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The Fulbright Summer Institute at Virginia Tech was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

Staying at an American University for three weeks, we learned a great deal about the U.S. system of higher education,

visited fascinating research institutes, participated in fun activities and met amazing people.

Besides that, we got the chance to participate in two inspiring courses that helped us figuring out

how to communicate our ideas more effectively. 

The program was planned meticulously and we were amazed by the level of

excitement and hospitality that we were met with at Virginia Tech. 

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the German Fulbright Commission for giving us this unique opportunity.

Thank you to everyone who helped making our summer in the U.S. unforgettable!

Day 22 - 08/12/2017

Goodbye, hope to see you again!

On Saturday, July 12, we reached the day, nobody wanted to face so soon. It was time to say goodbye; the same bus we arrived in was scheduled for 11 am to pick us up for a last ride to Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD).

Some of us started the day early with a workout, others tried to get as much sleep as possible, because they knew that it was going to be a long trip again. However, everyone made it out of his or her bed and together we had a final breakfast in D2 - which will be missed for sure. Afterwards, everyone finished - or started - packing, which turned out to be another group activity, since we started to play some music and chatted in the meantime. At 10:30 am, we met Sara, because she was going to accompany us the whole bus drive to IAD. While we waited for the bus, we had some time to look back on the past three weeks and to take some last pictures with the VT campus in the background. On the bus, time was spend in different ways: Sleeping was definitely one of the preferred ways, since most of us were exhausted by this three weeks of new and overwhelming experiences. Some of us played some games; others listened to music and chatted.

When we arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport, you could definitely see mixed feelings. More than half of our group was going to continue their journey in the US and was looking forward to arrive at their upcoming destination. But what everyone felt was obvious: Leaving Virginia and our group was not easy at all, we saw happy as well as excited faces, but also tears and faces buried in hands and shoulders. We said goodbye and thanked every group member and Sara, who has been fantastic by supporting us in all regards.

It was definitely an amazing time for every single one of us

and we cannot be more grateful to be part of this once-in-a-lifetime experience.    

Thank you so much!

Day 21 - 08/11/2017

Last night at Virginia Tech

On Friday, we had almost a whole day to do things on our own and enjoy the last full day on campus. Some of us went to the university stores and equipped themselves with hoodies and shirts of Virginia Tech merchandise. 

During the day, we rehearsed a few scenes to perform them at our closing celebration in the afternoon. We tried to make them funny so we already had a lot of fun by practicing them. As we were invited to the Virginia Tech Inn we knew that this would be a special day for us but as we stepped into the room everything was decorated in VT colors and pictures of the last three weeks were projected on the wall. We enjoyed the super tasty dinner while watching the best of snapshots of the program. 

After that it was our turn. David and his team and also our professors had no clue what we were going to present so we started by singing a song of the musical 'Oh, Kay!' which we watched just the day before at the campus. We also presented other scenes which were stock into our mind or were funny to us like “Sound and Motion”. 

After our performance, there were speeches of David, his team and our professors. Especially the speech of Patty budged us to tears. The time of our last common dinner flew so fast away. In a little ceremony, certificates and a special designed challenge coins were pass to each of us. The dinner was nearly over but we had enough time to take some photos. 

This was our last night at VT with all the people together in one room. Thank you for everything.

Day 20 - 08/10/2017

Our last fully planned day

Today was our last day with our classes - one last time "Scientific and Technical writing" and "Communicating Science".

In our writing class we recapitulated parts of what we learned in the last three weeks and spoke about Conference Posters in which context we reflected on the posters and presentations we saw during the Undergraduate Research Symposium in our first week.

Thank you Vanessa for the introduction to the world of scientific and technical, all the useful information, the tips and tricks we can use for future emails, papers and posters. You did not only teach us a lot on an academic basis, you also cared about us and we really appreciated that and your feedback. We hope to see you again sometime in the future.

