can return bottles to the place of purchase and be refunded fifteen or twenty cents for recycling. They have these special machines that collect the bottles that are kind of cool as well.
Another thing that I like here are the dogs. You see so many more people just walking along with their dogs here. Pets are welcome almost anywhere, including trains. Personally, I have to think highly of a culture that values man’s best friend!


Location: Pforzheim

Arrival!

I’m here! I flew out of JFK with about nine other people who will be in the program with me. We left on a Friday night and arrived on a Saturday afternoon (the time change is really confusing). We landed in Frankfurt, and we had to take trains to Pforzheim. They offered us a group deal, nine euros for three train changes. Naturally, we took it, and after six hours and getting lost twice, we arrived in Pforzheim. As we were trying to follow the map to the hostel, our tutor, Sarah found us. She took us to the hostel and out to eat at an Italian restaurant. The hostel seems nice. It’s probably cleaner than the dorms at PSU. My roommate arrived while we were out at dinner, and she seems really cool. I think flying at night was smart because after dinner, we were all so tired that we just passed out. I think we have successfully evaded jet lag.

    The next night, we ate dinner with our international buddies (German students studying international business) and the professors in charge of the program (Prof. Wentzel, Sabine Schnabel, and a grad student from Croatia) and Prof. Wentzel’s children. Everyone was so nice and welcoming. After dinner, the buddies took us out to the Irish Pub.
    We started classes the next day, and they were really interesting. We had European Economics and Integration and German class. The first one was really interesting to me. The second one was really difficult to understand. After class, we went a little past Pforzheim University into the Black Forest where we did a really intense ropes course. It was so much fun though! It even incorporated rock climbing and there was this really long, awesome zip line. Around the course, there was something similar to a small zoo. 
    Anyway, we have class for the rest of the week, but we are going to Munich this weekend! I can’t wait! Ciao! (yes, I know that’s Italian but a lot of people use it so say goodbye here)

Location: Pforzheim, Germany