I can actually prove that, because earlier this week my classmates and I were stuck in traffic for over an hour and a half, and that most certainly did not go by quickly. That’s a story for a little bit down the page.
This past week was exceptional. Exceptionally busy. Parts were boring, and parts were very exciting, but overall it was busy.
On Monday, I sat through a lecture on luxury brand management, where I learned how managing a luxury brand is surprisingly different than managing literally anything else, and where I also learned that I don’t wish to be around any sort of luxury brands, ever. The lecture made me a little upset with the world for creating an industry worth more than Apple, comprised of useless items priced in the thousands (or millions.) But, I digress.
On Tuesday, my favorite lecture of the entire two-week class went a little bit over time and I didn’t mind one bit. We were talking about competition in Europe, and how non-European companies compete with companies that are at home within the EU. It was extremely interesting, because for nearly the entire lecture we talked about a case study: Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart tried entering Germany, and their try lasted for about ten years before they left the market with over two billion dollars in losses, which was a stark difference from the invincible Wal-Mart we talk about in every business class in Fayetteville.
After the lecture, we took off for a company visit to the largest steel-packaging producer in the world. Steel-packaging sounded exciting, and the “biggest producer in the world” had my interest, but let me tell you, I was wrong. On the tour (and in the hour-long lecture we had prior) I learned more about steel manufacturing than I’ve ever desired. By the end of our visit, all of us were more than ready to take off our hard hats and hair nets, climb into the bus, and hurry home.
Wednesday, our lecture was over climate change and sustainability, which had interesting parts and important pieces but overall was a little more boring than the rest. The exciting part of Wednesday was our visit to the castle Marksburg, about a half hour outside of Vallendar. It was absolutely beautiful. Marksburg is the only castle in Germany that’s never been destroyed or captured, but was always peacefully passed down or given away. We were able to see all of the rooms vital to the castle, such as the main bedroom, the stone kitchen, and of course, the weapon-filled torture room. The castle was on a hill overlooking both the Rhine River and a small town, offering beautiful views no matter where you looked.
An hour into the standstill traffic, people were climbing out of their cars and asking to use the in-bus bathroom. Having strangers climb onto the bus, shuffle down the aisle, and cut off the students waiting in line for the one-person bathroom sure is interesting. One of my classmates remembered she had Heads Up on her phone, so the next half-hour was passed guessing movies and animals. An hour and forty minutes into the traffic, we finally started moving.
On Thursday, we had our finance lecture, which was extremely interesting because it was all about comparing Anglo-Saxon financial systems to those of Continental Europe. However, finance was the last thing on all of our minds; our group presentations, worth half of our grade, were that afternoon.
My group was presenting on business attractiveness in the Netherlands, which meant I knew more about the Netherlands than the average Dutch person (we had practiced quite a few times, mostly out of nervousness.) After the lecture was over, presentations began and my group was selected to go third.
We survived.
To celebrate the finale of presentations, some of my friends and I left Vallendar for Koblenz, the nearest city, for dinner. After exploring for a minute, we settled on a Mexican restaurant for two reasons: first, because we were interested in German Mexican, and second, because our Canadian friend had never had Mexican at all. Ironically, it was the best Mexican food I’ve ever had in my entire life.
Friday morning was spent studying for the test that would come later that afternoon, comprising the other half of our grades. Despite being in school for only two weeks, we had taken a substantial amount of notes- I had over twenty handwritten pages- so studying kept us busy. I packed two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, wrapped in paper towels and rubber bands, so that I could study even longer.
The test was tough, but it went well. It covered everything we had learned from day one, but thankfully, nearly all of it had been very interesting. Afterwards, we all left to go pack a bit before our final group excursion: our farewell dinner.
The dinner, held in a traditional German restaurant outside of Koblenz, was a fancy occasion. I was unaware of this, so I went in tennis shoes and a t-shirt. My buddy went in athletic shorts, also unaware of the dress code, so we sat next to each other in hopes that we wouldn’t be heckled if we were a part of a group.
I ordered a beer because it was my last night in the region, and could only drink half of it before passing it off to another friend. It all tastes like medicine to me; apparently German medicine is really good. The food came on a giant platter on a heated brick, enough food for four people with leftovers. It included six different types of meat (no worries, I had all six on my first plate,) as well as corn, potatoes, noodles, beans, and a giant head of lettuce. I’ll bet you can guess which one of the foods we left on the platter.
To walk off the giant caloric intake we had just endured, we went for a walk by the river and took pictures as a big group. We realized that we had only just started becoming truly good friends, and that it was a shame to be leaving after establishing all of these relationships.
To prolong any goodbyes, we all got one last ice cream cone when we returned to Vallendar.
These two weeks went by faster than I ever thought possible, and I learned more than I learned all last semester. I made some incredible friendships and got to see some extremely cool sights. It was an awesome two weeks, and I’m so grateful to have gotten to go. I thank God for all that happened these last few weeks, and I praise Him because He kept me so safe, healthy, and adventurous. He was written all over my time in Vallendar, and I hope He’ll be written all over the rest of this adventure, as well.
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Follow Hunter as he studies business in Germany at https://heartoverseas.wordpress.com/
For more internship and study abroad opportunities within Walton College, visit http://walton.uark.edu/global/index.ph