For our last Communicating Science class all of us prepared talks to present to the class (some of them will be uploaded to youtube - we will share the link asap). The theme was "If you had one thing to tell the world.." and everyone did an awesome job. We heard presentations about respect, taking risk and chances, inner conflicts, failures, (social) engagement, different opinions about the development of the automobile industry and pollution of our environment and much more. After the presentations we sat together to talk about our experience in the class and gave feedback. We all agreed that we developed during the class, stepped out of our comfort zone and learned technics which we can use in the future.

Thanks a lot to Carrie and Patty for making the communication course to such an amazing and remarkable experience. It really enriched everyone's way of thinking and our awareness of our surrounding. You both have been great teachers and inspiring at all time.

After dinner we visited the musical "Oh, Kay" which was performed as part of the Summer Arts Festival 2017 by the School of Performing Arts. The cast only rehearsed for 2,5 weeks but you would never have been able to tell, they did very good. Read about our collaboration with the cast on day 17. We ended the day with a little floor party.

Day 19 - 08/09/2017

Research and Rehearsal

On today’s morning agenda was the visit of the Biocomplexity Institute at Virginia Tech.

This interdisciplinary research facility integrates many different disciplines – from molecular science to policy analysis. There, they face challenges concerning human health, habitant and well-being.

The two hour stay was comprised several presentations from the different departments of this institute and led us through fields like evaluation of threats in DNA sequences or why the time measurement of our cells is so important.

In our second last “Communicating Science” class, we did a lot of various rehearsals to prepare ourselves for the coming TED-Talk. By presenting our speech in different ways of emotions, the context of what we said slipped in the background and we concentrated more on how we present it. We learned the importance of not only focusing on one of the two points but rather combine them. Thus we catch the audience’s interest and win them for our talking point.

Day 18 - 08/08/2017

Paper Planes, Preparation and Presentation

This day was a usual day of our courses. In the morning we had our writing course. We were looking forward to the paper plane assignment, which was planned for today. The aim was to write a description of how to fold a paper airplane. Everyone received a description from another person and tried to rebuild the paper plane just by the written instruction. We were not allowed to include pictures so in the end some strange shapes were developed. Anyway many of us managed it to rebuild a paper plane which was really close to the original. Furthermore we gained skills concerning the use of formality und technicality in language.

In the afternoon our "Communication Science course took place. Like every time we had a lot of fun. Right at the beginning we did some warm up games to get more comfortable. This time it was especially important to get into a pleasant mood because we started to practice our speeches. We had to prepare a short outline for a presentation with the topic „If you had one thing to tell the world“.  To get more into our topics we worked with different partners. We told each other about our speech using questions like „Who“, „What“, „Where“ and „Why“. During this practice we all got more confident with our topics. Some of us realized that they wanted to refine or completely change their  talks. It was really nice to see what different kind of topics are important to each of us. The variety of our ideas covered technical topics like self driving cars but also really private topics.

Day 17 - 08/07/2017

VTTI and Collaboration with “Oh Kay!” Musical Cast

After breakfast (some of us were already exhausted due to an extensive gym session), we started our day with a short ride to the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. We had a brief introduction to the institute, which is one of seven, created by Virginia Tech. As the second largest transportation institute of an US university, the VTTI develops technology regarding road safety and collaborates with major car companies for testing purposes. The main reason for those collaborations is the 2.2-mile long Smart Road, which can simulate various weather conditions like rain, fog and even snow. The Smart Road was built to Federal Highway Administration standards, consists of various pavements and includes the 2nd highest bridge in Virginia, which makes it attractive to many developers.

After the presentation, we met an American Fulbright scholar, who went to Germany some time ago before applying for a job at the VTTI. We hopped on a bus, entered the test site and he explained various facts about the VTTI and the Smart Road. Unfortunately, we had fog and rain this day, so it was hard to get a sense about the dimensions of the road. Because of the fast development in autonomous driving, the VTTI sees a great opportunity to expand their test site and even plans to include regular traffic into their tests.

Our lovely drivers dropped us at our dorm, since we had some time to relax. Before lunch we went to the Student Theatre in Squires Student Center, to meet the cast of the musical “Oh Kay!”. The cast consists of eight students, who learned a whole musical in just two and a half weeks. Later this week we are going to see this musical and we are all looking forward to it. After the director of this performance introduced the musical to our group, we were asked to learn a part of the song “Clap Yo’ Hands” (yes, we had to sing AND dance), which will be played in the musical. This turned out pretty good and everyone had lots of fun. After that, the cast showed us how they will present the scene later this week and we started to become increasingly excited. We spend the following hour by chatting with the cast while having sandwiches and cookies for lunch.

Due to the weather, our tour of the Glade road Growing & Rising Silo Brewery for this afternoon unfortunately was cancelled, so we spend our free afternoon by playing volleyball, preparing for class and relaxing. In the evening, we went out into downtown Blacksburg to have sushi, pizza and burger.

Day 16 - 08/06/2017

Brunch at Patty's House and an Afternoon Off

Overall, this Sunday was a day off. In the morning, a couple of us went mountain biking with David and his eldest son.

However, it all really started with the invitation of Patty to come to her private house for brunch. After the vans were parked Patty, her husband, and their dog kindly welcomed us at their home. When entering the living area, it was the copious breakfast that was served and it truly suited all tastes. Starting with several types of scrambled eggs, quinoa or tomatoes the main serving table included all types of fruits, yoghurt, cold cuts, spreads not omitting the various delicious breads. Food and drinks got even better while having a look outside the window facade offering a phenomenal view on the surrounding landscape. Good chats, a delicious brunch as well as bright sunshine made these hours a unique experience.

After the brunch and before leaving, Patty gave us the opportunity to write our names on a large map of Germany. That way our diverse background was well visualized.

Again, we would like to thank you sincerely for this noon and putting so much effort into our stay!

We truly appreciate your indescribable commitment!

The rest of the day was completely at our disposal. That way everybody could do what s/he wanted, which concluded in many small groups going shopping at the centers that are located in Christiansburg. Some went by bus, some by bike and some did even a walk for the whole distance (more than 8 miles). On the way back, we all decided to take Uber, which lead to interesting conversations.

Day 15 - 08/05/2017

Tubing on the New River & CUBE Fest 2017

This Saturday we had another out-door activity: we went tubing on the New River! It is supposed to be one of the five oldest rivers in the world geologically and it flows through three U.S. states. It was quite a fresh morning compared to the weather we were used to. Consequently for most of us it was rather challenging to get into their tubes, especially as you definitely could not avoid getting totally wet! But once we all were in the water we really enjoyed floating down the river! The last part was probably the most fun, as there were rapids so we just continued doing this part for several times! It was an amazing experience and all of us enjoyed staying outside in Virginia’s beautiful nature, getting some sun and relax for a bit. We appreciated a lot that David and Patricia would drive part of the group to Walmart for a real American experience! Although we always get a lot of delicious food at the cafeteria most of us bought typical American snacks and obviously some VT clothes!

In the afternoon we had time for individual activities. Some of us went to the gym as others were grouping up to play volleyball on campus. Apart from that there was the second day of the 37th annual “Steppin' Out”- Festival in Blacksburg so we enjoyed a nice atmosphere downtown. It was the perfect opportunity to get some unique souvenirs from all different kinds of artisans of the area.

Then it was time to get ready for the second performance we were expecting to see at the CUBE Fest 2017. The show was called Hypersonic and the local DJ and VT alumni Electrobro (a.k.a. Adam Wirdzek) performed together with the Random Ninjaz Dance Crew. It was a one of a kind event but not only due to the CUBE with it’s 3D-sound. The Random Ninjaz Dance Crew is specialized on movement-generated music, so their special devices (Electroskip™) enabled them to jam with Elektrobro as they were dancing. This was an amazing performance we were offered to participate in and it was fantastic to experience their art. At the end they even interacted with the audience, getting people on the stage and dancing all together. Some of us were brave enough to go there and others just didn’t have a choice as the artists picked them and brought them on stage teaching them some hip-hop moves.
 

Day 14 - 08/04/2017

Field Trip to ICTAS & 37th Annual Steppin' Out

Our 14th day started with an introduction of Dr. Vinod K Lohani, who is the director of the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science (ICTAS). He showed us how the institute is bringing research into education and on which research projects they are currently working.

