Day 6

May 20th-

Thursday was spent visiting Red Hat and then Intel. Being that Intel was the company that I did my pre- trip assignment on, I was disappointed that our speaker didn't talk more about the infotainment system that they contribute their Atom chip to. When studying and researching the Munich Open Lab of Intel, they made a large deal about the infotainment system yet at our company visit our speaker made it seem like small potatoes for them.

After our two visits of the day, we got to go on a tour of the BMW plant and watch how the cars are made. It is almost all robotic, very cool to watch. We then got to walk around and look at some of the different models...the GT, the M6....yeah I want a BMW. Haha.

The week was quickly coming to an end. Only one more full day.

Day 5

May 19th

We started off in the morning visiting IBM. While I like IBM as a company, I was a bit disappointed, as they didn't get as much into their innovation or marketing as some of the other companies. They did however, put out a nice spread for us after. :)

Our second visit of the day was by far my favorite visit of the week...IDEO. IDEO is an innovation company with 8 office locations, 5 of which are in the US, and 3 international locations including Munich. The whole atmosphere and company culture really impressed me and has actually inspired me to change my concentrations in my MBA program. I now plan to have a concentration in marketing management and (product) innovation management. The nice thing about this switch from marketing and supply chain management is that the marketing and innovation concentrations are more similar and some of the classes actually overlap. This means that I can still graduate a semester early because of the one credit class and this trip, but I can also take next summer off to travel, hopefully to Israel per Taglit Birthright (that's a whole other story).
At night we had dinner at this really good Bavarian restaurant that had amazing asparagus soup
and later went for drinks at Park Cafe where they had HUGE pina coladas for $6, good music, tiramisu shots, GOLD chairs and interesting bathroom doors.

Day 4

May 17th

Second day of company visits.

Today we visted GE Global and Cisco. Both companies were very interesting, I only wish I was a bit more awake, especially during our visit to GE in the morning. After our company visits, we toured the Allianz Arena where both of Germany's soccer teams play.

This place is huge!
It seats 69,000 people. The weird thing is that out of all countries, Germany doesn't allow it's fans to drink in the stands of the arena, only in sanctioned restaurants. I guess it gets pretty rowdy during game time.

Later, we went to an Italian restaurant to celebrate Brent's birthday. The food was really good and was a much needed break after three days of Bavarian food. At the end a huge piece of tiramisu was brought out with the biggest birthday candle I have ever seen with a birthday song playing in the background.

Day 3-First day of Company Visits

May 16th

It was an early morning and it was going to be a busy day- 3 company visits.

We started at Yahoo. Really cool company visit. We talked predominantly about Flickr, Yahoo's image sharing program. It was really cool to learn about and see how it works and we each got a year long flickr account so that we can share our Munich pictures for a week. I tried asking about any plans to integrate with email marketing companies, such as...iContact for instance. I think due to a language barrier, the guy wasn't 100% sure of what I was asking about but I got shot down. However, I still think there is potential for a partnership...something to bring up to my MarCom department perhaps.

We also visited Hype which is an innovation company based in Munich where we got to see the process they go through when working on projects for clients.

The last company visit was to Brain Lab. While extremely interesting, this one was a bit hard for me as I deal with my Dad's brain tumor as a part of my daily life and I know that all of the amazing equipment and software that BrainLab creates to cure brain tumors will never be able to help my Dad at this point. Other than that it was really interesting. Brain Lab also has 7 open offices that are designed after different places around the world...Very cool.

Monday night...more drinking bier!

Day 2- Dachau

May 16th- Dachau

I woke up Sunday feeling very tired and slightly hung over (wouldn't you after a few liters of beer?) It was time to visit Dachau...I knew it was going to be sad but I had no way of knowing just how sobering it would be.

There were only four of us who braved the trip despite the after-effects of our debauchery from the night before. It was a twenty minute train ride followed by a twenty minute bus ride but the experience was well worth the trip.

The camp was a lot larger than I expected. There were three bunkers still standing, one of which was reserved for special prisoners during the war. There was also another building which served as a museum, where there were a lot of gruesome pictures and a lot to read and take in.

We also saw the memorials for different faiths and the Nazi quarters. Lastly we saw the Crematoriums and gas chambers which were the hardest to walk through.

At the end, I bought a book about Dachau. I also got a lot of great pictures of the camp which I hope to use in more Holocaust memorial art that I hope to work on in the near future.

...

Later that night we went on a walking Bier Haus tour which was really interesting...we hit a few of the main bier haus' in Bavaria and saw how the process works.

It was another late night of drinking.

Day 1- Welcome to Munchen

Saturday May 15th-

We landed in Munich about 8:30am local time, and were picked up by our guide Cristina, after grabbing our bags from baggage claim and seeing the Goat that also took the trip. I am not kidding, there was a goat that rode the plane from Charlotte to Munich. Someone really cares about their livestock.

We got to the hotel which was one of the nicest European hotels that I have stayed at...King's Business Center, (not the first class location that was located across the street from Munich's finest- Boobs table-dances).

While toughing out jet-lag, we gathered in the lobby hotel around 2:00 to go on a guided walking tour of Munich- really cool city! We then went to our welcome dinner, followed by beer pubs and many of beers later.

It was a good group and I looked forward to the rest of the week.

World Traveler

Recently I was looking at my calendar and realized that I am doing a great deal of traveling in the next couple of months. I love to travel but I just may be overdoing it this time...

• I just got back from a weekend in Connecticut to celebrate the christening of my twin cousins Ava and Jules who have grown so much in their three and 1/2 months of life. They are so beautiful and I only wish I could have spent more time with them.
• I am most likely heading to Charlotte this coming weekend to have my second extremely painful tattoo removal session. Ouch!
  
• The following weekend, I am traveling to NC State's campus for part 1 of a Saturday 1 credit course on Product Innovation and Marketing. 8 Hours...but it will lead to me graduating from my MBA a semester early!
  
• The weekend of April 16th, I am celebrating my quarter of a century birthday in the city that never sleeps...that's right, I am heading to NYC to celebrate in style and I am so psyched...New York and I have had an ongoing love affair for 25 years so it only makes sense that I would return for my birthday. A lot is already planned... Flying in early Friday morning, checking into the 5 star hotel my amazing mom found on Madison... heading to the Plaza to catch the bus for the Sex and the City Tour. Doing a little Shopping and then dinner at Buddakan where we'll meet up with my cousins coming in from CT. Saturday starts with brunch at none other than Pastis (Favorite!), shopping at Century 21, DVF, H&M and hopefully Manolo Blahnik (What can I say, I'm a shoe girl) as well as some others. We are seeing the Billy Elliot matinee on Broadway and then heading to East Vilalge to one of my favorite Mexican restaurants in the city Las Palapas (Best Margaritas) with Catherine and Dianne. Sunday is still to be determined before we head back but I am super excited about this trip
• The next weekend is part 2 of the 1 credit course...only 4 hours this time...Nuff said.
• One of the first two weekends in May, I am planning to go to Nashville to visit one of my best friends from college.
• May 14th- Heading to Germany- 9 hour non-stop overnight flight from Charlotte to Munich for a week of studying abroad, the different marketing programs at different companies based in Munich. Also some cultural visits and of course a lot of beer drinking as to be expected...Maybe I should visit Raleigh's Beer Festival in April to warm up.
• I come back from Germany on May 22nd, only to leave the following weekend for Long Island to celebrate my cousin Eric's wedding. I am so excited to see my cousins and some family that I haven't seen in a really long time...It's also an excuse to dress up which I always love to do and it's my first Jewish wedding.
  
• A few weeks later I head to Delaware for my sorority sister's wedding which also constitutes a road trip with my best friend from college- should be a good time.
• A few weeks after that, yet another wedding in Northern VA for a family friend's son.

I think that's it for now...phew.