At sometime between “way too early to get up” and “what, it’s still dark outside for at least an hour” the young Fulbright Group made their way to Washington D.C. by bus. After more than 4 hours and a short stop for breakfast we finally arrived at ‘’The Embassy Row Hotel’’ which has a nice rooftop bar and pool. While some out of the group decided yet to keep things easy and relax in the pool, a few others went for some sightseeing in the city, including me.

The White House, Abraham Lincoln Monument, Capitol Hill, Washington Monument any many other great buildings were on the plan. It was very impressive to see all of those places, which you normally just know from the news or Hollywood movies. As the evening began to rise, there was also some sort of peaceful protest going on in front of the White House. Some people had signs and others played some music on instruments.

So after 17km of walking in the very hot and humid air of the capitol of the United States, we went back to the hotel to refresh under the shower and then meet again for dinner. Some others joined in and we went to a nice Mexican restaurant for some Tacos or Enchiladas and drinks. After some good talking and kind of a struggle to get the bill done, we all finally went to bed, as it was a long day without too much sleep. Hard to believe that the end to such an amazing journey is coming closer..

Sadly, today was already our last day, at least at Virginia Tech, as we were about to spend the last few days in Washington D.C.. After trying out everything we didn’t get to taste yet at breakfast, we headed over to our last session of Developing Written Voice. The class itself wasn’t too spectacular, we spent time researching tips on Academic Writing and finishing and correcting our assignments, but in the end just waited to get it over with.

At noon it was time for our first goodbye: we got to enjoy our last meal at D2. While some of us couldn’t think of how they used to get along without the daily choice between eight food shops, the majority was craving for an ordinary German bread.

After class, we would all get back to our dorms and get ourselves dressed up and ready for the final ceremony in a ball room at The Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton Conference Center. In a highly emotional atmosphere we had a nice dinner together and afterwards received our program certificate and Challenge Coin. During the following speeches, tears were shed in gratefulness and sadness that the program was already over. As a teeny-tiny thank-you gift for their incredible commitment and all the great days we had with them, we gave a few typically German sweets and other specialities that everyone had brought from their hometown to Alli, Ian, David, Lynn, Carrie and Patty, as well as postcards with a few warm words.

Today was our big appearance on stage. The whole day was dedicated to our TED Talks that were live recorded in front of several cameras in a professional studio. In order to prepare appropriately for this enormous task, we had two Communicating Science classes. In the morning, we refined our speeches in smaller groups and had the possibility to practice our presentations in a more private atmosphere.

In the afternoon, we headed to Whittemore Hall to record our TED Talks. A team of four experts operated the cameras and tried everything to set up the perfect scene for us.

Everybody was equipped with his own microphone and had three minutes to present the one thing we would tell the world if everybody was listening. From climate change over fairly produced clothing, the project of Engineers without Borders and stem cell donations to an autonomous future we shared our very emotional, funny, serious and profound thoughts.

Inspired by these incredible visions, we finished our day calmly by watching a movie in the Lyric Theater in Blacksburg.

Due to heavy thunderstorms last Thursday, the bonfire at David’s place was rescheduled to this Monday evening. So we got to enjoy a very sporty and delicious night surrounded by beautiful nature. We played frisbee, boccia and soccer and roasted some S’Mores around his fireplace. We were welcomed very warmly and were lucky to get to know his generous family.

We had planned to go tubing down New river today, so we were very sad, when it was cancelled due to too high water levels.

So we used the morning to play soccer, take a sunbath or simply rest. Later we went to the Steppin’ Out Festival in Downtown Blacksburg. Some of us listened to Lynn’s band, other were arguing with pro-gun-protesters and some just went shopping. Some people even volunteered at the shirt booth and the beer bar. We all had a great time and later in the evening most of us met at the main stage, where we partied together and enjoyed the great weather.

After a hearty breakfast, we visited the site of the Virginia Tech Drone Park this morning. The Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership

(MAAP) is a test site for unmanned aircraft systems.