During a tour through the ICTAS labs we learned a lot about material science and how mass spectrometers and electron microscopes are used in this field. Especially the high resolution of the microscopes, which allows to view the atomic structure of materials was an extremely amazing experience.

After visiting the material science labs, we had lunch in the Kelly Hall where several other ICTAS labs are located. In the Kelly Hall, the researchers showed us their projects including flexible solar cells, energy harvesting backpacks and biomechanical robots for medical usage.

Another interesting part was the helmet lab where helmets for football, ice hockey and bicycles are tested to be ranked with Virginia Tech Helmet Ratings. The overall aim is to recreate the effects of a crash to improve the performance of a helmet. Last but not least, we walked to a river where several instruments measure real time data that are published on their LEWAS Lab website for educational purposes.

In the evening, everybody visited the 37th annual “Steppin' Out”- Festival where we enjoyed a relaxing evening with live music and a huge market all over Blacksburg's downtown. 

Day 13 - 08/03/2017

Class outside, Improv Theater & a unique Experience at CUBE Fest

Our second Thursday began with the Academic and Technical Writing class where we discussed the elements of a good item description. Due to the good weather, Vanessa decided to move our class outside in the sun where we talked about the importance of proper citation.

After lunch, we went to Theater 101 for the Communicating Science class. This time, we focused on improvisational theatre and storytelling. In a game called "Freeze and Justify", two persons acted out an improvised scene. One audience member shouted out "Freeze!" and took over one of the actors' position and then changed the entire plot. From painting a fence, we went through differnet scences like giving birth to a baby, praying in church or working out in the gym. In another game, we trained our creativity and storytelling skills by continuing each others' stories inspired by unique picture cards.

In the evening, we had the opportunity to go to CUBE Fest 2017 which took place at the Moss Arts Center. CUBE Fest, initiated by the Institue for Creativity, Arts and Technology, pushes the boundaries of possibility in one of the most technologically advanced perfomance venues on the planet, the CUBE. We saw a performance called "Research ReSounds", where different researchers presented their compositions. The sounds were rather strange but the artists really made use of all the 149 speakers inside the CUBE, which means that we got to hear something which had never been heard before. It was a unique experience for all of us. We were so fascinated by the CUBE that we decided to return to CUBE Fest on Saturday evening for another performance!

Day 12 - 08/02/2017

DREAMS Lab, Class & S'mores

Day 11 - 08/01/2017

Classes, Acting & Bowling @ BreakZONE

After 4 days off and a very exciting weekend it was time for classes again and learning new things! We started with the class of "Scientific and Technical Writing". We talked a lot about definitions - how they are constructed and in which ways they can be used. To practice a bit in describing things in a very precise way, each of us got an item to describe. Only we knew which item we were describing even sometimes we didn't know what the items are used for. In the upcoming class the challenge should be to find the items of the others based on the description they were given. We are already excited how this is going to work out! 

In our class of "Communicating Science" we had to perform our open scenes with class feedback. The feedback was done by the "Lerman Critical Response Process" which is divided in four steps: 1. Statement of meaning, 2. The Artist asks questions, 3. The Responders ask neutral questions, 4. Permissioned opinions. Based on these steps we achieved a very effective and respectful communication and exchange of thoughts. All the actors did a great performance and really felt into their characters. We had a lot of fun watching and experiencing different interpretations!

In the evening we went to VT's BreakZONE where we bowled, played table tennis and billiard. We also had pizza from Dominos's for dinner and some soft drinks to keep fit during the matches. The BreakZONE includes 8 bowling lanes, 16 pool tables, 1 snooker table, 4 table tennis tables, bumper pool tables and a lot of more fun stuff, so it is really huge and exciting. Some of us even turned out to be real bowling champions!

Day 10 - 07/31/2017

Visit at Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center (VTCRC)

Let us kick things off with two quick questions:

Firstly, what do the cloning of pigs, autonomous driving and the healthiest soft drink you’ll probably ever taste all have in common?

In all of these diverse fields of business, the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center (VTCRC) helped successfully startup companies.

And secondly, what do we have to do with all that?

Well, today we were invited to visit the VTCRC. So let us take you through our day one after another:

The VTCRC is located only a five minute drive apart from the VT campus, so we went there early in the morning to primarily be introduced to the VTCRC at large by its president Mr. Joe Meredith, PhD. He gave us a brief insight on the center’s philosophy, its structure, goals and current involvements. Furthermore Mr. Meredith was also willing to share with us his very interesting takes on what he thinks forms a great entrepreneur. Concludingly he also explained to us why he thinks his center is putting out an incredible amount of successful businesses: A vivid mixture of high standards scientific knowledge being provided by VT on the one hand and on the other some down to earth business experience generated by his staff. After this prologue about the VTCRC we were then given the unique opportunity to get first hand insights into a few companies that not only started their business but also remain situated here in the city of Blacksburg to date.

We secondly were then taken to a company named VPT, which is a highly successful producer of power converting systems mainly for the aerospace and military industry. We really appreciated the opportunity to be shown around the company by Dr. Dan Sable, the CEO of the company himself. Mr. Sable is also one of the founders of VPT and an alumnus of VT. He never intentionally wanted to start up a business but during his studies he kind of ran into it being asked to do so by a fellow student of his. Besides his work at VPT, he is also a professor at VT, which had actually been his career goal before becoming an entrepreneur.

Following TorcRobotics, we headed straight to our fifth company, Emisshield. We were introduced to an employee and the CEO, Mr. John Olver, PhD. Emisshield bought an existing technology for thermal coding by NASA and opened up this technology for the industrial and commercial market. Their coding makes thermal stressed parts last longer and perform thermally better. In this regard, Emisshield still works together with NASA, to drive the development even further. Mr. Olver brought to our minds that you do not need to develop an entirely new product to start a company; you can also open up new markets for existing products. After some questions, it was time to see our last company.

Due to the fact that we had already exceeded our schedule, we left the CIB, said goodbye to Mr. Meredith and thanked him for the great tour. Getting to meet all these entrepreneurs, having a chance to chat with them and learn from them was very inspiring and will definitely stay in our minds for a long time.

Day 9 -  07/30/2017

Hiking to McAfee Knob

Today we experienced a breathtaking, exciting and remarkable trip to the fascinating hiking spot McAfee Knob. We were gifted with perfect weather conditions  - a cloudless blue sky and the perfect temperature.

After walking through the thick forest surrounded by the chirping of red cardinals (FYI: the state bird of Virginia), stepping over stony paths and one group taking the wrong way up we finally reached the incredible plateau after 4 miles (~ 6,5 km).

A sudden adrenaline rush ran through our veins, when we took the first look at the wideness of the horizon. Inspired by the overwhelming view all over the Blue Ridge Mountains, being part of the Appalachians of Virginia, we initially took a huge number of pictures from all beautiful perspectives. It felt almost like a professional fotoshooting, because some of us were perfectly equipped with reflex cameras. The whole time we were aware that a single leap would mean a long fall down. Anyway, we took very cool pictures and enjoyed the great sight into the distance.

After hiking downwards, again with some groups struggling to find the right way back to our vans, we eventually went to “The Homeplace” Restaurant in Catawba to have a wonderful delicious dinner in homey ambience.

Day 8 - 07/29/2017

First day off

Today was our first day off. We decided to divide us into two separated groups. One group stayed in Virginia and went to Roanoke and Christiansburg, VA to explore the cities and enjoy the local food. The others arranged to rent two cars and decided to do a road trip towards Charlotte, NC. It took about 2,5 hours to get to Charlotte, before this group went to an outlet shopping center and bought some cool stuff.

Afterwards, we drove downtown to Charlotte, NC where we walked a little bit around and finally found a cool rooftop bar where we had a wonderful view of the skyline of the city.

On the way, back we were a little bit in a rush because the mall near the city center was almost closed. We had like 15 minutes to shop in there and the boys were going crazy because of the Hollister Sale.

