Current Attitudes & Beliefs toward Travel

Prior to coming to Berlin, I had only been “out of the country” briefly on a family vacation to the Barbados. The only other time that Ive had the opportunity to travel out of the country, to Europe specifically, was in high school for a 2 week trip with members of my class. While I was open to and excited about my trip, I was not able to go due to scheduling conflicts. When I learned that I was still able to do study abroad even though I would technically be done with my degree at Pitt, I jumped on figuring out all of the details. This program was a great way to get an introduction to the business world and to top it all off I would be living and working in a different country! I have always wanted to travel to Europe and after missing my first opportunity, I never really thought about making an effort or planning a trip to visit.

Although I applied to other countries for the IIP program I ultimately chose Berlin. I chose to come to Berlin because it was a city and I knew that it would make me feel comfortable being in a place that reminded me of home in that aspect. Another reason I chose Berlin was because I have a cousin, that I’ve never met,that lives in Hamburg and I thought that being in Berlin would make it easier to meet up if we were able to. Although I didn’t do much research on Berlin before I chose it as the place for my internship, the research that I did after the fact made me really excited for the opportunity to spend the summer here! So far experiencing Berlin and its culture has been amazing and being in Germany/Europe has given me the opportunity to travel to other cities within Germany and other countries in Europe. So far I have been able to visit Hamburg and Dresden in Germany, and Prague in the Czech Republic. In the very near future I will be traveling to a few other countries and am excited to continue exploring Berlin!

Here are a few pictures from my day trip to Hamburg!: