Month: October 2024

Greetings Everyone!

I had an interesting experience getting to Germany, it was simultaneously exciting and yet boring at the same time. During the entirety of my long travel day from Seattle to Frankfurt, I kept thinking about the excursions that I had taken in the last ten years, which ultimately weren’t very many in retrospect. I was reflecting on my few domestic journeys and even fewer international ones and comparing how I was feeling between each, to the program I was currently on. Normally the anticipation of a journey hits the week leading up to a trek, but this time it was different, causing even more nerves. For some reason every time I travel, whether it’s domestic or international, I feel this unusual anxiousness before I depart. I didn’t have that feeling before leaving for Germany even the morning of, which made me uneasy for a different reason. The idea that I’m embarking on this new journey and I’m not nervous about it like I normally would be, gave me this odd feeling which I didn’t particularly like. Ultimately, I wasn’t anxious; more nervous that I wasn’t nervous.

As mentioned before, it was exciting and dull at the same time. Thankfully my dad was traveling with me, to help me settle into my new environment. Had he not come with me, I probably would have been curled up in a ball rocking back and forth. Not only being a much more experienced traveler, having to fly to the office every week to Anchorage, Alaska for probably ten years, but he more importantly brings a calming and reassuring nature that is beneficial for travel.

It was one of those days when everything was going fine, but slightly off the rails. Once we finally checked our bags and went through security, it ended up being more complicated than we had anticipated. We finally made it to the gate and then onto the plane. The flight from Seattle to Amsterdam was surprisingly painless, which is always what you want for a flight. The food was respectable, leaning more towards good than bad. I don’t usually happen to be averse to plane food, especially on international flights. I spent some of the time thinking and browsing through the immense movie and TV options, watching a couple that I hadn’t seen yet. It was peaceful, the calm before the storm.

Where it became complicated was the transfer from Amsterdam to Frankfurt. Entering into the EU, we had to go through passport control, which raised our heartbeats quite a bit. We all had to wait in this long line that formed and the longer we were waiting in line, the more of them seemed to appear out of nowhere. It was absolute, utter chaos. It was baffling the inability of these grown adults to follow simple instructions, there was one main line for everyone, and a second for EU passport holders. The number of people that got into the shorter line, specifically designed for EU residents, not realizing what it was until it was a little too late was extremely frustrating. To some people’s credit, they did go to the back of the line, but most either cut into the longer line or just created their own line.

By the time that we were all funneled into a single file line, there were probably six different lines. As juvenile as it sounds to complain about something as adolescent as line cutting, for over an hour that we were standing there, it made me genuinely contemplate the mindset of people in a stressful environment and their ability to adapt to a situation doesn’t have overly clear instructions. It’s stressful just thinking about it after the fact. After finally getting through the passport control, we made it to our gate to our second from the last connection to Nürtingen. The flight from Amsterdam to Germany was beautifully uneventful; unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the train journey. The train was confusing for people unfamiliar with German train travel and didn’t speak German. After somewhat figuring it out, and not having to transfer from one train to another a couple of times, we were finally able to rest until we arrived at Nürtingen.

Although we arrived late and following a tiring journey, we could tell it was a beautiful and charming little town. We were both excited to explore the small town, but probably more excited to finally be in one spot and rest!

Beautiful view from flight to Amsterdam

View from flight from Seattle to Amsterdam

Stadtkirche St. Laurentius, right outside apartment in Nürtingen

Greetings everyone!

My name is Mei Wilson. I am currently a junior at Linfield University studying accounting and international business. I will be embarking on a new academic journey in Nürtingen, Germany at Nürtingen-Geislingen University, NGU or HFWU, as they refer to it, Hochschule Für Wirtschaft und Umwelt Nürtingen-Geislingen. It did confuse me when I first started the process of applying and registering, as they very rarely refer to it as NGU like we do at Linfield, preferring the latter name, which after some light research, translates to Nürtingen-Geislingen University of Applied Sciences for Economy and Environment, which makes sense. There are two campuses, one in Nürtingen and the other in Geislingen. Each campus has its focus of study. The Nürtingen campus concentrates predominantly on economics and business with a particular emphasis on sustainability and the Geislingen campus delves more into humanities.

In my two years at Linfield so far, I have focused on the business core and accounting requirements, and this is the first step in working towards my international business degree. I am excited to look into some of the courses that I have already done at Lindfield with a different perspective. I tried to pick classes that would, not only help with my degree requirements but also help me gain that additional outlook. The specific courses that the university offers for exchange students are a bit more restricted in their options than the ones offered to their students, but they do have a good range of subjects including:

• Accounting and Finance
• Management, Innovation, and Sustainability
• Marketing
• Economics
• International Business and Management
• German Society and Culture
• Business English
• Landscape Architecture
• Real Estate Management

Within those subjects, I was able to select what I hope are interesting courses. Two of them are subjects that I have already completed at Linfield and the other two are ones that a brand new to me. Applied International Economics and Marketing and Sustainability are the classes that I have some familiarity with, but they both have aspects that I have not studied specifically the international and sustainability aspects. The other courses, Cross-Cultural Experience and Strategic Management in an International Context, are going to be new and interesting.

I cannot wait to embark on my trip, and I look forward to what new experience it will bring!