Later on, we made a quick stop at Walmart which was located next to the highway. For most of us, this was the first time in such a big store and we had a lot of fun while looking at all those various products.

Of course, we took a lot of photos of Charlotte. So we want to give you an impression how our road trip was like.

Day 7 - 07/28/2017

Arts, Science, Sports & Dance! (a normal day at Virginia Tech)

Day 6 - 07/27/2017

Undergraduate Research Symposium

The Undergraduate Research Symposium was a really interesting experience for all of us. Students who haven’t finished their bachelor thesis yet, presented the research they made during the summer. At the Symposium they presented the results of their research project. In the beginning there was an impressing keynote by Dr. Thanassis Rikakis, who interacted with the audience in a great way.

During the "Poster Session" we learned a lot about topics, which some of us never heard of before. The posters had a good structure, which was often very similar (background of the topic, the hypothesis, the research including interesting pictures, the results). Everyone was really friendly and tried to explain their topic in an easy way, so that we could understand what it is about. Besides this it was often very hard to get into a unknown topic, which is totally different to our fields of study. On the one side there were biological topics like protein-protein interaction. On the other side some of us listened to a presentation about the engagement of refugees.

After the poster session we attended some oral presentations. We were impressed about the detailed information and the way of presenting the topic. Especially the research of flying snakes and their tongues stack in our mind.

In the afternoon we had our third class of Communicating Science with Carrie and Patty. We already knew that we would have to leave our comfort zone once again. This time we played a hilarious game where we had to create our own moves while making abstract sounds. In a second step we had to „teach“ another student of the group how to do it. Soon we were jumping around the room doing the strangest noises and movements. We also learned about the three energy cycles of Rodenburg. It was also Marvin's birthday so we enjoyed some cake in class together.

The whole staff of the program is really willing to make these three weeks unforgettable and does everything so that we feel like home.

Day 5 - 07/26/2017

Visiting Blacksburg Farmer's Market after class

The second day of class started somewhat similar to the first. Vanessa was curious to learn about our experiences especially because some of the points on our schedule are special activities made possible only for us. After that we talked about some examples of technical writings.

“Communication Science” although it was the second lesson, still held some surprises for us ready. We got to meet Patti who is teaching the class alongside with Carrie. Patti actually came back from a trip to Europe at 2 am. Thus, we were surprised by the tremendous amount of energy she had, since she is an extroverted and energetic person.

After another brief round of name games, we had some fun with exercises like “1,2,3 Tada!” and “I am” where we basically learned to understand our emotions and that we should not be afraid of failure, rather embrace it as an opportunity to improve.

After leaving Theater 101 in the afternoon we headed to Blacksburg Farmer’s Market right after. Latter one was a small market place that was located in the center of Blacksburg, offering a decent range of goods such as vegetables, bread and meat, but also handmade crafts. Due to its local ties, the Farmer’s Market offered a very special flair and encouraged us to get in contact with local vendors. Further, its small size created a quite familiar atmosphere, showing us how things are going in the countryside of Blacksburg. It is definitely worth a visit! In case you got interested, feel free to check out the website of Blacksburg Farmer’s Market.

Virginia Tech is offering plenty of recreation activities so that we decided to either play soccer or volleyball on campus in the evening. Playing soccer in close proximity to Lane Stadium or spiking the ball right on campus truly strengthened our feeling of community.

Day 4 - 07/25/2017

First day of class

After breakfast we went to our first class “Scientific and Technical Writing“. With a lot of excitement we walked into the room not knowing what to expect. Our teacher Vanessa was so lovely as well as the other teachers. So it was fun to work with them. We learned ways how to conduct researches followed by some exercises. 

After strengthened from lunch we started in our second course “Communicating Science“ with Carrie.

By walking into the theater we were confused because of the camera in the middle of the room. Carrie told us that we should introduce ourselves and tell what our personal goals and hopes for the class are, while the camera was recrording. Our nervousness increased rapidly. But it went down more and more as we were in front of the camera. At the end it was not a big deal. It was a great experience to speak in a foreign language in front of the group and we realized that we still have adequate room for improvement.

