Bayer and Hiking

The week after spring break was just the start of a long and crazy month of work and excursions, which is sort of the reason why it's taken me so long to get to these blog posts. Ah well, c'est la vie. The program event that I want to talk about was definitely the Bayer communications visit.

Once we had arrived at the Bayer communications building, we had a tour of the facilities, including getting a better look at what Bayer makes. And no, they don not just make aspirin like we all first though. They actually make a lot of products that are put into other things and aren't really seen. For example, they make polyurethane, which is used in everything from shoes to seats, as well as being the major supplier in DVDs. They also have a large interest in crop preservation and some antibiotics. They have products such as the visors that hokey players and sports people who use helmets wear that's strong but light weight, and a lot of their products in various cars (seats, windows, stuff like that.) Yeah, I was surprised too, but the entire tour was really interesting and had a lot of interactive activities so we could see first hand what Bayer's solutions to some of the various problems of society are and how they get to that point.

The front of the building

The ecocruise that they allowed us to "drive"

 

At the end of the week, we went to see the Fussball (aka soccer) game between F.C. Koln and Aalan. I met up with everyone for the 11 train, followed by a tram crammed with hundreds of people. Yes, hundreds as in more than one hundred people were on this tram. We finally go off at the stadium, where I bought a Koln Fussball scarf to root for my new favorite soccer team. I'll have so many random pieces of clothing from Germany when I finally get back, first the two infinity scarves, a Karneval costume, then my host sister's clothes, now a Fussball scarf...I wonder what else I can accumulate over here.

 Look at us in our new scarves

 A look at the Koln side at the start of the game

The full stadium

The game was a lot of fun, but in the end no one scored. There were quite a few times that Koln almost got in a goal, but by the end of the game, even the most sympathetic fan was getting frustrated from the countless too high, too far right, or too far left shots that were made.

It's been quite the experience to be here and have both the stress of projects and the options to go to all these different places at almost the same time.

Erin Z