Day 8-Back to the US of A

May 22nd-

Saturday was very busy and nerve- racking. We got to the airport to find ourselves in a very stressful situation. We were all stuck in very long lines to check in and check our bags. They opened up the service lines which are typically reserved only for checking bags after self check in.

The line took forever, especially with all of the people who just needed to check their bags who were allowed to cut the line. I finally checked in, checked my bag which again was way above the kilo limit (even after I bought a new suitcase while in Munich...at least I didn't get charged this time).

With some of us ahead in the first of many security checkpoints and a few still waiting in line to check in, a group of us got in another long line for security. We managed to get through that line faster than the other few who were in the other security line and continued through to the other check points. We weren't sure we were going to make it to our flight and we were convinced that since we had surpassed everyone else, that if anyone made the flight, we would be the only three to make it.

Luckily, we all made it onto the flight...

We landed in Charlotte an hour early, went through customs/immigration and still had a 2 1/2 hour drive home. By the time we made it home, it was 8pm (2am Munich time). I then was so wound up that I stayed up until midnight (6am Munich time) so I slept until about 1pm the next day...can't remember the last time I did that. All in all, it was a great trip and experience, even if I was jet lagged for a few days!!

Day 7- The last full day

May 21st-

Friday was our last full day in Munich. We only had one company visit. B/S/H which was another very interesting visit. Having been a designer, I am familiar with a lot of the different appliances created by B/S/H and the speakers were all very interesting to listen to in terms of their projects and processes.

After our company visit, we had a free day. We got to watch the Glockenspiel at the Marienplatz and then had a free day to go shopping in Munich for Beer Steins, souvenirs and some of the best chocolate ever!! If you ever go to Munich, be sure to visit the Elly Liedle Chocolate shop...only a few blocks from the Marienplatz. Friday night, we had our farewell dinner at the world famous Hofbrauhaus which was a lot of fun and a great end to a wonderful trip.

Then back to Park Cafe for a continuation of our last night extravaganza.

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.