Another task was pairing up into teams of two and telling our partners a story about our childhood, which he had to recapitulate afterwards.

It was quite interesting to see how much we actually could remember and how it felt to listen to your own story told from another person.

At the end we played the X and O game. Without talking and making gestures, we had to form certain letters as a group. It was quite difficult in the begining but after finding out which side symbolized the top and which one the bottom of the letter it was pretty easy.

Those tasks were just the highlights for some of us. 

All in all it was a great start in our university courses!

Day 3 - 07/24/2017

Cascade Falls

On our third day, we started the day with a really nice and extensive breakfast for a packed schedule. After dividing into groups, each got a mentor who is doing research during the summer on campus. We visited a variety of laboratories in different faculties to get impressions on the applied research at VT. The different groups saw flying snakes, the editorial of the weekly campus newspaper, biological labs for cancer research, and the garden of the agricultural institute, just to name a few.

After lunch, we drove with vans to the starting point of a hiking trail which led us to Cascade Falls.

No one was disappointed when we reached the waterfalls after a challenging 2-miles uphill hike where we used the opportunity to take a lot of pictures. Additionally, most of us had a bath in the ice-cold water basin in front of the beautiful Cascade Falls.

Before we fell asleep after an exhausting and fantastic day, we spent the evening outdoors with best summer weather playing games and relaxing on campus.  

Day 2 - 07/23/2017

First day on campus

The next day in the morning we got a brief introduction into all the activities which are expecting us during the following three weeks. We were introduced to our professors and students gave us a really good insight into life on campus, how to get around and where to find what.

After we received all the organizational information – including a dozen different cards to access the dining hall, the dorms, the gym... - and met even more associated members of Virginia Tech, like Carrie, Vivian and David, we went on a campus tour. Our amazing backwards-walking guide showed us all the different facilities around campus, we learnt about some facts of Virginia Tech and how your life as a 'Hokie' is.

We understood pretty soon that the mascot – a Hokie bird – and the Virginia Tech colors orange and maroon are very essential in all-day life here and students are more than proud to wear all sort of clothes and accessories with the VT logo. If you want to bring it to the top you can even get married at the chapel on campus with the Hokie bird participating at your ceremony!

For lunch we went to the most biggest dining hall we have ever seen. We had the impression they offered everything you could possibly think of! Wraps and burritos, asian food, typical american food, salad bar, a whole aisle only with desserts and on and on... We imagine we won't even get the chance to try everything during our three weeks stay!

In the afternoon we went to Blacksburg which is the small city nearby. Again a student showed us around, pointed out the best places to go and explained everything we wanted to know! We were really impressed how helpful and gentle people were which made us feel immediately at the right place.

For dinner we went to a picnic place in town where a big buffet was provided for all of us. After dinner we were introduced to american games such as horseshoe throwing or cornhole! Some of us were also playing kickball and football with some American guys who were around. So far we had an amazing time and let's see what tomorrow looks like!

Day 1 - 07/22/2017

The Arrival

For most of us, day one began early in the morning because they had to travel to Frankfurt first – by train, car or airplane. As we already got to know each other at the orientation weekend in Berlin a month ago, we were all looking forward to meet each other again and were ecxited for the next three weeks at Virginia Tech. After arriving from all over Germany, we anxiously waited for our flight at 1:15 pm to Washington Dulles International Airport.

Almost ready for takeoff, we noticed that a storm passed over Frankfurt. In consequence, we had to wait 90 minutes before finally heading towards Washington. For the majority of us, this was the first trip ever to the United States. Again, because of a storm in the Washington area, we had to circle around the airport a couple of times before landing at IAD. 

There, Sara and Lia – who we had informed about our delay – picked us up with the Virginia Tech bus. During the four hour bus drive to Blacksburg, we had some drinks and real American pizza from Domino’s. We really enjoyed our dinner on the road and we were glad that we had it on the bus because it was already quite late – and even later in Germany! When we finally arrived at Virginia Tech, we quickly checked in at the West Ambler Johnston dormitory. The entire arrival was really well organized and we immediately felt welcome at Virginia Tech!