Mr Calvert, the Safety Manager of the park, gave us a presentation about the history of drones and tried to find a lot of references to Germany. It was quite interesting to hear that even before the invention of a “civilian” computer, drones were already equipped with one and were able to fly automatically. Unfortunately, due to the rather bad weather, we weren’t able to fly a real drone out in the park but at least we got to try out a flight simulator. Some of us were surprisingly really good at it, others ended up crashing the drone (thank god it was not a real one).

We drove back to have lunch at our beloved dining hall D2 and then had free time for the rest of the day.

A small group went shopping at Walmart, Target and TJ Maxx since our last week is coming up. Others used the time wisely to take naps and work on our assignments.

As it was also the first day of the 38th annual Steppin’ Out Festival in Downtown Blacksburg, we decided to have dinner there and take a look at the various booths. Luckily, the sun came out in the right moment and we could enjoy a beautiful sunset together with delicious food.

The morning started after the breakfast with the class „Developing Written Voice“ where we first learned to describe some geometrical objects to each other, which our partner then had to paint. That is not so easy as you might spontaneously think about. After this exercise we discussed how you can describe objects and statistic data in general. Like Churchill said once:

The only statistics you can trust are those you falsified yourself.

At the end of the class we all got a painting of Norman Rockwell, an American artist, which we had to describe in 600-800 words.

After the lunch we started with the class „Communication Science“ at the Theater 101. After a short warm up with Patty and Carrie we started to interact in an exercise which was called „Relationship statues and Add- on Statues“ where first each one of us had to show a statue pose after each other and then have been joined by another person, which had to be a relative statue. Later we did some mirror exercises. For that we started first with reflecting the movements of our partners. Than we had to reflect the talking of our partner and later we had to sing a song which our partner had to reflect as well, which needed much more concentration. To experience and understand the Critical Response Process (CRP) Carrie baked us some vegan chocolate cake, on which we had to respond on the CRP rules. After this we presented some of our open scenes and reflected them by the CRP.

After breakfast we went to the APEX Center for Entrepreneurs. Howard Haines gave us a short but interactive presentation about what is necessary for potential entrepreneurs to build up their businesses. It was more like a workshop than an actual presentation as he gave us tasks to make up a fictional idea about a business. We started by simply collecting six nouns and six adjectives. Howard connected them e.g. pope – funny or internet – green. In groups we developed an own business by different steps like brainstorming, upcoming products and marketing. In the end we should do a presentation about the product and Ian was a judge while Alli was evaluating tweets we created for each business idea. Everybody had a lot of fun as it was one of those sessions where you could bring in your own ideas rather than just listening to presentations.

After a filling and delicious lunch, it was time for Communicating Science. At first, we had a short talk about being an

individual in the group and it turned out that we were feeling quite similar. Midterm feedback was positive.

After that we had a fun sound and motion session and we went on with the rest of the little plays we had to do in groups of two. It was interesting how different the same conversations could turn out when acted by different people. Finally, we evaluated each other’s collaboration while learning the roleplay but also the time we spent together.

In the evening some of us went to Karaoke at Champs in Downtown Blacksburg after we finished our daily journaling and some other homework.

Half of our time at VT is over now and we are sad on the one hand but on the other we are looking forward to going to Washington D.C.

On Day 10 we visited the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center (CRC). There we got an overview about the research center by the President and CEO Ph.D. Joe Meredith. It is interesting, that US research centers share a different self-understanding compared to Europe.

While European research- and cooperate-centers are mostly real estate focused, US centers like the CRC are mostly service oriented. That means, that they share not only buildings and space with companies, but also try to connect researches and companies better.

The CRC is therefore also a for-profit organization. Despite it is totally owned by a public foundation supporting VT with its funds.

In the discussion after the presentation we talked about the differences between the European and the US research and education system. After this we got an presentation from Emisshield about their product, a high emissivity coating technology.We also got a tour of the research park and visited VPT who are building power conversion solutions, which are certified for military, aviation and space applications. Our daily-used GPS-System relies for example on components which are built in Blacksburg.

