June 4 2009

Our first full day in Germany! We first had class in the morning; we have today and tomorrow and than another exam on Monday! After class, we took a visit to the John Deere factory in Mannheim, about 20 minutes away. It was cool to see the facilities and the machinery used for the production of the tractors (of which about 9% stays in Germany, the rest head to other parts of the world). Unfortunately, John Deere has seen a decline in sales, and so the factory was shut down. So we didn't get to see anything in action, but it was still neat to see how a tractor was made and all of the huge machines used to create one tractor. We had lunch in their cafeteria, and they even gave us free refills! That is a rarity in Europe haha. The food was good, I got some German sauerkraut too which was really good. After our visit, we had some free time late in the afternoon. We ate at a small cafe down from the hotel. It was okay, the food was kind of pricey. I am actually here now again just for the free internet. I went to an internet cafe, where they only charged one euro for an hour of internet. Unfortunately, I couldn't set up my skype account, and I still haven't been able to talk to anyone yet from home! Hopefully soon.

Tomorrow we visit a Daimler plant!