For lunch on earth we had some burgers with pulled pork.

In the afternoon we had been invited by Lynn to a beach at the New River. In the picturesque landscape we took a swim to the other riverside and had fun with a rope swing. Some also canoed or took a sunbath – which had a sudden end in the upcoming thunderstorm. On the way back in the car a lightning stroke only a few hundred foot away from us.

When we finally reached the incredible plateau, we felt like we were on top of the world. The panorama was just fascinating!

Today we had a lot of free time, so we built different groups. One group went to Cox’s Driving Range. In order to get there, we rented some of the new bikes offered on campus. After a 30 minutes ride, we arrived at the range where we could practice in the batting cages how to hit baseballs. Before we left we received some vouchers for playing miniature golf and more pitches.

Another group went climbing and hiking in West Virginia with a rented car.

In the evening we went to Salem to watch a baseball game of the Salem Red Sox at the Haley Toyota Field. It was a pleasure to watch the game from our private area where we had burgers, hot dogs and a lot more for dinner.

Due to the fact that Christmas in July is celebrated at the moment and this game was the last one in July, the theme of the evening was Christmas, so everyone dressed up in Christmas colors and the Grinch and Santa Claus were around. The origin of this tradition is not clear, but generally it is said that there will be a strong and happy winter Christmas season if it is celebrated in summer.

All in all it was very interesting to watch a baseball game once, but many of us still prefere other sports.

On our way back to VT we continued our tradition to turn up the music in the cars and sing along.

Friday morning has been very interesting. Overeaten as always, we walket to  Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology, which is a 20min walk on campus. After a presentation from Ben Knapp, he showed us the cube - a room for researching acoustics and virtual reality. We got the chance to listen to a bongo concert in different dimensions. One time the bongo was straight behind us, the other time it was at the very top and then it was "running" around us. 

The cube is also made for VR - testing, because there is enough space to try it without running into something. We played two different games, One VR was under water with creasy jellyfish swimming around you and the other one was a simulated world with a tornado approaching. 

Luckily friday was the first day without any rain. It was warm and sunny the whole day, which was perfect because after noon we has freetime. 

A group of us took the bus to Christiansburg, which was a 20 min drive for $ 0.50 one way. The mall in Christansburg is very small but it was great to explore the city and snatch some cheap offers!

One part of the group went mountain biking in the Blue Ridge Mountains:

 But it didn't go like expected. Our tourguide arrived one hour in delay because his car had a flat tire. Finally we started but after view moments the pedal of a bike fell off. We couldn't fix it, so we had to go back to the starting point for getting a new bike. We were a little bit angry, we lost so much time just waiting in that beautiful landscape. But when we finally started the "real" tour it was amazing: The trails were super cool. We crossed puddles or even small parts of streams and we enjoyed the great view over a natural tiny lake. But the best part were the steep trails themselves: We speeded downhill without any fear! Afterwards we were completely dirty and exhausted.

Check out our video!

Mountain Bike Tour

After another great breakfast we met Ian and Carrie outside of the Dietricks Hall to walk together to the Goodwin Hall for joining the 2018 Summer Undergraduate Reasearch Symposium. There we listened to a key note speech of Professor Dr. William (Bill) Hopkins about the importance of doing what you are passionated in. He talked very vivid about his own experiences and goals in life when he was an undergraduate student like we are today.

Afterwards we had the chance to talk to more than 50 of the american undergraduates about their researches. They explained the results by presenting it on different posters. Because of our task to evaluate their communication and presentation skills, some of them thought we were some kind of judges (and therefore we felt very important). The exchange with "real american students" has been a great experience for all of us!

In our "Communication Science" class in the afternoon we learned a lot about non-verbal communication with other people in a funny kind of way. In addition to that, we tried to play one given scene in different styles to win the sympathy of the audience (rest of the class).

Before wrapping up the evening together at the Sharkey’s, we were exploring Blacksburg a little bit and bought a lot of souvenirs at the Virginia Tech store.